I’m wondering what other jewelers are setting as their threshold for defects in finished jewelry? How perfect do your pieces need to be to leave your bench? For example, I’m setting a stone and my tool glides over a facet edge, grinding it a bit. How much is too much? None at all? Naked eye? Loupe clean?
I can see where it ground the edge if I really squint through the loupe, or if I loupe through my optivisor. I doubt a customer would see it unless they really inspected it under magnification.
How about porosity pits? How small can they be before you ignore them?
I have a drawer of “rejects” where I said screw it and started over, but that drawer is getting quite full and I wonder if any of the customers would have known if I shipped these minor mistakes.
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For me it’s related to the cost of jewelry. If it’s a $200 piece I can’t expect to put in the same attention as a $2000 piece. Ideally every piece would be flawless but even that is impractical.
I try to make myself uncomfortable with my own standards - being too picky is better than too sloppy.
You can also have a “seconds and samples” sale. People LOVE a deal.
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When I get done making a piece of jewelry. I know where every ding and dent was and now hopefully gone. Because I work under magnification and very bright lights, any flaw will stick out. Once I have done everything that I can to say that it is done, I put it away for a day and then come back and take another look with my naked eye only. It is amazing how much everything blends and I can then make the final decision regarding it being done. I offer the followng suggestions if they don’t already apply. Install as many day light (5500 K) LED lights as you can in the areas where you work and do any inspection. Once I did this, I was sure that I had previously been shipping crap. Look at your work in reflected daylight if you have any. This is a good way to see any issues, especially fire scale. Finally, take good closeup pictures and look at them. I am always amazed at what I see in the pictures of my finished jewelry that I don’t see otherwise. Great question and one that we all struggle with…Rob
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My husband Tim and I have a zero flaw rule on custom pieces. We usually don’t take in repair unless the jewelry belongs to a family member, a homie, or a custom client.
Before working on a repair we scrutinize any stones for damage, the mounting for any earlier repair work and most importantly if it has low temp solder on it. We then show the clients and add notes on the envelope. Does OCD have a hyphen in it? Hell yes and we put it the there.
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