With Computer Assisted Design and 3D Printers–Jewelry Design is changing—does this mean that jewelers can no longer make a living by creating their jewelry by hand? Does this mean the end of brick and mortar jewelry stores? The end of “Handcrafted?”
In March, I attended the MJSA conference, which is a jewelry manufacturing show, where vendors demonstrate the latest and greatest gadgets to make your jewelry. They also had on site workshops and demonstrations. It was here where a well regarded guru presenter told us that unless we learned CAD-CAM, we would never be able to make a living being a bench jeweler. (CAD-CAM is a jewelry design computer program that offers 3-D imaging in a very realistic form that looks like a photo of a real piece of jewelry).
He also said we would also need to invest in a 3-D Printer to create wax designs to send off to have cast–you can make one or thousands of the same design. Wait—What????
Not only that, but he said jewelry stores will be obsolete. Soon, most will buy jewelry on line or in big box stores.
WOW! And the person sitting next to me confirmed that she closed her jewelry store in NY and she showed me her 3D designs–she sells her jewelry online in this way. They looked like real pieces–and she said they don’t even exist—yet. A customer would order it, and she would promise it to them in 3 weeks–it gets sent off to be cast, and a jeweler would then finish it off (polish, set the stone, and so forth).
Wow again! I sat there, very deflated. I don’t want to do CAD CAM. I don’t want to send a computer design, I want to hand design something–to create a piece of art by hand. I want to take the sheet of metal, and saw, hammer, shape, form, file, sand, solder and manipulate the hell out of it, to come up with something different.
I can’t put my soul into a computer program.
I can’t put my soul into a computer program. I can only put my soul in a piece that I worked from beginning to end. I don’t want to make a thousand of the same thing.
My pieces are far from perfect–they are not machined–but they have character.
And then the lightbulb
came on over my head…My customer doesn’t want one of a thousand either. My customer wants to be independent, wants to express, is organic, natural, wants art, and will search for the piece that matches her/his personality, mood and sense of style.
Maybe I will never be wealthy as a solo bench jeweler. Maybe I will be among a shrinking group of jewelry artists who make pieces from beginning to end. But what I will have is an artistic soul that will remain intact, and customers who treasure their pieces for what they are….
Lynne Patnode is a jewelry artist whose mission is to create wearable jewelry art from Nature’s most beautiful stones, sea glass, and artifacts. She also creates glass art jewelry to emulate nature’s beauty. Her website is SilverSpiral Creations
SilverSpiral Creations Old Blog 
I’m not ready for this century. I like handmade, home grown, home cooked, real, genuine – things that take time, heart and soul. Thank goodness for artists like you who will remain true to the craft.
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This hits home for a lot of artists; it’s bittersweet. Hopefully, there will always be people who appreciate handcrafted art.
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Wow. Handmade does have so much soul. And your pieces really exemplify the beauty of handmade. You’d think that if someone had to send something off for mass casting, at least the customer would get it super quick! Ha! And I guess if you wanted something special created, it wouldn’t be possible. I think that the handmade movement breaths life and respect into artisan-created pieces, so I think that there will always be beautiful, soulful handmade pieces. I love work that shows the artist’s hand and the artist’s mind. I think artisan craft shows will hopefully always be a good place to find handmade work. Or, people can come directly to the maker’s studio for an even more up-close experience.
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I so agree. I’m tired tired tired of everything that’s computer generated and the same as a million other things. I want to see the artist’s hand, the mistakes, the little personal touches, the work that goes into handcrafting an item from start to finish. I want to know that it’s an original piece made by a human.
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