DON'T LOSE YOUR STUDS TO THE VIRUS!

If you're all being responsible about not spreading or getting the Covid-19 virus then you are probably wearing some kind of a mask on a regular basis.  You're supposed to wear a mask anytime you go out which inevitably means you have to strap bands around your ears and unstrap them every time you put the mask on or take it off.

 But here's a warning:  If you have some beautiful studs of mine like the 18k yellow gold orangey/pink sapphire ones in the picture here (okay, or any other studs since there is only one pair of these out there) you have to be extremely careful about them not being pulled off by the elastic straps.  I have personally already lost (and fortunately found) two of my stud earrings that I wear. 

I recommend checking your ears for your earrings every time you are using a mask, especially when taking it off which I think is the time it is more likely to grab on a post and pull it out of your ear!

THE WORLD IS CHANGING

                                                     

                                                     
Well it took an international crisis to get me to write a blog article again but here I am.  Part of this is because I have a little more time since I have very little business (and no customers to interact with at the store)  but part of it is also to reassure you that I am still in business at the moment and to fill you in on some exciting new changes.

First of all I have added some pages of pieces of mine that are actually for sale on my website.  Partial descriptions and pricing is included.  At the moment you have to email me for further details and to arrange for purchases but ultimately we hope to move to a selling platform of some sort on line.  That is going to take awhile so don't hold your breath but it's in the future.  So please make sure you check out my website when you get a chance.  

The piece pictured above is a custom ring I made for customers of mine who I believe are my longest term customers.  They are preparing to celebrate a 40th anniversary and he wanted to get something outstanding for her. This is a 5 ct. natural color purple/blue color change sapphire and is one of the most beautiful and most expensive colored stones I have ever had the pleasure of working with and selling.  When you spend an hour or so actually setting the stone (not making the ring but actually setting it in the bezel) you get to know stones up close and personal and this is one of the most stunning ones I have ever set.  The ring is a combination of 950 platinum and 18k yellow gold.  As always it is wonderful to have customers who appreciate what I do so much that they will purchase something like this from me for such a special occasion.  

My new articles here will be briefer than they were but I will be writing at least a few each week so stay tuned for more.  And please remember to check out my Instagram feed for all the latest pictures of new pieces and custom work.  Thanks for reading!
 

One Day Summer Sale Part 2

Natural color pink sapphire earrings

I just finished these earrings up.  They are actually a very emotional pair of earrings for me as they represent something that I don't really want to get into publicly.  I am often moved by events in my life to create some of my pieces and this one was a fairly emotional one. But as it happens they are out just in time for my one day sale this weekend.  If you missed my previous blog article it talks about the sale in more detail so just scroll down one article.  I didn't even realize these were natural color sapphires when I picked them out so it was a nice benefit when I realized it. 

SUMMER SALE!!!!! ONE DAY ONLY!

Ruby ring in white and yellow gold

White quartz and diamond pendant

Afghani tourmalines and diamonds in 18k

Afghani tourmalines in 18k yellow gold

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I confess.  I've been exceedingly remiss in my writings here. I promise to get back to the sapphire material in a couple of weeks.  But in the meanwhile I wanted to let everyone know that we are having a sale on August 11 in conjunction with the Massachusetts tax free weekend.  In the past we have limited this sale only to existing customers but this year we are opening it up to everyone. Here are the details:   

Don’t miss this annual summer sale event!

Saturday, August 11, 2018 Only*

Don’t miss this annual summer sale event! Daniel R. Spirer Jewelers

Each year in combination with the state’s tax free holiday we offer additional savings on our hand crafted products. Read the sale guidelines below and don’t miss this once a year sale! We look forward to seeing you on Saturday, August 11^th between 11am and 5 pm (we are closed on Sundays)!

The following discounts apply to your total (pre-tax) purchase of jewelry or loose gemstones from our display cases:

• 15% off any case item priced up to $2,499.00
• 20% 0ff case items priced over $2,500.00
• 20% off strands of beads and pearls in our cases regardless of price

For example:

Gorgeous earrings that you have been looking at for months….

