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Welcome to the GuiltTrips podcast. I'm your host, Kendra Lockhart. As a goldsmith and

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gemologist, I'll be speaking 24 carat on all things jewelry, metals, and gems. Join

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me plus a few friends to demystify both materials and designs as your private jeweler. Let's

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tune in on these topics and get golden. As a goldsmith, there's a part of me that is

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up for the challenge of finding a solution in real time in an unfamiliar situation. And

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that's the beauty of being somebody who's proficient at repairing people's treasures.

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The part of repair that we don't love is when we have gotten a little too much hubris, curiosity,

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confidence, or simply found out the not so easy way that our big idea did not solve the

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problem. Today I'm going to discuss all the different ways that I was led into the world

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of repair work and all the times it's best to lead yourself out of that conversation.

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So let's begin. Throughout my career as a salesperson, especially in the beginning,

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it wasn't my job to architect how we were going to fix things. Either it was straightforward

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enough that you could tell the client, this is doable, here's how much it's going to

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cost, and then take it to the goldsmith or the jeweler and simply leave it for them

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to complete. In other situations, it's not as straightforward. If the repair artist

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is there at the time, you may step away from the conversation with the owner of the item

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and ask a few questions. Sometimes you'll have to be told what you're seeing or not

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seeing because you're not going to be the one working on it. Other times you'll think

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you have an idea on how this could be executed, promise the customer, leave it for the goldsmith,

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and get the bad news that it's not going to work and have to make that phone call. Now

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these are all possibilities when you are not at the jewelry bench. What happens when you

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are and find yourself in the role of not only being the person who has to complete the task,

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but partner with the sales associate who has set the expectations or is passing the communication

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along to you from its original wearer. I'm going to cover 10 different types of repair

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work that were best being turned away, ones that definitely burned me, and a few that

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my colleagues were kind enough to say, hey kid, don't ever try this, learn from my mistakes.

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How did I get started in the work of repairing? It certainly didn't happen when I was a designer

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and there's no business on the jewelry bench for somebody who's on the showroom floor.

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It started as an assessment test for my goldsmithing apprenticeship. One of the first auditions

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quote unquote was a silver band and I was told, create sizings on this until you can't

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use any more. Now I had already known from school that you want to keep sizings as far

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apart from each other as possible. So if my first sizing was at the 12 o'clock mark on

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the ring, the next one was at the 6 o'clock. And then I stepped down as far as solder temperature

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and trying a 3 o'clock and then 9 o'clock and so on and so on. I think I got to 7 sizings

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before the ring fell apart because every time you have to size a ring, you have to heat

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it up. Every time you're adding heat, you're putting high temperature back through all

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of your previous work. I wasn't aware that this was a test and I got to the point where

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the ring fell apart. Owner who was in charge of my apprenticeship said, why didn't you

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stop sooner? And I said because you said size this until you can't. And he said it was more

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about you figuring out your can't than pushing it until the ring experienced metal fatigue

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or all of the work just fell apart. It seems like a dick move and it can fall in the category

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of hazing the new kid, but it was a valuable lesson to awaken my intuition and ask myself

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when do I wear out before the item I'm working on wears out. Another challenge as far as

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repair work that I was given was here's a bunch of castings and I want you to size them

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to the appropriate ring size for each of the orders and here's 30 minutes but I'm taking

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the clock away. You need to finish all seven of them in 30 minutes. I'm coming back. Insert

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diabolical laughter. This is when you have to get creative not just with your time management

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but with your own cadence and finding a rhythm. Fortunately, he had left the radio on and

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back then songs were about three and a half minutes long. For the most part, I had another

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form of clock. Was I able to finish the task in the 30 minutes? Yes, much to his amazement.

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Did I ever tell him what my trick was? Absolutely not. The last test as far as the repair hazing

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practice was I was given a white gold ring and asked to size it. He had said it was already

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annealed and when I began working on it, it wouldn't budge. It was impossible to hammer

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it up on the mandrel to its finished ring size before we were going to sand prep and

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polish. At some point, I gave it to one of the other goldsmiths and said, I can't get

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this to move. It's stuck at size seven. It's got to go to a seven and three quarters. And

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that goldsmith put it on a ring stretcher and cranked it. I passed along that it had

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been annealed because that's what I was told. And when he put it on the ring stretcher,

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it created cracks. So we took it to the owner and the owner in another gotcha move said,

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just because I said I annealed it, you should have checked to see if it truly was. You should

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have re annealed it if it wasn't behaving properly. Don't just go off of what I said,

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go off of what the metal is telling you. So those were my three less than glamorous introductions

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into the world of repair. And thankfully, I've covered a lot of ground since then.

