Definition of Master Jeweller

Jewelry Discussion
41

James Miller, you are a person who merits, has earned, and truly
deserves the title of Master and I gladly refer to you as one of a
handful of people in that category. I would love to know half of the
things that you do, most of all how to use a blowpipe for soldering.
In the US all of the instruction seems to concentrate around tanks of
gas and delivery systems, but I know that there are other methods
that actually may suit many of my needs better and using a blowpipe
is one of them. I guess I need to find a teacher who would be willing
to teach me an antiquated method, but in the meantime, if I can make
even a single piece that comes up to your quality I could be a very
happy person.

Sandi Graves, Beadin’ Up A Storm
Stormcloud Trading Co (Beadstorm)
http://www.beadstorm.com
Saint Paul, Minnesota USA
651-645-0343

42 
Mr. Surpin, Where can we see your work?

Depending on the circles you are in, you may have seen it.

As far as executed pieces, I guaranty complete confidentiality to my
clientele and cannot disclose any details.

I am planning to have a website sometime in the future, however as
many of you already know it is more complicated than it seems.

However, if your interest is more than simple curiosity, drop me an
email off the list, may be I can satisfy your needs.

Leonid Surpin

43

Jewelers of America does certify Master Jeweler. I believe it
involves written and performance tests and of course fees to be paid.
Upon graduating GIA Jewelery Manufacturing Arts one was awarded
"Certified Bench Technician"–I believe. I’ve advanced from there,
but haven’t bothered to be certified. Honestly, no one really has
heard of it or if they have knows what it means.

Leslie

44

Hired a young jeweller in his mid 20s who had left his unfinished
apprenticeship at 19 to work in a jewellery store, my partner at
that time said to me afterwards that the boy (who had been his
apprentice at Tiffany’s) was never going to be a jeweller. He was now
too old to develop the hands and eyes that would make him a master.
He worked for us well for a few years, learnt a lot, but his
development had stopped. He will never be a master.

Had a jeweller, he was incredible at fine work, without hesitation I
can tell you that some of the most beautiful pieces ever to leave my
studio were finished and assembled by him. He was meticulous, very
slow, very careful and with the best hands and eye for finished work
that I have ever seen, He could sculpt beautifully. But invent, bring
a new idea into existence, make a tool, develop a new mechanical
mechanism or expand his skills repertory, impossible. He will never
be a master.

Had a jeweller, 76 years old at the bench, ex Cartier in Paris, ex
Harry Winston’s in New York, ex Mikimoto in New York. Couldn’t speak
English. I would carefully explain a new design to him and get claro,
claro in return and then he would make what ever he wanted.
Frustrating. Someone said to me that at Winston’s he had spent months
making all of the components for a large necklace before leaving on
vacation, In his absence the shop foreman attempted to assemble it,
but couldn’t. Three weeks later Ricardo returned and assembled the
piece in a week. Perfect. He was a master.

Had a Jeweller, 13 years at Winston’s, Good jeweller, Worked well,
but couldn’t grasp new ideas. He will never be a master.

Had a jeweller, Hungarian, apprenticed to his uncle at 13,
everything they made was for the church. Uncle said they were making
important religious Relics that had to last 1,000 years. Later
invented an exploding rivet for industrial sheet metal work, in the
army invented, made and installed heat sinks for Russian mobile radar
trucks so that he wouldn’t have to go to Jump School, Escaped to
Austria during the revolution. Worked in France as a jeweller, Moved
to New York, did development work and was Shop Forman for a
successful Jewellery house. Retired, joined Heidelberg as a printing
press technician. Said that he was fascinated by either very large
complexity or very small marvels. He was a gunsmith, watchmaker, and
machinist, all around master craftsman. Nothing was too complex for
him to understand and invent a tool or process for, Said that
jewellery work is like playing chess, you had to think ahead. We
worked together for 10 years. Georges was a master.

I’ve known master jewellers. I’ve known excellent Journeymen
jewellers, I’ve known master polishers, master casters, master
diamond setters, master engravers, but the master jewellers had
something special.

When a craftsman can take an original design for a sophisticated
necklace with hundreds of tightly fitted component parts, with
original ideas for locks and movement and visualize in him mind’s eye
everything that he is going to have to make and assemble in a complex
sequence of creation. When he then reaches for some metal and begins,
and when months later the piece is finished and everything is better
then you expected, you have seen a master perform.

It can be a humbling experience.

Dennis Smith - Jewelmaker

45 
Jewelers of America does certify Master Jeweler. I believe it
involves written and performance tests and of course fees to be
paid. Upon graduating GIA Jewelery Manufacturing Arts one was
awarded "Certified Bench Technician"--I believe. I've advanced from
there, but haven't bothered to be certified. Honestly, no one
really has heard of it or if they have knows what it means.

