I taught first grade before my daughter was born. And while a whole lot less structured, I teach both of my kids these days. I’m not talking homeschooling – it’s far from that. (Side note: to the parents out there who are managing that, you’re incredible. And to the teachers who have adapted to teaching virtually, you are very, very incredible.) While I don’t homeschool my little ones, it’s more about teaching them by living life intentionally alongside them. We ask each other lots of questions, we read a lot, we make things, we color, we play. I try to be present. Sometimes I’m not, but I try. When they discover something interesting out there in the world I try to encourage that spark. We wonder together and we learn together.
My two-year-old Beck is learning leaps and bounds these days. His language development is speeding along at full throttle. It went from easy repetitive syllables then to phrases. Now he’s started asking simple questions and he’s playing make believe. Yesterday he proclaimed he was a “big boy truck driver.” And last night he said he wanted to go to big girl school. Anytime someone in our household seems to be in a pickle lately Beck exclaims, “let’s use a rope!” as his 2 cents to solve the problem. Sometimes he suggests screw driver. So with all the learning that’s going on around here with my kiddos, and all the learning that’s been happening with me when it comes to silversmithing, I’m kind of fascinated by all of it these days.
I’m finding silversmithing to have a much different learning curve than bead weaving – in the sense that it takes a lot more time and effort to get a hang of. While beading most definitely took time for me to become comfortable and skillful with, the repetitive nature helped ease that along. The muscle memory of picking up beads and weaving them in and out of thread eventually felt like second nature. After time, my hands knew the exact amount of tension I needed to make the beads sit just right. I undoubtedly know I’ll gain more silversmithing muscle memory down the line, but there’s so many different steps and tasks for my hands and brain to become familiar with. It’s more technical – it’s a science. It’s chemistry, right? I hated chemistry in college, it took a lot of time for me to wrap my head around. But this silversmithing chemistry is a helluva lot more fun and exciting. I have a lot of learning to do, but I’m here for it. I hope to wrap my head around this craft on both the scientific front, as well as the experiential front. Right now I’m going by feel, but I’m writing this here as my reminder to not forget to keep asking questions and to keep digging deeper when it comes to my own learning.
