What does quality mean?

Jewelry Discussion
21

Hi

not so sure about this, due to peoples’ eyesight.

If they saw the beautifully made piece next to the 1/2 as good piece,
I’m sure they would choose the better one.

When I was at the School for Silversmiths we had a stall at
Paddington markets Sydney Aust. Priced the jewellery according to
ability.

Beginners was cheaper professional level more expensive. Customers
could not tell the difference. So put the beginners work up in
price.

NOTE beginners quality was better than chain store quality. We were
obsessive about making the best we could.

Our teacher said we were eagle eyed obsessive. Your solder line is 2
hairs wide ha ha etc not one hair wide.

We just and still do make to the best of our abilities and if that
means doing it again because not happy with the piece, even if it
would sell, so be it.

I keep a few failures on my bench to remind me, my daughter,
apprentice level, used to ask me “What’s wrong with that?” gave her
the loupe and said look. “But it would sell.” “Yes darling but some
of our customers have more than 2 brain cells and they are the ones
who appreciate top quality. And have money.”

Had a jeweller’s wife look at my stock picked up a very simple
silver earring (cut out shape using a pear shaped

stone template for the design and domed in a dapping block) and
said, “That is so simple and beautiful, and sh*t you know how to
polish!”

This is what I like about silver, drawing out the qualities of the
metal, silver loves curves. You don’t have to be able to set

hundreds of pave set stones into a piece to make beauty, look at
Torun’s work for Georg Jensen.

Really annoyed the jeweller, 'cause she wants him to make one in 18
kt. LOL.

Psychiatrists / Psychologists would call us obsessive compulsive, we
call it pride in our work.

And remember MAKING JEWELLERY IS CHEAPER THAN THERAPY!

Richard

22

Hi Joy, I think that David has given you the same advise that I
would. And I am that old woman that you are referring to. I have
raised my children in my shop (all three of them) and been able to be
a stay at home mother. I’ve made a living doing it, small but a
living, and now with the hopefully affordable health care insurance
on its way, I think that it is something I would encourage any young
person to do as a career choice. Remember, that when you take that
vow of poverty at the beginning, that as you age, you still won’t be
getting rich. But all in all, I am one of the happiest people I know.
And who knows, maybe you are a lot more creative and knowledgable
than I am, and you will have more of an income. Good luck in the
future. Amanda

23

John D - My late father had two prices. “$1000.00 or t’s free”.
That’s in 1960s 70s dollars. If he liked you he’d do a portrait for
free and give it to you or your family. If you were a rich patron?
$1000.00 to start.

I do the same. If you are family, a friend or sometimes just a
stranger and all I have to do is straighten a jump ring or something
similar it’s free. If I have to turn on my torch it’s $75.00 an hour
or more depending on the materials and also the attitude of the
customer.

We charge extra for jerks and Wall Street Bankers and Lawyers:-)
Really.

Have fun and make lots of jewelry.

Jo Haemer
timothywgreen.com

24

Hi John,

Getting curious, any change to see a picture?

Peter
Spain

[Edit]

How can I share files and pictures with the list?
http://www.ganoksin.com/gnkurl/ftp

Or… send the files to the attention of service@ganoksin.com and
we will upload them for you…

[/Edit]

25 
That is so simple and beautiful...

So true, I think that often great design is more about simple
symmetry and finish that pleases the human eye on some very basic
level than it is about clever and complex design that may take the
mind longer to grasp.

Mark

26

Yes, Joy, you’re so right. After a very frustrating, fruitless week
in the studio, I’m feeling the same — untalented and unappreciated.
But, I can’t stop doing this thing called jewelry. What is it that
drives us? The fulfillment of a creative urge? The challenge of
bringing a vision to reality? The need to finally ‘get’ it right? The
desire to bring more beauty into this sometimes unbeautiful world?
— to provide a little corner of light? I don’t know. But I’ve had
to spend the last couple of days shoring up my resolve and my
confidence that, yes, though I’m not an ‘expert’ and don’t have 40
years jewelry experience behind me, the pieces I create have value,
intrinsic and extrinsic, to me and to others. And creating something
of beauty from raw material is an honorable pursuit. Keep making
beauty wherever you can. There are many of us with you.

