[Jewelry making - Article 00290] - Re: [Orchid] Jeweler's former lives

[John Donivan]

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    OK, Ok, since everybody's doing it...Two factors influence my life,
    to begin with. First, I was always curious and inventive, and my
    mother never let us just hang out in the summertimes. If it wasn't
    sports, it was some crafts class - copper tooling, lapidary, pottery.
    Second, in 1963, while living in Southern California, we went to the
    Seattle Worlds Fair - I was 10 or 11. In doing that, we went through
    San Francisco. I was mesmerized, and if anyone can fall in love with 
a
    place, it was me. I made my first jewelry in my father's garage, with
    his tools, just because I wanted to. So, after NMSU suggested I might
    do better elsewhere, I went to Albuquerque at about 18 years old. I
    applied for various jobs, but got one at a newly formed turquoise
    jewelry manufacturer, right around the corner from the original Rio
    Grande location, partly because I told them of my lapidary 
experience.
    That company went from $0 to $1,000,000 in a year, and I went with
    it. At it's height I was foreman of the silversmithing dept. with
    about 30 people under me, and also the lapidary shop with about 6 or 
8
    people doing cabbing and also inlay. That experience taught me how to
    fabricate anything. Unfortuately, they didn't pay their taxes, the
    IRS shut them down, and I couldn't get a job because I was white
    (frankly). So I put out the golden thumb, hitchhiked all around the
    west for about six months (Northbound isn't working? Let's try
    southbound.....) and landed in Pacific Grove, Ca., which is the
    Monterey peninsula. I did odd jobs, was a gardener a lot, worked in a
    metaphysical bookstore, and made jewelry in a friendly garage. I did
    a foundation job that made me some money, decided it was time to
    leave, and flew to Honolulu on a one way ticket. I was there for 
about
    6 months, working as a jeweler, which taught me gold and we did a lot
    of black coral and opal - fairly cheap stuff but well made. Island
    fever set in, so I left and came to San Francisco, FINALLY. I got a
    job as a union goldsmith with a fine jewelry manufacturer - diamonds,
    gold and platinum. They were a major supplier to Zales, had pieces in
    the DeBeer's ads, and the owner was a trustee of the Jeweler's Union
    pension fund. 3 years later my mother approached me, wanting to
    invest in a company, so I quit my job and formed Donivan & Co. After
    a year of being in the wrong location, I moved back where we have 
been
    ever since, in Union Square, SF. And by the way, I also inherited the
    line of the company I started with when I came here..... 

http://www.donivanandmaggiora.com
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