Editing The Pen Addict 659/transcript (section)

== Transition from fountain pens to goldsmithing ==

* All right, Annabelle. This initial love of fountain pens and working with fountain pens turned into goldsmithing. So, and metalsmithing. How did that happen? And so, like, it's pretty clear. Listen to how you talk about, like, your fountain pen journey. How that eventually came into, like, what you really, you know, worked hard for, went to school for, and did all these things. So tell me about that period of time. Because that matters at the end of the day where we're at now. So, yeah. I'd like to hear a little bit about this.
* Yeah. So, the goldsmithing was directly related to fountain pens, for sure. I, in my previous life, I was a harpist. And I played the harp, and I studied the harp in Amsterdam. And that's why I lived in the Netherlands. And when I eventually decided to quit my studies, I ended up working at a bank for a year just to get my footing. And I tried to figure out what to do next. And I knew I really liked fountain pens. But what on earth could you possibly do to get to work with fountain pens? What knowledge could I possibly acquire? What study could I follow? And I was still, I was in my early 20s. And so, still studying something was an option at that point. I mean, anybody can study anything at any point if they want to. But I felt like it wasn't too late for me to still kind of start from scratch.
* And so, I figured, because I'd played with pens so much, and I felt like I had a good feel for nibs in particular. If I learned to manipulate metal, that could be it, right? And who does that? Goldsmiths. Goldsmiths. And so, I just decided to jump into this four-year study, I guess.
* I guess a second-year trade school. And just see if that would work. Could I possibly? I had no idea at that point, because I'd never, I hadn't held a saw at that point since I was eight. I had no idea if I had any talent for it, but I just figured that that was the smartest move. And so, I did that, and I moved to this tiny little town in the middle of nowhere. I had to speak Dutch. Until then, I'd refused to learn the language, because I didn't think I was going to stick around anyway. And I, yeah, I started this study and became a goldsmith while still playing with pens all the time and knowing kind of this is where I was going to go. And teachers were actually quite bothered by my insistence on it, because the whole study is usually based around jewelry. Most people want to design and make jewelry, and I don't really care all too much about any of that. I just wanted to work with pens. Yeah, that was going to be my question. Was your focus at school from the, maybe not from the very beginning, but even, it sounds like maybe even from the very beginning, to focus on fountain pens by the time you're done? Oh, from before the beginning. Okay, okay. Yeah, so the entire intent was fountain pen-based, yeah. Yeah, so when you're, you know, learning this, and you're in school or in class, and like, this is your focus, and you were saying the professors were getting, you know, like, like, huh, that's what, that's not what most people do. Was anyone else doing, let's say, non-jewelry goldsmithing in there, or were you kind of just kind of, kind of like the lone wolf in the class? I think there was somebody who wanted to get more into musical instruments, like brass instruments. Okay.
* I feel like that was an entirely wrong choice for them, probably, because I think the study is to actually study making music instruments. Yeah, yeah. But, I don't want to, I mean, other people then focus on other things, some get really into gemstones and gemology, others get way more into the design of things. Yeah, there's a lot of different ways you can take the jewelry aspect of it, like, no knock on that at all, like, there's some really amazing, amazing work being done. Yeah.
* But, other than that, I don't know, most people are just kind of, like, jewelry-based and thought that was kind of cool. So, when you wrapped up these studies, like, did you go, now what? It's like, what, did you have a plan? Like, what were you thinking, like, when you wrapped everything up? I know this was a, this was a, we've talked about this in the past and probably in our previous episode, about, like, this was a long, a long journey, tough process, a lot of work, a lot of studies, a lot of, you know, markers you have to hit along the way. What were you thinking when you finally, finally graduated from this?
* It's funny, because I think the last time we talked was right, no, it was probably about a year after I graduated. So, the goal was to work with fountain pens, but at that point, a few months before I started the school, I already met Joost, because I went to the opening of Uppelbaum. Okay. I was there physical location. That's also when I met Aziza for the very, very first time.