Darlene

27

Since no one has mentoned it, the word “quality” is somewhat
meaningless on its own.

It is to me a unit of measurement, for example one needs to qualify
the word with an adjective, like good or bad or highest.

Then it has some valid meaning.

Like saying inch or meter., if one adds 24 to the word inch, making
it 24 inch long. it then conveys the meaning properly.

What do others think?

28

I’m not going to quote anyone, but at the risk of belaboring the
issue (many no doubt think I already have…), I think some
misunderstand what I am saying. What I am saying is reasonable,
rational and good business sense.

I’m a professional jeweler/goldsmith. We have no visible seams, what
is supposed to be straight is straight, what is supposed to be
square is utterly square, what is supposed to be round is round,
what is supposed to be polished is polished and the backs and
insides are done too. No only that, in our line it is all of those
things to 10x inspection. I’m not talking about those things or
putting out substandard work, as I saidin my very first posting on
this thread.

You have a stone, let’s say an opal, and you want to make a ring.
You get a piece of stock bezel wire, solder the bezel to a piece of
sheet and make a circle of 1/2 round wire and put that alll together
and polish and you have a perfectly fine ring. Or, you could make
that same bezel and put it on a split shank that’stwo wires soldered
together - twice the weight, twice the work. Then you could solder a
small setting in the V of the shank. Then you can make a tube in the
shape of the stone, solder it into a custom crafted shank so the
tube if filed round on the inside of the ring, solder a seat for the
stone and set it that way. Then you could sawpierce that same tube,
large or fine and it goes on and on.

For my 25 ct. diamond we have a rollof baguettes for the bale.
They’re not all appropriate for that job butlet’s just suppose - do
we set straight, graduated baguettes in the channel, basically
faking it, or do we send it to a cutter to make trapezoids with a
straight edge to channel? Then we have to craft and set it finer
because there’s no point in doing that without showing off the
cutting. Thepart that’s not appropriate, exactly - do we ajour, do
we pierce and if wedo, do we thrum all of that? If the answer is yes
to all of that, then we add around $3000 to the cost - a thousand
alone in cutting and weight loss. If the piece is worth a hundred
grand then that’s 3%. If it’s a $6000 piece then it’s half the cost,
quite the difference and the question really needs to be asked if
that much work on what are really hidden detailsis really warranted
in that situation.

But wait, we do everything to the highest quality… Which is the
title of the thread, just what IS the highest quality? If any
readers here would insist on using custom cut diamonds, as above,
I’m guessing it’s not many but that is the highest quality.

Bottom line, the reason for all of this, is that when you are in
business you need to know when to stop and where to start. Some
readers are making their lines and selling those for known price
points and this means less to them. I have people coming in saying,
“I have two hundred to spend on a gift for my wife, what can you do
for me?”

In the real world we just have to make decisions based on the
reality of business and budget. Yes, I could spend twenty hours
piercing that into a lovely spiderweb pattern but hey, it’s a
hundred dollar pendant. I’ll do this instead and nobody will ever
know - it will be what it will be, the decisions are mine to make.

Everybody reading this does this consciously ornot. I’m saying that
doing it consciously will help you have a real business and sleep
nights. You have to target and fill the needs of your audience and
that’s not always D flawless diamonds. The highest quality.

John D.

29

Hi

If you are family, a friend or sometimes just a stranger and all I
have to do is straighten a jump ring or something similar it’s free.

The other day a sophisticated lady brought me some jewellery to
clean. She was charming and we had a wonderful 10 minute chat while I
JCR’d her jewellery. One piece was a wonderful late Victorian gold
chain, I don’t know who was more excited me or her as it came through
the process and looked spectacular. Another piece was stamped 925
London.

