#40 Failure is a Goldmine with Jeanette K. Caines

Courtney Gray, a veteran metalsmith educator and creative business strategist, welcomes listeners to another enriching episode of 'The Jeweler's View.' Joined by Jeanette Caines, the conversation dives into the inevitable mishaps in metalworking, emphasizing the importance of embracing mistakes as essential learning opportunities. Jeanette shares her philosophy that perfection is an illusion and that true mastery comes from understanding and executing the basics flawlessly. The discussion also introduces Jeanette’s upcoming membership program, 'Dr. Goldsmith,' designed to provide ongoing support and solutions for metalsmiths at various skill levels. This episode is a heartfelt reminder that the creative journey is filled with trial and error, and it is through these experiences that artists grow and thrive.

Explore More from Jeanette Caines & Jewelry Arts:

• Jewelry Arts Website: https://jewelryarts.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jewelryarts
• YouTube Channel: Jewelry Arts on YouTube

Transcript

# 40- Failure is a Goldmine with Jeanette K Caines 

[00:00:00] Welcome to The Jeweler's View. I'm Courtney Gray, metalsmith educator and creative business strategist. After 25 years in the jewelry industry, running one of the country's top metalsmithing schools, coaching artists, advising companies and organizations, and hosting interviews with some of the best in the craft.

I finally created the kind of support I wish I'd had from the start. This podcast is a part of that. Each week I share the lessons I had to learn the hard way so you can build a rhythm that supports your creative work, your values, and the life and business you actually want. Find tools, coaching and my transform course@courtneygrayarts.com and let's get to work.

**Courtney Gray:** welcome back to the Jewelers View.

This is part two of my conversation with Jeanette Caines, and we're picking up kind of where we left off last week. We talked about [00:01:00] gold, why it holds so much power and how to start working with it without waiting until you feel ready or have permission. Today we're talking about what happens when things don't go smoothly, because let's be honest, if you're working with gold or really any material long enough things are going to go sideways. At some point you're gonna melt something, you'll make a cut. You can't undo, you'll miss a solder joint and think, well, that's gone. Gotta start over. But that's the work. That's how we get better. And Jeanette, she's built her teaching style around making that part of the process not just normal but necessary.

Let's get into it. Jeanette, welcome back.

**Jeanette K Caines:** It's good to be here.

**Courtney Gray:** Back with the studio, the hidden parts of our studio, we made sure the clutter was off camera,

**Jeanette K Caines:** oh yeah, that's a huge part of doing this is like the serene background and just out of view.

**Courtney Gray:** Yeah, that's where the chaos [00:02:00] lives behind the curtain. No, we're pretty okay with being imperfect and I think that's a great segue into today's conversation. It's all about that. So let's start with a bench story. Can you think of a time, Jeanette, when something totally bombed and what you took away from that experience?

I'm sure you've got a few.

**Jeanette K Caines:** Well, the

**Courtney Gray:** of mind, too, is you asked that and I'm like, do you mean not like every day? Like, you know, we say in the studio, fuckery is the norm.

right.

**Jeanette K Caines:** is how you learn. The hardest part of being a student is not understanding that yet. It's not so much like that you're gonna make mistakes because that is literally a. All it is, is you make mistakes and then you go, oh, now I get it. Eventually. The big difference between a a student and a teacher is like, when something goes wrong, the student is pissed and outraged and the teacher just goes like, yeah, that'll happen. You know what

**Courtney Gray:** Yeah. We see it every day. It's pretty much, this is normal.

**Jeanette K Caines:** Yeah. And like we always try to explain to [00:03:00] people,, ask yourself when you got this crazy idea that everyone else just does this and it's easy and things

**Courtney Gray:** Yeah.

**Jeanette K Caines:** up. Like that's not, that was not the case for me. I've taught thousands of people.

It was not the case for them. It's not the case for anybody, . And really if you wanna learn fast, go ahead and fuck things up. That's where all the knowledge is. That's where all the data is. You know, that's how I got to be, however good I am. I got there because of watching my own mistakes and everybody else's mistakes. I hope to keep getting better 'cause guess what? Mistakes keep happening so I can still improve.

