Welcome on board! One of the most interesting things about the jewelry field is that there are so many specialties, so many contexts that one can choose to work in. We have contemporary jewelry field. There are so many ways of becoming prosperous if your goal to grab the proper opportunity. There are some broad categories with various remunerative implications. Choosing a training path is a matter of listing your goals in life, of deciding how you wish to live, what responsibilities, pressures and degree of self direction and independence you have.

Whether you choose to become a jewelry store owner, artist jeweler, well paid stone setter or sales manager is a matter of temperament as much as anything else. From starting to end-point, only the objective will decide the route to take you on comfortable ways with your life choices. It does not matter what you opt if you are conscious about it. Any combination of rewards is possible in the field, especially with our company. It is important to have joy from your career, your profession, your life. Some paths will mean late nights and short vacations for a long time, others will bring local or national respect, and still others will have steady income and low responsibility.  Various specialties we offer for the following categories:

GOLDSMITH

Can work with any material, knows construction.
Can work for someone else making jewelry or for oneself; usually with a broad range of abilities.
Can make anything seen in standard jewelry stores; as an independent may market work through own store or through galleries and jewelry stores.
High end markets are possible. As an independent a goldsmith may be a custom jeweler.

CUSTOM/SPECIAL ORDER JEWELER

Both employed and self employed people who work directly with the public or within a trade shop are invited.
They often interact directly with customers and create one-of-a-kind individualized work for them. This is a job which combines skills in goldsmithing/wax/model making, design, rendering, and psychology, pricing, selling and negotiating. This too is where some art school educated jewelers end up as well as goldsmiths. Many continue their education through the quality workshops and short courses offered across accredited Universities.

MANUFACTURER

Anything from small production runs to mass production, from service work for others to marketing one’s own line.

ARTIST JEWELER

Itself a wide range of options, this option is for risk takers who like to think of themselves as artists, who can handle independence and hard work with a long range view of returns.
There are wide open niches in intangible work and high end work. The market of world is quite straightforward, and improving in the United States.

FASHION JEWELER

A person who designs and makes jeweler and accessories which dove-tail to the fashion industry, lines, colors, time of year and so on. It requires a flair for PR, design, audience understanding and good business sense. Materials need not be costly with very big returns if done well. For the right person, this is a lucrative career in today’s world.

DESIGNER

Someone who designs jewelry through renderings, drawings, models or even waxes originals. May be employed by a company or self employed. It is not necessary to know how to make the jewelry, just how it is made.

CRAFTS JEWELRY MAKER

A maker who markets through craft fairs and gallery-stores, usually with a line of hand-made, unique or low production run pieces. Can be anything from a single person to eventually a company employing a hundred people are needed. The context is crafts, hand work, made by people.

PRODUCTION BENCH WORKER

A goldsmith is needed who specializes in production work, anything from running a punch press, a computer-milling station to repetitive hand work. Not usually high status work.

REPAIR PERSON

A man who specializes in repairs has often the best way of starting and learning jewelry skills and the basis of many a successful jewelry business. May be employed by a store or have one’s own service business or retail outlet.

STONE SETTER

A secure employed position or a service company for jewelry stores and goldsmiths; a good setter earns very well and is well respected.

STORE OWNER/MANAGER

This is where the income lies highest, at the retail end of the chain. It requires good business skills and hard work, commitment and a great deal of money to do. Many owners however came to this point from goldsmithing bench jobs originally. Note mark-ups in the industry can be hefty with triple keystone a standard in the United States.

WAX CARVER

This is a specialist career for you requiring few tools and easier in some ways than a full goldsmithing training. A good wax carver may be employed or earn fifty dollars an hour or more doing freelance work and commissioned pieces.

OTHER SPECIALIZED CAREERS

Caster: Possibilities include employment or a service company. Good prospects for an aggressive small company.

Gemologist/Appraiser: Usually an employed position, some options for independent service work. Training and equipment costs can be high. Diamonds are a specialized sub-section of gemology.

