I had a company ask me to have them do some serious setting. What I
found was only 65-70% approving. As my designs require above average
setting techniques, I am left with a quandry. Do I continue to give
him my setting projects, or do I do everything myself?
Gerry- Find a better setter. There are plenty of contract setters
out there.
Have fun and make lots of jewelry.
Jo
timothywgreen.com
I had a company ask me to have them do some serious setting. What I found was only 65-70% approving. As my designs require above average setting techniques, I am left with a quandry. Do I continue to give him my setting projects, or do I do everything myself?
Maybe you could find another jeweler to do your settings?
Paf Dvorak
“Follow up on a Quandry for setting results!”
I did a close inspection with my 10x loup on every piece of silver
set for me! 14 cz’s were given to me ‘broken & damaged’. Some of the
stones were fractured from the inside. The corners on the tables of
the stones, missing.
Setting marks still on the edge of the ‘circle’ of stones. Many of
the mini, shared-claws were polished flat, yuk! Even 2 flat plates
had ripple-marks due to poor fabrication/casting cleanup.
I paid $250.00+ ($100.00 shipping) for what, inferior setting and
polishing? I did tell him that these were to be used as ‘perfect
samples’ for casino-managers/owners.
I’m going to keep them as a ‘learning lesson’ for my students, never
set stones this way! This is not what overseas setting should look
like. I am devastated with his results, no quality checking,
post-setting. He ‘begged’ me to send him some of my valuable items he
needed some work. He is only good for Cad-.STL work.
If I do all of the setting, I’ll keep it local & watch every process
like a hawk! I won’t even mention his name ‘openly’ on Orchid.
Gerry Lewy
Hope all had a great Christmas. As a suggestion have you tried
JewelCraftin, KY
Andy “The Tool Guy” Kroungold
What a disappointment. I would just seek local setters, and demand
examples of their work before you trust them to do anything for you.
Also have them do the work in small batches, that you can examine.
Then if the batch meets your criteria, give them another batch to
work on. Might be more time consuming, but at least you can be
assured of getting perfect settings.
Alma
Alma, Andy & everyone, too many to list! This psuedo-setter was
employed by the cad fellow I use. in an Asian country. Rest assured,
I’m not going to be using him again for his setting services. He came
to me with highest references, his Cad work is beyond fantastic!!! But
alas, he faulted on trying to do basic setting & quality control. I
will still use him in the future, only for Cad. nuttin’ else! I’m
won’t let anyone else see his setting work as a testament of my
designing. When my three salespeople show my creations to
mega-millionaires, I can’t let his get seen, period! If anyone wishes
me to send any of my setting to the US of A. I must deal with
’customs & excise duties’ being charged. So I can’t send anything
south of the 49th parallel, pity! If I am to be inundated (hopefully)
with orders, I must look locally for setting assistance. I prefer to
keep the local setters, taken care of.
Please remember, we are all “jewellers without borders”, well tell
that to the customs brokers! Their aim is to squelch any ideas of
unifying our services across the Can-American borders. In the
meantime, I will endeavor to do much of the setting myself.
Everyone on Orchid, thanks for the greatest of help in this matter.
Enjoy your New Years celebrations.
Gerry Lewy.
As a follow up on this post, I am curious what people pay for out
sourcing different types of settings, not including the cost of the
materials (diamonds, prongs etc)
Hi
when trying to sell to the 0.1%, outsourcing (to India?) to save a
few pennies is not wise.
(You get what you pay for in this trade.) Especially when many of the
elite are Chinese, who have a history of conflict with Indians.
Especially since the Indians in WW2 sold out to the Japanese in
Malaya and Singapore. The guards at Changi jail in WW2 were Indians.
So if they knew that the pieces were set on the cheap and by whom,
would not touch them.
This is a history lesson not my opinion, I am not racist I am colour
blind and have friends of all races.
As my Russian friend Marsha said at coffee at Uni. “I like the multi
cultural atmosphere. At our table we have Asians, Africans,
Europeans, Australians. We even have a white American!” Who did not
get the joke about Americans.
I would have thought that the president of Gemz Diamond Setting
would have trained his own setters to do the work.
So what is a 0.1% person? A billionaire. What is the difference
between them and a 1% person apart from many millions? Attitude. To
illustrate a story about Kerry Packer, probably an urban myth.
In Las Vegas a man was complaining about the service saying he was
worth $10 million.
Kerry somewhat annoyed at the boring person, turned and said “Toss
you for it!” That is toss a coin heads or tails. One silent Texan left
the room.
So the lesson is that quality needs to be overseen at every point.
And dealing with the “carriage trade” is subtle and mysterious.
Richard