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| 18k gold custom ring with a customer's stones. |
So this is an email I got awhile ago from a young gentleman:
"I'm looking into making an engagement ring for my
girlfriend, and found your website while searching for jewelers in the area. I
don't have any DIY experience outside of woodworking and electrical work, so
I've been hesitant to really dive in. However, I just talked to somebody who was
in a similar position and managed to find a jeweler who was willing to work with
him through the process. Is this something that you would be willing to do /
have done before?"
Okay, so understand that he has no experience, but he knows someone who did this so it can't be too hard right? This was my response:
While I appreciate the
sentiment, I don’t believe in working with customers this way for a number of
reasons. The first is that it’s taken me 40 years to learn what I know and to
make jewelry as well as I do. People who think they can just pick up the tools
and do what I do tend to be unrealistic. My employees all come out of an
extensive two year school program (North Bennett Street School) and it still
takes me about two years to get them up to the level I require (not my
level---just the level I need for them to be helping to produce my work).
Secondly I have insurance issues with having people I don’t know in my workshop
area. I routinely work with pieces and gems worth thousands of dollars or even
tens of thousands of dollars and I can’t have people wandering in and out of my
shop area. And the third and final reason is that I would have to charge you
about $500/hour because that’s what an experienced master jeweler’s time is
worth. (I could sit with you for an hour or I could make up a ring I could sell
for about $5000 and believe me you would need way more than an hour.)
All that being said I
know that there are some jewelers (lower skill levels, less experienced, etc.)
who do what you want and I’m sure with a little research on line you can find
some. I have to warn you though that I get in people who’ve tried to make their
own stuff and need someone with more experience than their teacher even to fix
it. Good luck with your quest!
He thanked me and said he would be looking for someone who would do it.
This is the email I got today:
"I was about to call you but decided to reply to our previous (old)
conversation to help with context. I did in fact end up 'making' my fiancee's
engagement ring, however I was looking for a jeweler in the area to help with
two issues. One of my close friends, Kevin Tabb recommended you very highly (in
addition to my own positive experience in the previous emails).
Issue #1 is that the ring (platinum) needs to be resized. It's a
little too big, despite being told she was a size 5.5
Issue #2 is that I didn't fully set the stone (Maine tourmaline). After I
finished drilling the seat, it chipped while the jeweler I was working with was
checking the prongs before I closed them. Despite being damaged in the process,
I still thought the stone looked good enough to propose with. I didn't want to
risk shattering the stone and losing that opportunity, so I ended up tightening
it as best I could without feeling uncomfortable and gave my fiancee the option
of replacing the tourmaline with a new stone. She has insisted she wants to
keep the original stone as long as possible, so I was wondering if you'd be
willing to try and finish setting the stone.
Would you be willing to try to set the tourmaline and resize the ring? I
understand there is a significant risk that the stone could be further damaged
and know that you can't guarantee that won't happen. If so, how much would those
services cost, and how long would it take?"
So let me review a few things: You are not a jeweler unless you've had actual training in some form in the field and worked in it, no matter how romantic it might seem. It took me 40 years to get where I am today and I know what I'm talking about. I'm not really in business to fix your mistakes when you pretended to be a jeweler so it's going to cost a lot for me to fix all of your mistakes (possibly as much as you paid the other jeweler for the "help"). If you want jewelers like me to be around to fix your mistakes you have to buy the jewelry from me to begin with (of course then you won't have to pay for any mistakes because I won't make them!)
Again, I appreciate the sentiment, but jewelers who agree to do this with customers demean our profession. And it's demeaning to all jewelers when a customer thinks that it really doesn't take any training or skills to do what we do.
