[Jewelry making - Article 01117] - [Orchid] Getting kids interested in gem cutting

[Mark Zirinsky]

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    in a child's eye, anything is possible. they haven't learned
    negative things yet, so you can hand them a stone, give them 30
    seconds technical instruction, a minute on safety, then get out of
    the way, and let them go for it. 

    both of sons have been cutting since age 4 - cabs, carved, whatever.
    the results were about what you would expect for age 4, but they
    were results. 

    last 2 years, we have been taking the duplicates, extra material,
    etc to the buena vista rock swap, in colorado, in august. 

    2 years ago, I had an extra ultratech faceting machine for sale. In
    our enthusiasm, I neglected to mention a price for the machine.  i
    dissapeared to look at agates, leaving david (8) and robert (6) to
    sell and play chess. when I returned about 15 minutes later, i knew
    that something was up, as there was no machine anymore, yet here was
    david, proudly holding a $100 bill in one hand and 3 $20 bills in
    the other, extremely proud of himself that he had negotiated the
    price up from $100. what a lesson! of course the purchaser stopped
    back later just to make sure that was ok 

    last year, after I purchased 3 or so estates and collections, we had
    a whole moving van of stuff to sell. We decided in advance that 1)
    the boys would each receive 10% of sales to spend on games, video
    stuff, whatever; 2) 40% would go into their college account, and 3)
    we would not tell anyone about the college fund, as when selling it
    might not sound very authentic 

    so, robert, age 7, was in charge of chess playing and accounting;
    david, age 9, in charge of  sales. whenever someone was totalling up
    a purchase, they would have to negotiate with robert, who in spite
    of small size was sticking to his prices. david, whever he would get
    bored would announce 'I am going to sell something' grab a
    micrometer or whatever, ,and dissappear for a few minutes, then
    return with cash in hand, or occasionally a coin or something that
    he traded for. in the end, we probably had the highest sales of
    anyone at the show! I showed robert how to calculate gross profit
    (sales - show costs - gas expense), and we learned a lot. 

    now, at age 8 and 10, both them know most gem materials by sight,
    they can cut, move metal, solder with the torch, cast (although I do
    the actual molten metal slinging)  - but the most important lesson
    is that they know that they can do things that most other kids can
    only imagine. In addition to the technical skills, they have learned
    important business and people skills along the way. 

    After 35 years of cutting, the best gems I have ever produced are
    named David and Robert. 

    So, encourage a child. Nothing else is even close. 

Mark Zirinsky, Denver
'private cutter buying rough and collections'


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