A reply to Richard & others
I don’t sell to retailers, not for any snobbish reason, but because
I make very things that don’t sell well in retail stores. I have
exhibitions at galleries, my pieces appear at collectors auctions,
people ring me up and ask me to make them something. I never repeat
my pieces, except for limited editions which are all numbered and
signed.
I hold City & Guild qualifications in goldsmithing, diamond
mounting, silversmithing, enamelling, engraving and design. I’m also
an elected Fellow of the Gemmological Association (FGA after my name)
the UK equivalent of the GIA certification - so I’ve no objection to
being judged by my peers, indeed many jewellers and artists buy my
work, but I do object to a mechanical set of rules being applied to
it. Pull my chains and they don’t break, wiggle my settings and the
stones don’t move, turn over the settings and they’re as well
finished at the back as at the front. I hope that my pieces will
come up to all the usual standards that we look at each others work
with. On a recent visits to Rome and Cairo I was invited into the
workshops of commercial jewellers who asked me to sit at a bench and
“show us what you can do” - I got applauded! (Now I’m being
boastful… but it was a great experience!)
However…
Many commercial jewellers are critical of my pieces because they
don’t fit in to their stock in trade. I’ll use stones that people
have never heard of, or incorporate iron, plastic - even leather and
silk. They can’t see how someone will pay $1000 for a chain and
pendant if all it consists of it three ounces of sterling, an agate
and a couple of 20 point diamonds. “I can’t sell that!” is a frequent
response. What they seem to look for are hand made pieces that look
as if they’ve been made by machine using standard materials. When was
the last time you saw a piece of Mokume in a retail shop?
On the other hand a large up-market jewellery shop recently offered
me my own cases in their stores - mind you they wanted 120% mark up!
Commercial criteria for quality don’t fit my market. Take for
example the idea that a chain should curl neatly into a pile if
lowered into the hand - often used in retail stores to demonstrate
the precision of machine made chain. Mine don’t! Most hand made
chains don’t. They’ll zig and zag because of the nature of the
process of hand making. I don’t use wire that’s of one precise
dimension because I pull my own and in different ambient temperatures
the wire will vary by a few thousandths of an inch.
Yes, I can charge and get up to $9000 (sometimes a lot more) for an
18 inch 18ct chain with a pendant. A simple 14 inch fine silver
necklace with glass phials filled with gravel and sand recently went
at auction for over $1000. The total cost of materials for this
couldn’t have been over $50 but it took a week to make The reason is
that my pieces are displayed in galleries alongside paintings and
sculpture and seen as “art.” I know this sounds a bit high fallutin’
but it’s the market that I work in. They are often named, have a
concept behind the design, are made to make the wearer think, move
differently, hold their body differently. The planning and execution
for an “important” piece can take up to two months.
My next exhibition is at the Lucky Street Gallery in Key West,
Florida in December. There will be 36 pieces on show at an average of
$2000 a piece.
I love working this way, I make less a year that a commercial
manufacturer but it’s a worthwhile difference for me. I don’t want a
group of unelected, self appointed people telling my clients that my
pieces are not up to standard because they don’t fit into their
criteria.
I don’t want to put backs up (I know I will!) - but this forum
consists of people working in many different areas and I cannot see
how, apart from advising on metal content marks and stone
certificates, it’s at all possible to set out a buyers guide that
fits all of us.
Tony Konrath
Gold and Stone
www.goldandstone.com
tony@goldandstone.com
and therefore be willing to pay