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Bench Jeweler Memes
From the makers of Bench Jeweler Memes, this podcast dives into the chaos, comedy, and the pain of life at the jewelers bench. Stories, struggles, and laughs straight from the jewelry industry. Join us as we discuss all facets of this ever evolving trade!
Bench Jeweler Memes
#28: Critter the Designer, The Jewelry Industry's Most Unexpected & Unhinged Creator!
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This week we finally have a guest on the show. His name is Jake… and yes, we know another Jake… but the internet knows him as “Critter the Designer.”
His social media content caught us completely off guard last year—in the best way possible. It’s hilarious, chaotic, and just the right amount of unhinged… which obviously means he fits right in with us.
We talk about how Jake got his start in the jewelry industry, beginning with wire wrapping, Signet, and grinding through trade work before eventually opening his own shop. Now he’s running the place and somehow convincing apprentices to learn the craft instead of fleeing the bench.
It’s a great conversation about the grind, the transition from hustling to running a shop, and the strange personalities that seem to thrive in this industry.
Basically: a bunch of jewelers talking shop, telling stories, and realizing we’re all a little bit weird.
Follow us on Instagram & YouTube @benchjewelermemes
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Alright.
SPEAKER_02What? A lot of noise going on. I'm probably gonna have to just pick up this microphone because it's gonna drive me crazy in and down.
unknownAlright.
SPEAKER_02Well, good morning, Brad. Morning. Guess what? What? We have a we have an awesome guest this morning, finally. We do. I think everyone's tired of just hearing me and you ramble about random stuff.
SPEAKER_01I know I'm tired of rambling about random stuff.
SPEAKER_02So now we get to listen to somebody else ramble about random stuff, right? That's right. Well, we mentioned it last week, and our buddy already let it loose on his Instagram channel.
SPEAKER_01If you you rapidly growing Instagram, as it should, which we'll get to in just a second.
SPEAKER_02But um, it's another uh fun day here in the shop, and we are joined by if you follow him on Instagram as you should, his name is Critter the Designer. But for today we're gonna call him Jake. Jake, welcome to the show, my brother.
SPEAKER_04What's up? Hey guys, thanks y'all, thank y'all for having me.
SPEAKER_02Uh you're welcome. No, thank you for for doing in this because um, I mean, we'll we'll we'll get we'll ramble a little bit because we just want to praise you and highlight you for a second because we think you need way more followers than you have. I know you're on Facebook, Instagram, I don't know if you're on YouTube, but let us know all that stuff info so people can follow you before we get too deep into it.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I got uh it's Critter the Designer on on everything TikTok, Instagram, Facebook. I've got YouTube, but I'm not very good about posting to YouTube. But I feel like uh you gotta have like some really uh educational stuff to be over on YouTube or or or interesting. I don't know, I just haven't quite figured out how that algorithm works.
SPEAKER_02Well, we post on there, so you don't have to be that educational, clearly. You can be so idiotic. But one day, one day people will will see these videos and and maybe, but you know, yeah, we don't put a lot of focus into it. Clearly, it's just audio only. But um man, I don't even remember, I wish I could remember how I found your account. It's definitely been in the last, it was before the holidays, I know it was like last year sometime. But um, I am always uh because we kind of live behind a little bit of a veil, so I secretly admire and appreciate like guys like you and some of the other guys on Instagram who who show your faces a lot more and just have some fun with it because part of me is I think we might get there eventually one day. We're working on it, we're working on it. We're just camera shy. We are but man, we love the the unhinged. I won't I want to say unhinged, but it's just the the content that you're putting out. So I kind of want to we'll we'll circle back to how you actually let's circle back to social media in a minute. Um, I know you put out a video and I know you said TikTok as well. We haven't, we never really got into TikTok, maybe we should have, but we're too late now. But uh you put out a video at least on Instagram, just kind of given like a brief background in your history, and what struck me is I didn't realize you had such a history that started out in signet. But if you want, just to quickly recap just kind of how you even got into the jewelry industry, like from at some point as a young man, you you thought you would make this wise decision to get into the jewelry industry.
