Mistakes

My first weeks at Angie Star were full of many wonderful mistakes. The first thing they teach all of their apprentices is simple silk cord knotting. That basically means stringing beads onto silk cord and tying knots between them to hold them in place. Although it sounds easy, getting the knot to fit in just right next to the bead so it doesn't move is pretty tricky and there was definitely a learning curve.

It took me about 3 hours to make one necklace and by the time I finished my eyes were blurry, my hands shaky and I promptly proceeded to clip off the final piece, a metal component used to attach the clasp to. I stood their mouth open, eyes wide, as a look of horror flashed across my face. I thought all my hard work had been in vain due to one wrong snip of the pliers. Lindsey, my mentor, came to my rescue and eased my frayed nerves by explaining to me that jewelry is pretty forgiving. She then showed me how to bail, a wiring technique used to finish most pieces, and saved my necklace.

This was just the first of many mistakes I made. I clipped pieces, put things on in the wrong order, had to redo my bail's countless times but by the end of those first weeks had my knotting technique down, my eyes were adjusting to focusing in on the tiny components and my hands had stopped their pesky shaking.

The first two pieces I finished were a necklace with matching bracelet made out of pearls and aquamarine.

The Beginning

I have always loved unique and original jewelry and had always wanted to learn how to make my own pieces. I remember scouring through my mom's beautiful, old, wooden jewelry boxes looking for funky pieces to add to my, always well planned out, ensemble in high school. My favorite piece was a chunky silver necklace made out of a walnut shell and turquoise that my dad bought from an old native woman on a cross country trip many, many moons ago.

I moved to Boulder about a year ago and had seen a posting on Craigslist a couple of times for an apprenticeship with a wonderful jewelry boutique on Pearl Street. There were a several reasons why I never applied to the apprenticeship over that first year mostly revolving around work and time but last April the stars all seemed to align and I got the courage to bring in my resume.

The first time I set foot in Angie Star I knew I really wanted to be a part of this amazing community of talented woman artists. I was greeted warmly by Katherine and did my best to show my enthusiasm for getting the apprenticeship. However, I had very little hope of actually getting the position knowing there was always a huge response to these listings and after a month went by and I hadn't received word I thought I was out of the running.

Just when I had given up all hope I got an email from the lovely Miss Angie herself asking me to come in and meet with Lindsey, one of the store's designers. I started that same week.