Hand engraving for LA fire victims

Hi all,

You may remember me from my last post here where I made my fiance’s engagement ring💍. You all came through for me when I screwed up a prong late in the game and had to resolder a new one🥰. Arc welding with stones in place

I’m back with slightly less happy news, but looking for a silver lining, punn intended.

My parents live in Altadena CA, and have just lost their home to the fires. Today was the first day back on-site and… There’s not a ton to recover.

We were going through the rubble this afternoon and pulled out some of my grandmother’s old sterling silver flatware, monogramed with our last name initials. My mom is pretty disappointed -this was a planned wedding gift for my fiance and I, and she really was looking forward to passing it on.
Much of it has melted and fused but some of the pieces still bear the engraving, so I’m planning on making a few rings with them for the family :broken_heart:

The question at hand is this - we’re incredibly lucky to have been very well insured. We think the insurance will reimburse us if we purchase a new flatware set and get it monogramed again…so:

Does anyone know a good hand engraver in the LA area who might take on a tedious job like this? We would love to get some quotes.

Thanks!!!

First, I’m so sorry that you all have been affected by this tragedy!! I sure hope that your insurance comes through!

I reached out to Alan Revere who used to own a jewelry school in SF for many years before he retired. Alan is still well connected in the California jewelry scene.

Alan said that there’s not as many master engravers out there now as in the past. He said that person who used to teach engraving at his school is now retired, but that one of his engraving teacher’s students is now a master engraver. Her name is Marlen Hazel. She does’t have a website, but she’s easy to find via Google & Instagram. I think that she lives in the SF Bay Area, but I’m not 100% sure.

Southern CA has a very dynamic and supportive jewelry/metals guild. Metal Arts Society of Southern California (MASSC). You can reach out to them and see if they can help.
https://massconline.com/

GRS has a fantastic engraving school at their headquarters in Kansas. Many engravers learn the craft at their school. You can reach out to them as I’m sure they have a list of alumni from all over the US.

https://grs.com/grs-training-center/

One last thing. I live in a small town on the East Coast. Our local small town jewelry store has a hand engraver that they work with. It leads me to believe that may be true for many jewelry stores in the US. You can call LA area jewelry stores and see if they have anyone that they can recommend.

Hope one of these options works out for you. Sending you and your family the best!!

Jeff

Hi Jeff,

Thanks for your thoughts and kind words. Ironically this was not our family’s first California wildfire, so we have some experience with the insurance process and are feeling somewhat confident we’ll weather this one better than the last.

These are all fantastic tips. Thank you!

I’ve always sort of dreamed of getting trained in engraving myself and I have the tools, but I think a job like this needs a level of consistency and professional eye for details that takes years to master. Monograming 80 pieces of flatware feels like such an abuse of the skill, so I’m almost afraid to ask for it!

I found this in my browsing of engraving in the area as well: https://www.alberoni.net/home.html

I have a couple emails to write!

-Daniel

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Hi,

i follow this hand engraver on instagram…she looks fantastic…this is the marlen hazel referred by jeff via alan revere…

julie

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I reached out this morning! Found a Facebook page and a LinkedIn page and messaged both. I have avoided the allure of making an Instagram but this might just push me to do so.

No response yet but her work is gorgeous. And it’s all push engraving too, which is next level awe inspiring. We’d go with her in a heartbeat :slightly_smiling_face:.

She says she only accepts work from jewelers though, so it may not work out. I’m not a professional. Will update if I hear back!

If you reach out to Marlen Hazel, tell her that she was recommended by Alan Revere through Orchid. You’ve got a pretty good story (an understatement!) and Alan’s school is where she got her start. It all might help. Alan did say that she might be pretty busy,

Jeff

I mentioned both orchid and Allen’s recommendation in my messages. She does seem very popular! We’re pretty flexible on timelines. The rebuild is going to take years so we won’t be hosting any dinners with the flatware anytime soon :smiling_face_with_tear:

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