SPEAKER_04Uh man, like it I just I I used to go to a lot of music festivals. Uh I don't really go so much anymore, uh, despite you know, being uh having dreads down to my ass and constantly being approached by strangers asking if uh I know where to get some weed. Um you know. That'll do it. I I would I'd sell I'd sell wire wraps and and you know, looking back on them too, they were pretty terrible wire apps. Uh, you know, like there was I got better, definitely got better. But that kind of started in like 2017. Um, and I did the wire app thing for like three years, and my uh my uncle's a bench jeweler. So uh he's he ran a business down here in in my hometown for like 40 years. Um majority of it, you know, he's kind of he was kind of like a stollar jeweler, you know. He he did some custom design stuff, he had casting equipment, but uh a majority of what he was doing, you know, he'd he'd order in mountings for people, set stones. Uh but the the big um the big piece of the pie was was uh wholesale repair. So you know, all the stores in town brought over over their repairs to him, and uh and that's how you know he made a bunch of a bunch of his money, and that guy was backed up, you know, weeks, weeks out. Wow. So I I'd kind of peek around over there, and he's always told me, you know, I tried to get an apprenticeship with him from the get-go, and uh he's like, well, I just don't have that much work right now because it was kind of towards the end of his career and he was trying to slow down, but he he still had a lot, you know. But uh it it takes a lot, and especially working with family. I understand there's no hard feelings. Um and and it all worked out in the end. Uh, but I I just found Signet out there on in Tulsa uh on Indeed, you know.
SPEAKER_02Um yeah, we one of our prank phone calls, they they told us we joked about trying to get a job there, and they were like, Oh, yeah, just uh go on Indeed and we can get you started as an apprentice of one of our prank phone calls.
SPEAKER_04We didn't prank y'all prank phone calls then.
SPEAKER_02Yes, that's too good. It was it was so good. You'll have to go back and find it. I think on YouTube we're trying to get better about just posting just the prank phone calls standalone, so you can go listen, but it was definitely a uh a Cygnet employee, and he was quick to tell us just go on Indeed and you can get a job here.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, and it really is that easy, and you know, as it okay, dude. I I'm a little hard on Cygnet. Like we all know what it is, you know, and and they I mean it it's the fast food of jewelry, like it really is. You know, you you gotta sit down at the bench and you gotta crank out numbers, and they have a probably have a pretty high turnover rate. You know, I saw several apprentices come and go. Uh not several. I saw a few apprentices of come and go over the year that I was there. Several's a little a little bit of a deep cut there. Um but yeah, like I I I just literally put that application in, and you know, I got a call from I guess their recruiter, and uh they asked to see some of my work, and I I at this point I had already I used my uh my you know what we got that stimulus check, and I I bought I I made the leap and I was like, all right, I'm gonna buy everything I need, you know, with this two grand to start fabricating jewelry. Um and so I bought all that stuff, and I mean everything, probably not everything, but I bought a lot. I got a lot of stuff. Uh, and then my uncle gave me a handful of stuff, and uh which I still have and I still use to this day. It's been a good five or six years now.
SPEAKER_02Um so you started to use that like stimulus check just to buy a bunch of equipment, and so that was before the Signet stuff, right?
SPEAKER_04Yeah, yeah. So that was that would have been in 2020. Um, I I was like, all right, I want to do I I I was just on Instagram all the time, you know, and really it was, you know, Nick Noyez and and Nolan McClellan that I was just kind of obsessed with their work, you know. And I at that moment, it was 2020, and I remember making a five-year plan. Um, and the five five-year plan was to be uh engraving in five years. Um 2025 came and came and went. I have the equipment to start, but I do not have the time to like actually learn to do it.
SPEAKER_02Uh dude, hand engraving you want to do hand engraving, I I guess. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's been the that's been the one thing. Yeah, I know. Yeah. If it takes five years to save up one of those laser engravers, I've always been intrigued by hand engravers. It's weird that I love watching them and I kind of wish I could do it, but I still haven't felt the desire to like I want to do that. I think probably because I feel like I'd fail at it. Oh but I'm gonna try to get one of my kids probably to to pick up hand engraving at some point. But it does look I could watch those videos all.
SPEAKER_01I just know I'd get to the last like little bit and just go and just right across the ring and just jack everything up.
SPEAKER_02I think I just um I don't I don't know what this says about me, but there's something about just watching, but also watching the lasers engrave. I'm like, wow, look, it did it in like 45 seconds. And I know it's not the same. I know that's not the same at all, but but have you done any have you are you gonna try to do like uh self-taught hand engraving or are you gonna go do a class somewhere?
