Daniel
But when it comes to having my own product look the way I want it to, it's my way or the highway.
I did not make the connection, I knew I wanted things done by my
method, but you articulated what I had not consciously realized. My
method gives my work the look I want, another way of doing it does
produce the results I want. One example is, when filing or
polishing, (one of a kind custom work or production pieces) if any
curves on a piece I design is distorted, it changes the design, and
the sculptural flow is lost, the feeling of the piece is lost to me,
and I will reject the piece as not salable. Customer might not
notice, but I do not want to look at it in my display case. It is a
representation of my esthetic sense and how I put myself out in the
world. In 20 years of retail, I have never had a customer tell me
that a piece of custom jewelry I made was not what they wanted. I
did not always like the design they wanted. I am fortunate to have
good communication skills, and a very fortunate ability to make
pieces that met or exceed the expectations of my client. When I talk
to a client, if I get a feeling or a “picture” on my head of what
they want, I know what to do, if I do not get a feeling or a
picture", I ask them to bring in a picture, or do a drawing however
crude.
This approach saves me, as most times there is no follow up on their
part. They did not know spectfically enough what they wanted. I am
fortunate that I have attracted an employee who has a natural sense
of what to do and how to do it, with little supervision she knows
what to do to finish my pieces and not loose the esthetic sense that
is important to me. Sometimes she goes ahead before I can exert my
obsessive compulsive nature and repeat myself three times about what
and how is to be done. This is someone who had a high school jewelry
class, and now in her l= ate twenties had decided that she is going
to follow her passion. Fortunately for both of us, she is self
motivated and has a natural ability. I also believe that in the past
the tradition was, the employee did what the employer wanted the way
the employer wanted without question. Seems that as Americans we seem
to have a sense of entitlement to have freedom of expression, and the
employee has a right to do their work the way they want to do it. I
tell employees that as long as their way does not takes longer and
the results are what i want, I do not care how they do it. There is a
saying that a lazy person finds the easiest way to do a job. I am
really lazy, however I have very high standards. Usually the way I do
something is the fastest way to get the best results.
Richard Hart