That's really the big mindset thing where I'm always like, where did we all get this idea that we're supposed to all be savants and just magically know how to do anything? Like, that's not true of anybody.

**Courtney Gray:** I know.

**Jeanette K Caines:** with anybody like that.

**Courtney Gray:** This is a thing, like when did that kick in? Like when in adolescence did that switch? Because we used to go from like blah paint, you know what I mean? Like just throwing paint [00:04:00] and not caring and throwing it out and starting a different one. And I mean, most kids, some kids know, but you know what I mean?

Like we didn't care as much. And so when did that shift? This a whole other podcast episode we'll have to do.

**Jeanette K Caines:** What do I always say? We don't have jewelry problems. We have emotional problems,

**Courtney Gray:** so wait, was there something that you totally like, felt like, oh my gosh, this is irreparable? Or did you ever have a moment like that that you think back to the beginning of

**Jeanette K Caines:** I mean.

**Courtney Gray:** time.

**Jeanette K Caines:** Not. irreparable in the sense that I can't tell you how many pieces I utterly destroyed when I was learning. I mean, one of my favorite techniques that I used for years was design everything as earrings, and that way maybe you'll get a pendant out of it. I mean, that was literally just like, it's always starts as ear. Earrings, earrings, earrings. That way you have two and maybe one of them will live. You know,

**Courtney Gray:** Hilarious.

**Jeanette K Caines:** And even now, like when I was making a [00:05:00] super complicated ring, with wire mosaic. I can't tell you how many hours it took to lay that whole thing out and fuse them all down. , huge amount of labor. and I put it in my magnetic Tumbler afterward, which I always do to test my fusing because if anything's gonna come loose, you want it to come loose immediately so that you can then fix it before you're down the road. Well, because this piece was so big, just happened to get wedged in exactly the right meaning the wrong way. So instead of moving around in there for the 20 minutes that I put it in. It sat in one place and the little pieces of steel shot just wore down one side of it completely.

It. It is dead. You know what I'm saying?

And I remember I was in the studio with my friend, , Alexis, and I just was like, well, it's time to move into the tequila for the night. No, more for now.

**Courtney Gray:** [00:06:00] Walking away.

**Jeanette K Caines:** I mean, I'm not saying I wasn't mad, but you just learned that it really is part of the process and it sucks and you can be mad. I'm not saying like you should have like perfect patience all the time, but be like, wow, that fucking sucks. And then you try again the next day, you know? And

**Courtney Gray:** Yeah.

**Jeanette K Caines:** I did it again. And that ring looks amazing.

So it's

the end it's like, you know, is it worth stopping over? Like stopping permanently? Never, you know that I never questioned whether I was gonna come back the next day.

**Courtney Gray:** Yeah.

**Jeanette K Caines:** Yes. Like, you know what? Closing up shop,

**Courtney Gray:** Yep.

**Jeanette K Caines:** You know what I mean? Absolutely.

But never

**Courtney Gray:** Yeah.

**Jeanette K Caines:** , Should I stop? I just loved it too much. It was about love, not about like like, oh, well I'm gonna keep going because I'm getting so much success. 'cause I can assure you that none of my teachers gasped in wonderment. [00:07:00] they saw my work

**Courtney Gray:** Your first work. Yeah.

**Jeanette K Caines:** 50th hundredth, like, no,

was not a thing.

**Courtney Gray:** How many years have you've been working in gold now?

**Jeanette K Caines:** So let's see, probably about 32 years.

I still work in silver every day with students. And also I do prototypes in silver.

I started working in gold probably a few years, in three years in.

**Courtney Gray:** Yeah, it take, it takes a little time. I love instruments, so I'll pick up. I'm a singer mainly, and so don't give me an instrument. I'm not good with it. Oh, I do play the American slide whistle pretty well, actually.

I've got kind of a natural ability with that, but. You know, but, um, but you know, it doesn't have notes or anything, so it's easy. But, I like pick up a guitar and it takes finesse and it takes, getting your hands used to the new tools and the new heat.