Regular price $3,100 + 6.25% tax = $3,293.75

Sale Price - $3,100 less 20% and no tax = $2,480.00

*Busy on August 11^th? Call or come into the store to select your items in advance of the sale day and we will charge your credit card on August 11^th! You can pick them up anytime from 08/11/12 on during regular store hours or we can ship them to you (regular shipping charges apply).

HERE ARE THE RULES

1. Any case item priced up to $2,500 after your discount can be purchased tax free. Case item means you buy the piece you see in the case-no alterations (but we will size a ring purchase).

2. ONLY items sold from our cases are eligible for the discounts.

3. NO CUSTOM WORK DISCOUNTS, however any custom work $2,500 or less ordered and paid for in full on August 11^th will still be tax free!

NO RETURNS, REFUNDS OR CREDITS ON ANY SALE ITEMS PURCHASED AT THIS SALE.

NO EXCEPTIONS. FINAL SALE.

Our hours of operation on Saturday August 11th will be 11:00 am – 5:00pm.

We hope you can join us on Saturday, August 11^th!  Remember we are closed on Sundays!

______________________________________________________________________________________________________

Year of the Sapphire Cinq

I told you I was going to talk about purple sapphires in my next post and this is the beginning of it.  I'm actually going to do two posts on them because I just had this ring of mine come in for a cleaning and I want to talk about this one specifically.

Purple sapphires come in a range of tones of purple ranging from a pinkish purple to a pure purple (what I like to call amethyst colored) to a bluish purple.  Many of the blue/purple sapphires actually exhibit a color change (or as I prefer to refer to it, a color shift) when viewed under different light sources (these are generally the most valuable if the colors are good).  Personally I tend towards the blue/purple sapphires just because I think the color is so interesting.  Either that or the pure purple color tones I find particularly appealing.  I'm less enamored of the pink/purple tones, but that's just a personal thing.  I believe if you want a pink sapphire than get one that screams pink!

Anyway, this ring and stone were purchased from me in 2002.  I believe, if my memory serves me, that the customer had me make up this ring with her diamond in it prior to this and that it was lost.  She decided to use the insurance settlement to get a nice big sapphire instead.  This stone is a 3.85 ct. NATURAL color (*unheated*) bluish purple sapphire.  I sold it to her at the time for $5000 for the stone.  Seven years ago she had me do a new appraisal (at my recommendation since I knew prices had gone up quite a bit) and it appraised out at about $13,000.  Today when she came in for a cleaning she asked for an updated appraisal and the stone is now valued at $20,000.  This is a result of how rare, large, untreated stones have skyrocketed in price in the last decade.  I have talked about this in previous blog posts.

Now before everyone gets too excited, let me throw out a few caveats.   This kind of extreme price increase happened on this stone because of the fact that it is LARGE (almost 4 cts.), UNHEATED and a great color to begin with.  If  you're looking at a stone on your hand that is a half carat sapphire that's pretty ordinary, the value has NOT gone up this much. Also you need to be aware that the appraisal price is a retail replacement price. This is the amount she would need to pay to get an equivalent stone today.  If she wanted to sell the stone, she would get nowhere near this price.  However she would get significantly more than she paid for it back in 2002.  This is actually fairly rare unless you're dealing with exceptional stones and that includes when you're talking about diamonds.

I don't ever sell or recommend jewelry or gems as an investment vehicle. But every once in awhile it can happen that you make a good purchase.  It's a good reason to always buy the best possible quality available and as large a piece as you can afford.

More on purple sapphires in my next article. 

Year of the Sapphire 4

THIS IS NOT A SAPPHIRE!

         Today's sapphire colors are my absolute least favorite colors of sapphire.  I'm talking about green sapphires and yellow sapphires. Least favorite???  Why would a green color and a yellow color sapphire not be just as attractive as the other colors?  Allow me to explain (as you knew I would anyway!).

Let's tackle the yellow issue first.   I'm not a big fan of any yellow colored stones.  I like to use a very rich colored yellow gold in all of my work and yellow stones just get lost in it.  Sometimes it's almost like there isn't a stone there.  If I'm using platinum (which is somewhat preferable) and the stone isn't a distinctively bright yellow then it just kind of looks pale and ashen.   Since I generally prefer working in yellow gold, yellow colored stones just don't cut it for me.  But this is me personally.  If you like yellow, then there are lots of dark yellow sapphires out there with your name on them.

