Today was my second day of work as a jeweler's apprentice. I like the idea of being an apprentice - I get paid to learn. My boss (master?) is very trusting in my abilities. I have 4 jobs that I am working on right now. One is to make a pair of heart earrings out of gold. I learned how to roll gold, through a big pasta machine type press, then I cut it with a saw frame, file it, and polish it. Today I worked on making an
ingot of gold into a wire via lots and lots of rolling through the press. The press is powered by a large (manual) crank, so my crankin' arm may be a little sore tomorrow. The ingot started out about 2 inches long by 1/2 inch wide and 1/4 inch thick. The wire that I ended up with is about 5 feet long and about a 1mm thick square.
Tomorrow I get to melt gold and pour an ingot, pull the wire I made (which is currently square) into round wire, cut that wire into little rings and solder them together and onto my heart earrings, and probably lots more.
While I can't wait to get into work to see what I get to learn, it's really strange to be away from home for an entire day. I haven't
not been at home for over 3 years, and never for 8 hours at a time. Luckily, I'm only working 3 days a week. I hope it becomes more comfortable, this
is only the 2nd day.
Remember? This is what our basement room used to look like.
Dark, crappy, cold (but you wouldn't be able to tell by what the kids wear.)
This is where Jake first started tearing out the old gas fireplace.
Then.... 3 weeks of hard labor and little sleep turned into THIS!
Here's a closer view of the ceiling and lighting.
Now we have a warm, cozy, comfy place to hang out.
