How I found myself making jewelry
Although I feel that I've been making jewelry all my life, I was only 18 years old when I actually knew that this was what I wanted to do with my life.
Before that, I drew and sculpted and I was good at it, but I knew that these were not practical professions to make a living from, and also, after so many years of painting and sculpting classes, it bored me.
I thought to learn nursing or medicine because my father was a doctor, and my mother was a nurse, and biology always fascinated me, so I thought that maybe it could suit me.
Also because of this, I decided to do National Service in a hospital.
( In Israel, after you finish high school, you either go to the Army, or do National service, which is volunteering in Schools, Hospitals etc. )
In the admission examinations to one of the hospitals, we had to do an examination, and there, among the questions, was the question that led me to a new direction in life.
They asked about a future profession, and one of the options to choose from was jewelry design.
That was it-I knew that was what I wanted to do!
It's funny that I had not thought about this idea before. After all, I had always loved buying and wearing jewelry but had never thought about the option of making jewelry MYSELF.
I'm showing here some of the first sketches of jewelry I drew when I still had no idea how to make them.
After I had this revelation, and I had finished my National Service ( and realized I didn't want to be a Doctor or Nurse, after I saw in the hospital how hard they worked ) I looked for places I could learn Jewelry design for a degree.
The only options were Bezalel or Shenkar College.
The studies at Bezalel sounded too artistic to me, so I decided to try to get accepted to Shenkar College.
I made samples of jewelry from all sorts of materials and came to the interview, but ... I wasn't accepted.
It was a bitter disappointment.
I didn't know what to do.
After I recovered from the disappointment, I inquired about other places where I could study goldsmithing and discovered that there were also goldsmithing studies in WIZO in Haifa, close to home, but I wouldn't get a degree there.
I decided to go for it anyway. I signed up and started learning, and it was very fun, but also very frustrating.
Because I wanted to study every day and all day, but we only learned 2 or 3 times a week, and that was not enough for me!
I wanted to learn everything, and now!
I saw the students in the 2nd year learning how to sculpt in jewelry wax and I was so jealous! I also wanted to learn to do it ( there was no YouTube like today, so I could not learn it alone).
In the end, I saw that it was simply not enough for me, and I wanted to find a more intensive learning framework, so I looked for a place where I could study for a degree, again.
In my search, I found a school where gold-smithing was taught, but in order to get the degree, I would have to complete my studies at the university. I was accepted into the program, but it sounded very clumsy to me, so I thought to myself, "In Shenkar you learn everything in the same place. I'll try to get accepted there again. "
And that's what I did. Once again I went to the tests and to the interview and this time I was accepted.
Perhaps they remembered me from a previous time and appreciated my devotion to the cause, or perhaps saw a bit of talent in the work I had done during my studies at WIZO.
In 2000 I began to study there, for 4 years.
The studies were challenging, especially at first.
It took me a year to understand exactly what the teachers wanted from me, what design was. What good design was.
Until I understood that I suffered in the design courses. I would cry to my parents because the teachers gave me bad reviews in the courses.
My Father asked me if I wanted to leave. I said no, and continued. Luckily I was good at the technical goldsmithing.
The 2nd year was easier for me in the design classes, since I finally started understanding the meaning of good design.
From a girl who would get frustrating B- D's in school in subjects I wasn't really interested in learning ( even though I was a nerd and learned a lot for the exams ) in Shenkar I felt I had finally found something I was good at and I loved.
I had found my purpose
Would you like me to show some of the projects I made in my studies in Shenkar in the newsletters?
Most of the jewelry I made there was very unpractical, but very cool : )