Happy International Women’s Day! Back in January, I mentioned that I’d be helping out with my daughter’s Brownies group. Over the past few weeks, I’ve had the privilege of teaching the girls and all I can say is that I’ve been so proud and inspired by them. The girls are amazing and curious, asking me a tonne of questions. If you watch the video, you’ll get a little sample of my daughter’s questions! They also managed to teach me a thing or two, too!
The Brownies
My daughter has been part of an informal Brownies group for a few months, along with three other girls of similar ages. It’s run by one of the girl’s Mums, and she does a wonderful job of singing songs with them, teaching them crafts and lots of life skills. I mean, who knew it was possible to spend an hour in a Tesco Express, pricing up the snacks for their party?!
This term, the girls have been working towards their “Jewellery Badge”. I admit I might have had a little hand in helping to choose their next badge! To achieve their badge, they have five objectives:
And over the past few weeks, the girls have visited my workshop, learnt about Chinese wedding jewellery and Hawaiian leis, and most importantly, made some jewellery!
The Terror of Teaching Kids!
Alright, so I have a confession to make… I was pretty much terrified of teaching the Brownies about jewellery, for a lot of reasons.
Firstly, although I have two children of my own, I don’t think I’m great with other people’s children! I worry constantly whether my “parenting style” is too different from other people’s, that my communication style might not work for other people’s kids or that kids just don’t warm to me.
The next reason is that I don’t think of myself as an “expert” when it comes to making jewellery. Let’s face it, there are hundreds of people who are better at making jewellery than I am! Even when I gave training presentations at work, I always felt uncomfortable unless I felt like I “knew everything” and had prepared for all of the possible questions. And with two kids of my own, I know it’s impossible to prepare for all of their questions!!!
I worried whether what I was showing them would be too difficult or whether they’d be even be interested in the first place! And then I worried about injuries. The list goes on and on!
3 Things I Learnt from the Brownies
Now that I’m a few weeks into sharing what I know about making jewellery with the girls, I thought I would share some of the things that I’ve learnt with you!
1. You don’t have to have all the answers
If you’re a parent, perhaps you know where I’m coming from on this one. Whenever my children ask me a question, I find myself feeling awkward or even annoyed, if I don’t know the answer. As their parent, I feel like I should be able to answer all of their questions and I feel inferior if I can’t.
After a few weeks of being asked loads of questions about jewellery, I realised that you can’t have all of the answers all of the time! Over the past few weeks, I have been asked questions like: “Why do we join the metal with solder?”… “Why does the Liver of Sulphur make the metal black?”… “What is pickle?”… Quite frankly, I don’t know the answers off the top of my head! I just take it all for granted!
But, there’s something nice about the curiosity that the girls have (even if that curiosity is displayed at a rate of 3000 questions per minute!). And they honestly don’t mind when I don’t know the answer! In a way, not knowing the answer helps to fuel their curiosity and humanise the grown-ups around them.
2. It doesn’t have to be perfect
In everything I do, I feel the need for the output to be perfect. I just don’t cope well with the 80-20 rule. Knowing this about myself, I was really doubtful about making copper rings with the girls.
Although a ring was the first thing I ever learnt to make, I don’t think they’re easy to make as there are a lot of skills involved. As I write this, I suddenly realise why rings are often featured in beginners / taster sessions for jewellery making – it’s because you have to use such a wide range of skills.
Challenges…
In any case, first you have to saw the metal to the correct dimensions and mastering the jeweller’s saw is the first challenge (I have broken 15+ blades in a single project!). Then there is the precise filing of the ring ends to make the join – if the ends are not flush, the solder just won’t flow (been there, done that… cried a lot with frustration!). Finally, there is the soldering process itself… if the metal isn’t clean, it won’t flow. If the join isn’t completely flush, it won’t flow. If you don’t heat the metal evenly, it won’t flow. And the list goes on!
My point is that there are a lot of points where things could go wrong when making a ring. And primary school aged children may not have the patience needed to work through all the nuances in silversmithing.
… and Solutions
To mitigate, I did a lot of the preparation and “behind-the-scenes” work for the girls. In part, I didn’t want them to be frustrated and put off from learning more in the future. But also, I wasn’t too comfortable with being able to support the girls in using some of the tools (like the saw). So for the most part, I did the sawing, measuring and filing (because let’s face it, we all hate filing when we make jewellery!)
On the whole, my approach worked. The girls had a go at annealing the copper strips, texturing and soldering the joins. I was really starting to feel the pressure of trying to get four girls to solder a ring together in the space of an hour! More than anything I didn’t want anyone to be upset if their ring didn’t join, nor did I want them to think I was rubbish at making jewellery because I didn’t file the join properly!
But I persevered and then my fear became a reality, when one of the girls tried to shape her ring on the mandrel and the seam popped open! But I guess I didn’t give them enough credit, as she took it in her stride and no-one was upset that I hadn’t made the perfect ring shank! So lesson learned… put less pressure on myself!
3. Children are surprising
More than anything, I learnt that children are surprising.
I wasn’t sure how interesting they would find ring making, but the girls were curious and eager to learn. I have never had so many questions thrown at me! And quite often, the questions are not even about jewellery! Today, we went on a massive tangent and ended up talking about our epic family train trip from England to Hong Kong!
I was also unsure whether the girls would be able to use the tools safely. In reality, I think all children are different and I certainly wouldn’t recommend teaching primary school aged children to use a butane torch. However, these four Brownies were sensible, respectful of the dangers and listened carefully to everything that was explained to them. So yes, they really did surprise me and I’m glad they had the opportunity to try something outside of the school curriculum.
So…
One thing I have observed over the past year is just how much we beat ourselves up! Quite often, we are our own worst critics. Instead of celebrating that we have something in our lives that gives us pleasure and sharing that passion, sometimes we hold ourselves back because “we’re not quite good enough”. So on International Women’s Day, I’m here to show you the amazing job the girls did with their rings and to say “cut yourself some slack”! Celebrate your achievements, no matter how small – if you love what you’re doing, then keep at it! Happy International Women’s Day!
