Jeweler's former lives

Jewelry Discussion
121

I started my journey at the age of 10 when I bought my first
"FireBrite Enamelling Kiln" set from Sears with my allowance. I used
that kiln until about 10 years ago when it finally died ( I couldn’t
get the element to repair it any longer). Then 10 years later I was
in art school painting (my love at that time) and I signed up for a
lithography course ( I really wanted to learn that). The class
folded, I was the only one who signed up for it. The only class left
with any room in it was jewelry design.

That is the beginning of my passion for silver and gold and it
hasn’t stopped.

Jennifer Friedman

122

Hi Folks, Again…

This is probably one of the most interesting threads I’ve ever seen
on Orchid…

Which…I think sort of shows why and how Orchid and Ganoksin has
become what it has become…

Hanuman…it occurs to me that you might have here in Orchid
possibly one of the most comprehensive inter-connected databases of
technical and human expertise ever assembled…on matters
jewelry…or an any matters whatsoever…

On a mail list……

THIS is what the Internet was meant to accomplish…

Now, unless, I’ve missed them…

John Burgess…? You don’t have to write a book, but I suspect you
could……

And…uhhhhh…Hanuman…?

Ton…(sp?)…

Charles Lewton Brain…?

OK, OK…maybe I missed the posts…?

The last couple of weeks here in Wisconsin have been trying, to say
the least…

Gary W. Bourbonais
A.J.P. (GIA)

123

I didn’t realize until this thread quite how unique a few of us are
out there in the real world. As I said earlier I started making
jewelry when I was 15 and never stopped. But that meant that I never
went to college (well part time for a semester and a half—while
earning a living making jewelry full time), and never held any other
job besides making jewelry. Actually I started my own jewelry
business when I was 19 so really I only worked for someone else for
a few years (part time----most of that time----since I was still in
high school). It looks like those of us who saw our future this
early are extremely far and few between. Interestingly, too, is that
I had no family background in the field either (which seems to be the
way some other young starters got going). I feel like all of you
other guys should bow down and worship us for seeing the light so
early on (just kidding, just kidding)!!!

Daniel R. Spirer, G.G.
Daniel R. Spirer Jewelers, LLC
1780 Massachusetts Ave.
Cambridge, MA 02140

124

Daniel, starting at age 15 you were clearly somewhat retarded, at
least compared to many. Although working full time at it for a
portion of two millennia (isn’t it fun to exaggerate a bit) I’ll bow
to your total time in service.

Actually I got an early start too, I’m not sure just when but when I
was in the third grade I used the mimeograph in the school office to
publish my first catalog. At the time I was making earrings and
pendants of Plexiglas; bracelets of aluminum, stainless and copper;
and a few flower vase broaches of copper. I was growing up in
Bellingham (Jim Binnion I’m further south now, but one of these days
I’m going to come up to personally meet you.) and during the summer
following the ninth grade I spent a wonderful three month unpaid
apprenticeship with our local manufacturing jeweler.

I then went off to college, medical school, ophthalmology residency
and spent 42 years practicing, designing microsurgical instruments,
founding an instrument company, directing a number of medical
organizations, writing eye stuff and traveling the world teaching
surgical techniques. During the professional life I had precious
little time for jewelry, but did make a few dozen pieces, mostly
engagement/wedding rings for friends and various gifts (mostly for
my sweetheart).

Now that I’ve retired from medicine I am really enjoying the time to
get back to some hard core creative play!

Dr. Mac

125

I got the jewelry bug early in High school. The only problem was the
teacher told me it was hard to make a living at it. I went to a
trade school for Optics’s and went to work for a few years as an
Optician. It was so boring that I made silver rings on the side. By
the time I was 20 I was back to jewelry full time. I had wished that
I spent my money on GIA instead of Optics’s. But it all turned out in
the end, the school of self teaching has been a wonderful ride. I
have been in business in a small Northern California town for over 29
years now and still loving it. Took on a student a few years back
that taught me as much as I taught him. Looking forward to the next
20 years ahead.

Janine, in Redding, CA.