I recently had 3 estimates to have a large tree trimmed. One of the
estimates was from a certified aborist. He showed me his license, his
proficiency tests and scores, and the continuing education courses to
stay current. The other two did not show me anything, and their
results were going to be completely different, as two were going to
do
what I wanted done, the certified arborist was going to do what was
best for the tree.

Becoming JA certified is for your competency and proficiency. I
assume welders must complete courses and meet criteria to receive
certificates to prove they are competent. I assume they won’t be
hired for certain jobs if they have not received certificates.
Welders can get jobs without certification, low pay for poor quality,
with no chance for advancement.

“Jewelers” are the only group I know that can be hired from a bench
test, with no requirements for any proof of any achievement for
knowledge or proficiency. When I hire someone, it is with an
expectation of an acceptable level of loss as the person learns what
to do and what not to do. I only hope I can be aware of every
possible
mistake someone can make and do preemptive warning of what can happen
to avoid more costly mistakes. I just had a new employee, trade
school graduate, four years apprenticeship one day a week for another
jeweler I know, over polish a channel setting, and ruined the piece,
the channel had to be rebuilt at my expense.

There is a reason that starting pay for a jeweler is about $16 an
hour. Proper education and higher standards would change that. But
you don’t have the time or money for that. And then you would have to
make effort to find the job where your skills would be desired.
Downward spiral, and mirrors the educational system in the U.S. That
no
no one has heard of it or knows what it means seems to indicate the
lack of knowledge or proficiency that is acceptable. My experience is
that the customer pays in the long run for poor quality work, custom
and repair, and I see it all the time. There is more focus on certain
areas of commerce where the customer has an expectation of the level
of competency required for work done, and there is recourse = for
work
not done to that standard.

Medical, dental, and car repair have standards. Probably the area
where I see gross negligence is in poor quality setting jobs. Gems
fall out, or are broken by not having proper seats, or are damaged by
chipping by the setter, not to mention the poorly finished prongs
that
catch on clothes, poor channel setting where there is not enough
metal to hold the gems secure, the gems are too close together and
overlapping, loose, damaged, tilted. I educate every customer who
has poor quality work from some other jeweler" what to look for in
the future when they buy jewelry. I try to get them to hold the
person responsible for the poor quality work to correct what is
wrong. Many people do not want to go back and deal with the problem,
they just want to pay me whatever I ask to correct it.

I can guarantee they won’t have the problem again. I teach them to
hold me accountable for my work. If you are not held responsible to
meet the criteria of how to do it right, what standard are you
meeting? If you try to learn out of a book, and your results do not
look like the example in the book, but it went out the door, what
level of competency are you held to? The work lasts a few months, or
a few years, and something fails due to poor craftsmanship, who
loses? You got paid for what should have been done right, and now the
customer pays twice, or considers the piece not worth fixing and
junks it.

I was self taught. I made a lot of mistakes at my customers expense
before I learned how to do craftsmanship that was beyond reproach. I
am now able to tell my customer that my work would stand up under any
jewelers scrutiny. And I stand behind any work, and would do any work
necessary at no charge to correct any problem, for my mistake or
anyone who did work for me. I rarely have had to do that. I have to
completely remake a ring because one of my setters chipped a stone,
and there is no way to correct the mistake without a complete remake.
Customer would not have seen the problem, they could not see it when
I
showed them what was wrong. They had to use that ring on their trip
to Australia, so I have to remake it when they return.

Richard Hart

46

When I moved from Italy to Canada I made some interesting
discoveries. I found that potters and shoemaket are artists, and even
jewellers and woodworkers. Where I am coming from the arts are those
classical, artists are sculptors, painters, writers… Mind a
jeweller to call himself artist.

The word artist can be used as sobstitute of robber! Will you trust
a store where the jewellers promote himself as an artist? Another
discovery was that there is jewellers, jewellers, jewellers,
jewellers, jewellers, setters, engravers, casters, silversmiths and
few others things. Where I am coming from there are:
jewellers-Gioiellieri, those who sell jewels and/or make jewellery,
the stuff with precious stones, gold (750) and platinum.

Jewellers-Orafi, (probably goldsmith?), those who work with gold,
make and repair ornaments, (oreficeria), in Italy they use gold (750)
silver and semi precious stones.

