Topic: Which misuse of a jewelry term most annoys you?
What’s a Blog Carnival?
It’s a group of jewelers get together via the web, once a month, to post on a topic that has to do with jewelry. It’s a fun way to hear different opinions from wonderful artists. Hope you’ll visit their sites and read their great blogs. Please post a comment or two. It’s always great to know who is reading and your shared thoughts.
There lots of more important things in life to sweat. However, it is the topic du jour, so I’m going to throw out some slight buggers. I don’t get terribly annoyed with misused terms as I see it as an opportunity to educate and share with others. I do hope that someone else will educate me if I misuse a term or mispronounce something. It’s like walking around with toilet paper hanging out of your pants or on your shoe. Couldn’t someone bother to tell you so you don’t go on embarrassing yourself?
I must confess, that in the past, on occasion, I’ve wanted to pull out my hair when someone pronounced something the way I do not. I once taught a class and the woman kept saying bezel, as bee- zel (be-zel) instead of behzel (bΔ-zΙl, be-). After the class I went to Webster and looked it up. They have a neat feature there that will play in audio format how to pronounce the word. Sure enough we were both correct. I loved learning that! I found the same to be true with Culet. It can be cue let or cull et. So these can be great learning opportunities to expand your vocabulary and improve your spelling.
I also must mention that a nose twitch for me is mispronunciation of names or even misspellings. I can spend hours sending someone an email answering their question, as a courtesy, and then they misspell my name the return email or follow up question. Is it too much to ask to check the name as a point of consideration? However, I can’t be too miffed because one of my own family members misspelled my name for over 3 years after marriage.
Mispronouncing names is a little bothersome. I of course adore Tim and as his name is bandied about, my nose twitches when his name is often misprounced. Tim McCreight ….pronounced Mc CRight…not Mc Crate. Or Celie FayGo not FahGo. I think it’s a respect thing but having your name said wrong is better than not said at all, from a marketing standpoint. However, our names, as artists, are our brand. It’s all marketing….but everyone knows who they are referencing if they say Nike wrong. So maybe it doesn’t really matter. But for those of you that care, or want to learn,…there you go…I pointed it out π
Now as far as terminology or using the wrong definition for things, I have to agree with all of my fellow bloggers on cold enamel, crafter vs artist, etc. Here’s a short list of things off the top of my head that are top buggers:
1) “that white stuff”- being used as a term for the surface of metal clay after firing. Peeps…there is no white stuff. Those are peaks and valleys of metal on the surface that reflect to our eye as white. Take a brass brush, ss brush, or burnisher of any kind, apply elbow grease and you’ll won’t actually “remove” the white stuff, but instead lay down the peaks and valleys of metal so that your eyes see silver or reflection.
2) Enamel does not melt….it fuses.
3) Metal Clay is not clay at all. Ackkk! I so wish the Japanese had not tied “clay” to the description. I know they were being clever like Polymer Clay, but it really put a barrier between the metalsmiths seeing it as metal versus a craft medium. Not to mention it’s confusing to the non-user. I would love a dime for every time over the last 12 years I’ve explained that there is no clay in this product.
4) we don’t bake things in the kiln…I hope…brownies fumed with silver..hmmm. We fire things. Fire is good…I love fire.
What bugs you? I know live and let live. It’s all good. However, I was asked and I’m nothing if not honest. Although I really don’t get my knickers in a bunch over these things. As they say…don’t sweat the small stuff π It would be fun to create a bit list of mis used terms and mis pronunciations….just for fun π
Happy Holidays!
Here’s the rest of the crew. Please visit their blogs and enjoy their buggers:
I just fired my cookies in the oven π
Gordon-
a little silver never hurt anyone π However, not so sure about BC and CC ….mmmmm…mmm good
You’ll have to bring some of those yummy cookies to the mainland on your next visit. I bet they are spectacular as are all the things you “cook”.
Tonya! Yay…. thanks for posting the ‘clay’ bit… you are right. They should have found a different ‘title’ for our medium.
Potato, potah-to, tomato, to-mah-to … ;o) The best part of your post is the toilet-paper on your shoe, like spinach between your teeth … yes ! Puh-leeese correct me if I’m wrong !