I think a lot of the underlying fear isn't so much with the material. Do you think it's more with the torch? I mean, you're putting heat to this material that we have in our minds as untouchable or so [00:08:00] expensive that one mistake is the end of it all, so to speak, or bigger in our brains, but I think it may be about the torch work.

What do you think?

**Jeanette K Caines:** Well, I mean, look, when I first started working with the torch, I was just as terrified of it as everybody else, you know? Yeah. Stressful. But you know, you do get past that. And guess what? The only way to get past it is to melt some things. Melt some things in silver, and guess

**Courtney Gray:** That's right.

**Jeanette K Caines:** some things in gold too, and that's okay.

'cause remember, gold is eternal. It'll be here long after you and I are f. Dust,

**Courtney Gray:** That's right.

**Jeanette K Caines:** Don't worry about the gold. It'll be fine. us

**Courtney Gray:** Yeah.

**Jeanette K Caines:** have to worry about.

**Courtney Gray:** The goal, the trauma. Right? The failure of trauma. So when you're teaching, where does that failure start and how do you help them walk it back? Like, don't go to the edge of the cliff.

It's okay. Right. Lemme pull you back.

**Jeanette K Caines:** This is really true of whether you're working in gold, you're working in silver, or whatever. It's that people get nervous and when they get [00:09:00] nervous, they stop paying attention. It's almost like an anxiety response. So the main thing that I'm always doing is like, know. You know what I mean?

**Courtney Gray:** Yeah, like right here.

**Jeanette K Caines:** just, we're right here in this moment and in this moment, this is all that matters. And the funny thing is, of course your brain loves that. 'cause it gets it very rarely where you're just. I'm here. That's

**Courtney Gray:** Right.

**Jeanette K Caines:** I'm really present. So it's, uh, for me it's not really whether they're working in gold or silver, it's getting them to just be present and whatever they're, you know what I mean?

What our brains, you know, what our brains do to us, dear

**Courtney Gray:** yeah.

**Jeanette K Caines:** Just to try to like breathe and be present and get comfortable. And I mean that in the literal sense. I'm always like, are you comfortable? Have you wiggled your butt? Are you comfortable in your seat so that you're not thinking about your butt? You know what I'm saying?

A lot of times it's those little physical things. Like whenever I sit down at a bench, literally the first thing I do is sort of [00:10:00] like, you know, like wiggle my butt a little bit. Am I comfortable? Are my arms comfortable resting against the bench? And then I can give my object? The full attention it deserves.

That is huge. One of the biggest things that I think people struggle with is just get your body relaxed and then you can really be present.

**Courtney Gray:** You're almost having them do a body scan without even meaning to, it's like just touching base with, okay, how are your shoulders? Where are they sitting?

**Jeanette K Caines:** Yeah.

**Courtney Gray:** little things that tune you back into your body and get you out of the brain. It's so freaking counterintuitive, right?

We think that we're actually processing from our brains, but the brain's just telling everything else what to do, and the actual intention is coming from somewhere different. It all has to align. Be calm and steady. I love that. Just check in with your butt, right?

**Jeanette K Caines:** I'm

**Courtney Gray:** your butt.

**Jeanette K Caines:** make jewelry if you're thinking about your butt, so get comfortable. You

and then you [00:11:00] can really focus. And I mean, honestly, think about it, like most of our brains, it's like most of the time, I

**Courtney Gray:** Yep.

**Jeanette K Caines:** honest,

it's,

**Courtney Gray:** Especially creatives. We're like, squirrel. Squirrel. I mean, you know, we just, yeah. It's so easy to get distracted. Yeah. Yeah. So what have you noticed when students finally stop freaking out about the material

**Jeanette K Caines:** then they start to really enjoy themselves. You know, it's like the slower you go, the faster you go, once you stop rushing things speed up, know? 'cause when you're present, paying attention and also you're enjoying it. 'cause on top of everything else, I wanna enjoy myself. Like, yes, I want the beautiful jewelry. Of course I

**Courtney Gray:** Mm-hmm.

**Jeanette K Caines:** but I wanna enjoy myself. And the best way to enjoy yourself is just to like really be present in the process

in your head, not enjoyable. , Like I said, up in there, that's no fun.

