CAD proficiency vs salary

Would you (or someone you know) pay significantly more to hire a
CAD-proficient front-end person than to hire someone who is equally
skilled in all other abilities but without proficiency in CAD?

Would you (or someone you know) pay significantly more to hire a
CAD-proficient front-end person than to hire someone who is
equally skilled in all other abilities but without proficiency in
CAD? 

Depends on the company. Depends on the position offered.

CAD is looked upon favorably in Australia, or so I am told.

The casting houses in Australia have CAD operators, and have no real
use for traditional jewellery skills.

The retail chains are investing heavily in CAD.

The way it appears in Australia, is that if you have CAD skills you
will beat an apprentice to a job.

Regards Charles A.

Stefan,

Of course this would depend on the business plan projected for the
future. This is a good question, but it leads to many more. i. e.,
custom order one offs, line manufacturing, wax carving abilities,
etc. depends on what you want to do.

Russ

Stefan

I don’t have a jewellery store, but would pay handsomely if the
“front-end” person knew all the critical forms with Cad. Second thing
you missed in stating, can he easily communicate with the client? To
have anyone just sit and create Cad patterns is one thing, but he
must be able to transfer their ideas unto a screen, is paramount!
Thirdly, he should have some background in bench-work. To the
employer, this ability is icing-on-the-cake. …“Orchid & Cad rules.”

Gerry!

It all depends on what the needs are. As if asking, would you hire a
bench jeweler or a stone setter?

Vasken

The following is not intended to for those who do Cad and practice
bench work and hand drawing skills or have the desire to develop
hand and benchskills. Overall it is much less cost effective to hire
a CAD operator than to hire Jewelry designer skilled in the nuances
of bench work who enhancestheir proficiency with the added small
percentage convenience of a Cad program. This whole Cad thing is
nothing but an affrontto human spirit, an effort to gain more profit
and to hell with everythingelse. People in their fascination with
technology rush to what they perceive as progress and in doing so
disposess themselves of what they fell in love with about this
craft/art of ornament/jewelry to begin with. They sacrifice their
dignity and self esteem of being able to rest in the joy and
satisfaction of a job created by their own hand. So to all you out
there who rationalize and spin and twist language and all that other
manipulative mental gymnastics you rob yourselves because in the end
all you have is a collaborative relationship with a machine. goo

Been on both ends Gustavo and love both. No question I love both.
but I continue to learn whereas you have stopped the process at what
you know and do it well.

That is all well and good for you. it fits your personna. However,
there are those who wish to expand their horizons, reach new heights
and knowledge. So, while you continue to use paper, pencil, paint,
draw wire, roll metal, polish it all up nice and pretty and make that
one off piece of beauty there are those who will be making a thousand
times your piece using the newer ways of designing and manufacturing.
Two distinct and different worlds.

Hi gerry Dana Buscaglia’s Book and Class(es) at FIT in new york are
$285.00 per class the first one is $175 i would after doing a little
homework takethree classes as opposed to 4 the first one is an
introduction, since i’veused the Student version of the Software
which on Novoedge is about $149.00 not bad i would say an initial
investment of $1k ($1000.00) would get a piece of the software that
works well, and say three classes at $285.00 if you have the book
it’s about $70.00 which i have someone can do homework before even
taking the class. this is just basic. The Rhino 4.0 or 5.0 is about
$800 - for that alone then you have packages that include software
that makes jewelry look realistic like Tsplines, or Rhino Gold which
is like matrix the package goes to about $1,500.00 now that’s low
end.

Other software like Design 3, Solidworks, Matrix, etc., are $8,000.00
and up and you still have to pay for training. i plan on taking basic
Rhino because i’m a beginner who is 51 years of age and i need a way
to make inventory fairly quickly, my secondary goal is to take my
abstract art and superimpose the design onto a ring or pendant to
make raised designs on the metalor make see through cut out designs
that are one of a kind or concave that’s why i want to learn CAD, on
Youtube. com a gentleman from Great Britain uses Rhino to take a 2
dimentional drawing and turn it into a ring with a raised design.
I’ve priced one on one training it’s more expensive because it starts
at $90.00 an hour going higher, if you go to Shapeways there are
jewelry designers like Kevin Wei that teaches Rhino with Grasshopper
interface, his starting retainer for a project is about $300.00 plus
$50 - $75 dollars an hour afterward - there is no time limit on how
long what you want to learn will take place. I think going to college
is better. Another designer Kostika Spaho who did the famous "Bird
Shoe helped me with a few designs long distance he’s based in Boston,
his main skills are in landscaping and architechture. His expertise
with jewelry is limited. Also hiring someone means you have to ask
them to sign a “Non Disclosure” boilerplate because you know if your
showing someone your designs you don’t want them using them. He was
very inexpensive because he did two ring designs on his own time –
only thing is the designs were an abstract of my artwork not my
actual artwork. I love him for trying.

I can understand teaching means time is money - but i someday wish i
could find someone who would simply teach me the comands to take my
design and make a raised / or pierced design on a ring for me i
would write down what the steps were. I mean the saying 'IF YOU FEED
A MAN A FISH HE CAN EAT FOR ADAY - BUT IF YOU TEACH HIM TO FISH THE
MAN CAN EAT A LIFETIME" applies completely.

Gerry I can’t wait for you to feel better to take your class,
otherwise, i hated going to School Of Visual Arts continuing ed. I
will be using DVD’s rented on a site called smart flix, they still
rent Revere School Dvd’s andothers. I will purchase Victoria Lansford
DvD’s for the simple fact that i must conserve my funds and teach
myself more. It’s been done before. The only thing i want to take a
class after you Gerry is probably Rhino and lastly Alloying Gold.
that’s a long ways off.

sabra

all well and good to both of you. Hopefully the customer will
understand the difference and be willing to pay an enormous price
difference for the one of a kind. I’ve seen too many people purchase
mass made jewelry thinkingthat the artist actually made the piece.
Betty Crocker doesn’t make all those cakes.

What all this boils down to for me is finding your own artistic
voice regarless of the instrument you use. The more skills you have
the more choices. I can make a stratocaster and an old accoustic 12
dollar guitar sound like heaven or hell depending on my mood. The
same with jewlery tools.

Have fun and make lots of jewlery.
Jo Haemer
timothywgreen.com

The casting houses in Australia have CAD operators, and have no
real use for traditional jewellery skills. The retail chains are
investing heavily in CAD. 

makes sense to me. …

Computer Aided Design + designers + Computer Aided Manufacturing =
mass production of consistent goods for retail consumption.

steve

Hopefully the customer will understand the difference and be
willing to pay an enormous price difference for the one of a kind. 

I’m learning that the customer doesn’t care about the price if they
really want something :-\ CIA