And then there are green sapphires.  So when someone has heard that sapphires come in a green color, they invariably imagine they are going to see green sapphires that look like the emerald in the ring pictured above.  But the problem is that you won't ever see any green sapphire that even remotely approaches the green colors in emeralds or tourmalines.  Most greens have a heavy blue modifying color in them or a yellowish modifying color in them.  This invariably makes them look muddy. Now admittedly some people like the kind of off-lime, muddy color of these stones  (I know this because I've sold them) but I just can't bring myself to love them.  In all of my years as a jeweler I have only bought ONE green sapphire of any size for my stock (although I have bought parcels of small, mixed color sapphires that have had greens in them because when you are buying parcels of stones, and getting the discounts that go along with buying quantities of gems, you have to take whatever is in the parcel---if you start pulling out the ugly ones you don't like the price goes up significantly).  I bought the stone because I actually found it somewhat appealing and people were always asking me about the color of green sapphires so I figured I would have one in stock.  I did sell it so maybe my own prejudices are getting in the way of what I want to sell, but as you know, I am quite fussy about what I am purveying to my customers.

So the takeaway here is that, yes you can get sapphires in these colors (and I'm happy to try and get the best examples of them available) but they aren't going to be the best colors of sapphires.  Not at all like the purple sapphires I sell which will be the next topic in my blog, hopefully next week.

PLEASE NOTE: I sold the emerald to a customer for the ring above.  As anyone who has been reading my blog for awhile knows I always tell people not to put emeralds in rings.  ALWAYS.  The next time this customer comes in my shop I'll take another picture so you can see the big chunk of the stone that she whacked out of the dead center of it. 

Year of the Sapphire III

Orange sapphire and diamond ring

As I mentioned before sapphires come in a wide variety of colors.  One of my favorite ones is orange.  Orange sapphires can vary in tone from a very brownish orange to a very reddish orange.  Often when I buy parcels of orange sapphires there are some in the parcels that are more brandy colored than orange but they tend to be quite attractive too.  The most well known type of orange sapphire is called a padparadscha sapphire.  It can also be one of the most expensive sapphires on the market.

A padparadscha sapphire has to be an intense reddish or pinkish orange in color and they are truly exceedingly rare.  Unfortunately as with most things in this day of Internet shopping, there are seemingly an unbelievable number of these stones available for sale all the time.  However virtually all of the stones sold as padparadscha sapphires on line are truly not.  They rarely have the actual combination of pink/red and orange necessary to fall into this category.  Are they orange sapphires?  Usually.  Are they padparadscha?  No.  And if you're buying one for a couple of hundred dollars I can assure you that they are nowhere near the real thing.

One of the best stories about padparadscha is an old one.  Quite a few years ago (this is more like a number of decades ago) the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) was writing an article for their magazine about padparadscha sapphires.  As it happened the LA County Museum, which has an amazing gemstone collection, had at the time what was considered the perfect padparadscha sapphire in terms of color.  I can't remember how big it was but it was a stunning stone and well known in the trade at the time.  The GIA asked if it could borrow the stone to photograph and study it as part of the article.  When they got it into their gem labs, however, they discovered that it was actually a synthetic sapphire!  No one had realized or spotted this before (and again the LA County Museum had gemologists on staff)!  The thing to take out of this is it's always important to implicitly trust your sources because you never know what you might be getting when you don't.

Next week I think I'll talk about green sapphires (well after I talk about Valentine's Day which is fast approaching!)

Year of the Sapphire II

Custom Blue Sapphire and Diamond Ring

Sapphire and ruby are members of the corundum family.  Corundum is an aluminum oxide.  Color is caused by the presence of chromium oxide in ruby (and pink sapphire), titanium and iron oxide in blue sapphire, iron oxide in yellow sapphire, chromium and iron oxide in orange sapphire, iron and titanium oxide in green sapphire and chromium, titanium and iron oxide in purple sapphire crystals.  As with many gem materials, corundum itself occurs fairly commonly, but in the transparent or translucent form it is extremely rare. 