Yep we know where that was from, London China, still very well made
but silver content was well below sterling, she bought it in Shanghai
knowing it was not the real deal but looked good and was very cheap.
Cleaned up well in the end. She wanted to know how much.

Free of course, this is how I build good will. Will she tell her
friends, guaranteed. Will they be charming like her of course. Will I
make money in the end yes.

Had a Scottish gentleman, partner of my wife’s friend, wanted tie
pin and cufflinks cleaned. Offered me $10 I said “Please don’t
embarrass me, cleaning is free.”

Now if she had been a really annoying bitch and he a know it all
fool then it would have cost them a “a pretty penny.” I offer free
cleaning on all jewellery I make. A lady came by my Bellingen stall
with a ring of mine and asked me to clean it.

She was chatting to her friend, then asked how long will it take,
done already. A whole 20 seconds and an impressed customer.

That is why I like my JCR ionic cleaner.

Richard

30

Hi

I bemoan the fact most people don’t give a rat’s a^% about quality,
and price is a big factor I was in a shopping centre today all the 3
chain stores had 50% off sales on gold, $75 a gram for 9 kt machine
made or badly hand made crap.

And when it comes into my shop to be repaired, the “cheapest is best
value” customers get upset to find the repair will cost more to fix
than they paid for the piece. So I ask them if they have the receipt
if so I explain in detail what is wrong with it inform them of
consumer law, direct them to the Department of Fairtrading to get a
complaint form. Then back to the shop where they calmly explain why a
four prong, think .3 mm prongs not rounded and down on the stone,
will not last and should not have been made in the first place.
Mention Dept of Fairtrading and the refund is paid.

Those chain stores hate newly educated customers. Customer usually
comes back to me for a quality good priced piece.

Had a lady moan to me that her diamond had come out of her
engagement ring for the 3rd time. She did not want to take it back
and pay another $75 to have it reset. Said her fiance, a police
officer, was not impressed.

Solution take ring back with fiance in uniform and ask for a refund.
Worked great. Made her a better ring at a better price.

This is why I am writing a booklet on what makes jewellery quality.
And intend to run jewellery education classes in private schools,
think $20,000 a year in fees to start. These young ladies need to
know how to judge jewellery quality and why quality costs.

Also need to know repair costs. One of the ladies at the school I
teach at needed to have sterling bracelet safety chain fixed. One
jeweller wanted $48 dollars to replace broken jumpring, the other
one she went to charged $5. Which jeweller does the most business? Not
the $48 for 5 mins work jeweller. That is $576 an hour. The $1 a
minute $60 an hour jeweller makes far more money.

Greed cuts your own throat.

If I had known I would have done it for free, I now do all her
simple repairs for free.

why do so many safety chains break? chain is too weak to be a safety
chain! mine are not.

why do so many rings break on the solder resize? crap soldering! my
solders are carefully done.

Richard

31

Until the industry has established/set/agreed upon a set of
standards that can be quantified (and measured), then you can not
verify “quality.” Be it a QA (Quality Assurance) or CQI (Continuous
Quality Improvement) or Six Sigma (Statistical measurement to 6
standard deviations of mean) program, the term “quality” is
meaningless without standard definitions that are agreed by all that
are abiding by the measurements. In my previous life, I was the
QA/CQI officer for our county Emergency Medical Service. Across the
nation, there is not even an agreed upon item such as “response
time.” That is one of the items that we measured, using a definition
that our Medical Director and the county council accepted. The point
is until we agree what is meant by quality, we can’t measure it and
therefore can not say what it is.

In the posts before there are many qualitative statements about what
a quality piece of jewelry is. Unfortunately, until you can quantify
these and measure them, you can not see if you are meeting the
standard. One statement was about solder seams not being visible.
What is the acceptable error rate? Out of 100 pieces would you accept
quality if 1 did not have an invisible seam? Whatever your standard,
and probably there won’t be universal acceptance of any particular
standard, you have to measure it and see if you meet it.

