The Volcano in Scotland has mine goldsmith courses included in their event program “Creative Workshops” for the second half of 2019.
On August 24, 2019, a goldsmith course took place for the first time under my direction in the “Vulkaneum” museum in the heart of the Vogelsberg – my new home.
The "Vulkaneum" museum deals with the geological development of the Vogelsberg region in Upper Hesse. The main focus is on the topic of “volcanism”. Experimental stations, interactive exhibits and multi-media installations explain how the volcanoes in the Vogelsberg are formed and invite the whole family to take part.
In 2019, courses will also be held in a modern, well-equipped training room, for example on the topics of “painting with earth colours”, “leather processing”, “volcanic dream catchers” or “painting ceramics”.
It is particularly important to me that my course participants get as comprehensive an overview as possible of the basic craft techniques of my goldsmith profession, such as e.g. B. sawing, bending, filing, rolling, soldering, grinding and polishing and the tools used for this. That's why I prepare for my course participants with the widest possible selection of typical work equipment and materials:
After the greeting, I always first ask the participants about their very personal wishes and expectations of such a goldsmith course. The participants often come with very specific goals as to what they would like to achieve in this course. It is therefore my top priority that all course participants leave the course room with a smile and a sense of achievement at the end of the course. As a rule, this is a self-designed and ultimately even hand-made piece of jewelry.
In this course in the Vulkaneum, the focus was once again on making very personal pieces of jewelery for the participants. For example, a silver ring, two pendants, a pair of earrings and even a whole volcano made of silver should be created - all in all really exciting and challenging topics.
All of the tools were made available to the individual course participants in the correct order at their workplace, and then they could get started. In the case of particularly difficult work steps, I was happy to support the course participants individually in the correct use of the tools:
As always, soldering was the step that fascinated my course participants the most. Handling an open soldering flame was the first time for most of the participants and therefore there was great enthusiasm when their first soldering actually worked.
At the end of an all-round successful course afternoon, the course participants presented their first, self-made pieces of jewelry with satisfaction and visibly full of pride:
When you consider that the course “only” lasted 5 hours, the result is really impressive, isn't it? 😉