It's quite a color range you get out of the material.  In fact it also comes in black but that is only seen in star sapphires.  Star sapphires are often opaque so the colors will read differently in them sometimes.

But it's really pretty amazing to think about all of the colors that corundum comes in.  Personally I have always preferred purple sapphires.  Maybe it's just that I like the color purple or that I have always liked things that are different, but I have always found them to be more appealing that blue sapphires.  Although, as with all gemstones, that depends on the quality of the individual stone.  I'm not going to think a muddy looking purple sapphire is prettier than a fine rich blue sapphire (like the one in the picture above).  But I think I would always rather have a really fine purple stone than a really fine blue one.  And as it happens, they tend to be less expensive too.  Well at least they used to be.  When I first opened my store more than 30 years ago, purple sapphires used to be much, much less expensive than blue sapphires.  Most of that was because of the demand for blue sapphires, not because of the rarity.  Purples were actually much harder to come by, but all the public knew about in those days was blue sapphire.  Most people had never even heard about purple sapphire, no matter actually seen one.  But I'm happy to say I educated an awful lot of people about them and today, thanks to efforts by similar like minded jewelers, it's actually fairly common knowledge that sapphire occurs in a wide variety of colors.  And, unfortunately, pricing has gone up on them significantly with that widespread acceptance. 

My next article will discuss orange and padparadscha sapphires a bit.  I love oranges too!

The stone in the ring above is a .88 ct. heated blue sapphire. 

Year of the Sapphire

Magnificent blue sapphire in custom ring

I've decided that this is the year of the sapphire, at least in my life, and I'm going to be focusing a lot more on sapphires.  Actually, I'm going to include rubies too because ruby and sapphire are both corundum so they're related by everything except color. 

I'm running a picture here that I also ran in my last blog article because I do want to talk a bit about this particular stone.   It wasn't huge (under a carat) but it was just a stunning stone.  All too often people are focused on how big gemstones are but I can assure you that there is an absolutely huge number of very, very ugly large sapphires out there. I personally love sapphires because of the range of colors they are available in, their durability and because of how stunning some of them can be if you're willing to look around for them a little bit.  The sapphire in this ring was one of a group I got in for a customer to look at to pick out a stone for an engagement ring.  Fortunately for me, he didn't pick the one in the picture. I immediately fell in love with the stone because of the fact that it was a little lighter than most of the commercially sold stones and because of that it had a wonderful sparkle to it.  Darker stones can have beautiful color but often they are so dark that you just don't get much sparkle in them (something that happens in most colored stones).  I told my dealers that I wanted to keep that stone as well as the one the customer bought and, sure enough, within a week or so one of my great customers came in and picked it out for a ring for herself.  It was fortunate that she has a fascination for high quality gems, has a great eye, and has bought a lot of great beauties from me over the years. 

This was a heated sapphire, which is a little uncommon for a sapphire in this tone (heating tends to darken stones) but as I have always said, you should buy a stone you love, not one that falls into some particular category.   If you want to read more about heat treatment in gemstones click on my blog directory link to your right and look for the section on gemstone treatments.  I will be getting back into the topic in future articles this year but for now you can get some answers to your questions about gemstone treatments there. 

In my next article I think I'll talk about all the wonderful colors that sapphires come in. 

Please remember to follow me on Instagram.   Pictures are uploaded at least a few times every week. 

Christmas is Almost Here!

I have been busy with my work (especially with finishing up my wife's Christmas present in the last few days) so I don't have time to say much.  But I wanted to post some pictures of some of my newest pieces that are out in the cases and for sale right now.  You know just in case you wanted to give a hint to your significant other who probably hasn't even started shopping yet. Happy Holidays!

Diamond Comet Earrings

Ruby Swirls (22k gold)

Sunstone Pink and Gold Bracelet

Swirls Necklace

Mix and Match Earrings

Black Hole in the Center of a Spiral Galaxy

Mokume Fans

Christmas Tree Ornament

A customer came in today to order a pin for his wife for Christmas.  In talking to him it came out that a (very) long time ago, I made him a Christmas ornament for the top of his tree. I remembered doing it because it is the only time I have ever made a Christmas tree ornament.  In those days I used to work in silver routinely and I made up a large star in silver and gold with a diamond in the center.  When he told me he was the customer who had ordered it, I asked him if they still used it and he told me that they use it every year and it's an important part of their holiday as it goes at the top of their tree. After he left he took a picture of it and sent it to me.  And here it is! 

