Van Dyke Jewelry and Fine Craft Blog

Here is a great example of how dim I can be.

For years I have heard customers tell me that they can never find an Asheville jeweler who will work on sterling.

I always take in their stories of hardship while shaking  my head gently back and forth with a look of indignation and mild bewilderment.  I then soak up their admiration at my incredible skill set and utter gratitude as I take in their silver jewelry for whatever work it may need done.

My self congratulatory high usually only lasts up to the point when I begin to explain to the customer that it will be very difficult to return the piece with the exact same finish that it now has.  I always say, “Once I put any heat to size it or repair it, the natural patina (the dark patches that form on silver) will disappear and when I re-polish the item it will look very white again.”  Some of my customers find this to be appealing, though most tend to forget this information the instant I give it and their first question upon picking up the item is, “Why does it look different?”.  I gently explain to the latter that it is simply the nature of the repair and that I can try to darken the silver again but it will not be exact and that it will cost more to do.  It is important to note that for most customers this is where their admiration and gratitude begin to wan.

This tends to be a nice segue into the cost of the repair.  Nine times out of ten the response I get  is “I did not even pay that much for the piece!”

I will very often smile in a very benign fashion and explain that though silver is less expensive to purchase it takes the same amount of labor, and often times more, to do the same job in gold.  This generally generates a bit of hemming and hawing, sometimes a bit of negotiation, that in the past I have been a real sucker for, and the decision is made to either fix the piece or not.

If so, the true stress usually begins the moment the customer walks out the door.

You see, working on silver is plain old horrible.  It is like spinning a wheel of potential destruction and, no matter how good I might be, the risk is always there.

Silver transfers heat quicker than the firecracker fuses I used to light as a kid.  The ones that would sometimes explode inches from my fingers for not withdrawing quickly enough once ignited. This means that gemstones are always at risk of cracking or changing color with even the simplest repair.

Silver is faked more often than gold.  That means it may look, smell and even taste like silver, but it ain’t. If that’s the case the best I can hope for after putting heat to it is a coherent blob of material that vaguely resembles what the customer once had.

Silver tends to be put together with less skill, an array of solders, and generally is not assembled with the intent of it EVER being fixed, changed, adjusted or even looked at closely.  This means I can do everything right and still have whatever it is come apart at it’s seams.

I have not even come to the part where I am dumb yet. Are you ready?  I risk my reputation with every silver repair I take in.  Whether they are long time faithful compatriots, or a new and fresh faced customer I am gambling every single time.   I risk all this for what?!?  Ego?  20 dollars? The challenge?

In the past all of the above. Among others. The fact is that this week I had three silver jobs blow up in my face. One fell apart, one was not silver (and looked like I blew my nose on it after trying for an hour to resurrect it) and the third was one of those, “Why does it look different?”

I think I am done with it.  I will have to work on my look of pity when customers come to me with a silver repair but instead of taking it in, tell them I felt the same way when I tried to find someone to fix my vacuum cleaner.

Stop in Van Dyke Jewelry and Fine Craft  and chat with Chris (he is a great talker) and check out all the local Asheville Crafts we have to offer.  Feel free to leave your silver repairs, I am still doing them……for now.