Got skills? Inside the SkillsUSA Regional Competition

Sean Nagle-McNaughton

That was the shortest four hours in my life.
It easily seemed like 20 minutes. And I wasn’t even done yet.
Four hours to make a simple pendant.
Sure, it sounds easy, right?
Trust me, it’s not.
For the jewelry portion of the SkillsUSA Regional Competition at Davis High School Jan. 23, competing jewelers arrived around 7:30 a.m. We were given our challenge at 8 a.m. and had to be done at noon in time for the judging.
This competition was a chance for high school students of all ages to be judged in vocational arts skills. I was among the four students — all from Davis — who competed in the jewelry section.
Our challenge was to create a pendant with a set stone, some kind of moving piece, and at least five points of contact with solder. Each competitor chose stones with which to work, and from there we were given 15 minutes to create an idea of what our own pendant would look like.
Then, we began working with our metal.
My original ideas, as eloquently described by my brother, look like squid.
Using graph paper, I created a geometrical design shaped by the rock I chose. I designed it to look like a meteor falling toward a planet, pushing air before it and trailing a tail.

Sean Nagle-McNaughton's winning creation

In the first hour and a half, I was able to get the main body and the top piece cut out, along with bezel wire, a very soft silver that circles the stone and holds it to the metal.
I ended up becoming very lucky after I cut the bezel wire too short the first time around, and again the second time around. We only got one extra, so I my second bezel would have to hold the stone.
Somehow, in the end, the bezel for the stone fit perfectly.
In the next hour and a half, I managed to get everything soldered together and fitting. I also got the stones stuck inside the bezel only once.
That scared me, since you cannot solder while stones are inside the piece. If you heat up the stone you will cause it to crack, completely ruining the piece.
In the final hour, I rushed to assemble the piece and clean it up. This is where I had a bit of an advantage over my competition. I was the only one who had enough time to polish their piece a little bit after setting the stone. For everyone, this was the most stressful point.
This whole experience actually didn’t feel like a competition. We were all just there working as hard as we could to get a piece done before a deadline.
We were constantly asking each other if we could borrow this or that tool, or “How do you do this?” I needed a quick lesson on stone setting since I haven’t done it since early last winter.
At noon, I attached my piece to a chain I had brought with me and we put our completed work in our envelopes for the judges to examine.
Next came a very long half hour of waiting while judges examined our pieces against the challenge criteria as well as how well our pieces looked.
While we were waiting, we talked about the problems we dealt with while working, how solder had misfired, or how little time we had to finish the piece.
We were about to head to lunch when the scores were finally written up on the board. I had been confident my piece would do well. But I thought my design wasn’t as artistic as the ones the others had created.
Plus, I was competing against two seniors: One who had been dragged into this competition four days earlier and another who had been competing since her freshman year.
So when I saw my score, I was surprised.
I got first place: The gold medal.

— Sean Nagle-McNaughton is a sophomore at Davis High School and a member of the Herald-Republic’s Unleashed journalism program for students.