Oh I don't need money from the bank, just a business account rather than a personal account - I'll be fronting the costs for the first batch myself, then after that it'll just keep itself rolling.
Equipment is also a non-issue as I already have wax, an injector, and all the associated paraphernalia as well as a fairly complete jobbing jewellers workshop; lamps, clamps, punches, blocks, drills, burrs and a twin-spindle... hammers, gravers, silks, pickle, barrelling, media and bullion... mandrels, books, picks, tweezers, pliers, saws and blades... files, papers, diamond grits, scalpels, scribes, burnishers and scrapers... etcetera...
As to the cost - these aren't works of art, those are to come later. These are jewellery manufacture and I'm treating them as such, oh they won't be cheep, but they'll be affordable. And they won't be exclusive. Anyone who can afford one can have one, to keep costs down I'll be doing them in runs. For example, if you miss out on row-E now, then when I do row-D you can get D's and E's; when I do C's - E's and D's will be available too.
I will be doing short runs, but they'll (mostly) also be repeating. There will be fewer of them simply because they'll be more complex and expensive.
And I'll be taking orders for one off commissions. However, those are both for the future.
To study jewellery properly I'd need to move a couple of hundred miles; no big deal in general but would involve loosing what architectural work I have/get, moving the shop and loosing fifteen years of goodwill, make my girlfriend a train journey away and double (or more) my living costs. And I wouldn't learn anything new till year three...