Once you have established standards, then you can discuss what level
of achievement to those standards is acceptable quality. BTW, you
might want to think about how many tries you take to achieve that
standard, especially if you say that 100% must have no error. Is that
on first attempt, or on the 100th attempt on the same piece?

For our EMS system, we measured 16 Key Performance Indicators (for
some our standard was 100% compliance). These were presented to the
QA committee monthly and reviewed by the County Council annually. I
wish my fellow folk good luck in establishing acceptable standards
for gems/jewelry. I will not even try to quantify art.

John

32

Hi John,

I’m still not sure I’m reading you properly. So your thrust isn’t so
much “quality” as an abstract concept, so much as it is “quality” as
a parameter of design? This is really all about trying to figure out
which types of techniques and tolerance levels are appropriate to
what price points? (and/or friend points) So in that sense, quality
comes down to measurements of time and tolerance versus dollars?

Still puzzling away,
Brian.

33 
The last question I have, is that I have to spent many hours doing
researching and finding products to match a specific need for a
client. How do you handle that?

I try to build the ‘difficulty factor’ into theestimate for the
piece. That can be an addition charge because the person is hard to
work with or because the project is particularly complex or
willrequire extra time in some way. For instance if I have to have
an unusual stone cut for a piece, I will have to spend time drawing
the stone and noting dimensions and whatever else I need to do to
communicate what I need thecutter to do, plus a few back and forth
e-mails. That all takes time and that should be included in the
estimate because it’s all part of producing that particular piece. I
don’t only include the cost of the specially cut stone into my
costs, I also include additional labor time on my part. I
thinkthat’s only fair and I think my customers would agree.

But I don’t track every minute, it’s just a ballpark estimate of the
additional time that I expect that particular project will take.
Then I calculate the price based on my current labor rates and
material mark-ups. Mark

34 
Since no one has mentoned it, the word "quality" is somewhat
meaningless on its own.

In the US, at least, “quality” without a modifier is taken to mean
“high quality”, or “superiority of kind”, as one dictionary puts it.

Al Balmer

35 
This is a writing about relative quality and it's assumed that we
all have standards beneath which we simply won't go. It's a
question of whether to go high or even higher, it's not a question
of putting out substandard work.

We call this “leaving well enough alone” around here. Most of us I
think, know that one can spend 50% of their time on a piece in
perfecting the last 5% of the details. Most of those details will
never even be noticed by anyone other than a fellow goldsmith, too.
The big risk when deciding if it’s good enough or should I keep
working on it is that you can start going backwards and turn “pretty
good"into"uh oh. I shoulda left it alone” pretty quick.

My rule of thumb for the minimum standards for myself and the
goldsmiths that work for me to follow (and trust me, they know it) is
that we don’t do a level of work to impress the retail or wholesale
customer, we do a level of work to impress other goldsmiths. They’re
a much tougher crowd because they know better than anyone where and
what to look for. So my answer to the question “is this good enough?”
is usually, “could you tell the customer ‘that’s really nice work’ if
they brought it in to get it checked after some other shop did the
work?”

Then I get the eye roll, because they know I check every single job
before it leaves the shop and if I said that, they’re just gonna get
it back in an hour or two. For the most part, they don’t even bother
to ask anymore, they just make it right. Because they’ve come to know
that if they have to ask, they already know it’s not good enough. Now
when they ask, it’s because they’re afraid of going backwards, not
because they’re tired of working on it. And they phrase it "Should I
leave well enough alone on this?“or"can you show me how to fix this
without screwing it up any more?”

Yeah, the result is that we’ve done more than our fair share of
reshanks that started out as sizings, but I’d rather lose a little
money to extra work than lose out because of a reputation for doing
average work. It doesn’t take more than one or two reviews on Yelp
that contain the phrase “So I took it to another jeweler and they
said…” for that reputation to be forever cemented, no matter how
good the work usually is. And you just never know which job is going
to be the one that leads to that review, so I prefer to take no
chances. We usually charge enough to cover it by using Geller’s Blue
Book.

