Nice To Have Your Own Goldsmith

It’s the dreaded dog days of summer here in paradise and I’m fortunate my workshop is humming along as usual doing summer repairs for locals who choose to hide and rarely venture outside during season. I’m also doing the accumulated March and April restoration work for my seasonal clients.

We take in a lot of work at the season’s end from folks who simply wait until the last minute to bring in big projects or complicated work and expect it to be done the same day or overnight. Call it wishful thinking!

Many explain to me they meant to come in earlier during season but enjoying paradise for the several months they have been here simply got in the way and they forgot or kept putting it off. Needless to say, we take in a boatload of repairs and custom work in the months of March and April. Problem is that every Tom, Dick, and Harriet needs it completed “before we leave this Friday” and today is Wednesday! Unfortunately for these lost souls, I’m usually out of miracles by March and doing the impossible takes a bit longer than overnight …Well, nearly impossible. 

Even with two full-time goldsmith/bench jewelers, including yours truly, we can get swamped with work and hip deep in the weeds. We do our best to please and are usually able to push out the simple stuff in the limited time allotted to us.

Repairing fine jewelry in general, and especially restoring worn-out jewelry is, for the most part, an art form that takes time to do it right. It requires many years of experience, and the end result is a highly skilled bench jeweler(s). I can assure you that skilled goldsmiths are hard to find, and they do not work for minimum wages. (Fixing silver or plated or costume jewelry is actually a more specialized acquired skill set!)

Why most people expect my repair shop to function like a fast food drive-thru never ceases to amaze me! We are talking about working with expensive platinum, gold, diamond and precious gemstone jewelry here; I’m not molding silly putty, inserting it into an E-Z bake Ken and Barbie jewelry repair oven… Ding!

I’m blessed that my long time regular clientele are understanding and will leave restoration or complicated projects for us to do until they return to the island or Naples next November or so.

I have noticed the old island exodus pattern has re-emerged like it was before the frequent hurricanes and Covid epidemics occurred. In the past, every Easter or Mother’s Day weekend was like a starting pistol went off and the island would empty more than half of its occupants. It seemed like the island pops up three inches by May! 

So many stories to tell about people who freak out when a cherished piece of jewelry will fail them somehow. It’s a fact of life…things break, and jewelry is no exception. 

Take the traumatized teenager who brought in a gold chain that broke because it was as fine as a human hair… “Why did it break? Can you fix it and guarantee it won’t happen again?” Or the couple who acted like they lost a loved one because they were missing diamonds the size of a no-see-ums kneecap that fell out of a cruise ship special ring a week after they purchased it. Why did it fall out? What can you do to ensure it never happens again?

I love it when some folks leave great granny’s worn-out diamond ring telling me to please restore it! “It’s very sentimental, money is no object.” Yeah, right! Later, I tell them how much it will actually cost to do the restoration and soon find out that Granny’s ring isn’t that sentimental any longer!

You have probably heard my stories about folks telling me to fix gold rings with brass or platinum rings with silver to save money. The result is destroying their fine jewelry, and I answer them with a resounding… NO, I don’t do that! The ones who expect a ten-dollar watch battery to last a lifetime are my favorite 

The worst thing for a bench jeweler to accept is a D.I.Y. home jewelry repair covered in glue or worse, lead solder. Second worst is repairing a badly repaired article butchered by an inexperienced or self-proclaimed “jeweler.” These “quick fix it” booths you see in some malls come to mind. I have on many occasions had to repair their repair work.

It all comes down to integrity and experience. Please allow me to toot my own horn. I have been designing, creating, restoring, and repairing all kinds of jewelry ranging from priceless ancient museum pieces to the finest quality jewelry. Sometimes, it’s grandma’s sentimental costume pieces, even outright tourist or carnival junk jewelry, for over 50 years now. My two in-store goldsmiths have over 70 years combined experience and countless five-star reviews on our professionalism, skill, and fair pricing, which in itself in today’s world speaks volumes.

If it’s broken, now’s the time to fix it!

During the off season months, it’s a good time to get your repairs and things done, and please take advantage of the repair discount coupon in this paper.