What It Once Was

I know I sound like a broken record (and by the way, vinyl records are making a comeback) but I miss the good old days when life was less complicated. No cell phones or internet…I even hated it when I wore a beeper, and that was more aggravating than having your cell phone blown up all day by scammers and other nonsense able B.S. I swear I spend more time blocking phone numbers than I do talking on my cell! And what the heck happened to having an “unlisted phone number?”

Remember having only three or four TV stations, and when UHF came along you got two more! Wow! That was some technology back then! Today I have 10,000+ available stations that include apps inside of more apps, broadband, satellite and cable combined and I still can’t find anything interesting to watch!

That also includes how we, or at least myself, do business nowadays. I get dozens of folks who see something “online” and want me to create it better, slightly different and of course cheaper. My answer is usually “you found it online, buy it online!” It is impossible for any jeweler to duplicate most of this stuff and be cheaper. Most online jewelry is like what Home Shopping TV was like years ago…only on steroids. Order now to avoid being disappointed, only 1,500 rings left!

I have to admit when someone shows me the “pic” on their phone of a ring or whatever they found online, it at least gives me an idea of one’s taste and style. For one thing, I don’t appreciate someone copying my designs and I refrain from copying someone else’s design. I can’t count how many times people have come in wanting me to duplicate a Cartier or Tiffany piece expecting me to create it for less. I often ask how much are they asking? $46,500. Oh that’s a lot of money… it will cost you $47,500 if I do it so I suggest you buy theirs (That pretty much nips things in the bud and now I can go back and sit down at my bench and get back to creating my own stuff).

The past can also come back to haunt me. About a decade or so ago “invisible set diamond jewelry” was the rage. This style was done with small square diamonds set in rows like tongue and groove wood flooring. That way of doing invisible set diamonds was the right way. Once some overseas manufacturers found out about the popularity, they found a cheaper and easier way to create the same look by eliminating cutting the tongue and groove in the diamonds by just squeezing them in. The term invisible set diamonds was well named, until simply wearing the article caused them to fall out - and fall out they did, just by simply cleaning them. Heaven forbid you alter the ring size - it becomes a 52 pickup! I can’t tell you how many diamonds I have had to replace for free in the past decade because of that #@* altered design.

In most cases jewelry from the good old days was simply made better; gold was way cheaper than it is today so there was no need to “lighten things up” to make things more affordable to the general population. I laugh when folks buy some jewelry off the internet and when they receive it… gee this is not what I expected, it’s much smaller than the “pic” and it weighs next to nothing. Most of today’s super lightweight hollow gold jewelry is very poor quality; it will dent just handling it and best to avoid buying, especially chains or bracelets that fall apart in only months. 

Hollow jewelry is nothing new - it’s how hollow or thin is where the quality factor comes to play. (All hollow jewelry has air inside instead of being solid.) Many earrings and contemporary pieces from the 1970s and 1980s were created from a process called electroforming. This was an expensive way to make jewelry that looked heavy but was incredibly lightweight; this is an important factor in earring design because heavy gold earrings are uncomfortable. Electroforming was a revolutionary idea where a wax design was dipped into a copper or silver solution that coated the wax model. The next step was a sophisticated scientific liquid gold plating process involving several layers of pure gold - 14kt. to 24kt. - that plated the wax to a desired thickness. The wax was then melted out from a tiny hole in the electroformed piece leaving air where the wax once was (Imagine an egg with nothing inside). The result was a large piece of jewelry with a high polish that was a remarkable lightweight “shell” that resisted being dented when handled properly and could be polished bright.  

The Italian goldsmiths have been creating hollow jewelry for centuries and some can be seen in museums even today. Many of their creations wore well over the years, and some did not.

I won’t even entertain the thought of repairing today’s light weight hollow jewelry - it’s like putting a flame to tissue paper. The resulting “repair” is not pretty. 

It’s apparent the 2023 season has already arrived so let’s all try to be nice and remember, “a little courtesy won’t kill you.” Especially while driving on the island.