Jewellers-Bigiottieri, those who make fake jewellery, sometime as
well made and expensive as some of the oreficeria pieces. In Milano
there was and still is, I think, a shop specializing in making
replicas of the real piece of jewellery to wear at the theatre while
the original stay safe in the bank. Jewellers- well, this don’t even
exist as a real profession, Paccottagliatori? Housewife/hobbyist?
Those guys that string together beads and make those earrings style
"Victorian-hippy" or
"primitive-newromantic-futuristic-practical-cheap-300-$-please",
“hooooo my Gooood you can wear it any time”.

Jewellers-those that come out from a two to four years jewellery
school (we have all been there at some point, and is hard and
glorious, beautiful to me.) what really quiz me here is that the
school is often university level, and the students are ready to make
another 100.000? dollars debt investment in
cad/cam/laser/puck/tumbler and (I have just seen a couple of them so
don’t be harsh on me) don’t know how to sit at the bench and hold a
file, you said soldering? Setters-incassatori. Engravers-incisori.
Casters-fonditori. Silversmiths, argentieri, cesellatori, sbalzatori.

What I am trying to say is that maybe it is more important to define
the difference between an ornament maker using gold, platinum and
gems, and another using glass beads, pops caps and then will be more
logic to find the meaning of master and I am sure we can find masters
in both the aspects of ornaments makers.

For my experience what are really gone are not the persons with
those skills but the costumers ready to pay for a jewel made by them.
This especially apply in our countries, democracies and consumerism
are cancelling the audience for masterpieces and moved the geniuses
from jewellery making to computer programming and more lucrative
professions. I won’t be surprised to find skills of high calibre in
India or China, where labour still has a price affordable. But here
who can afford to pay a master jeweller to sit on the bench for 100
hours? 500? 2000? How long will take to make a Faberge egg? a Tiffany
necklace? A Lalique hair pin? Long time are gone the artisan who are
too easy to mistake for artist such as Mr Miller, I had the luck to
learn to work with a couple of jewellers of that calibre.

I started working at the bench when I was 14 and already at my time
there was not many left who where starting like that. I did my school
in the evening after work and I owe a great deal to all those who
thought me how to use the blow torch, make solders, use tap and die
to make screws, make earrings backings with w/g spring, recycle
filing, hammer a shank on the anvil, make the impossible happen,
keep filing and talking about anything, politica, calcio, donne,
fight and laugh about it and steel be “on the job”.

None of those who I learned from said to me he was my master, all of
them where mastering ther tools much better than me. A master in my
country, maestro, is a teacher, especially for elementary school,
after you have professors. I still remember the embarrassment of my
engraving professor, in school, when we where calling him professor!

Sometime the job was explained, most of the time I had to “steal
it”, “noticing” how my colleague was using his torch, the mill, the
drill, because often these guys where jealous about their knowledge
and where keeping jungsters like me away, maybe afraid to be
equalled.

Sometimes I feel like in Italy I was working for a good living by
making on obsession of my work. Now I have to work like an obsessed
to make a living.

Cheer up! Is just that times are changing I stopped reading Gogol
and here, I discovered Google.

Roberto

47

roberto, enlightening post.

thank you for the itallian terminology of the different
classifications of jewelers.It is not often that we get information
that gives us insight into the global variations used in classifying
the art, and reference to Nikolai Gogol’s works that classify
humanity…Hope to hear more of your continental perspective on Orchid

.R.E.Rourke.

48

Roberto,

What a delightful (and insightful) tale of the vast cultural
differences and similarities that makes this world what it is. For
over thirty years I have earned my living by making jewelry and still
consider myself a student. I only ask that you never, ever!!, call me
an artist.

Jon Michael Fuja

49 
I only ask that you never, ever!!, call me an artist.

I do not necessarily disagree with the above comments, because I
have seen numerous examples when term artist is used to cover up the
lack of technical abilities; but Jewellery is an art form and
practitioner of it, provided that proficiency with the techniques
have been achieved, can and should be called an artist.

Leonid Surpin.

50

Thank you for all of your definitions of a Master jeweler. I’ve heard
the phrase “Jack of all trades and master of none” and I certainly
don’t want to be considered one of those… So, my instructor - a
gifted German trained hand engraver - encouraged me to “master” a few
of the skills in the jewelry industry so that I’d have something to
fall back on if one of those skills should no longer be in such
demand, and I took his advice to heart. I have met very few master
jewelers in my 24 year career regardless of a piece of paper or
certificate that they may have acquired. If I can be addressed as a
“Master” of anything by someone else, then I’d be honored but I’d
never entitle myself to the title on my own. Many of you have
absoloutely fantastic talent as I look at your websites and I’d be
thrilled to be tutored/taught by any of you. We are all here to keep
learning and growing no matter how much we know. This group is a
wealth of education ! Humbly, Margie

Margie Mersky Custom Designs, INC
www.mmwaxmodels.com
www.deepdetail.com