[Jewelry making - Article 00898] - Re: [Orchid] Ever turn down ugly work?

[John Winters]

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    About thirty years and many rings ago I made a custom wedding set
    for a young man and his fiancee. While doing the set I met his
    mother a few times. 

    A couple of months after the wedding she came in with a hodgepodge of
    diamonds to be made into a dinner ring. There was some melee, a
    couple of rounds, an emerald cut, a pear, and two marquis. They
    varied in size from 1/4 to about 3/4 carats, and of course I had to
    use all of the stones. What do you do with a combination like that?
    To make a long and somewhat painful story short, after she rejected
    three wax models I tried to get out of the project. She was a sweet
    little lady but a real bulldog. She wouldn't let me quit. I did three
    more unsuccessful waxes. I then had some insight I should have had
    earlier. She loved wax number seven. I did an ugly design on purpose.
    That ring was one of only two or three pieces I've made over the
    years I didn't sign, I really did not want anyone to know I made it.
    Her taste and my style didn't match, I simply was the wrong person to
    be doing a ring for her. 

    Making that ring was, in retrospect, a great lesson for me. I finally
    realized I was making the ring for her and not for me, and if I was
    going to be a successful custom jeweler I had to always be aware of
    that. I also learned I had to do a better job of interviewing the
    customer and being more selective about what projects to accept. 

John
John Winters
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