If you want to see how this pays off, search Yelp.com for Precision
Platinum, Durham, NC. Look at the filtered reviews as well. That’s
often where the dirt is on Yelp. We also do all of the trade and
custom work for Hamilton Hill, who shows up at the bottom of the page
when you click on the link to our reviews. I couldn’t buy that kind
of advertising for any money. So the way I look at it, doing things
really right the first time is cheap when word-of-mouth is all you do
for marketing. Especially when compared to what traditional
advertising costs.

I feel your pain, John! But it’s not really all that hard to justify
doing high quality work when you look at the big picture. Even if
you’re not doing it for Graff, but for Joe and Janice R. from Fresno.
Graff didn’t become Graff because they put up a really cool sign that
said “$200,000 emerald rings sold here and one day we’re going to do
really nice work”, They got to where they are because from their very
first commission, every single little detail of every single
transaction, no matter how large or how small, was attended to with
the very finest treatment possible.

Meticulously and consistently. Which is a heck of a lot harder to do
than to say.

Dave Phelps

36

Sorry guys - I hit the send key when I meant to hit the “save draft”
key…Orchid seems like a new place lately, in a good way…
Thanks John

Hi John, Getting curious, any change to see a picture?

Well I never, of course, read my own posts and here I thought our
website signature was there, but it’s not - our work is at
DonivanAndMaggiora Redesigned earlier this year and
I’m sorry I just didn’t type captions so far.

Still puzzling away, Brian.

I said, over and over and over and over and over again, that I am
talking about business -what some or all of this has to do with
making a living. I’m just having a conversation, and I’ve enjoyed
reading the responses.

A couple of years ago I said that the jewelry industry does, indeed,
have standards andwas shouted down by some rather belligerent
replies. One being that if they’re not written down they aren’t
standards, like anything in the jewelry tradition has been written
down until the modern era. The fact that someone is unaware of
things doesn’t mean they don’t exist and that’s it about that. The
notion that a centuries old, world wide industry has no common
language about the relativity of all things is quite humorous. And
that’s it about that.

Last night I had one of those middle of the night revelations about
this thread - many of these people are ~silversmiths~. That some
don’t actually live off jewelry certainly means something but I
won’t go there. This explains much.

So, yesterday I used an example of making a simple opal bezel ring
and I started with stock silver bezel wire. Then went to a split
shank and I said, “double the labor, double the weight”. This is
where the silversmithing comes in - of course nobody cares much if
it’s double the weight in silver, considering we’re talking about
under 5 grams in either case. I don’t even weigh silver jewelry on
the rare occasions I make it - it’s either over or under ten bucks,
that’s all.

Making it in 14kt. gold is quite another matter - our simple ringis
$300, the split shank is $450 and the more elaborate one I wrote is
more like $750 - not real pricing, of course, just relative costs.
In 18kt you can add 20% to each, or a round 25-50 dollars. In
platinum you canpretty much just double everything.

You can argue about quality all you like but one thing that is not
debatable is that more gold is higher quality and people generally
think platinum is higher quality than gold and certainly gems have
been largely quantified by the gemology trade, GIA being a large
part of that. Well, you could argue but no one in the real worldwill
listen to you. All being in proportion to the piece - there’s such a
thing as too much gold for the design.

Widen each gold shank by 1/2 mm and you add 20% or more, widen each
platinum shank by the same and you add a hundred bucks to each ring.
Add a couple of GH, SI melee to the split shank and it adds, say,
$100. Change that to D Flawless - the highest quality diamonds
without any doubt - and it adds more like $500.

