Jewelry Around The World

I had a great experience this week! My talk, Jewelry Around the World (round 2), went great! And I will repeat it during the fall as well at list twice.

The program during the exhibition American Bride includes two talks. Although the exhibition focused about American wedding dresses, the executive director, Margaret Chalfant was very welcoming when I thought about shifting the talks to be about wedding jewelry. I was surprised from the broad spectrum that the content of a program around exhibition can be stretched but at the same time – why not?!

Based on the hours, the main work was the research, reading and gathering information, licensing images and even paying money to museums for better quality images requests. When I was all overwhelmed with the amount of information I understand that one presentation will not cover and with my support of my supervisor we decided that it would be even better to go into depth in my second talk. With that being said the real challenge  (or should I said “the main growing”) was the transmission from images and texts to 45 interesting min in front of people.

I will be honest with you girls, I was so stressed before my first talk and when I saw that just a few people came, I was disappointed. I thought to my self that all the hours of research are gone and was almost with tears when started to speak… (I know it is a big honor, that I have this knowledge and the experience of public speaking is extremely important but at the moment while looking at empty chairs, it was hard to see all that…

 But it doesn’t change the fact that the night before my second talk, while practicing in my studio, recording myself and listening, I was extremely nervous and the fact that last time I had 12 people listening didn’t calm me down. I heard the words that I’m practicing again and again in my head all night.

This time, I include videos and even purchase a speaker pointer :)

More people arrive and yes, you really get better with time and practice.

A woman that heard me before came with her own jewelry to show me and ask some questions and girls came all the way from Dallas and stayed to talk to me afterwards. I felt that I am really sharing! I am helping people to know more about symbolism in past jewelry and it is make them think about the meaning of jewelry today!!!

In my next post I will share the young learners program I created based on the exhibition American Bride.