Was: Bezel setting with no back
I aim for 90%+ of my best for any job or quote. Any more% and I really need a blank cheque and that is not going to be cheap nor close to any semblance of reasonable.
I pasted Jeff’s quote here from the no-back-bezel thread, because I
think it’s a powerful discussion. First off, I’ll say that there’s a
group of people here on Orchid, Jeff being one, who are, as I like
to call it, working in the trenches. I started out making jewelry by
“like, tripping out, man”, too. I’d get some materials and make what
I wanted my way, and I had a good ol’ time doing it, too. It was
finished when I said it was finished. I still do that sometimes,
when I feel like making something. But after a time I grew in the
business, had some jobs – the last job I had before going solo
every single piece was inspected from stem to stern under 10x and
experienced eyes. Square, straight, plumb, scratches, tiny pinholes,
ripple-y filing, prong tips - and more and more and more. Every
piece - hundreds a week - was put through the wringer and the
tiniest flaw would send it back for redo. They were tough, but we
use essentially the same standards now.
The other thing is that what I mostly do now is special order
jewelry - that’s a union classification, though I haven’t been union
for years. People bring me things and ask me to make them. I don’t
get to choose, and everything is different. And very often things
are funky - old, mismatched stones, strange materials, workarounds,
and always a budget, which is sometimes no budget, but usually not.
In other words, my job is to do the best I can with whatever is
thrown at me, and keep it on budget. What this means to the topic is
that I don’t just do what I do, I do everything in some sense. I
make fabulous diamond jewelry and I also make $25 charms for the
newborn and fix broken walking sticks and set beach rocks and shells
for cheap.
So, what is quality? Think about it, it’s not so easy as one might
think. I know one here who is very vocal about it proudly showing
crooked work on their website… I don’t truly want to take the
time, but I could pull out the metrology (Mr. Starrett, Mr.
Mitutoyo, Mr. Brown & Sharpe) and show anyone how imprecise their
“precision” craftsmanship is - mine, too. So, what is quality,
really?
Personally, I would define quality as “at least good enough”. This
being the real world, not a classroom discussing philosophy. If one
is making washers for the general household market, then a mild
steel that’s stamped to a reasonable shape is plenty good enough -
budget is never NOT a concern. If it’s for aerospace, then you have
parameters - hardness, toughness, precision fit, hazardous
conditions, what have you. Those parameters change what “at least
good enough” means. And still budget. Getting into some discussion
of how anything can be done for a million dollar cost is
nonsensical. This is a $50 ring wholesale, we’ll put $15 labor into
it and no more. Start from there.
So, quality is actually a sliding scale, it’s in the eye of the
beholder, largely, and standards vary from here to there. Nobody
here is hand crafting a wedding band that’s parallel to a millionth
- if you’re using stock, THAT’S not parallel to a millionth when you
get it. So when, where and how do you decide that’s it’s “close
enough”? There’s a short list of objective things: solder seams,
squareness, straightness, regular shapes if they’re supposed to be,
setting standards, stuff like that. But when you ask the question of
whether Jim Anybody from Orchid or Rene Lalique is doing “better
quality” work, how do you quantify that? Then you need to say, “It’s
at least good enough.” Only a fool holds an agate street fair ring
to the same standards as the crown jewels, and more importantly you
won’t make any money at it, either. Perfect example: DeLorean.
“We’re going to make a crown jewel where cost is no object and try
to mass market it.” Wasn’t that simple, but not so far away, either.
It’s the job of a jeweler to know what to do. It’s the job of a
jeweler to be able to distinguish between a diamond and a jasper,
and know what to do with each. And it’s the job of a jeweler to at
least try to respect the customer’s budget. Putting 40 hours of work
into a $100 piece out of some moral cause is walking backwards, and
though everyone will think you are a fine, principled human being,
you still won’t get paid. This isn’t art school, it’s business. Ill
say quite frankly that I have wasted many hours struggling with some
task, trying to get it up to a standard of craftsmanship, when it
just was never going to be because the materials just couldn’t go
there - trying to put a square peg… We all do that, but life
at the bench isn’t so simple when there’s a foreman or customer who
stops by and says, “Do This. Now.” Could be anything anybody can
dream up, with any materials… And BTW it’s way more fun…
So - it’s become a book ;} I personally have no categories outside of
industry categories. If you are working at a bench, you’re a bench
jeweler. If you’re making jewelry, you are no different than me. If
I make a bracelet out of 10 mm circles of metal, and my circles are
all perfect and shiny bright and symmetrical, and somebody else
makes one of the same weight where the circles are all misshapen and
pounded and funky, is my bracelet a higher quality? They are happy
with theirs, I am happy with mine, who is right? Not being a snob,
my answer would be no, mine is not higher quality. I am perhaps a
more skilled craftsman, and my vision is different, but that’s not
quality. Quality is the integrity of the piece as it achieves it’s
goal. Theirs is “at least good enough”, as is mine, and they are
just different pieces of jewelry. Some people use the retail sense
of the word - “No, mine is quality jewelry because I use diamonds,
or never use glue, or I’m enamored of symmetry” or what have you.
Quality in the shop is much more complicated than that and something
else entirely…