Hello Carol:
A Master would be someone (“of great and exemplary skill”) who knows
a great deal about a discipline and is also capable of performing the
tasks of that discipline. ("A worker qualified to teach apprentices
and carry on the craft independently ")
What does an individual do to earn this title?
Well, that’s a good question. There are many jewelers and jewelry
store owners claiming Master. On our “Hold message” on the telephone
at work my boss was saying that I was a Master jeweler years before I
ever earned that title from Jewelers Of America. Many jewelers out
there are Masters but have never taken any tests to certify that.
J.A. http://www.jewelers.org:8080/ started a program a few years back
that was met with mixed response. To date only some 150 Master Bench
Jewelers have passed the testing. Jewelry is really way too diverse
to say that only someone who knows everything is a master. You can be
a master caster and not know a thing about enameling. You could be a
master fabricator and be a very poor waxcarver. The J.A. test tries
to pick the important things about being a Master Bench Jeweler and
grades you on how well they are done and how quickly they are
completed. There are some who could complete these tasks well but are
very slow. If you are making a living doing repair you need to be
fast but that is not to say that you could not be a master even if it
takes you 3 times as long to do a task. In our trade Master is in the
eye of the beholder.
Mike Mathews Victoria,Texas
Hi Carol;
We’ve got one of those, working at a nearby mall. He is a hack, and
the man who taught him is a hack. He gets the title by simply hanging
a sign out that says, “Master Jeweler”. On the other hand, there is
the JA certification program, which, although not universally
accepted, does in fact have some rigorous testing to qualify a
"Certified Master Bench Jeweler". With all due respects to our CMBJ’s
here, the stuff in the test is pretty much along the lines of what
I’ve been expected to do on a daily basis for the last 20 years, and
under much tighter time constraints. The silver box project seems a
litte far afield for a goldsmith. (I’m guessing that Alan Revere has
something to do with that, maybe just inspired it’s inclusion,
perhaps he can explain). I’ve also known at least one CMBJ who one
of my stone dealers referred to as “a plumber”. So, you may see
consistency with regards to the technical accomplishment of CMBA’s,
but there is nothing in the testing to examine their abilities with
regards to design or overall aesthetic judgement. CMBA status
confers recognition of technical knowlege and high competency with
regards to standard jewelry techniques. I hold an Master of Fine
Arts degree in metalsmithing, but that wouldn’t necessarily qualify
me as a goldsmith of any rank. 30+ years at the bench finished my
education. However, I’ve seen work by many metalsmiths with primarily
only acadaemic training who do work that would be a challenge for
most bench people to duplicate, even if they could match the
creativity involved. Personally, I think the testing is a place to
start, but there was a time when a “Master” gained that status based
on a body of work and a qualifying “masterwork” submission, this
being judged by other established masters in the local guild. How
about some input from the U.K. here? How does it work on the other
side of the pond?
David L. Huffman