Barbara, I just read your, “no sour grapes”, piece and perhaps
you should re-think going into jewelery as a profession if you
think it’s going to make you a bunch of money. Outside a 3 year
apprenticeship, where I was working in a store, I’ve been
self-employed and am at the top of my profession as a wax
carver. I charge by the clock, and I mean STOP-WATCH, and this
time is what I get paid for. Not the calls to or from my
clients,( I do trade work for stores exclusively), not the time
it takes to interpret what a customer means before I start to
work off of a third grade quality sketch, not the time I spend
correcting a structural error in the design, not the time I
spend billing and shipping…get my drift? There’s also the part
of learning which never get’s reimbursment, and it goes on
forever. You think we get paid an inordinate amount for what we
do well let me ask you a question, if I damage your stone while
making you a piece of jewelery, you expect me to replace it at
no charge to you and therefore I would suffer that loss and in
effect wipe-out any profit I would make doing your piece, right?
Well how come, as a nurse,(or a doctor), you still get paid
whether the patient lives or dies? Who in the long run do you
think has a more profitable occupation? There’s a list as long
as my arm of other things I could tell you about the
profitability of this profession but I don’t want to bore you.
Roland