[Job Offer] [TN] Store needs a bench jeweler

Our store is in need of a bench jeweler. We have an onsite shop in
our building and would like to offer this service to our clients. We
have been without a bench jeweler since March and have been sending
repairs out to a local contractor.

We need a bench jeweler that has several years experience in both
jewelry repair and setting stones. Preferably with laser welding
experience but we would be willing to send them to Stuller for
training.

Our store (Rone Regency Jewelers) is located in Chattanooga,
Tennessee. We are an independent jeweler A.G.S. store and have been
in business for 67 years. We just moved the store to a stand alone
location by the loc al shopping mall.

We are willing to negotiate salary and insurance for a qualified
applicant.

I thought the Atlanta market might be a good place to start because
of its’ close proximity to Chattanooga.

Rob Mason
Rone Regency Jewelers
1950 Gunbarrel Road
Chattanooga, Tn 37421
423-894-1188

With out giving away any company secrets, what would be the
approximate salary a suitably qualified person could expect?

I have never been able to find out what a bench working goldsmith’s
take home pay is in America.

Cheers, Hans
http://www.meevis.com

With out giving away any company secrets, what would be the
approximate salary a suitably qualified person could expect? 

I just HAPPENED to be doing research in the last week and perhaps
this link might be useful in answer to the approximate salary
question.

Its from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook
Handbook, 2010-11 Edition

http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos222.htm

With out giving away any company secrets, what would be the
approximate salary a suitably qualified person could expect?

You’re going to get a range of answers. It depends on what others
are paid in the area you’d look, your skill level and what the store
owner is willing to pay, based upon business.

Average, every day repair person $28,000 to $40,000

Having additional skills to take a ring after casting from someone
else and finish up and set stones, however intricate $35,000 to
$50,000

Ability to Carve Waxes, including some times to fabricate from metal
$42,000 to $65,000

It really varies. There are some folks, few, that are paid over
$65,000 and I’ve seen some darn good repair jewelers make $28,000.

David Geller
www.jewelerprofit.com

It really varies. There are some folks, few, that are paid over
$65,000 and I've seen some darn good repair jewelers make $28,000. 

Doesn’t really encourage one to to spend 20+ years becoming a master
of one’s craft, does it?

Elaine
http://www.CreativeTextureTools.com

Doesn't really encourage one to to spend 20+ years becoming a
master of one's craft, does it? 

For most jewelers the way to make money is by selling stuff, not by
working for someone else who sells stuff.

Your boss hands you a suite of gems and some gold and pays you to
make something his way. You get paid by the hour perhaps. Relatively
safe.

or

You have your employee make the same piece and sell it(with stones!)
and pocket the profit. Of course you put the money (or debt) up
front and pay all the associated bills. Inherently risky.

Either way is not for everyone. Wanna make +$200K/annual? Form a
company be damn good. At business

Either way is not for everyone. Wanna make +$200K/annual? Form a
company be damn good. At business. 

Boy, is that ever true. I’ve worked the bench for many years, mainly
for other people and have been paid well below the low end and well
above the high end of what David Geller outlined. I now own my own
retail store, and I am here to tell you, if you like making jewelry,
don’t open your own retail store. It’ll be the last time you get to
do what you love with any consistency, especially if you want to
make any money at it. There is no guaranteed income, not even minimum
wage (you better have a pretty full savings account or it’ll be gone
in six months), no paid vacation, no over-time, or even benefits
(unless you pay for them). But the good news is that you don’t work
for any one boss. Every person that comes through the door is your
boss, even those that you pay, to a much greater extent than most
would ever believe. The other good news is you get to work half days!
And you even get to pick the twelve hour period that works best for
you!

There are a lot of jobs that don’t pay what one would think they
should, like teachers and nurses, and others that pay way over any
common sense formula of “amount of work to learn vs. pay”, like
athletes, actors and politicians. Being a goldsmith may not be the
most high-paid profession there has ever been, but there are few
occupations that are more rewarding for those that love to create
(and like working indoors). There is an awful lot to be said for
doing what you enjoying doing and getting paid for it, even if it’s
not six or seven figures. Even though I don’t get to work (play)
there nearly as much as I would like anymore, I wouldn’t trade my
bench for the world.

Just for what it’s worth, if you get good enough and fast enough you
CAN get your income into the six digits working the bench. But you
gotta be good. Really good. It also helps if you have no life.

Dave Phelps

And you even get to pick the twelve hour period that works best
for you! 

Oh jeez, my first start-up was just a few months old. That plan
called for being a one man band. I had gotten thru the critical,
paranoid, ‘I’m gonna go bust any minute’ period and had Christmas
under my belt and the bank account was fat, at least for the moment.
It was New Years Eve and I had just one more deadline job, oddly
enough it was NOW. So I cranked and I cranked til I had it done and
picked up. But Gawd was I worn out. On the drive home I started
feeling really poorly. I stopped at an immediate medical center, it
was that bad. As the Doc was examining me…I passed out! My BP was
so low she couldn’t find a vein for the saline(?). Multiple jabs
left me seriously bruised inside my elbow but I recovered enough in a
few hours to endure the maniacal rants at home about how we have to
miss the party on New Years Eve 1999!!! Do not cue that song. Do not.

So yeah…Its good to be the King.

But sometimes, not often, I wish I was still a vassle.

Dave…you are right on point. I have owned my one man studio for
25+ years and it has always been enjoyable until lately. About 5
years ago I realized that I was just doing jewelry according to what
everyone else wanted. And I figured out that this was the reason my
passion for jewelry making had vanished.

This is going to change this January. I have turned my old office
into shop with 4 complete benches, with tools, in order to give
seminars about how to make jewelry. The rest of the time I will try
to rent out studio time.

And the best part…I will just be making the jewelry that I like.
For years I have been buying stones that called out to me to make
them into something beautiful. And I have enough stones to last me
the rest of my life. I started a gold pool account about 20 years ago
and have enough in there for any metals I might need. So, I will be
saying goodbye to repairs and special orders. And hopefully, starting
to have fun again…Teddy

David

I now own my own retail store, and I am here to tell you, if you
like making jewelry, don't open your own retail store. It'll be the
last time you get to do what you love with any consistency,
especially if you want to make any money at it. 

No truer words were ever spoken.

Been there, done that, still have the scars.

I’ve often told folks that the fastest way to loose a million
dollars is to open a retail Jewelry store or restaurant.

So many craftsmen have the dream of having their own retail store.
You are so right about not being able to get any bench work done.

I often tell folks "Why work forty hours a week for “The Man”, when
you can work a hundred hours a week for yourself.

We are happily ensconced in wholesale, but still working more hours
than we’d like.

If I had a retail store I wouldn’t be able to live by my motto.

Have fun and make lots of jewelry.
Jo Haemer
www.timothywgreen.com