126

This is a short version of my former and current lives:

  • Jewelry class in high school which I loved
  • Salesperson in coffeehouse/bakery
  • Apprentice to master weaver
  • Postal clerk
  • Raised cotton pests and bees at USDA Research Lab
  • BS in entomology and botany, with a minor in art
  • Taught beekeeping in Guatemala and The Gambia West Africa as a
    Peace Corps Volunteer
  • Counselor in a sheltered workshop in the British Virgin Islands
  • Executive Director for non-profit agencies for visitors at a
    California state prison and a federal prison
  • Currently employed half time as a ‘Career Employment Specialist’
    (pseudo social worker) for welfare clients in Santa Barbara County
    (yes there are poor people here)
  • Happily working the other half time as a fiber artist who works in
    metal. I am currently working on a series of beetle brooches…

Cheers,
Jeanie

127 
I'm adding on to my first answer to this post, I felt I should
have noted what inspired me to actually do the jewelry stuff

I realised that I didn’t include this kind of info in my post either.
I got interested in metalsmithing in a small way in high school but
couldn’t afford to do anything serious and I wasn’t allowed to take
metalsmithing classes as I was ‘too bright’. The first time I got
serious about making jewellery was when I decided to get engaged. I
couldn’t afford the price of a commercial ring and so I decided that
I would have to make one and my fiance had expressed interest in a
quite unusual, though fairly simple ring. So, I persuaded a work
colleague to sell me a couple of his late mother’s plain wedding
bands, made a rough pattern from copper sheet and,from this, made a
cuttlefish mould. Then, when my parents were out, I stoked up the
living room fire and stuck the vacuum cleaner hose under the grate
and melted the gold. Surprisingly, the casting came out really good
and just needed cleaning up - more than could be said for the fire
grate which melted and deformed!! I had to be quite creative to
explain how thatmight have happened and my father immediately changed
coal merchants! The stone was a small sapphire from another old piece
of jewellery and was mounted in silver. I registered a makers mark
with the Sheffield Assay Office and got the ring hallmarked and I’m
pleased to say that it is still going strong 35 years later.

Nowadays, most of my ‘jewellery’ work is what is necessary for
restoring antique pocket watch cases - straightening up dented
repousse, re-setting stones, repairing and replacing damaged hinges,
re-covering shagreen and leather covered cases, repairing chains
etc. Similar metal working skills are, of course, needed in restoring
the movements.

Best wishes,

Ian
Ian W. Wright
Sheffield UK

128

Sandra - One of the few things I’m seeing is a preponderance of
people who have post-High School degrees - many with graduate
degrees. I only wish I had followed my muse many years earlier, but
one cannot walk backwards on the road of life, and choices made must
be embraced at the time or altered in a later time.

Sandi Graves, Beadin’ Up A Storm
Stormcloud Trading Co (Beadstorm)
http://www.beadstorm.com

129 
(e-beam lithography with salmon DNA). This has me wondering how a
gemologist can call out a stone's index of refraction with white
light, or do they use a laser?

Yes, just a regular light, no laser.

Elaine

130

Started as filigree silversmith, then business school, window
dresser. Advertising, flower decorist, marketing… And back to
jewellry, thinking bout recycling…and a trollwoman also on tv…

Lise
http://www.justliss.com

131

There have been so many interesting responses to this thread, I am
ashamed to admit I haven’t read them all, but this one David piqued
my interest as my dear father was an opthalmologist also. Further he
has tinkered with fixing things large and small for much of his
career - usually patients fob watches or similar. I’m sure that if
he were geographically closer to me (he’s in UK and I’m in Australia)
I would have had an opportunity to introduce him to some jewellery
and he would be hooked by now!

:slight_smile: Kimmyg

132

Let’s see. So many jobs where do you start. Here are some of my
pre-jeweler jobs and then a quick trip on the jeweler coaster for
the next 31 years with all of its wonderful up/down/loops/turns
thrills and chills, keep your hands and feet in the car at all times
and enjoy the ride.

BBA in Marketing Texas A&M University

window dresser and display designer for a major department store

carpenters helper

display carpenter

Museum display designer/ installer and model maker (started my
Jewelry career part time some where in here)

Commercial display designer and installer

First commercial jewelry job at a production bench

Lease operation at a Lapidary and rock shop

Opened my first gallery studio

Closed same

Lease jeweler for National chain store (7years)

(BURNOUT from 7 years at chain store, lasted six months before I
could go back to the bench)

open my own job shop to the trade 6 years

Back to lease operation for a national chain

Remount jeweler for south Texas territory (2 years on the road and
it was a new job or a new wife, it was cheaper to keep her!!! : )

another job shop for the next 9 years

opened my own studio and gallery and started selling through
galleries. (911 economic crises Where did all the business go???)

