Hi,
I’ve been thrown off my stride by having to be hospitalized in early
February for a week, due to clinical depression.
I’ve now just gotten back into silversmithing again.
By my wife’s request, I had created a pair of fine silver wedding
bands for an unemployed couple in their 30’s who wanted to marry, but
who could not afford to buy them from a jewelery store. I was their
only hope.
Since this was my first attempt, I created fair results by charcoal
casting, then hand forging on round shapers from my dapping set, and
then some manual filing, dremel sanding, and dremel polishing.
When I say fair result, I mean that these are not perfectly round,
symmetrical, or evenly textured bands. In fact, while they serve the
purpose they would be laughable by the standards of a master
silversmith, and I am only am amateur.
Still, I have shown these rings to several people, and they told me
they look very nice anyway. They say the fact that they were
personally made, by hand, says more about it, and therefore the set
would be perfectly appropriate for the couple.
Even the couple likes them. I had sanded them and polished them to
100 grit for test fitting, the couple finds the size comfortable, and
I will now polish them to 1200 grit in time for their wedding.
So my question to you is this: why would ordinary people say that
imperfect rings such as these are beautiful when they clearly do not
meet the standards of a professional jeweler? Can “civilians” really
not tell the difference between amateur and professional efforts? Are
actually trained professionals simply over-engineering for their
actual audience?
I’m curious what you all think.
Thanks,
Andrew Jonathan Fine