[Jewelry making - Article 00416] - Re: [Orchid] Just what is a Qualified jeweler?

[richard hart]

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Daniel

>     But when it comes to having my own product look the way I want
>     it to, it's my way or the highway. 

    I did not make the connection, I knew I wanted things done by my
    method, but you articulated what I had not consciously realized. My
    method gives my work the look I want, another way of doing it does
    produce the results I want. One example is, when filing or
    polishing, (one of a kind custom work or production pieces) if any
    curves on a piece I design is distorted, it changes the design, and
    the sculptural flow is lost, the feeling of the piece is lost to me,
    and I will reject the piece as not salable. Customer might not
    notice, but I do not want to look at it in my display case. It is a
    representation of my esthetic sense and how I put myself out in the
    world. In 20 years of retail, I have never had a customer tell me
    that a piece of custom jewelry I made was not what they wanted. I
    did not always like the design they wanted. I am fortunate to have
    good communication skills, and a very fortunate ability to make
    pieces that met or exceed the expectations of my client. When I talk
    to a client, if I get a feeling or a "picture" on my head of what
    they want, I know what to do, if I do not get a feeling or a
    picture", I ask them to bring in a picture, or do a drawing however
    crude. 

    This approach saves me, as most times there is no follow up on their
    part. They did not know spectfically enough what they wanted. I am
    fortunate that I have attracted an employee who has a natural sense
    of what to do and how to do it, with little supervision she knows
    what to do to finish my pieces and not loose the esthetic sense that
    is important to me. Sometimes she goes ahead before I can exert my
    obsessive compulsive nature and repeat myself three times about what
    and how is to be done. This is someone who had a high school jewelry
    class, and now in her l= ate twenties had decided that she is going
    to follow her passion. Fortunately for both of us, she is self
    motivated and has a natural ability. I also believe that in the past
    the tradition was, the employee did what the employer wanted the way
    the employer wanted without question. Seems that as Americans we seem
    to have a sense of entitlement to have freedom of expression, and the
    employee has a right to do their work the way they want to do it. I
    tell employees that as long as their way does not takes longer and
    the results are what i want, I do not care how they do it. There is a
    saying that a lazy person finds the easiest way to do a job. I am
    really lazy, however I have very high standards. Usually the way I do
    something is the fastest way to get the best results.

Richard Hart
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