For me, just when you can lose yourself in something, that's when you're in flow, that's when [00:12:00] you're enjoying yourself. And it doesn't mean because it's all going beautifully and imperfectly. It's just that you're there, you know?

**Courtney Gray:** That's why I love the speed bag. I used to box and just like, you have to focus so hard or you're gonna get knocked upside the head, you know? Just , getting present. And some days now, would you agree with this, we were just talking about Mercury being in retrograde, that some days are really bad torch days.

Like there's just a day that doesn't work, like nothing is working and. What do you do? What do you do with that?

**Jeanette K Caines:** Yeah, well I am not one of those, people who's like white knuckle it. I'm like, no, some days are shitty. You know what I mean? And there's been plenty of days in my own work and I'm like, well, that sucks. So either I'm just gonna take a break and go do something else entirely. Or if I'm gonna be in the studio for the rest of the day, I go, Hey, you know what? I need to make wire, I need to make granules, I need to make bezel, whatever it is that for me, I look at as, [00:13:00] not grunt work in a bad way, but you know, it doesn't really, I've done it a million times, and that's usually what I do when I'm in that, not,

**Courtney Gray:** Not flow. Nothing's flowing.

**Jeanette K Caines:** flow.

It's like, guess what? I need to make granules. I need granules no matter what. Why don't I do them when I'm not feeling creative or I'm not feeling particularly, together the thing that I hate the most in the world is if I'm like, oh, I know what I wanna do. I know what I want it to look like. And I don't have the stuff prepared to do that. That makes me like re re re. I like to do that kind of stuff. The make my sheet, make my wire, whatever it is in the studio that you know you need to do, but maybe you're procrastinating.

I do that stuff

a shitty day, you

**Courtney Gray:** the repetitious.

**Jeanette K Caines:** And I tell people like when they're, when people are trying to figure out a project like that has never worked for me in my whole life. When you tell your brain, I need a solution, your brain is like, I am outta here.

I do not like this. It just doesn't work. So for [00:14:00] me, I go, okay, I don't know what to do next with this, so I'm gonna just put it aside, work on something else, , like a whole other project or making some wire or whatever it is. And then guess what? Sooner or later I'll go, oh. I know what I need to do and then you do it , I'm just not one of those people that's like, we're gonna sit here till we figure it out. My brain doesn't work that way.

**Courtney Gray:** And then somehow those solutions kind of fall into place, just that shift of attention even for a little while, right?

**Jeanette K Caines:** Pressuring yourself, your brain is happiest, left alone, let's be honest., Seriously, it's,

mean? You leave it alone. It'll just be like, all right, I'll solve this problem when you're not thinking about it.

**Courtney Gray:** I love the back burner. Just send it to the back burner for, for a little while and chill out. The answers just start downloading. Outta nowhere. It's when you let go. Yeah. What a great way to put it too, Jeanette.

It's like we put so much pressure on ourselves to have it perfect right away and it just doesn't, that doesn't happen. It doesn't happen.

**Jeanette K Caines:** an accountant if I wanted to do that shit. You [00:15:00] know what I mean?

**Courtney Gray:** You can't miss a number. That's right. You can't miss the numbers there. No.

**Jeanette K Caines:** Yeah.

**Courtney Gray:** No.

**Jeanette K Caines:** That's not why I became my, like people would be like, well, I really should finish this before I start something else. And I'm like, why? Who gives a shit? Why don't you enjoy yourself instead and work what you feel inspired to work on? That's how I work. You

**Courtney Gray:** Yeah.

**Jeanette K Caines:** I make myself finish an entire project before I get to start something else?

I didn't become an artist to live like that. You know what I mean? . I work on what I'm feeling inclined to work on. So all my work is much better. 'cause I don't work on it unless I'm feeling it. You know what I mean?