More than anything it's important to me to know that I have been such an important part of their memories and traditions for so long (25 years maybe?).  And that's why I love this business.  Who else can say something like that? 

Want to see what I'm working on now?  What my latest pieces are, either for the cases or custom jobs?  Follow me on Instagram.  Everything goes up there first. 

Japanese Akoya salt water pearls.

I apologize for my long absences on here.  Unfortunately I no longer have an assistant so I pretty much have to do everything around here (except keep the books which fortunately I have my wife, Kathy, to do).  Plus it's hard to keep up on all the different social media platforms. (Again:  Please follow me on Instagram.  If you aren't on it, get the app and just follow me if nothing else. Every single piece I make up as a custom job or put out in the cases for sale goes up on Instagram.)


 As it happens the holidays are coming and I am putting out new stock weekly.  I also got my gem shipment from my colored stone dealers who always let me have some wonderful pieces for the holidays. This year I got a number of strands of pearls and beads that were all exceptional in one way or the other.  I got in a strand of black moonstone beads that are pretty astounding.  Also I had a strand of lapis nuggets in which the lapis was the best color I have ever seen in lapis material.  That strand I sold right away but I'm hoping to get a replacement one as I think they had another.  I also got in some beautiful pearl strands, both South Seas, Japanese akoya and freshwater.  So if you'd like to see some interesting stuff it's time to stop in! 

I am going to be re running some of my favorite blog articles for a little while.  I have been writing it for so long that I doubt a lot of my readers see the ones from a few years ago.  So starting next week if you've been a long time reader you may see some things that you remember.

Seriously: If you don't have any training or time working in the field you're not a jeweler.

18k gold custom ring with a customer's stones.

Okay, so I get it.  It's a really romantic idea to make up the ring you want to propose with yourself.  But the reality is that most people aren't jewelers.  Unfortunately many people now seem to think that doing what I do is really easy, and there isn't much experience necessary.  I'm waiting for the day when we start saying to our surgeons that we want to do the operations on our spouses or kids because it would be really neat if we took care of them ourselves.  All the surgeon would have to do is watch us do the work and help us out a little. 

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. 

 

And here's another one!

I'm thinking I could probably post one of these each week:

lhttps://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/marriage-proposal-goes-horribly-wrong-man-drops-ring-lake-140946111.html

Think before you take the plunge!!

22k gold custom bracelet

This is why you all really need to think about location and setting before you decide to propose:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/man-falls-death-bridge-proposing-215557264.html. 

Conflict Free Diamonds

Boulder opal and ruby earrings

A number of years ago I wrote this post in which I discussed the issue of conflict diamonds and the surrounding uproar.  You might want to read it again before watching the You Tube video that I'm posting here.  In the article I was clear that there is absolutely no way to guarantee where a diamond comes from since any type of tracking method can be worked around if criminals are truly interested in doing so.

More importantly however is that the reason I'm posting this video is to show that just because a company decides to market themselves as environmentally friendly or conflict free doesn't actually mean that they are. I have long had an issue with this particular company because I know some of their former suppliers and they weren't really doing what they claimed to be doing.  I actually think that they started out with good intentions but I believe they got some significant venture capitalists backing them and in order to satisfy their need for profits they sacrificed their ethical standards because the volume of business required simply cannot be satisfied by the sources they claim to be using.  There are only so many diamonds produced in Canada.   There are only so many unheated, natural color sapphire.  With the amount this company seems to be selling they would pretty much have to have cornered the market on these goods and I can assure you that they haven't.

So take a few minutes and watch this:

I just realized that the original video was removed from sight (I believe because of the lawsuit involved) but the first ten minutes of this video explain pretty much everything.  

Nothing (good) is easy!

