I really enjoy teaching, it’s great to share knowledge, and to see how excited people get when they’re making things, and that spark and drive to carry on. There are lots of different aspects that I enjoy, but I really like the thought that I’ve facilitated development of skills that will carry a student into the future, and nurtured their creativity/passion. I used to apply this to my students as a research biologist, and when I changed careers to focus more on my goldsmithing, one of things I looked forward to doing was to carry on teaching.
As you may know, we teach workshops and classes at the Jewel Envy studio. One of my goals for last year was to start teaching…..in March….. so you can guess what happened! I managed to get in a small workshop as part of the Stakt market Christmas events in December 2019, where we did these fun bookmarks. There was lots of hammering fun!
So, back to March 2020, and everything was closed, so I was denied! Then things started to open up again and I got my chance to experience my first eight week Intro to Fabrication class, with a smaller class size, masks all around (well, we actually wear them quite a bit anyway), and all the other safe measures we could take. We managed to get the classes in before things shut down again, and we managed to get the students through the basics, and still have fun. They made some awesome pieces, with lots of variety within the set of beginner skills that we teach them. Here’s a collage of some of the projects the students completed:
Sadly, we’re still unable to start up the classes we were hoping to start running again, but we’re all prepared to sail ahead when it’s safe to do so again. If you’re interested in any specific classes, make sure you’re signed up to our newsletter, or send us an email to say what course you’re specifically interested in!
Stay safe, and we hope and look forward to welcoming you back to classes in the not-so-distant future!
-Robin Cassady-Cain