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The first ring that shouldn't have been repaired was gold that was overworked. Now that can

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mean a couple different things. That it's got metal fatigue, that the shank is worn

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too thin, that it's been bent too many times, is out of round, or that you can tell it's

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been through a lot of hands of a lot of jewelers. If you lightly flame a ring, sometimes former

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sizing marks in areas where work was done will show up. There was a ring from a client

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named Tracy, and it had already been sized three times, and now was severely bent because

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the gold was so thin, one from where, and two from sanding and polishing each time the

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ring had been fixed as far as the cracks in the band. This was definitely an opportunity

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not to try again, and unfortunately, I was young, I decided to hero it, and it was that

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last sizing that pulled all the other ones apart and cost me having to get fresh metal

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and create a new half shank for her. I had quoted $40 for the repair. I ended up spending

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$100 in materials plus my time plus my labor. The second item that I got to witness a colleague

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turn down was a Frankenstein ring. This was something that hadn't been casted up with

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any sort of integrity, rather it was more like leftovers. A bunch of strange parts were

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being assembled. For example, it was a band that had a hole drilled through the center

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so that a head with a peg could be inserted, but the side stones were old necklace brackets

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that were soldered on top of a ring that was rounded so they didn't even fit right. They

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were just flat bottoms sitting on top of a curve like a speed bump. Definitely an exercise

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in creativity, but certainly not in any sort of structural soundness. So when a client approached

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my colleague and said, I'm really hoping that this ring can go up three sizes, not only

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was the ring done incorrectly the first time when it was originally created, there was

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absolutely no way that alone that I could support any more work, much less the sizing

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of three sizes up as a three stone ring. So that's when he decided to make the call and

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say this is 100% going to go badly and I can't do it. What I can do is take your gold in

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on trade and we can remake the ring the proper way so that you can have multiple sizing opportunities

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for the life of the piece, including if you decide to heirloom this and hand this down

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to other family members. It was an excellent conversation and pivot where not only did

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the client still get the solution of this is not my size, but I love my ring. You probably

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love the gemstones even more than you love the metal mounting, but also to foster that

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trust and that ability to be advised as a client because he's telling you you're going

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to have this for years, not months if we do it this way and work on it. The third repair

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that you really want to stay away from and I've seen this as far as witnessing because

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the only watches I polish are my own is an overpolished watch. Oftentimes, if you don't

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send it back to the factory or the original maker, you're taking a risk as far as the

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quality of the refurbishing. Steel is soft and it scratches up pretty easily. Even if

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it's a gold watch, you're really going to want to send it back to the original maker

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or the primary creator simply because they have experience. Let's take Rolex for example.

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If they produce a million watches a year, they know exactly how they're polishing that

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same component a million times to their own factory specs and quality assurances. Now if

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you give it to me, I've polished two Rolexes in my life and I might not get the edging

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and squaring up the sidewalls just so. What if Rolex has different equipment and better

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polishing machines such as a flat lap and here I am playing around with what I've got. Suppose

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I'm trying to bring a knife to the gunfight of how Rolex would do it. It's important

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to not work on an overpolished watch especially if the client is hoping for resale value because

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if you break the wrong edges, it takes money off the table.

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The fourth repair to take a pass on is if you're working on something where the diamond,

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usually the center stone or a sizable side stone is chipped. Even if you take it in and

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you call it out and you show the client and you got images and whatnot, stay away. The

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stone is already damaged. Anything you do to it certainly can't improve the condition.

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And the hard part about being away from your ring is that the memory isn't reliable and

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when you return it to the client and I've witnessed this in a showroom, they don't remember the

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chip being that obvious and that big and now it comes down to a false accusation of your

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work ethics and your talent and your ability and your integrity. You chipped my diamond

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more. You're already the enemy. What are you going to do? Are you going to show them photos?

