WorldSkills Australia Nationals - Brisbane 2010 - Jewellery

Halina says she was just lucky to get into the trade. She was 16 at the time and working in a takeaway shop. She wanted to get into a trade and saw an ad for an apprenticeship and just jumped on it. She has always been arty and creative, she likes working with her hands and loves the creativity of the job. The workshop does everything from repairs to resizing, remodeling and making jewellery from scratch.

She says that there are not many jewelers in TAS. When she went to TAFE (finished 2 years agp), there were only 9 students in her class primarily because there are not a lot of apprenticeship opportunities in Tasmania. Jewellery design has become a bit of a niche market because of the cost and therefore it is a dying trade (particularly handmade jewellery).

She has been at her current jewellery store for the last 5 years and likes making the customers happy, that they enjoy the final product. Halina says the design part of the job can be difficult (particularly when the client doesn’t know what they want!). Often she will do lots and lots of designs for approval. She loves the making the jewellery and the fact that she’s always learning new things.

For the Worldskills competition, 70% of the design has already been given to her. She says it looks like a pyramid shaped pendant and will be quite challenging to create.

They are using 18 carat gold in the competition but she trains with silver (because of the cost). The material is donated by a competition sponsor and they can either buy it back at a wholesale cost or it will be melted down. Halina says that sterling silver is a softer metal and it solders differently (needs more heat) so she’s looking forward to working with the gold.

Halina also competed in the Sydney nationals two years ago but was unsuccessful. At the time, she was running the workshop on her own so didn’t have anyone to help her train or any time to train. She was left as an apprentice to run the workshop on her own.

If she wins, she will be too old to compete at the international competition in London so she is just competing for the sense of achievement. If she does well, Halina knows that she can compete at that level against everyone else in Australia.

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WorldSkills Australia Nationals - Brisbane 2010 - Jewellery

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