Embracing Mistakes in Jewelry Making

“Mistakes are great!” says Jewelry Making & Repair Department Head Ann Cahoon JM ’02. “You don’t know the limits until you hit them. One of the things that I really love about an academic environment is that you can embrace the stuff that goes wrong.”

Watch this video of Ann describing this lesson learned by one of our students.

Here, Ann says, “Mistakes are great! You don’t know the limits until you hit them. One of the things that I really love about an academic environment is that you can embrace the stuff that goes wrong. You don’t know where those limits lie until something goes wrong.

“Until you actually [make a mistake], and you see it, and you hear it, and you feel it, you don’t know where those limits lie.”

So, what happened yesterday, [Jewelry Making & Repair student] Liz was [doing] a process called undercutting, where you make a space in a prong for a stone. You’re accommodating both the bottom of the stone and the top of the stone (called the crown, the girdle, and the pavilion), and then physically walking them in. So there’s no room for error—if the shape isn’t right, something’s gotta give. And the shape wasn’t right. So something gave, which was the stone.

But until you actually have that happen, and you see it, and you hear it, and you feel it, you don’t know where those limits lie.”