Just make things

Among all the first-day stories that former apprentices have about starting out, not looking like a hobo was what it took for Euroa’s Catherine Mosely to get that first foot in the door of her jeweller career. Having completed some jewellery classes at high school, and dodging and weaving Centrelink hoops, one position that appeared on her radar was an apprenticeship in Melbourne’s CBD. “I called the people up and told them I lived in Lilydale, and they said ‘no, you live too far away’,” Catherine said. This overcaution of her eventual employers was overcome by Catherine’s determination and her couching it at a friend’s place closer to the city, where her accompanying sleeping bag was not the look she was after. “So, I rocked up to the jewellers with the sleeping bag stuffed into a guitar case, because I didn't want to look like a hobo. “I said ‘someone who lives 20 minutes away is not going to be here if they're not interested, and I'm interested, and I'll be here’.” The determination paid off and Catherine the Jeweller can be found down Binney’s Street most mysterious of alleyways. Catherine completed the apprenticeship in four years – under the guidance of a Russian Jewish jeweller, his wife, and his mother – and worked for another jeweller before setting up shop in Euroa. “The apprenticeship was an experience,” she said. “It was good to be there in the thick of, there's so much jewellery industry stuff there, which is great. “I'm glad that I was able to sort of see that side of the industry.” She even entered a hand-crafted piece into the World Youth Skills Day competition for jewellers, in which entrants were all given the spec's of the same item to make from scratch. A quick break to have a ‘bunch’ of babies and then Catherine was back into it, working out of a shed at her home where the influx of work was so great that seven years ago, she moved to the shop’s current location. If she had her time again, Catherine says she would have done more classes at TAFE. “I did some things there – I did engraving at trade school, and some stone setting. “I wish I’d gone there more, but not full time, but just that I'd done all the other things as well and met more people.” Any tips for aspiring jewellers? “My advice would be just make things. “If you can do it at home, just make things.” She translates this to other vocations. “Make your pastries, go fix the gutters for friends; just keep practising it, just keep doing it. “Whatever it is, whatever you love, watch other people do it, ask other people questions, get them to share their knowledge. “I took the chance and here I am.”

Just make things

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