Comments | d_aulnoy: On the Inadvertant Acquisition of Necessary Skill-sets ...

d_aulnoy

On the Inadvertant Acquisition of Necessary Skill-sets ...

Jun 19, 2013 22:37

... which I would like to differentiate at the outset from innate talents. And from the misbegotten related abilities that you may not realize you need until it's too late in the game to turn back ( Read more... )

Comments 5

briarspell June 25 2013, 13:16:36 UTC

Huzzah! I'm so so excited to see what you're going to do with this :). Please let me know if I can help with anything too!

I'm glad to hear that at least some of those academia talents come with practice too though :P.

d_aulnoy June 25 2013, 19:07:54 UTC

Thank you! I'm totally looking for people to tap as ... beta-readers? Copy-editors? People who see the blind spots, anyway. So far one friend pointed out that I might want to rethink my use of the word synecdoche (or, if I must keep it, consider spelling it correctly (d'oh!)), and another mentioned that my "Background" page might be a good place for MY CREDENTIALS. I was so busy expounding on my philosophy of bling that I completely forgot to mention training and business experience.

Genius.

So, yeah ... if you've got free time to eyeball shiny things, I'll happily send you the URL before I go live with it!

briarspell June 25 2013, 19:57:58 UTC

Absolutely, I'd love to! :).

cissa June 28 2013, 20:17:03 UTC

Would you consider the GIA classes worth it for someone who is just a small-scale artisan?

d_aulnoy June 29 2013, 01:37:45 UTC

I think it depends on how much you do with gems. I'm using the knowledge gleaned from the course to appraise diamonds I purchase to either use in my own designs, or, in the case of vintage pieces, to resell once they're fixed/leaned/labeled properly. It's handy to be able to gauge market value on the spot (and it doesn't hurt in terms of credentials). If I was doing exclusively custom design, I don't know if it'd be worth it off the bat - I think it would depend on what I was sourcing.

I'm wavering on the colored stone course - on the one hand, credentials, refresher, handy. On the other hand, a lot of it is stuff I already know ... is the diploma worth 5k? I'll wait and see how the business does before I decide, I think.

That said, I have no experience with their courses in fabrication (hopefully someday!) and no experience with their drafting courses (though the people who I know who have taken them speak highly of them). Which ones were you thinking of?