enamel in jewellery, enamel in teeth

I'm halfway through my fourth semester of Dental Technology at GBC and it's a busy one. It's our first semester working with porcelain for our restorations and it's challenging like all things in this program are. 

Luckily for me my enameling work is very similar in some ways. 

Like in enamel jewellery, creating a porcelain tooth is very technique and time sensitive. You need a steady hand, you have to balance things in precarious manners, and you can either be pleasantly surprised or horribly devastated upon opening the kiln.

Like in jewellery, you can open the kiln and find that your piece fell off it's stand and is now in a pool of enamel material.

Like in jewellery, you can pop in a piece covered with powder that is delicate and hard to handle, but in the end becomes a glossy, weighty piece that is better than you imagined. 

Beauty in useful things

I feel like a lot of artists of my generation are having the same problem.
We are torn. Indecisive.

Unsure that what we are doing is worthwhile or beneficial.

By being an artist am I being selfish with my life?

Could my efforts be put towards something else?

Does what I do matter to anyone but myself?

Do others understand this need to create? 

What do my dreams and wants matter?

I love to make beautiful things, but there is beauty in useful things too.

I like Dental Technology because I feel like it merges practicality with my artistic nature.

I like the feeling that I can help someone, 

that I am making something useful and necessary.

There is art in it.

There is symmetry, subtlety, curves and textures.

There is the satisfying sound of something clicking right into place.

Trying to find balance is a hard thing to do.
It does not come about by accident, only by design.