**Courtney Gray:** I remember having some students come through who really had a difficult time with that piece., What would you say to them?

They just can't get out of their brains,

**Jeanette K Caines:** All I can do is share my experience. With people and be like, so you're upset. I get what? Totally why you're upset. I've ruined 6,000 pieces, so I get it, but. Let's just do something else. That isn't how the [00:16:00] world works. That isn't how your brain works. That isn't how art works. And we can want it to work that way. But guess what? I'm always like, look, you know, I wanna be super fit and eat pie three times a day. That's not gonna happen either.

**Courtney Gray:** I love pie. I love pie. Yes.

**Jeanette K Caines:** lunch and dinner

**Courtney Gray:** I'll take it. Peach pie. Kila, all the pie. Yes, please.

**Jeanette K Caines:** It's not that I don't understand. I say this because I do understand,

Some projects are just gonna need to be started over. Can we fix Yes, we can fix a lot. Sometimes the best solution is like, fuck this. I'm gonna start it over tomorrow and today I'm gonna do something else, it's like that's the process, that's life. You don't get to be good without doing that. I've never seen it.

It's not possible, 

**Courtney Gray:** Is this how you would define mastery?

**Jeanette K Caines:** yeah. Oh yeah, because mastery, you just decide to learn from everything. As a student, it took me, maybe three years to crack a [00:17:00] little bit. And we all joke, all the teachers that you, you have a point where you finally go like, okay, I can do this thing where I come in every day and say, I gotta get this done today.

I have to finish this, I have to finish that. But eventually you realize that that has no relation to reality.

You are not in control of that. So you are aggravated and making yourself miserable and it doesn't work. Now does that mean I figured that out right away?

No, I did that for probably about three years until I finally was like, you know what? It's gonna take the time it takes,

**Courtney Gray:** and things are gonna go sideways. Yeah.

**Jeanette K Caines:** That's it, because it isn't up to me at that level. It just isn't Like if I had that kind of power, I'd be a super villain. I'd be sitting on top of a mountain of gold that I had managed to just like manifest from my brain.

But like I don't control the universe unfortunately. So we just have to deal with the cards we've been dealt.

**Courtney Gray:** Things are happening the only way they can. [00:18:00] Yeah.

**Jeanette K Caines:** Exactly like I get it, like wisdom, patience. No one wants those things. Like, ew,

I mean, the only patients I have, I learned in the studio. I did not have. Any natural store. 'cause people will do that. Like, oh, you're so patient. And I'm like, eh, yeah, you should see me when the internet gets slow.

I lose my shit like everybody else.

Just learned that it just doesn't pay, so to speak.

I just go, Hey, whatever it takes, this is whatever it takes.

**Courtney Gray:** back. Take a minute. Check in with your butt.. I bet you've gotten really good at helping helping students focus in or zoom out when needed. How to just walk away. Sometimes you just gotta walk away. Take a minute.

**Jeanette K Caines:** wrong with that.

**Courtney Gray:** Instead of trying to fix it.

We gotta talk a little bit about dr. Goldsmith in the house.

**Jeanette K Caines:** Solving problems is only my very favorite thing to do in the entire world.

**Courtney Gray:** Yeah.

**Jeanette K Caines:** that's what

**Courtney Gray:** is that?

**Jeanette K Caines:** brain happy. I guess that's why I love jewelry making so much. 'cause all it is is fucking problems.

No matter how long it takes, when I [00:19:00] figure something out, like the reward is huge in my brain.

My brain gives me the happy chemicals when I solve a problem. Doesn't have to be a big problem. And so that's the approach that I've always taken with my work and working as a teacher and everything is. this as data. This is knowledge. This is valuable. This is the gold mine. You know what I mean?

We're gonna take it and we're gonna use it and we're gonna apply it that's why for me, this whole idea of D of doing this membership program, Dr. Goldsmith is like, oh my God, what have I been doing with my whole life? Why haven't I been doing this all along? I guess the truth is I have been doing it all along with my own students, but now I can help so many more people because people need help. They take classes, they do things, they think they're doing it right, if you know what I'm saying. Nobody says to themselves, I'm gonna just mess up this ring. Here I go. Like you're trying your best, but you need someone who has seen it done a thousand [00:20:00] different wrong ways to instantly say, this is how we fix it.

