[Jewelry making - Article 00721] - Re: [Orchid] CAD/CAM Milling Machines

[David L. Huffman]

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>         I'm sure when people mention GemVision they are speaking of
>     Gemvisions' product called Matrix which is now in Version 4. It
>     runs on top of Rhinoceros 

    Hello James and Dave and others; 

    Thank you for the clarification.  I've got a trial version of Rhino
    that I like to play around with.  I knew Matrix was a Rhino add-on,
    like the Flamingo rendering add-on, am I right?  "Steep" doesn't
    begin to describe the learning curve.  The only stuff I've seen from
    GemVision, I thought, was, I see now, the Digital Goldsmith stuff. 
    My first sight of it, it was being touted as something that would
    help these "kiosk" quick repair/custom franchisers take over the
    jewelry trade.  I expected there would be a whole lot of sales people
    who thought they had found the short cut to doing custom sales.  30
    years of doing custom work told me this was naive.  I saw a lot of
    "examples" of stuff that just made me shake my head.  I imagined the
    hacks not fearing to jump in where angels fear to tread and the few
    real jewelers who got involved with this pulling out their hair.  At
    my last check, it seems the franchise jewelry business isn't exactly
    burning down the house.  Our local "2 guys with a torch" mall kiosk
    went under.  At any rate, the best this software could produce was as
    generic as a loaf of white bread.  Digital Goldsmith, I mean. 

    My point is, if you are really looking at a good piece of jewelry,
    it didn't happen by accident or shortcut.  There is always a lot of
    knowledge behind it, even if it came to that place from many
    different sources and through years of tradition.  I'm certain the
    people here who know how to work in CAD are aware of how difficult it
    is to master the software.  The people in manufacturing know how much
    knowledge it takes to put even a good design into production.  Right
    there you have two specialties that take years to master.  Now comes
    the "designer".  If you understand that to design jewelry takes an
    engineer's sensibility to materials and technologies, you'll see that
    in addition, he or she really should have the experience and
    training of an accomplished artist to add any beauty whatsoever to
    what is first a technical accomplishment.  This is what a real
    jeweler is.  A fine artist with extraordinary technical skills.  But
    if you think that "jewelry designer" is a self appointed title that
    you can take on if you simply love jewelry and all your friends and
    family tell you how great you are and you sell lots of your stuff
    around the craft fairs, I guess that's alright, but in my mind, you
    are a designer, not a Designer. 

    The confusion is that so many people think that all they have to
    have is talent and drive.  I do a lot of over-the-counter thumbnail
    sketches, and people "ooh and ahh" over the magic of these drawings,
    but I know full well I wouldn't be even a mediocre illustrator in the
    world of the graphic artist.  Not even a pimple on Albrecht Durer's
    derriere, even with my M.F.A..  Ask any player in a major symphony if
    they got there through talent and drive alone.  No, it's talent,
    drive, training, luck, and about 20,000 hours of practice, and you
    probably still need the Julliard degree.  Of course, there's always
    the piano bar for the rest of us ivory ticklers. 

    I've worked for plenty of these "designers".  Now I charge an
    upfront fee just to talk to them because they've wasted so much of my
    time. 

David L. Huffman

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