Natural alexandrite 18k gold ring

I was at my bench this past Sunday (since I pretty much work seven days a week year round) and I was in the middle of building out a fairly complicated ring for a customer when I suddenly said to myself, why the heck do I make my life so difficult?  I could just buy commercial jewelry (or even jewelry hand made by some other craftsperson) and put it out in my cases and sell it.  I'd work a whole lot less and there's a good chance I'd be making a whole lot more money. I mean I could at least just be selling cast pieces since after I get a model made up it's really just all about setting stones, sizing and polishing. What the heck was I thinking when I got into this job?  It's apparently a good question I'm still not sure I know the complete answer to. 

I do know that one of the things I like to do and that brings me peace in my life is the physical act of making a piece of jewelry up from scratch.  To take a few loose stones, some round wire, sheet or even some 24k gold I have to make an alloy out of to make the materials I need  and create something beautiful that someone will wear for the rest of their lives (and possibly be worn by their heirs) is a pretty amazing thing to spend your life doing.  But it sure isn't the easy way to make a living.  It's gotten to be a harder thing to make a living at these days as people seem to be losing concern with actually owning hand made things.  It seems that many people are only concerned with how cheap something is or how fast they can get it which is unfortunate because it means we are losing all personality in the things we own. It used to be that Japanese craftsmen would spend years perfecting a talent like mokume gane and then spend months making up one amazing piece.  Think about that:  If you spent months working on creating one thing don't you think it would have so much of you in it that it would be a true masterpiece?   Unfortunately I can't afford to take months to make anything up (although some of my pieces take that long until they go from an idea to a creation) mostly because I have pesky things to pay for like rent but we seem to be losing the desire to own things that someone puts a piece of themselves into. 

I had a young man (12?  13?) in with his mother the other day.  He wanted to be a jeweler and he asked me some very pointed questions and had an excellent grasp of some gemology even without any formal training.   For the first time in my life I told someone that this was not a field I would recommend to anyone any more.  Despite the fact that because of the Internet it often appears that there are a whole lot of jewelers like me out there, in reality we are a dying breed. 

But because this is what I live to do, I will be here until I have no more customers left.  Hopefully that is still a long way's off!!

Custom pendant using customer's stones

PLEASE FOLLOW ME ON INSTAGRAM!  YOU GET TO SEE WORK IN PROGRESS TOO!

A Dose of Reality

22k yellow gold custom bracelet with Chinese and Arabic numbers

I know I haven't written anything in forever and I apologize to any of my regular readers.  Everyone should remember that I am the whole shebang here so I have to find time to sell the jewelry, make the jewelry, do all the social media marketing, clean the bathroom (which Kathy insists on for some reason), and take care of just about everything else that goes on here.  And speaking of social media marketing, it seems that I can only do so much at once and I have been heavily focused on getting my Instagram pictures out.  So even if there is nothing here to read, if you go to my Instagram account there are always pretty pictures to look at!  All of my new pieces and most of my custom pieces show up on there almost immediately.

Today's topic is a little reality check for some of you.  Last week I had a couple call and say they were looking for a custom wedding band to go with an engagement ring they had and they wanted to know if they could make a late appointment on Thursday evening (I take appointments between 6-8 pm on Thursdays after my regular 11-6 hours).  When they came in the young woman had a white gold engagement halo ring that stuck out a fair amount at the top and needed a band built to go around it.  She didn't want anything too complicated but it was something that was going to require making up a model for, getting it cast and then finishing it up, making sure that it fit properly both in the model and the finished product.  He wanted a band made up in which the curve would match the one in her band.

 So let's take a moment and think about what's involved in this entire transaction. 

I spent approximately an hour with them discussing options with them when they came in.  Then I would have to spend the time to make up the model.  Model making can go smoothly or not.  Sometimes it takes me a couple of shots to get something I'm comfortable with.  So there is, even on a relatively simple design like this, a solid two hours of my time invested in it.  When the models are more complex they take a lot more time.  Then I have to meet with the customer again to make sure that they're happy with the model.  Add in another half hour for that meeting.  If the model isn't what they wanted I may have to adjust it or start all over which can run anywhere from a few minutes (minor adjustments) to another 2 hours (complete redo).  If they like what I do I have to pack it up and ship it off to the casters.  Once it comes back I have to do all the clean up work and any sizing necessary and I have to meet again with the customer if they haven't left their engagement ring with me (many people don't like giving it up for so long) and then do a final fitting of the two bands so they work right together.   Make all of that a total of another 2 hours.  So all in all we're looking at a total of my time, at best, of about 4 1/2 hours and at worst something in the range of 8-9 hours. 

