Lapidary Journal Jewelry Artist – September 2019

(やまだぃちぅ) #1

Live It & Learn It


For fi ve hours a week, Grahl worked
with Terranova with the goal of learn-
ing pavé setting, a highly specialized
technique. In addition, he says, “I
was working a full-time job, going to
school, raising a daughter, then com-
ing home and practicing. Sleep was
an option.”
Like all apprentices, he started
out cleaning the studio, learning
the names of the tools, such as the
specifi c gravers used for pavé setting.
He learned how to sharpen gravers
and make beading tools. He learned
how to temper tools so they had the
correct hardness and ductility. He
learned how to make the plates used
in pavé by making square plates from
brass, getting them the right thick-
ness and making them identical. Only
then did he learn the basic prepara-
tion for pavé — laying out the pattern,
creating stone seats, learning how
much metal to leave adjacent to the
stone, how to create prongs, shape
prongs, and fi nish. All this was done
with a hand graver and without the
microscopes that allow setters to do
the popular micro-pavé today.
Terranova died fi ve years into
Grahl’s seven-year apprenticeship.
But what Grahl learned enabled him
to go into his own business. And the
$10,000 apprenticeship fee? “It was
paid off in the fi rst two months when
I started working in the trade,” he says
without hesitation.

Nanz Aalund:
http://www.nanzaalund.com
Sarah Graham:
http://www.sarahgraham.com
Jim Grahl:
http://www.jgrahldesign.com

Find
the Former
Apprentices

But Grahl got more than the skills
that would ensure he could always
make a living. He learned that price-
less intangible: he learned his craft.
Although he never intended to focus
just on pavé, Grahl says, learning pavé
setting to the level demanded by Ter-
ranova “was an anchor. It set the tone
for how I looked at everything I’ve
done. It taught me detail and focus,
and the patience to get the detail. I
know what to look for in a job, how
it needs to go out of studio regard-
less of how the client sees the end
project.”
Were there downsides to such an
intense apprenticeship in just one
aspect of jewelry making? “None.
Not a thing,” he says. “It was a game
changer in my career.”
A good apprenticeship should be a
game changer. As these three jewelers
demonstrate, the keys to success in an
apprenticeship, should you fi nd one,
are commitment and passion for the
craft. “Hunger marks a good appren-
tice,” says Grahl. While apprenticeship
is not an easy or quick way to get your
training, done right, a well thought-out
apprenticeship will give you skills that
will let you grow throughout a lifetime.

SHARON ELAINE THOMPSON is a freelance
writer based in Oregon. She has written for
Lapidary Journal Jewelry Artist since 1987 and
blogs frequently at http://www.interweave.com/jewelry.
Learn more at jewelryartdiva.com.

Nanz Aalund during her tenure at
Nordstrom in 1992.
PHOTO: COURTESY NANZ AALUND

Nanz Aalund as a young apprentice at
Meyer Brothers in 1983.

A brooch Nanz Aalund made while serving as an apprentice at Meyer Brothers — 14K white
and yellow gold, garnets, iolite, diamond, pearl, brass patinated with kitty litter dampened
with ammonia and salt.
PHOTO: COURTESY NANZ AALUND
“You’re a girl. You

don’t want to get


your hands dirty.
You’re ju st g oi n g

to have babies.
Why should we

teach you?”


70 LAPIDARY JOURNAL JEWELRY ARTIST

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