from idea to finished jewel

Part of the pleasure of goldsmithing is the wide variety of expertise needed to realize a jewel: dreaming, designing and drafting, engineering, and hands-on bench work. For people like me who thrive on variety, love the decorative arts, and enjoy working with their hands, it’s the ideal calling.

First comes the idea, the seed, the germ. These materialize most often when I’m between sleep and wakefulness, inspired by gems, memories of patterns in nature, ancient and antique jewelry, architecture, or even by archeology. I try to quickly jot these flashes down, to not forget them. I have hundreds of sketches filed away, and I must sadly acknowledge that most will never even get attempted.

Once I commit to materializing an idea, I design and draft all the jewel’s various views and proportions. I work out designs using Adobe Illustrator and am consistently dazzled by this software’s precision and unlimited capabilities. A friend started me off with a few lessons, and the rest I have very slowly taught myself with a helping hand from Google. Before I began tackling this new skill, I figured I could either take the time to learn to jewelry rendering with painted gouache, or spend about the same time learning vector graphics. I obviously decided the latter was more practical, although I do adore traditional jewelry renderings and really admire its practitioners. Someday….

The engineering phase comes into play when I figure out how to actually build these designs and make them work on the human body, operated by human hands. My teacher Hans Hoestebrock is an incredible jewelry engineer, and has taught me so much. How the tiniest sliver of metal can secure a clasp. The value of friction, spring, and a very tight fit. How to build a tongue at the correct length and thickness to have just the right amount of spring. How to weave a chain pattern. How to create hooks that are secure without being too stiff or too tiny to latch and hold. How to make a tight, smoothly-operating hinge. This is often puzzle solving at its best. I make prototypes in silver, uncovering a particular design’s unique fabrication, and learning how to advance it from 2D to 3D. Often, before starting fabrication, the order in which the steps need to be completed is not obvious, so this can be determined during prototype building. Also, I can ascertain the exact quantity of raw materials needed, to alloy, mill, and draw all the metal the project needs from the outset. Prototype building answers all those questions and often poses new ones, so I can work out most issues before committing to the final gold or platinum.

With a satisfactory prototype completed and all the specs figured out, I can begin to fabricate the jewel. Enter hand craftsmanship. Jewelry making is a lot like playing a musical instrument. Wielding jewelry tools requires a certain level of proficiency, although, like musical instruments, it’s impossible to completely master them all. The fundamental hand skills needed are: sawing, filing, shaping with pliers, shaping with hammers, drilling and carving with a motorized rotary tool like a Flexshaft, soldering and fusing with a jeweler’s torch, and the long road to polishing. Each tool has its learning curve—how to properly hold it, wield it, and the fine motor skills to make it sing. I have found that most jewelers pick one skill to master and specialize in. My teacher has incredible filing skills and considers filing to be the cornerstone of goldsmithing. I love to file, but I especially enjoy soldering and fusing. But I don’t think I’ve truly mastered any of these skills!

The whole jewelry making process is a great, complicated, and fully immersive joy! What propelled my pursuit is my delight in being a beginner at all times in life, what the Buddhists call the beginner’s mind. The only way to learn something new is to accept being incompetent for a very long time. My greatest strength may be my acceptance of ineptitude: I never beat myself up for my lack of progress, I’m very patient, and just really enjoy the journey to expertise. I don’t put much faith in talent—rather in passion and tenacity. Malcolm Gladwell’s theory of 10,000 hours is correct: If you spend the time, you will eventually master a new field. Goldsmithing offers such a fulfilling way to immerse yourself in design, craft, and the endless ways to be a beginner.