SPEAKER_04Um I'll probably I okay with the thing with classes, it's great and all, but if you don't if you don't have a solid standing point, like a solid base knowledge, oh yeah, going in there to absorb, you know, like in a week is that seems like a waste of money to me. So uh it I definitely I would I would like to go see, you know, take a grs class or or uh get into what is it, new new approach school over there. Um but I would really like to to have at least like I'm a shitty engraver and I want to be a good engraver before uh before spending that kind of cash.
SPEAKER_02Got you. Yeah, on I will say, I mean, this is not a I don't want to talk about new approach too long, but what you said is exactly true. But although I do know some who some guys and gals who have gone there for like their whole like 12-week program and come out like again, once you leave there, you still have to go to a shop somewhere, whether it be your house or or a store, and like put all that to use, otherwise it kind of turns into a waste. But I ended up doing because at my old job, you know, when you work at a place where everybody has their role, it's hard to like learn new stuff, and so I was kind of like you know, changing watch batteries, taking in repairs, and then at night I could kind of practice, you know, size and rings, but um I never got to set stones. So even after I opened my shop, which we just hit 10 years uh this month, I still I still didn't, yeah. I mean, thanks. It's honestly we hadn't even taken the time to really like let customers know that we hit our 10-year mark because we've been kind of cooked. They'd be like, Oh, cool. Um, can you replace my battery? Or y'all doing a special for this? Um, so I had to I had to go to a friend to like do all my stone setting, and so after like a couple years, I'm like, this is just getting expensive driving and dropping off, and I'm like, I know I could do it. Long story short, I went to New Approach for like the one-week stone setting class. But it's like you just said, I had a basic knowledge, I just needed to make sure someone taught me the correct way to do it, and so you know, I'm a I'm a proponent of the of the one-week classes at New Approach because they will give you you already have a foundation, and so you'll absorb it way faster than a lot of the students, and then you go home and you're just like, man, now I just want to get to work, and so now I haven't had you know needed help for stone setting in years, but it just gave me the confidence to like all right, this is the correct way to do it, and um, and then you just kind of build on it from there. So I I highly recommend you approach it. If you had never been, it is it is amazing. We'll have somebody on from there at some point, but I don't want to turn this into an infomercial. So I got an unpaid infomercial, an unpaid one full show. Um okay, so I gotta I I didn't want to interrupt, but I have to circle back to the wire wrapping thing because I know when we first started bench jeweler memes like five or six years ago, we uh we definitely took a few stabs at like wire wrappers, and I've kind of left that alone, but but how do you view wire wrapping now versus like five years ago?
SPEAKER_04Um I mean as a gateway, right? Yeah, no, it's a gateway drug, 100%. Yeah, you know. Um you know I have there's no there's some incredible wire wrappers out there that like literally can do things that I've never been able to do. I I I don't feel it's just patience, you know. It's like I don't really think I have the patience to um sit and work on a wire app for as long as I I mean I assume that it takes for for some of these bigger pieces to be made. Um but from a from like a jeweler's standpoint and and not just like an appreciation standpoint, uh I really question you know the test of time on some of those wire wraps, which I mean like I see posts and people talking about oh, this is solid as a rock and I've had it for 10 years and I wear it every day.
SPEAKER_02I will say, yeah, dude, I I'll say when I see the ones that are like really well done, it is kind of impressive. Um we still get people come in occasionally just and they want random. It feels like it's been a lot recently, not a lot, but a couple times recently, people just bring in random stuff and it's like you just and I'm like, I just don't, I don't wire wrap. And they're like, well, can you just try it? I'm like, no, I don't think you I don't think you understand. I do not do it. I do not want to do it, I don't want to try to do it, and I don't want to spend all the time necessary just for it to be two hours later and be like, yeah, it looks like crap. Sorry, can't help you. But now we can just start sending this stuff to uh I'm gonna start sending it to Jake. We'll say we know again.
SPEAKER_04No, no, no, no, no, no. I'll send it to somebody else. You're gonna get buried and basic chained all the way down the line. That's what I was about to say a minute ago. I got a request probably last fall, and and I at I didn't immediately say no. I don't say no to a lot of things, especially like in business and and being as as new as we are, um, which I mean I've been I've been working for myself for three years, but the shop is you know uh what eight months old right now.