Gun Engraver: often linked with hand engraving this can be a specialized service work.

Hand Engraver: This profession has almost gone. It is not hard to learn, merely requiring a great deal of practice. A good hand engraver can make a lot of money in service work for the industry because of its rarity. In Calgary the last city hand engraver offered to train someone for free to take over from him-but only a serious, committed hard working person. After several years of fruitless search he withdrew the offer and retired. This is really a definite career option with respect for the work and a lack of competition for you.

Knife Maker/Cutler: a good one can earn for a knife to make. Training and practice usually through blacksmithing or knife groups. Today sometimes called ‘blade smith’. Lots of makers out there, look at knife magazines like ‘Blade’ to see what work has the best return.

Lapidary: This person may cut cabochon, faceted stones or carve gem materials. It can range from re-cutting jobs to unique sculptures in carved gems. Some lapidaries develop such a name for themselves that their work is worth many times any material value because of who cut it. Diamond cutting is a special field requiring intensive training.

Model maker: a goldsmith specializing in making original metal models. Often an employed position it is the highest level of goldsmithing in many ways. Generally, linked with the larger operations, though often goldsmiths are called on to make models in smaller companies. As an independent service career it is difficult to compete with wax models.

Plater: Short training, an employed position. There is some opportunity for independent service workers here. Requires well marketing skills to find customers but demand is always steady. Few companies outside large cities would have enough work to employ a plater full time.

Polisher: an employed position in North America, some find it monotonous, others find the concentration pleasant. Some room for independent service work in larger cities.

Production Manager: well paid, requires long experience in the trade and jobs are easier to come.

Rubber Mold Maker: usually an employed position in a factory, plenty of room for independent service work in small to large cities; requires marketing skills.

Silversmith: another almost extinct career but because of that some good options for independent service or original work, requires good marketing skills and probably training in Art School. It makes large scale objects in silver and gold, hollowware, cutlery and so on.

Teacher: the route would be through art schools and industry experience, long training with some room for employed and independent service work.

Watchmaker: a specialized field. Most watches are now quartz and require only minimal skills to change batteries or movements. True watch making is dying out and this means that for a highly motivated skilled

Watchmaker/goldsmith there is very well paying opportunities.

Computer Operator: coming soon and already here in some places are computer driven machines which carve wax, build up plastic models, and harden plastic models from liquids, mill steel molds for wax or plastics injection. All of these are intended for casting. There will be an increasing place in the field of goldsmithing and jewellery production for people who understand goldsmithing and computers.

SALES ORIENTED CAREERS

Allied services sales agent: giftware, packaging, display, security, insurance, bookkeeping etc: self explanatory, selling to jewelry stores, subject to the vagaries of the economy.

Diamond Dealer: it helps to have family and connections. Sales agent or travelling representative: represents manufacturer’s lines to jewelry stores, pay commensurate with skill and lines chosen. Some room for a self motivated person.

Sales Staff: employed by jewelry stores, pay is low to good depending upon the store and skills. A very high end store will have the best pay opportunities. It is a good way to learn something of the business of running a jewelry store, particularly in a smaller business where many jobs are expected of one.

Shop manager: well paid, usually worked up through the ranks from sales staff.

Stone Dealer: can be employed and represent a company, often a place for independents. You have to like travel and have good skills. Income can be very rewarding.
Skills needed to be a goldsmith with options for your own jewelry store. some areas may be subcontracted (e.g. mold making) but at least some experience with everything is wise.

• Sewing, piercing, filing
• Jewelry repair
• Polishing and finishing
• Layout, measuring, fitting and construction
• Soldering, soldered construction and fabrication, complex construction in wire and sheet
• Stone setting (bezels, prongs, channel, constructing settings, bright cutting, bead)
• Making unique pieces and model-making for production
• Catches, findings, and mechanisms
• Wax working and carving
• Casting, metallurgy, alloys and alloy calculations
• Molds and rubber mold making and cutting
• Rendering, drawing for customers, photography of jewelry