This is how we solve it. For me that's very hard one knowledge and I wanna share it. In this membership, people can submit their questions and get their shit figured out, so like I'm super happy 'cause I get to help people and solve problems and people get their problems solved.

After you leave a class, who are you asking? The value of the advice you get can vary really, really wildly.

**Courtney Gray:** it's gotten pretty widespread out there. There's a lot of information, and I think it's not just our industry, it's everywhere. I mean, there's just information everywhere. Everywhere. And where do you look, what do you trust and what do you believe at the end of the day

**Jeanette K Caines:** Yeah. I

of the essence of, you know, Googling and AI

**Courtney Gray:** Mm-hmm.

**Jeanette K Caines:** well there's a tons of knowledge, but what is actually true? What's reliable, what actually applies to your situation? Which a lot of that too, when you're a relative beginner, that's what it is. You don't really understand things quite well [00:21:00] enough yet to know, well, this is a, this applies to me, but this does not apply to me.

So that makes it hard for people to just go through YouTube videos or

**Courtney Gray:** Yep.

**Jeanette K Caines:** you know what I'm saying?

**Courtney Gray:** Yeah.

**Jeanette K Caines:** knowledge doesn't exist. It does, but

**Courtney Gray:** Where do you begin?

**Jeanette K Caines:** right thing for you?

**Courtney Gray:** Jeanette and I have been workshopping this membership that she's building, it's Dr. Goldsmith, and we're super pumped. I don't think there's much like this out there. You guys, it's gonna be freaking awesome, I mean, you're not 24 7.

No, this is not heart open, heart surgery. Not literally, but I loved your whole analogy around why Dr. Goldsmith.

Dig into that first, and then where should the students be before, is there a certain level?

**Jeanette K Caines:** The truth is, there's a few things that I'll say. Advanced levels are nothing but good execution of the basics. So everybody thinks that advanced is a whole different thing, and advanced is really just really understanding the basics. So honestly, it's gonna be for a variety of levels. what you'll be able to do is you can submit a question every month, [00:22:00] right? And then we'll do a Zoom meeting once a month, and I'll go through all the questions and we'll solve them. then there's gonna be the gold mine, you'll be able to go to the site. And basically be like, oh, what was that problem that Jeanette was talking about three months ago about bezel setting rose cut stones?

That at the time didn't mean that much to me because I wasn't setting a rose cut stone, and now I'm setting a fucking rose cut stone and I need some help. Like it's just gonna be this huge.

**Courtney Gray:** Resource.

**Jeanette K Caines:** Yeah.

Of vetted knowledge,

that way you can get your questions answered and you can also always go to that in between,

you can be in the Zoom meeting and you can listen to my explanation, but guess what? Like maybe you're not available that day or whatever.

You can always go watch it later. Or you can go to the gold mine and I'll be like, here's the problem, here's the answer. Here's a video and I wrote a paper on this. , If you wanna nerd out a little deeper, here it is. [00:23:00] It's just there's so much knowledge out there, but. It's very hard to know what to trust and what actually applies to you. And that's what I think I can sort of uniquely bring to this, you know, I'm very bossy. I love to tell people what to do., I get to tell everybody how to fix their shit. I love it. You know what I mean?

For me, that's like.

**Courtney Gray:** Yeah.

**Jeanette K Caines:** like the ultimate, so I, I'm so excited about it, and I'm working on getting all the tech together , but really it's gonna be for a multitude of levels. It really isn't just for advanced people, just for beginners, because I can't tell you how many people I've seen trying to do advanced techniques that the problem was nothing to do with advanced.

It's like execution of the basics. , Is everything. So beginners need that. Intermediates need that, and the advanced people need it too because, I cannot even begin to say how many times I've said to a student, that's all great, but if your bezel. Is crooked or your inner bezel, like none of that matters if we can't execute the [00:24:00] essentials, right? Because you're setting your stone. I can show you all the advanced setting techniques in the world if your bezel isn't level so I really feel like it will be for a variety of levels.