So, the point. The point is that in the real world of a jewelry
business, today’s overall quality might be different from
tomorrow’s. People here like to say, at times, things like how they
only work to the highest standards. Well, some in this world do, but
not many. Unless your work is all 18kt or better with D flawless
stones or the best colored stonesin the world then you certainly
don’t. To the best of your ability, sure, I’ll buy that. Being in
the jewelry business - doesn’t matter if it’s my work or your work -
is an ever changing interplay between materials cost, labor and the
biggest unknown of them all - your customer, whether it be an
individual, a price point or a marketplace. Lots of people make lots
of things and some of those things are just for fun - me, too. By
andlarge the reality - OUR reality - is that we have to sell it.
Almost all of the time that means some reasonable compromise and
interplay between labor and materials that we and the customer are
both happy with. Very, very few buyers in our everyday world want to
pay for D Flawless stones - the industry average is G-H Si. Many of
the chains are going well below that. Very, very few buyers want to
pay an extra ten thousand because it’s polished so well or various
other factors. What most of them want is good or even great jewelry
at a good price. They are usually working people too, after all.

It’s a partnership - we give them a quality they want, more
importantly, what they are comfortable paying for, and they keep us
in business. I’m very good at what I do - never in a million years
would I say that I only work to the highest quality. Sometimes I
try…

John D.

37 
Geez Martha he's saying we should lower our standards for money!

Fakey quote…

We have a stone to set for a job - doesn’t matter what the stone,
doesn’t matter what the job, we need to set it. Let us suppose that
style is irrelevant - either the customer gave us carte blanch or
it’s made on spec. I get the feeling some folks do what they do and
don’t see the bigger picture.

First question - silver, gold and thenwhich alloy, or platinum (or
other which could be anything)? Second question in a real business,
make or buy? We’ll make. Students automatically make bezels, so
we’ll start there. OK, thick or thin and if so, what weight? We
decided on gold, so it matters. If thin, we just wrap a piece of
wire into a circle. If thick, maybe we need to start with a thick
piece and drill it and either file it around or maybe we use a
lathe, ifwe have one. That partly depends on the size of the stone.
Done, right?

OK, let’s take that bezel and mark the sides into 8 parts and flute
it. Or maybe we’ll flute it and then scallop the top edge so it’s
actually an eight prong setting of a sort, or maybe we’ll do it four
times (or six), cut actual prongs on top and have what amounts to an
illusion head. Maybe we’ll do the fluting and the scalloping and
maybe we’ll bead a tiny diamond just under the girdle line. Maybe
we’ll actually pierce thatlittle teeny scallop and channel set the
diamond and maybe we’ll enamel the edges black, to boot. Or maybe
we’ll go the other way and cut doublegrooves around about 1/3 up and
engrave something between them, or maybe we’ll take the easy way out
and set some stones in there, or maybe we’ll pierce it with a
triangular pattern. Or maybe we’ll get a teeny cylinder
ofcontrasting metal, pierce THAT and solder it in a tasteful spot.
Hey, we could solder little dots of gold and engrave them into
grapes or animals or geometrics. Might could use a microscope for
that, these days. I know, we’ll solder eight teeny wires of
contrasting metal 2/3 of the way up and cut them into faux column
like things - hey, we could set little diamondsin the tops of them,
cool!

Nah, let’s do a prong setting instead, in gold. 3,4,5 or six or more
prongs, basket or cup or other, separateor built in, angles, weight,
size, shape, style, details.

All perfectly straight and square, all wonderfully finished and
polished.

All relating to weight, labor, perceived quality, and cost. There is
no black and there is no white, there is only grey.

38

Hi, here comes a lively discussion!

Don’t know about this. Does value of components make it high
quality? I have seen many badly made pieces in 18 kt.

I thought the level of workmanship was what made quality.

People here like to say, at times, things like how they only work to
the highest standards. Well, some in this world do, but not many.
Unless your work is all 18kt or better with D flawless stones or the
best colored stonesin the world then you certainly don’t.

I wonder what Georg Jensen, Murrle Bennet or Lalique would have
thought of the above quote? Viviana Torun Bulow-Hube would have had a
wry laugh at that. She and on of her customers Picasso would
definitely disagree.

Especially this part of the post Last night I had one of those middle
of the night revelations about this thread - many of these people are
~silversmiths~.

