Note to teachers!

[sam]

I'm an engraving teacher and I only teach 5-day classes which limits the amount of material I'm able to cover. I have also taught drawing classes and demonstrated to students different ways of building a good vocabulary of scroll elements and styles, which leads them to developing their own style. If I had weeks or months to teach a class, obviously much more could be covered.

The students who are truly driven to become good engravers never put down the pencil and will take what I and other teachers have taught them, and build on it. At the same time, I don't fault engravers like McKenzie whose iconic style inspired - and continues to inspire - countless engravers. He rarely strayed from "McKenzie scroll" and no one ever complained about it. Engravers loved it and customers flocked to him to get a sample of it.

I would rather see one good style designed and executed with artistry, accuracy, and precision, than a multitude of styles that lack those qualities.

 

[monk]

thanks, sam. maybe time to close this ? maybe ? yeah, i think this has ran its' course !

 

[Brian Marshall]

Interesting thread to observe... seems that not a lot of teachers were drawn to reply to this thread? Wonder why?

By the way, Sam Welch was a teacher - I took a class from him many years ago...

I also teach. There was a time when our engraving workshops took place over two solid weeks. So if, for example, you took a beginners level class, you were expected to take those beginning skills and practice them - returning the following year to take the next Intermediate level. Then another year of practice. After you reached the Advanced level, and theoretically had 3 years invested - there were specialty classes and particular artists to choose from. For example, I chose to take Eric Gold's bulino class a coupla decades ago.

I wish we still had those. But times change and people are far too busy with their lives to take enough time to devote two weeks anymore. So they got distilled down to one week by compacting, distilling and of course - having to choose which things to leave out. Most people can arrange their schedules to take a week off...

But then there are those who cannot even find the time for that. Thus we now have the "3 day intensives". Beginners don't learn much more than proper bench setup, fixturing, shaping and sharpening gravers correctly, learning 4 basic cuts, and 1 or 2 methods of transferring designs. That's all there is time for, and that's really cramming.

There are also specific techniques offered in 3 day "intensives". Drawing & layout, inlay, damascene, or a particular "style of scrollwork for example.

You'll get no drawing or layout, no making a carbon steel graver from scratch, no making scribe and stipple points, no learning a half dozen borders, or any of the other things that we had time for in the original 2 week programs... unless you take it as a 3 day dedicated specialty of it's own.

It is what it is. Those are the choices you have in an open classroom situation these days. Far better than nothing, but not by a whole lot compared to days gone by.

There are a few teachers who take one on one students as do I. That is the best method, but it's not cheap. Better to take advantage of those after you have some serious time and experience at the bench. Like when you can't seem to get over some specific "hump", or need very advanced "hands on" instruction...

I flew out to Michigan and did a week of private instruction with Chris DeCamillis a few years back. This was at a point where I had been engraving for well over 30 years...

Even good teachers and professional engravers need to keep taking workshops, classes or seminars - from instructors that are better than they are or from whom they can learn a whole new technique. I try to take at least 2 a year. Have done that for at least 20 years. In my view they are kinda like "working vacations"...


And all of this is why there need to be more short term bench apprenticeships available! Classrooms alone just ain't gonna give you "real world experience". No matter how many hours, weeks, months or years you spend in them.

Learning from youtube videos will give you neither the classroom nor the "real world" experiences... They are better utilized and understood after you have the basics mastered - and you get those mastered using classes, private instruction or a short term apprenticeship in a working shop as the "tools" to get there. Plus hundreds of hours of practice!

3 months is a fair amount of time, 6 months or a year would be better - if you can stand each other that long. I offer those too.


So why don't the rest of you "professionals" who jumped in here or read this thread do the same? At least once?

It's simple payback to those that have helped you over all the years... pass it on!


Yeah, it can/will be a royal PITA and you definitely won't make money off a short term apprentice. (or even a long term one for that matter)

Do it anyway. Just once. Because you love the art.

And maybe... because you were lucky enough to have had a good teacher or two in your past?


Brian

 

[zzcutter]

Well said Sam

 

[silverchip]

I have had apprentices and some have gone on to do some fair work and others have just gone on. More than ever now I am glad when someone shows interest and want to hang around a couple of days a week and is willing to help out in exchange for a bit of knowledge.

 

[Addertooth]

Very interesting read. I took my first one-on-one class yesterday. Things I found very useful:
How to sharpen gravers, utilizing templates to ensure precise geometry. Really minor changes in heel strongly influenced how the graver bit cut. Adjusting tip geometry to get the handle further from the work piece.
Proper way to hold the graver for better tip and palm pressure control.
Playing with more than one brand and type of tools, such as Lindsay versus GRS. Also turntable versus ball vice.
Adjusting hammer rates and air pressure to produce the type of cut you want.
Transferring images via multiple methods.
Just seeing how a proper engraving station was set up for ergonomics and comfort of use was useful. So often newbies like me just pile their tools on a table and start cutting.
And of course, seeing what represent basic essential (daily use) tools. I have added some tools to my must have list, other tools were moved to my "get someday after I can cut decent lines" list.
The classes will be done with about a two-week break after each training day, which will allow me to better polish my lesson before piling on more information. It will take a bit longer, but (for me) will likely prevent information overload, and moving ahead with something new, before the older lesson is really learned.
So often, older hands at a skill tend to forget just how small of baby steps most newbies need to start out at. Perhaps even more humorously, the newbie wants to attempt some masterful design, well before he can manage to make lines with a smooth radius at a consistent depth. I really appreciate those who work, to pass the skill to the next group of enthusiasts.