We're gonna cover it all. If I get, 600 beginner questions and four advance that I'm not gonna just do one or the other. I'll make sure that things get covered in a way so that you can solve your shit

**Courtney Gray:** What I find and really why I've put together Transform

**Jeanette K Caines:** yeah.

**Courtney Gray:** There were so many common things that I heard coming up from the years and years of working with people in the industry and in creative business,

You're probably going to see a lot of similar questions, and the cool thing for everybody out there is you're not alone. This is a common thread, right? Whether it's imposter syndrome , or if it's some underlying, fear around putting yourself out there and getting rejected or whatever it is.

There are so many other people going through the exact same thing. So showing up for something like this and , realizing , that you're [00:25:00] not alone, I think is huge. Don't you think that's Yeah.

**Jeanette K Caines:** Thing of it is too, in the membership community, you'll be able to show up there with people and be fucking real, like on social media, there's enormous pressure for us to all put our best foot forward. Right? It's always the highlight reel.

**Courtney Gray:** Mm-hmm.

**Jeanette K Caines:** So to have a place where, no, you don't have to fake it. You can be like, oh look, I did this. And all the rest of us would be like, ha ha ha, I can top that with this terrible thing I

**Courtney Gray:** Right, right. . Yeah.

The community.

**Jeanette K Caines:** it's

**Courtney Gray:** Yeah.

**Jeanette K Caines:** That's community,

And we all somehow always think that we're alone it's a place, you don't have to fake it.

**Courtney Gray:** yeah,

**Jeanette K Caines:** oh yes, I magically just did all this. Like, no blood, sweat, tears, tequila, just like

**Courtney Gray:** yeah.

**Jeanette K Caines:** of us.

Being able to be authentic is a weirdly rare commodity, in modern life. 

It's a place for us not to have to do that bullshit,

**Courtney Gray:** Right.

**Jeanette K Caines:** I

**Courtney Gray:** To just get real with it and not have to be on, like we were talking about,

just feel like you can show up and [00:26:00] there's no dumb questions. There's no wrong way to approach this , I like the judgment free zone. I remember when you were in transform and we got towards the end of the class and one of the students said. What happens when the six weeks is over? We're not dropping you off at the curb here, friends.

That's not why people like Jeanette and I teach that's not what it's about. It's not like, thanks for the money. Take my course. See you later. Good luck. So this gives people somewhere to go, you know? And that's why I started the Circle Jeanette's in there.

By the way, once you guys take transform and you can come hang out with us. Every month and do a little accountability check-in. I love this. We're gonna solve all the world's problems together, Jeanette. It's so badass. I think that's such a beautiful way to, to give them a landing pad.

We're still here, we're still here for you after the course ends, we can take courses all day long. You could come do a week at ja, and then what? You get home and you forget to practice the skills. Guess what? You're kind of. Back where you started, but with a little more. So this'll be a great way for, your students [00:27:00] to stay in touch with you,

**Jeanette K Caines:** Yeah.

**Courtney Gray:** Like from home.

**Jeanette K Caines:** home,

**Courtney Gray:** Yeah.

**Jeanette K Caines:** sticking point, and you'll be able to just get help for that.

**Courtney Gray:** Have a mentor to check in with. It's perfect. And each other, what you'll see is Right. We're gonna, because you know your community at the school, this is going to bleed out into this membership and it's going to become, awesome. Okay, so more to come on this. We're just brainstorming on all the cool ways that we can move and shake and change people's lives. That's right. That's what we do behind the scenes over here.

So before we wrap up, I wanna hear a moment that stands out for you, when all the trial and error finally pays off?

