Here's one of my deep, dark secrets. I don't like telephones. When I was growing up, my parents always had firm guidelines about how much time we spent on the telephone, and strange as it may seem, neither myself nor my sister chafed against those guidelines, even during our teenaged years. The telephone had its place, certainly, but it was more of an organizational tool than anything else. We didn't talk to our friends for hours on the phone; we used the phone to call our friends and arrange to meet and talk for hours. Early lessons die hard, and I still will never call a local friend just to chat — of course, the friends who are in other cities are another story entirely, and thank heavens for flat-rate calling!

My phone-aversion is particularly ironic, given my chosen profession. E-mail has proved to be my salvation, actually, because shooting off an e-mail is so much easier for me than picking up the phone. I suspect I'm not alone.

The exception is interviews — that's when I have to overcome my reluctance to dial and pick up the phone. I've been doing a series of interviews for Art Jewelry under the headline, "A conversation with..."  Each issue, I talk with a respected figure in the jewelry world, and I always have a great time. Once I get past the hurdle of actually dialing the number, the conversations are inevitably great, and usually last at least an hour, and I'm reluctant to hang up. I still can't quite get over the feeling that I should be arranging to meet in person — never mind that my interviewee might be six hours away by plane — but it's low-level discomfort, definitely a guilty pleasure.

This ramble was brought about through my experience yesterday of actually doing what I wish I could do more of — on-site interviews. As much as I do love those long conversations, face-to-face conversations bring with them a whole different energy and set of cues for the interviewer to pick up on. I spent the afternoon at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where I talked to instructors and students alike about the program there. The sense of excitement in the department was noticeable; this is a young department that has been completely revitalized over the past six years. While other university metal arts departments across the country are closing, UW-M is growing — five-fold in the last five years. It was great fun talking to the instructors, who are so invested in what they do, and to the students, who were so enthusiastic about the program and their projects; it was easy to see the symbiotic nature of the teacher-student relationship. The teachers' enthusiasm feeds that of the students, and vice-versa. And seeing that enthusiasm in person made that all the clearer.

The article on the UW-M metals program will appear in our March issue!