[Jewelry making - Article 00272] - Re: [Orchid] Just what is a Qualified jeweler?

[John Donivan]

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Dan

    Dan, you got it!! If you had the shoe-shine part down, you'd be
    ready for the world. I opened my business in 1983, but I'll describe
    the shop I was in before that for you all. This was a major supplier
    to Zales, and our work was often spotted in DeBeer's ads. There were
    (union shop) 6 jewelers usually, 2-3 diamond setters, 3 polishers
    and 2 in the casting room, plus a foreman, plus the office. The
    jewelers were used according to their skills - there was the model
    maker and special order man. I backed him up with special order when
    he was booked, and did some repair - I also backed up the diamond
    setters with retipping and strapping and such. Our business, though,
    was production of diamond jewelry in gold and platinum. We each had a
    steel 3x5 file card box for our work. Every night, they got locked
    up. The foreman would just stop by and put a "job-bag" - manila
    envelope - marked with all the pertinent info - metal, size if
    necess., customer, etc. Most of the time, each bag would contain 25
    rings, sometimes less. Often we would have 5 or six bags of 25 rings
    each, which were raw castings. So, we filed the castings, rounded,
    sized, straightened, and cratexed in the corners. We also stamped
    them, often with the customer's stamp. Also we would prep any
    settings. Then they went to "polish for assembly", where the settings
    and the top of the rings were pre-polished. Then they came back and
    we would solder everything, and then they went to "polish for
    setting", and then to the setters, and then to final. It sounds
    pretty simple, really, and it is, really. But then they went to
    inspection. Every piece had to pass inspection under 10x, all over.
    Every shank had to be straight, even, and perfect. Every setting and
    every diamond had to be 100% straight, square and plumb. Every thing
    had to be squeaky clean in terms of solder, contours, filing -
    everything. And that was everyday work. Then the foreman would stop
    by and say he had this job, and it would be some thing that keeps you
    awake nights, but it was your job, and instructive. I got the job of
    assembling this one ring that took a whole day each to polish to set
    to jeweler to polish to set to jeweler to polish..... But it was
    gorgeous and when I see it in magazine I say, "I made that".... We
    were literally a team, no different than a football team, which is
    why the big houses just shut down for vacation - they can't produce
    with 1/2 of a team, so everybody goes at once. 

http://www.donivanandmaggiora.com
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