Moved to Arkansas for a real job in a family owned store with a (I
still can’t believe) salary (lasted 2 years)

Back to my own Job shop again, and selling through galleries, doing
my own designs and remembering how much I love working for myself.
over 30 years in the trade and I still learn something new almost
every day and I still love making the stuff… its Saturday and I am
at work, nothing pressing just going to play around in the studio and
do something fun!!!

Frank Goss

133

Hi all,

I just want to say thank you for sharing your stories with me. I
have found this thread SO encouraging. All this time I thought most
Orchidians were jewelers from the start. I now see that many of you
had diverse and interesting careers outside jewelry and found
yourself on that path somewhere along the way. This only reinforces
for me that creativity is a lifetime pursuit, and that a career as an
artist does not have to be a linear, all-consuming endeavor. I’ll
throw my stuff into the mix as well.

I was a college student, college drop-out, retail drudge, sandwich
maker, nanny, daycare owner/operator (or as my husband likes to say
"small human trainer"), now I am a returning college student
graduating in May, writing tutor, and soon to be social service
worker. Who knows what’s next? I’m hoping it is mother, CBT
therapist, and jewelry artist, but we’ll see.

Augest Derenthal

134

Judy,

Sorry to hear of your loss.

Hang in there and do find a warm place to pursue your dreams. Keep
your hand tools and basic shop for yourself. I sold my tools once
when I was young and dumb and regretted it. I ended up buying a whole
new set up.

Good luck
J

135

Great thread, so many fascinating lives.

I made made things through out my childhood. My family had little
money for things like toys, so I made mostly everything I wanted,
including sewing my own clothes as a teenager, between being a ballet
dancer.

Went to FIT to study fashion design, specialized in knitwear, studied
knitting technology (loved that), and was hired as a knit textile
designer upon graduation. Singleknit and doubleknit machines, loved
them. After 14 years I decided I wanted to learn to think in
dimension. Became an apprentice and taught for Robert Kulicke at
Kulicke/ Stark Academy of Jewelry Arts. Met Obidiah Fisher a master
wax carver who taught in his loft under the Brooklyn Bridge and fell
in love with wax carving. Began freelance model making for the Met
Museum for nine years. Can you imagine going to the office at the
Met? Thrilling. Neck and arm pain and numbness began. Started to
design full time for fashion houses, jewelry, buckles and belts. Ten
years latter, left to become a massage therapist and cranio-sacral
therapist. Through these studies learned to make models with out
pain, and have been back in full swing ever since. Until now when
business is nil. But its been a great ride.

Judith Frey

136

This is fascinating.

I only ‘saw the light’, as Daniel puts it, in 2001 when my husband I
had the opportunity to move from the UK to Boston, MA and I got to
spend a very happy 18months at North Bennet Street School in the
North End. I graduated in 2003 and, after a year travelling, started
my own business.

Before that I graduated in Psychology, taught for a while and worked
in consumer and market research for a while. I find making jewellery
so much more fulfilling, I just I wish I had thought of it earlier. I
bow down to you Daniel for having the foresight (just kidding!). :slight_smile:

Eva.
Eva Martin

137

Daniel,

I’m with you, or nearly so. I started making and selling jewelry
while I was in my second year of college, studying to be in theater.
I interned in a repertory theater, making stuff for them in the
costume and prop shops. But I worked on jewelry at home, all night
long sometimes. An actor asked me,“If you can do THIS (looking at my
jewelry), why do you want to be in the theater?” Good point. I
changed my college major to art, kept making jewelry, and stuck with
it. It was a very poor living at first. I had to live in communal
city apartment situations to get by. Just hand to mouth, with
careful tool-buying mixed in. Moved to the country, in substandard
housing at first. But you know a hard way of life can build
character! Had to rev up the old Honda generator whenever I wanted to
make my 1/4 horse motor go round & round for polishing.

I still live in the country, still make jewelry full time, as I have
ever since graduating college with a B.A. in studio art. Now I have
a lovely studio full of tools to play with. And electricity! I love
my freedom.

My only foray into other employment was a 3-week stint decades ago in
a silver repair shop in Chicago which took in flatware & hollowware
from Marshall Field’s department store and places like that. I got
fired for putting up a “Women Working” sign and objecting when one of
the bosses tore it up. Oops. Well, as a young person in high school I
also had a waitress job once, and I got paid for some folk singing
gigs, too, along the way. But I never did anything seriously besides
jewelry and metal.

I guess I do like being able to say that, Daniel. Thanks.

