Surprise! Dream Job

Two weeks ago, money was tight and I thought I’d better look for a part time job for a little while. It’s January, and as expected my self-employed income is minimal. It took me approximately fifteen minutes to discover that a friend was looking for a full-time goldsmith. I messaged her to see if she had room for part-time Me, and she told me to come in that day… and I started the next morning!

I’m doing a bit of repair (lots of tiny soldering on broken chains!), a bit of polishing, a bit of custom work, a bit of web design, a bit of digital filing, and I’m ridiculously happy with this job. I’m not a goldsmith – not yet anyway – but I’ve done silversmithing and I’m a fast learner. I’m blown away that I’ve found a job making and repairing jewellery in my tiny community. I have a jeweller’s bench and everything!

My husband is pretty jealous of this bench. It’s got a flexshaft and an oxy-propane torch. He LOVES pushing metal around with fire (so do I!!).

Here’s a little video I did up about what I’m working on at this bench:

And as if the job itself wasn’t cool enough – I was welcomed with open arms into the team with an official announcement – and then the boss put my work in one of the main showcases! In fact, I’d brought her the generic small pendants that the general public usually wants…. but she was all, “don’t you have anything… big?”   I nearly laughed out loud and then brought in my Hood Ornaments, which she immediately loved and insisted that she’d sell the heck outta them. HER CLIENTS ARE MY CLIENTS TOO WHAAAATTT

I’m humbled and excited and grateful all at once. One of the comments on the video I posted the other day suggested that I’m “living my best life” … and despite the physical growing pains, I’m inclined to agree! This is the perfect complement to the business I’m attempting to grow on my own. It gives me access to extra tools and resources, there’s an extra outlet for my sales with the benefit of me being able to BE there, I feel amazed that the owner believes my work to be worthy of her gorgeous high-end fashion shop, it gets me out of the house a few days a week with a small, secured paycheck for safety, I’m learning and helping and and and and and! Feeling pretty blessed, let me tell you.

When I left my full-time job last year, a part-time job plus working on my own business was the dream… the idea that the part-time job might also be jewellery just literally never occurred to me. I’m amazed.

Oh and also this:

I’m, like, pretty happy, y’all.