**Jeanette K Caines:** Yeah., I'm so lucky 'cause I get to see that moment every day with my students because there's never like a finish line. Yes, you finish a piece and you feel super great about it, amazing. , There's always the next technique, the next project, I get to see people all the time. Where I show 'em a better way and they try it and they're like, you know what? That actually worked. It's all those little successes. [00:28:00] That is a great way to live. I get to do that, and I hope Dr. Goldsmith, allows me to share that with even more people. Life is never the finish line. There's no one, I mean, you know, in life, except for the big finish line in the sky. Everything is sort of just an ongoing,

**Courtney Gray:** And even then, yeah.

**Jeanette K Caines:** I get to enjoy that again and again and again with my own work. I work, I study, I practice, and then I'm like, oh, little better.

I like that. You know?

**Courtney Gray:** Yeah.

**Jeanette K Caines:** get to share that with students as well. For me that's like,

**Courtney Gray:** Yeah.

**Jeanette K Caines:** than that?

**Courtney Gray:** It's everything. So gratifying. Okay, definitely make sure that you're following Jeanette at JA is where you want them, right on Instagram

**Jeanette K Caines:** @jewelryarts on Instagram.

**Courtney Gray:** @Jewelryarts And of course we'll plug it into the show notes and all the things.

**Jeanette K Caines:** channel too. Jewelry arts, , YouTube channel with 470 absolutely free instructional videos.

**Courtney Gray:** , Your YouTube, did you start this during the apocalypse? Was that right?

**Jeanette K Caines:** You know, like I started [00:29:00] filming more like seriously during the apocalypse 'cause we're all home

**Courtney Gray:** Yeah.

**Jeanette K Caines:** out. And I was like, what the fuck am I gonna do? And I'm not a doctor, I'm not a nurse, you know, I'm like, well I do know metalsmithing. How about I just, help people with that and give us all something to think about that's more enjoyable.

I did a few videos before COVID, but COVID is really when I was like, okay, then when, you know, things opened back up, I was like, oh, that was really fun. And people seem to really like it and so we kept doing it.

**Courtney Gray:** You kept going. You know, things come in weird ways sometimes,

**Jeanette K Caines:** They really do.

**Courtney Gray:** Just listen and keep moving in the next best direction, even when seems like they're all falling apart, sometimes it's they of this bigger process that we just don't quite see, , until hindsight comes, which is later, after the struggles.

**Jeanette K Caines:** Yeah, things only, things only really make sense afterward. Like people were like, oh, how'd you know this? I'm like, well, I didn't. I just did a bunch of shit and then it was like, oh. Actually that thing worked.

**Courtney Gray:** Now it makes sense.

**Jeanette K Caines:** You know what I mean? You dunno,

**Courtney Gray:** Yep.

**Jeanette K Caines:** dunno. You know, you [00:30:00] try things and then afterward your brain kind of arranges it into some chronological order.

But really that's not what it's like in the moment.

**Courtney Gray:** No, you have to go through it. Sorry, guys. Gotta go through it. And then the clarity comes

**Jeanette K Caines:** Yeah.

**Courtney Gray:** then you get to go through it again or in a different way, it's a lovely applique process all right, you guys. It's all about gold.

These last two episodes with Jeanette Caines. Gold's going to challenge you and yeah, flames mistakes, money on the line. It's easy to get in your head about it, but the sooner we stop being afraid of messing up. The faster that we grow and the more we talk about it, the less alone it feels. That's why we're here.

Huge. Thanks to Jeanette for bringing her stories, her honesty. Your practical wisdom. It's so welcome to this conversation. Thank you so much. I'll see you next week

until then, keep showing up. Keep experimenting and give yourself room to learn and yes, to fail a little bit so that you can learn even more. Onward and upward, thanks, Jeanette.

**Jeanette K Caines:** Courtney.

**Courtney Gray:** [00:31:00] Great to have you. 

Thanks for listening to The Jeweler's View. If today's episode gave you something to think about, consider sending it to a friend or share it on social and tag me at Courtney Gray Arts. You'll find tools, coaching resources, and the transform course@courtneygrayarts.com. And if no one's told you this lately, remember you're not behind.

You're becoming exactly the kind of maker your business needs and that kind of depth. It takes time. I'll be back next week, same time, same tough love, onward and upward. I.