Back to the couple I was working with.  I normally have a minimum custom work charge of $1000.  This is low for the industry.  There is a major online seller who usually isn't expensive, but if you ask them for custom work or even a small modification in a design, they charge $1500.  If you go into any of the majors (Tiffany, Shreves) they routinely start in that range or much higher.  I quoted them $800 for her ring because there wasn't going to be a huge amount of gold in it and I figured I could do it for a little less for her as I often try to work with customers this way.  His band, which was heavier and bigger, I quoted at $8-900 because I didn't have to actually make it fit with another band so I figured it wouldn't take quite as much time.  They left that evening to think about it.

A few days later he came back in and said that they hadn't wanted to spend that much and were there any other metals I could do them in that would be less expensive.  Now I only work in 18k or platinum so no that wasn't going to happen in my shop.  But I explained to him that even if I was doing them in 14k gold there was still a huge amount of time involved because the bands were CUSTOM made.  Let me repeat that: they are custom made and I may never sell another one of them even if I do have a mold to make them up again.  He asked about silver and I told him that a) silver tarnishes and doesn't hold up as well  in a ring for something you want to wear for the rest of your life and b) it would still be a custom ring. I finally asked him how much he had wanted to spend on the rings and he said maybe $2-300 each. 

So here's the deal.  If I make up a custom ring for you and it ends up taking me in the mid range of my time frame (6 hours) and you only want to pay me $200, by the time you take out the materials cost, the shipping costs to the caster and the casting cost, I'm making well less than minimum wage.  And that doesn't include all those pesky things like overhead, advertising, and all the other costs associated with operating a bricks and mortar business.  And once you factor those costs in, I'm actually not only not making minimum wage, I'm losing money on the job.  I'm actually paying the customer to make the ring up!  Even if I'm in the shortest time frame range possible I'm still losing money on the job.  And being located in Cambridge, even if I forget about paying myself anything on the job, I'm STILL losing money. That is just the reality of running a business. 

After he told me his price range I couldn't really help him.  I told him he could go to our local Jeweler's Building where a ton of jewelers are located and ask around because most of them will work in 14k gold and some of them are desperate for any business.  It doesn't mean he would get the same kind of job (not all jewelers are actually designers even if they claim to be) and honestly, any jeweler who did it would still be losing money on it. 

So what are the takeaways from this particular transaction for you as a retail customer.

1)  Bricks and mortar operations have to charge more than online operations because their expenses are higher. 
2) Bricks and mortar operations will be able to do custom work better than online operations because you're usually working with the actual designer.

Freont view of custom diamond ring with customer's stones

3) People have to be paid a decent wage on what they do.  I have more than 45 years of experience in my field.  People like me will not work for $10/hour, nor should anyone with the kind of experience I have.
4) If it was so easy that custom rings could be made for $200, then you could probably do it yourself.
5) Just because you have a price in mind doesn't mean that is what something is going to cost you.  Everyone has to make a living. 

Back side of custom ring with my pink diamond

And with that, I'll call it a day here.  Please enjoy the two pictures of custom pieces I recently made up that the customers loved, and that I got paid a living wage, after all of my costs, to make up. 

VIDEO OF ME AT WORK

Here's a little change up on my blog.  Watch a video of me working on a ring.  Have fun!

New Bracelet

14k Red Gold and 18k Yellow Gold Freshwater Pearl Bracelet

This is a brand new bracelet I'm putting out in my case today.  I worked with 14k red gold on this because I wanted a darker red out of my metal to match the colors in the freshwater pearl than the 18k pink gold I usually work with which is a lighter tone of red. So it's a mix of 14k red gold, 18k yellow gold and the bezel for the pearl is 22k gold. One of the other advantages of the 14k red gold is that it's a little bit less expensive.  I won't be making another like this for the rest of the year (at least) so come on in and take a look.