Day 1

Today was my first day in the workshop and it definitely wasn't a simple task. My Uncle Fareed had my start the same way as all the past people he has trained, by soldering. He gave me a sheet of metal and sterling silver wire and had me cut the wire into pieces about five millimeters long. He showed me how to solder and it seemed fairly simple, you take the metal sheet and poor some acid on it, cut sterling silver solder off of a very thin sheet of silver, brush alcohol on the five millimeter pieces of silver, heat the silver and touch it to the thin sheet of solder, and top it off by melting the solder and the silver onto the metal sheet.
As I was watching him I thought it would be a fairly simple task but I was quickly proven wrong. He started out by soldering two pieces before he let me try and it didn't take me too long to mess the entire thing up. I managed to put the first one on my first try, but when I went to put the next one on I accidentally completely melted the one I had previously put on and knocked over the two pieces my uncle soldered. I quickly learned that this would be no simple task as I continued to mess up several times before finally making the pegs stay up. I had finished one row and as I went to solder another peg in the second row, all of the ones in the first row either fell over because I accidentally heated them or completely melted.
By the time I had knocked all of the pegs over, it was closing time. I proceeded to turn off my blow torch and pack away the stuff I worked with. I plan to return Thursday and continue soldering the pegs and hopefully have a little bit more success than today.

Changes

As I have gone on my own and been around the workshop more, I have realized how expensive my project actually is. So rather than making all three pieces in 14 karat gold, I am going to make the ring in sterling silver and I will hopefully still make the necklace and ring out of white gold. I have also decided that instead of using a casting to create the ring, I will hand make the entire thing. This will definitely be more difficult but it will be more interesting and a better experience in the end.

Journal 2

I think the first two weeks of my project will be the most challenging because it is the setup of the 16 week project. It could potentially take a few weeks to get used to being on my own without anyone pushing me to move forward. I think I will begin my project by learning how to use my hands in the workshop. I will most likely begin cutting different metals and learning how to solder as well as shadow one of the more experienced manufactures at my Uncle Fareed's shop. My plan is to attend class once a week and meet with my mentor once a week as well. Staying caught up with the journals may be the more challenging part. With how much work I have to do working up to make the pieces, remembering the journals could end up drifting out of my mind but hopefully this is not the case.

Journal 1

Dear Reader,
My goal for the next 16 weeks is to learn how to create jewelry using 14 karat gold. My father, David, owns Mansour Jewelers on the Commons while my uncle, Fareed, owns F.M. Abdulky Inc. so I come from a big jewelry family. I hope to learn how to create a ring, bracelet, and necklace using 14 karat gold and I also hope to learn how to set a stone, I am not quite sure what kind yet, in the ring. I have two fears, one being having some sort of freak accident and get hurt, or not being able to create the three pieces in time for my presentation. My overall goal is to learn how to be a jeweler like my Uncle and Father and potentially have something to fall back on in the future.