M’lou Brubaker, Jeweler

138

I also began making jewelry in my early teens. I had classes in wheel
thrown pottery and silver jewelry in high school, but there wasn’t
much instruction or equipment available to work with. Frustrated by
the lack of direction and facilities, I bought a few tools and some
silver, and I started off on my own.

Within a short time I was making and selling jewelry and I have
earned my living at this ever since. I date my career as a
professional artist/goldsmith from 1975, which is about when I made
what I considered to be my first piece of “fine” jewelry.

One very significant occurrence in my inclination towards jewelry
was the good fortune to have Mr. Phillip Morton, a founder of the
Society of North American Goldsmiths, as a neighbor for a few summers
when I was a lad. Although I was very young at the time, seeing his
work and his studio made a lasting impression on me. I think that is
probably where my trajectory into goldsmithing began.

I have also been a horse trainer, potter, glass blower, and bronze
foundry worker along the way.

Michael David Sturlin
www.goldcrochet.com
www.michaeldavidsturlin.com

139

Wow, everybody else gave a lot more detail than I thought of giving.
OK - here goes: I grew up in Lancaster County, PA in a Swiss/English
family. After high school, I went to Vassar where I was a member of
the first freshman class of men. My degree is in art. Since then I
have been: short-order cook, bartender, truck driver, state
government bureaucrat, manager and lead programmer for a major
vertical market software company, staff computer consultant,
independent computer consultant, proprietor of a bonsai nursery,
photographer, painter, student of country blues guitar (Jorma
Kaukonen was my first teacher), and part-time jeweler. Let’s see -
did I forget anything ? Oh yeah - I was in the Navy for 3 months
until I decided the Navy and I weren’t made for each other. The jury
is still out on jewelry - maybe we’re made for each other, maybe we
aren’t. Right now I’m back to photography and painting again. My
wife wants to know when I plan to get a real job. My answer ? NEVER
AGAIN !

Brian Corll
Vassar Jewelers

140

Like Daniel R Spirer I started in this trade one month after my 15th
burthday. Although technically I am not a jeweller, I am a goldsmith.
In my time I have made everything from jewellery to ornate Easter
Eggs. I started a six year apprenticeship in one of London’s premier
workshops, an apprenticeship as a goldsmith, that was timed to finish
when I reached the age of 21. I learnt my trade in a small workshop
with six craftsmen and myself. My fellow workers were silversmiths
and goldsmiths. When I finished my apprenticeship I became what was
known as a journeyman, this was for a period of about two years,
after which I became a master and was alloted my own apprentice to
train. I was with this same company for 14 years, only leaving when
the company moved out of the centre of London, when I decided it was
time to seek out new chalenges. In 1975 I joined a newly formed
company of high quality goldsmiths, this new company had been formed
by ex employees of one of Cartier’s London workshops that had closed,
so I was among some top class goldsmiths. I was able to develop my
skills even further, with the oppertunity of creating modern day
designs in the style of Carl Faberge’, at that time we were making
unique, high quality gold and enamel pieces for Asprey of Bond
Street. Within five years this new company became a well respected
goldsmithing company with a workshop of 12 craftsmen. I was now the
workshop manager of this company and made many beautiful pieces,
winning many awards for my skills in the annual London Goldsmith’s
Craft awards. After 10 years with this company, I decided that it was
time for a change, my home was outside of London and I was travelling
a round trip of 80 miles by train each day. I had a wife and a young
daughter who I only saw late evenings and weekends. So in 1985 I
started my own company, “James Miller Design”, I rented a workshop
within a mile of my home and started creating, at first all of my
work was purchased by the company I had just left, they resold it as
their own. After a couple of years I built up enough capital to seek
out my own customers, although I found it easier to use agents to
sell my work to some major London shops. It is difficult to gain
access of the major buyers, it is a case of not what you know but who
you know, when it comes to selling in London. So I was happy to let
others sell my work and save me the trouble of making contacts, I
just spent my time creating. I have worked on my own now for 21
years, I have made jewelery for members of our royal family, I have
made palace decorative pieces for the Sultans of Oman and Brunie, a
gift to Henry Kissinger from our British Museum and many more pieces
that have disappeared into private homes and collections. I am in the
twilight of my career now and my body is telling me to slow down, but
I get a hell of a kick out of creating beautiful objects, so even
after 46 years at the bench, I will probably never stop. This is one
of the most satisfying trades there could be and long may it prosper.
Sorry to go on, but I thought I would add my story before the thread
ends.

Peace, good health and good business to all Orchideans.
James Miller in the UK
https://www.ganoksin.com/orchid/jmdesign.htm