[Jewelry making - Article 00875] - [Orchid] Jobs that you want to run screaming from?

[cynthia archer]

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>     Is there a Law of JewelryLand that says that just because a customer
>     wants something stupid done we have to do it? 

    Here Here!  The customer is NOT always right!  I don't think people
    talk about this stuff enough!  Does anyone have some good stories
    about "the one that got away because I sent it packing" stories? 
    Clients that absolutely had to have you make them something, even
    though you told them why their idea should never EVER actually be
    turned into a tangible piece of hideousness?  Even if it wasn't
    hideous, maybe it was a technical monstrosity and you had to explain
    to them WHY? 

    I'll start...everyone put on their laughing hats:(It's not a very
    high brow story, I'm sure some of you out there have much more
    breath taking monstrosities that you may have avoided over the
    years...) 

    I worked at a body piercing and tattoo shop through college where I
    had the dubious task of making all the cheesey stripper jewellery. 
    (To the uninitiated, "stripper jewellery" is any normal piercing
    jewellery, but it has to be in gold.  Some things should never be
    made.......) 

    Anyways, one of the first things I had to make in gold was a labret
    stud for a tongue piercing in 14 karat with a 6 mm bezel set cubic
    zirconia on top.  (It's a 14 gauge post with a flat disc soldered on
    the bottom, and an internally threaded bezel that screws on the
    top.) 

    No, I can't think of anything worse to put in my mouth, but the guy
    who ordered it obviously disagreed.  And I told him that the 14 kt
    would go brown and ugly in his acidic mouth.  And I told him that
    the peril of chomping down on the stone and having tiny shards of
    cubic scraping his throat.  And I told him that if bacteria began to
    grow behind the stone that it could be a breeding ground for some
    new form of germ warfare.  But my boss, being the short sighted and
    greedy guy that he was, said, "Hey!  If this guy wants you to make
    it, then just make it." 

    Now I don't know about you, but considering the red tape a person
    has to go through to actually GET the piercing, it seems completely
    backwards to provide them with a piece of jewellery that could some
    day hurt them. 

    I voiced my opinion to the customer and my boss, and gave up after
    one go around.  I probably should have refused to make it on the
    grounds that I'd get my butt sued by this guy when it broke in his
    sandwich some day, and I'd get thrown to the sharks since I was the
    new girl in the shop.  After three years there let's just say I
    learned to say NO. 

    I wonder whatever happened to that guy...  

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