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Are you going to get your millimeter measurement out? Are you going to say but you signed off

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that I assume no risk whatsoever? It's a downward spiral. So just say no upfront.

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If you've ever had to enamel something, you know that if you screw it up, you better end

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up drilling it all out and starting fresh. If you come across a repair that has cracked

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enamel, putting more enamel on top of it and refusing it, whether it's cold enamel or heat

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activated enamel, it's not going to go well. It's not going to look right. The colors won't

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match. The textures won't match. You run the risk of creating an uneven surface. This is

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another situation where you're better off passing on it and letting the client trust

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that you have discernment than to just say yes to everything. If you don't have a strong

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no, then you're not going to have a strong yes. And those zones need to be really obvious

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and clear in the world of repair, not just for yourself, but for the clients as well.

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Nothing is more irritating than giving up your ring for repair, getting it back, having the

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repair work fail and having to turn it back into the shop and being away from it again.

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For the repair artist, oftentimes if you have to redo a repair, it's free of charge. So

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now you're losing time and you're not making money and you could have done it right the

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first time, but now you're doing it over. And we hope that the second time is the winner.

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Taking in a crazed opal or an opal with cracks through it is a losing battle. Even if you

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decided I'm not really going to work on it, let me just polish this up. It's fragile enough

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that once those crackles are running through a stone, even the vibration of a polishing

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machine could worsen the condition. This is a situation where even if gemstones aren't

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part of your goldsmithing repertoire, loop these stones, meaning put them under magnification,

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do your diligence. And if there's anything that even strikes you as mildly problematic,

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take it off your plate. Hand it back and say that you're not comfortable with the risk

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associated with this repair. Next, clients will ask you to do things that

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are fantastical in nature. One of the requests that a client had for me was, I left my pearls

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on a table, I knocked over some wine, and now they're stained. Can you bleach these

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for me? Now that seems simple enough. We're all familiar with bleaching stains out of

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things. We all know that pearls are porous. However, that doesn't mean that grabbing

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a cup of Clorox and putting somebody's precious necklace in there is the best of ideas. If

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the pearls are stained, this is a time to take it to somebody, again, who's been doing

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this hundreds of times and is an expert versus you giving it a good college try. And let's

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not forget, most pearls are on knotted or unknotted silk, which is a fabric that's going to break

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down in harsh chemicals. Overly tarnished sterling. Now this is something

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that's great as a do it yourself project on a rainy day, if it's your own stuff. And there

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are plenty of hacks out there. You can get on YouTube nowadays and find all of the little

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tricks and tips. But bringing overly tarnished jewelry into a jewelry store and asking for

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it to be polished is really a waste of time. And the cost won't be justified. There's

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simply too much labor put into bringing it up to a reasonable level of shine. If it's

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hyper oxidized, there are ways to take that down a few levels and then present it to a

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jeweler. The last jeweler I know, who had to restore overly tarnished jewelry back to

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its original condition was so upset with the project that he charged $250 a piece. That's

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more than the amount of sterling as jewelry that the object was in the first place.

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Costume jewelry. This is a mixed bag because you really don't know how it's going to behave.

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Sometimes you get lucky. It's a quick fix with some crazy glue and you're out the door

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because it's just plastic on plastic. Other times, costume jewelry really hasn't been

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assembled the way that your jeweler slash goldsmith brain works. So you're the wrong

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tool for the job. There was a woman who brought in all of her costume jewelry to me and said,

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I'll do anything. I don't care what the cost is. I'm madly in love with these pieces,

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etc, etc. The jump rings aren't closed. These aren't held together in any specific order

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that makes sense. The components are fragile and breakable because they're synthetics

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and they're cheaper materials. Your best solution is to just have a complete straight

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talk with yourself and guide the client to do the same. Either find somebody who specializes

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in repairing nonprecious jewelry or understand that this jewelry was not built to last and

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is fast fashion, which means it's time to let it go and dispose of it.

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My intention for this episode was to pay it forward, just like my colleagues and trainers

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did for me. Learn from our mistakes, make better choices, and in the end, serve the client

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and foster that relationship.