Micheal David Sturlin class

Well, as Jen mentioned, I took part of the Michael David Sturlin classes this past 4 days. I took the forging class on Thursday and Friday, and dropped by the sawing class briefly on Saturday.

Here, his sawing students watch with rapt attention as he demonstrates the finer points of handling a jewelry saw and making it do what you want it to do. Actually - as I stood and watched for about 10 minutes, (I was just passing through on Saturday) I learned about 3 valuable tips - so it was worth it. I was there to drop off the magazines that had come in the night before - including the new Lapidary Journal Jewelry Artist with - guess who's work featured on the cover! Yep - Michael David Sturlin's! How cool is that!

Micheal is a very nice person, and very good teacher. He is patient, kind and enthusiastic. No question was too basic or too stupid for him to answer, and advanced questions were answered without hesitation or dumbing down. I was obviously not the only one impressed, as a number of students have taken classes with him before, and have come considerable distance to do so again. In fact - there are now hot rumors flying about scheduling another class for next year.

He had one comment that I really appreciated too - "If you are self-taught - you will probably eventually figure out how to do whatever it is you want to do. What you probably won't do is understand why the first six ways you tried didn't work."

I had a lot of fun, and it is always nice to slip away from the routine of life and immerse in a class. And, I now have a handful more rings to wear. You can never have too many rings. ;-)

Shown here - one of the rings I made in the class. (Hand forged fine silver. )