There's a lot that gets done in an entire month of work. Sometimes it may feel like you are getting very little done, but that may just be because when you're work is basically just learning, it looks a little different from what you end up doing for the rest of your time with your employer. With becoming a jeweler, there is an unending amount of things to learn. That being said, the first few months were still rather unique.
My name is Thomas, and this is an ongoing documentation of my time as an apprentice jeweler. As of right now, I'm recounting the months of time that I didn't have this blog. A summary of 8 or so months. There was a large amount of ground to cover at the start of this to make myself semi-competent, no less a full fledged jeweler. The first month was pretty much a test to see if my ambitions and intentions were aligned with Regency. From the second month onward, I began to learn the basics.
April marked my introduction to a real education of jewelry. It started off with Jeff and I doing some rearranging in the repair room. For the longest time, there was only one workbench in the repair room, now he and I had to move things around to get a second one in there. My bench is out of site from the window peering into the repair room (probably by design). Now with a proper bench, I could start actually working on jewelry. Though my training with watches hadn't been completed, it was no longer my primary goal to work on them. I was to broaden my horizons, starting with polishing. If you are going to work with jewelry, one of the first things you will work with is the polishing wheel. Without polishing your jobs, you won't be making much business. People want their jewelry to appear bright, not dull! Starting off with silver made the transition to polishing gold much easier. A common trend through working here has been how silver is always harder to work with than gold. However, I couldn't just keep polishing. I had to actually get to repairing pieces, and that would start with an introduction to the torch. However that would have to wait until May.
I find myself really enjoying these. Even with only two post now under my belt, I look forward to getting a little time to work on the next post. With that said, I have to go. Though there wasn't as much to talk about, there will be a lot more when it comes to May. That was a month that was dense with work. All the same, I wish you well.
Sincerely
-Thomas R. Hildreth
