Crafting Education?

Okay, so now we have seen that some of us are talented with our hands, some with our writing, some with our minds.  Some have tried and, in their opinion, epically failed.  Although some don't think they have a creative bone in their body....ahem...Grace....you actually do if you consider how entertaining your writing is!  It pains me that my daughter won't so much as put a sticker on a paper let alone try some of the creative ventures I try to entice her to, but she sure is a hell of a writer.  In fact, she wants to be a novelist.  I guess she will be living with me forever, huh?

Which brings me to my topic...crafting education.  You can find these at colleges, high schools and local craft shops and bead stores.  I actually graduated from high school wanting to either be a journalist or an artist.  The artist in me won out as I entered college majoring in Fine Arts.  I relished in this and was swaying towards art therapy then totally shifted into psychology.  Then neuropsychology.  I ended up with a Bachelor's degree in Biological Psychology with a minor in Biology from a state university.  Problem was I couldn't afford grad school.  Bummer.  So, I took my degree and entered the work force.  I landed a job with Child Protective Services as an Intensive Family Therapist.  I met with families 5 days a week for three months counseling them in parenting, daily living, drug and alcohol abuse, etc. in an effort to keep the kids at home as well as attending family court cases to report on the families progress.  I was so talented in connecting with the clients that I ended up with the severe cases...way too many severe cases.  I ended up disgusted with the bureaucratic red tape and the snidely CPS workers that were just too quick to tear apart families without understanding the dynamics of the family and the lack of parenting education while I watched everyone else care for my kids, so I quit to get back into my creative life.  Wow...major digression!

To sum it up, the only traditional instruction I received for the arts was those two years of college and most of that was core design and photography courses.  I didn't stay in the Fine Arts program long enough to actually get involved in what I really wanted to.  I never pursued any other instruction and basically taught myself through trial and error.  Today, I teach jewelry and design classes in the adult education program at my local high school, but still fail to take classes when I want to learn new techniques.  I am one of those learners where I want to make the mistakes and want to figure things out for myself.  I am currently swaying towards soldering and metal forging....and as you can expect, are making all the mistakes I need to make.  At this point, I have very few pieces in my shop that I feel are worthy to sell.  The rest go in the scrap bin!

So, for those of you who started venturing in the creative arts early on, did you ever seek training for your crafts or are you a self-learner?