Tales from the Jewelry Workshop
Ranked #5,460 in Arts , #134,537 overall | Donates to Heifer International
The Cat Caught on Fire and Other Calamities
After more than thirty years in the business, I have pretty much seen it all. From demented brides to the cat on fire in a workshop, I have encountered just about everything that can happen in the process of trying to create beautiful jewelry.
Read on and I will share these stories and others as we explore the startling and entertaining challenges of the frazzled jeweler.
Dramatic Gold Ring
Every Jeweler's Nightmare
The Saga of the Missing Diamond
The gorgeous citrine is accented by white diamonds. I originally intended to use a set of matched yellow canary diamonds for the ring.
I took the unfinished ring to a jeweler friend because he wanted to demonstrate his method of stone setting. His shop was immaculate so the last thing I expected was for one of the diamonds to disappear.
He decided to ream the seat for one of the diamonds slightly larger and tipped the stone into the big catch tray in his bench, made for just that purpose. We both saw the sparkling stone drop into the tray.
But when he went to set that diamond, it was nowhere to be found. We hunted everywhere, even on the little hidden wood ledges that supported the catch tray. No diamond.
He finally offered to trade me a set of white diamonds for the remaining canaries, figuring the missing canary would sooner or later reappear.
It did, six months later. The confounded thing had disappeared into a tiny hole in a burr holder. The diamond bounced out, bright and beautiful, when he accidentally knocked the burr holder over in his catch tray.
Cat Troubles in the Workshop
You are expecting the story about the cat on fire, aren't you? I have not found a good picture to go with it yet, but I promise we will get to that one later.
In the meantime, I remembered the ring my husband had ready to set with a beautiful Montana sapphire. The customer was arriving soon to take it away.
Unfortunately, this sapphire had also done a disappearing act, which was decidedly odd. It had been lying right on top of his workbench in plain sight.
Then we remembered our cat. Bridger is 17 pounds of imperial attitude, half Himalayan Persian and half Maine Coon. He has huge yellow eyes and long black fur with tufted ears and feet.
Those tufted feet were the problem. He had strolled across the workbench and the stone stuck to his foot.
We had to really search the shop before we found where it had finally fallen off the cat's foot. The ring, to our great relief, was still delivered on time.
See More Sundell Jewelry
- Contemporary Jewelry in Precious Metals
- A wide range of contemporary jewelry in precious metals created by the Sundells
- Sterling Silver Rings by the Sundells
- Your choice of sterling silver rings with and without stones for men and women, available for direct online shopping
- Sterling Silver Bracelets
- More unusual sterling silver bracelet designs by Sundell, some available for direct online shopping
- Beautifully Inlaid Sliders by the Sundells
- Gorgeous inlaid sliders for necklaces in sterling silver and 14k gold with inlay, diamonds, and other stones
- Custom Gold Jewelry by the Sundells
- Unique jewelry designs created in gold, some of them award winning
A Great Waste of Materials
The Omigod Ring
Despite that, he wanted this ring to weigh a minimum of 5 ounces finished. A substantial man's ring often weighs half an ounce, to give you an idea of the scale of the problem he presented.
This monstrosity also had to have an eagle and diamonds on it. The eagle had to be cast separately and riveted on the ring so it would not distort in casting the large mass.
The only place feasible to add the required weight was on top of the ring. I would add wax and weigh it, using the multiplier to calculate the probable weight in 14k gold.
It would fall short and I would add more wax to weigh again. Everyone in the shop started to gasp, "Omigod" when they saw the wax headed for the scales.
This ring is a prime example of ego instead of beauty in jewelry.
You can read more about the creation of the ring in my article at Energies of Creation.
A Cat on Fire in the Workshop
Well, I found a picture. It is the wrong cat and the wrong jeweler, but it looks pretty good anyway.
My friend Francis had a cat in his workshop while he was doing year end inventory.
Jewelers have hundreds and thousands of wee parts, earring posts, heads for stones, jump rings, and so on. Francis had the lids off his compartment trays and was tediously counting all those wee parts.
The cat, like Bridger, strolled across the workbench. The jeweler's torch was in its holder, burning a low lazy flame on gas only, no oxygen. This is normal in a workshop.
It is not normal for a cat to walk in front of the torch. The cat immediately found itself on fire.
A berserk cat on fire orbiting a workshop can scatter thousands of wee parts in a flash.
Francis caught the cat and got the fire out before the cat was seriously injured. The cat looked a bit patchy for awhile but was just fine.
Francis spent the next week sorting all those tiny parts scattered throughout his workshop. The cat was never allowed inside the shop again.
Your Jewelry Short Stories
Think of it as Jewelry Story Haiku...
nightbear wrote...
What an interesting lens, I think the small man that wanted the huge ring is really interesting, wonder what he was trying to prove. Great job
Posted December 01, 2008
Energies of Creation
Fetching RSS feed... please stand byRiverStone Gallery Info
Fetching RSS feed... please stand by