If you look at the archives and read what silversmiths post, then it
is obvious that sterling is much harder and takes higher skill to
work than 18kt. It is called firescale. Also silversmiths also work
in gold, 18 kt or higher.

At one show I did many years ago with my apprentice, the great
grandson of Hardy Brothers, yes the ones with a Royal Warrant.

A jeweller looked at the silver and said, sneeringly I only work in
gold. After we stopped laughing. The apprentice said “So you work in
the easy stuff, big deal! If you can work sterling you can work 18 kt
easily.” He replied he worked in 9 kt.

The apprentice then said “That sh*t we are silversmiths and don’t
touch crap!”

Another ego deflated. If you can’t do it in sterling, with no
firescale, then you are not at the top level of quality.

So newbies silversmith don’t feel deflated by the "gold and diamond"
egos. Thought we just got past this on Orchid.

D flawless diamonds, oh those rocks that are merely carbon and sold
in a regulated market to inflate the price! Hmm if you mean pink yes
if not, not really a big deal. Top quality rubies, sapphires,
emeralds and black opals are more prized by those not fooled by
advertising.

Black opals put such fear into the diamond trade that they had to
make myths, like opals are unlucky. And then had to make the movie
"Diamonds are a girls best friend." To promote the product.

Don’t be fooled, the construction and finish are signs of quality
not the materials.

Richard

39

Quality means the sum of all the parts either perceived or
physically measurable. As a supplier, delivering 110% of what the
consumer wants is quality. The trick is to see what the consumer
wants.

40 
The trick is to see what the consumer wants.

Alastair summed up my way of thinking pretty darn well. My
motivation for our “fellow goldsmith” standard is based on the work I
see from other shops. We see a lot of other peoples’ work. Sometimes
we can say “This is really nice work. Who did it?” Other times we
think “Wow. That’s pretty shoddy. Wonder who did it.” While our
objective is to be the goldsmith in the former scenario, it is more
important that we never, ever be the subject of the latter.

Regardless of whether it’s a ring sizing or a five-figure custom
job, I never want a customer of mine to have to experience the
embarrassment of listening to another goldsmith explain what they’re
going to have to do to make something right after we worked on it.

A quick example from another thread about gluing stones. Lady brings
in an antique cameo pendant. The bezel is twisted from the dog
chewing on it but she wants to wear it when the family comes for
Thanksgiving. I quote $400 to make a new bezel, she almost faints. So
I tell her for ten dollars I can straighten it out a bit and put a
little epoxy around the edge to keep it from rattling around. Not
exactly the best way to do it, but it’ll work and get her through the
holidays. She smiles and says “do it”. We straighten it out, glue the
cameo and completely refinish it.

The other side. A lady brings in a cameo pendant. The cameo is glued
in. I tell her “you know, this really needs a new bezel.” She says
that her goldsmith at home said the same thing, but it was going to
be $400 and she didn’t want to put that much into it. So he said he
could just put a little epoxy on it to keep it in place for ten
bucks. Plus he cleaned and polished it too. I’d tell her that her
goldsmith was right on. Good job.

But if she brought it in with a shiny new $400 bezel and the cameo
was glued in, that would be a completely different story and my
opinion of the skills and standards of her goldsmith at home would be
completely different as well. She probably never saw that it was
glued, or even cared. But it’s not right for a $400 bezel and another
goldsmith would spot it in a second.

I don’t want to be that guy. Not ever. This is a small world, and
one of you might see it and ask who did it. Whatever the answer, it
ain’t gonna be from my shop. You guys, my fellow goldsmiths, set my
standards, not my customers. As Mark pointed out, they don’t know
what’s good work and what’s not, but you do. That’s why I worry more
about what you guys think than what they think.

So what does quality mean? As Alastair alluded to, that which fits
the customer’s needs the best, plus a little more. But if you have to
cut a corner or two to meet their needs, budgetary or otherwise, make
darn sure they know what you did or didn’t do and why.

Dave Phelps