the skills for one level and is ready
for the next.
Today’s remaining apprenticeships
may vary as widely as the people
off ering them. We talked to three
jewelers who were fortunate enough
to fi nd masters and asked what their
training had been like. Here is what
we learned from Washington-based
jeweler and author Nanz Aalund,
Colorado-based jeweler Sarah Gra-
ham, and Southern California-based
jeweler Jim Grahl.
Unintended Favor
Nanz Aalund knew from an early
age that she wanted to be a jew-
eler, and at 15 approached a jeweler
in her home town. Because her
grandmother was a good client and
because Aalund had off ered to work
for free, he agreed to take her on.
For three years, she cleaned the
bathrooms and swept the fl oors.
She was also given the dirty job of
refi ning scrap gold and re-alloying
the pure gold back into 14K and 18K
sizing stock. Although others in the
shop may have thought themselves
lucky to get rid of the task, it turned
out later that they had done Aalund
a favor.
When the young apprentice fi nally
asked the jeweler for more — to get
bench training and get paid —the
jeweler balked. “You’re a girl. You
don’t want to get your hands dirty.
You’re just going to have babies.
Why should we teach you?” It was
not such an uncommon response
to female students at the time, but
Aalund would have none of it. She
left for the BFA program in Jewelry
Design at Northern Illinois University,
where the value of her apprentice-
ship, as minimal as it was, paid its
fi rst dividend. She was given jobs
as a teaching assistant and as Shop
Steward due to her ability to handle
acids safely.
It also gave her an unusual thesis
project. Having become fascinated
with the process of alloying, Aalund
took as her project an investiga-
tion into the coloration of gold. She
canvassed family and friends for
gold scraps — broken bits, old class
rings — and refi ned her mixed bag
into an ounce of pure gold. As part
of her research, she looked into
medieval alchemical texts for ways
to alloy gold into blue, white, rose,
green, and gray. “It was a lot of fun,”
she says.
After graduation, she applied for
an apprenticeship with Meyer Broth-
ers. Again, her early apprenticeship
paid off. She won her spot at Meyer’s
because they were impressed by the
jewelry pieces she’d made at NIU us-
ing the diff erent golds she’d alloyed
herself.
From there she went on to design
jewelry for Nordstrom, and later to
work as a freelance designer, win-
ning numerous awards for her work.
Eventually, Mary Lee Hu off ered hera teaching scholarship “to lure me
away from freelance jewelry design
and into getting my MFA at the Uni-
versity of Washington.
“She wanted someone from the
jewelry business to be teaching
undergrads in the Metals program
so they would get an understand-
ing of that as a possible career path.
She was such an amazing teacher
herself that I felt I was apprenticing
again under her, but this time as an
educator.” Hu’s ability as a teacher
inspired Aalund to go on to get her
M.Ed in College & Technical Teaching
Curriculum.
“If I hadn’t done that fi rst ap-
prenticeship, I wouldn’t have gotten
into the BFA program and my career
wouldn’t have snowballed,” says
Aalund. “Still to this day, my knowl-
edge of gold alloys helps with everyeducation
Jim Grahl
Necklace
Sterling silver, 18K gold, emeralds, coins from the Nuestra Senora de Atocha wreck of 1622
PHOTO: COURTESY J. GRAHL DESIGNSEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2019 67