First Impressions
I arrived in San Francisco Saturday evening. My aunt, who is currently attending the Art Academy, met me at the baggage claim in the airport. From there she introduced me to the wonder that is the BART. I come from the land of Seattle where public transit is close to non-existent, so getting from the airport to downtown in less than half an hour was pretty bloody impressive. We arrived at her place where we played catch-up and eventually fell asleep.
Sunday consisted of locating the school and getting settled in at the house I’m staying at. (thanks Richard!) The BART runs from a few blocks nearby to within just a few blocks of the school, so the commute is a breeze. Well, mostly a breeze. I’m currently staying on top of a rather large hill, so the returning home at the end of the day bit can be a bit rough. But on the bright side, I’m getting one heck of a work-out. My physical therapist would be proud.
Day one of the class was largely introductions to the teachers, classmates and general working practices around the studio. The overall class size was more than 20 people, so classes were broken up into two smaller groups. I choose the evening class, as I enjoy sleeping in a bit and generally hit my productivity upswing a bit later in the day.
Day two: Got to arrive a bit later, which was nice with regards to getting a bit more sleep. The BART route is easy to navigate and found the school again with no problem whatsoever. The weather took one heck of a turn, whipping wind and incredible amounts of rain around throughout the day. We worked on polishing a little brass alloy hummingbird charm and just started in on a boxy silver ring before we broke for lunch and switched over to the studio workspace. Polishing is interesting, but I can’t claim it’s my strong suit at the moment. The evening studio time headed by Alan focused on ring construction and soldering. From a piece of square, silver wire we made a simple ring. A large piece of copper wire was drawn through the rolling mill to demonstrate how it worked and pieces were cut for use in making a ring the following day.
Day three: More work on polishing this morning on the pre-cast silver ring. I wasn’t entirely pleased with my output, but it was a good learning exercise as I’d never attempted polishing a ring with such a sharp, stepped design. Breaking in the new brushes was entertaining and I somehow ended up with copious amounts of rouge dust on my face. I wandered around the city a bit at lunch, trying to get a slightly better understanding of the surrounding area. After lunch we jumped into more lessons on soldering, another demonstration of ring construction and got to work on the thick copper ring.
Overall, my initial impressions of the class have been very positive. The teachers are very knowledgeable as well as personable. Alan himself seems to have an endless reserve of patience paired with a steady manner and direction. The class itself is, as it states, rather intense. I’m finding it hard to remember what happened on what day as it seems impossible that it’s only been 3 days thus far.
Photos to follow in the updates to come. I have the short term memory of a gnat, so I’ve managed to forget the camera the past several days. Go me!
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