[Jewelry making - Article 00730] - Re: [Orchid] Milling your own or buying stock

[Daniel Ballard]

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Hello!

    With my title below as disclosure of where I work and my income
    interests are- 

    I'd love to chime in on this one. First, I think we are all missing
    the point about having the most options available to us to maneuver
    effectively with our metal money and time. Nearly everyone who buys
    PMWest gold stock, made on a special set of dies that darn few
    jewelers will ever buy has a mill or two that they use often. Some
    even have electric mills. This may point out an artistic vs. small
    business point-What is time and money wise will sometimes conflict
    with artistic desires. So a darn good artisan often turns to a
    supplier for something that shop could not make themselves, whether
    it was time, money, or a lack of some specific piece of equipment. 

    When you combine an artisan who can keep 24kt and alloys to blend as
    needed, tools to make most of what is needed with a sense of time and
    value that lets them outsource with a refiner/supplier you get the
    artist who makes money and great jewelry. 

    As you need to, you can use outside sources or inside resources. I
    would expect this equation to come out differently depending on if we
    have slow season or slow times. Immediacy plays out very differently
    at $750 gold! For years we suppliers used "just in time" inventory or
    some similar way to keep "on the shelf" metal at a minimum. The most
    vaunted overnight speed suppliers used this to the best effect. 

    Now we have (I speak very generally here)necessarily reduced the
    ounces on the shelf. Now we have "just in late" instead of just in
    time. When your supplier does not have that piece of 18k rose gold
    stock in your dimension fast enough or you have time on your hands
    (or your goldsmith employees do) you can afford to make your own. I
    suspect that in this market we must all be able to do
    both-Manufacture when we should and outsource when we should not. 

Daniel Ballard
Precious Metals West
National Sales Manager
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