SPEAKER_02Um and I tell tell us about that. Like when when did you how when did you just decide to open your own shop and what's that looking like now? Because I'm curious about that too, especially you know, with all that's going on with like gold and silver prices, etc.
SPEAKER_04Well, I okay, so a year ago, uh, you know, like I said, I was I I came back from Signet. I worked in the um my uncle with I worked with my uncle for six months, he retired. I worked, I took over that shop for another year, and then I left because I don't really like working for people. Um, there was a couple I don't really want to go into the the dirty details, but I'll just leave it at that. Um, and the the owner was fantastic, you know. I still talk to him. Um, there's no hard feelings, uh, it just didn't work out. Um, and so then I worked for my my home for like two years. Um just kind of I have a spare bedroom. Man, I I picked up a lot of my uncle's old repair accounts around town. Oh, that's nice and was doing those out of the house. Um and and I would I started getting traction on Facebook was the first place. Um and I got got a couple of you know engagement ring jobs, and uh people would bring their repairs over to the house, or I'd meet them in coffee shops and did that for like two years. Um and last year in January, I think, I I'm also like part of it's called the Fab Lab. It's a it's a maker space, and I'm on the board with them. So we've got 3D printers, laser engravers, a wood shop, all the tools that you could think necessary. And they were at a point where they were trying to uh get this new place set up, but they didn't have anybody to be there. Um and so they cut me out of square footage, a little office. I put all my stuff in there, uh and I showed up every day, and then if they needed anything or somebody wanted to come by, I was there to be like the front man at that while also running my repair business and and custom business out of out of a spare room um at the Fab Lab. Um that's cool. So yeah, no, and and like it just worked out for everybody, you know. Uh it it really couldn't have been better, but that was kind of the first point that I had overhead, you know, besides like my home room. Um so I was paying like 200 bucks there to be in that space. Um, and then I you know, I would have to stop every now and then to to meet potential Fab Lab members and stuff like that. Um and after about six months of that, this spot that I'm in now became available, and uh it was only a couple hundred dollars more. Um and to be honest, it was the the other spot with like bringing in clients, it just like it felt weird. Like I had to constantly like explaining what what the Fab Lab was and why why does it look like I'm in this abandoned building? I'm a jewelry in an abandoned building. And it it was like and like no shade, like again, like the Fab Lab is at the same place, you know. But that that is like especially they had just bought the building, so whenever I was in there, like it didn't look anything like it does today. Um, you know, and and so this spot became available. I was like, all right, just do it. I've been looking at this spot and a couple other spots in this area for like three years. So I was like, just just move into it, you know, it'll be fine.
SPEAKER_02Um, so that's that's the most successful jewelry stores are like, yeah, let's just do it, see what happens. It'll be fine. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_04I mean, you you don't if you don't take risks, you don't get paid. Like that's just I you know, my parents they talk about it, my sisters, my my uh my brother-in-laws, like they're they all say that it's the same thing, you know. It's like I don't know how how you do that, you know. Like I don't I don't know how you you just you don't know when you're gonna make money. It's like I don't worry about it, you know. I I do good work and um the people keep coming back. So it it just and I think dude, uh I had a huge leg up with my uncle being uh a good name around here and working with him and meeting everybody in our in our area. Um so like there was already that established trust um that I kind of got grandfathered into. I hate I hate to say it, but you know, nepotism is real and uh yeah, dude.
SPEAKER_02I always that's helpful. I do I do it if it a lot of similarities in what you're describing because when I it is very similar. I mean, I worked for a small family uh jeweler for like nine years, and it was kind of that like oh me and Brad both work for the same family, but um, and it was it was just not the way I would do it, not the way I wanted to do it. I tried to get out. I actually tried to leave that job and work for Signet at least a couple different times. And uh that was a step up. That was that felt like a step up at the time. I just needed like some I don't know, I just needed some more consistency, I guess. I won't get into the details of that's another episode, but um, but then uh my wife's grandfather has been a watchmaker in like this town that we're in for like 60 years. So while he wasn't a jeweler, he was associated with jewelers. And so when when when this spot came open that we're at, I was like, hey, can I just use your name? Because at least so it was like all the the people in this town that had been around forever, they recognized the name, so I just kind of jumped off of that. And then over the last 10 years, those kind of people have kind of um either moved away or I don't know, I don't know, a nice way to say they've passed like Brad said it, they've died, so now we have like all the all the new people that move the town, and now they find us, and now there's not really attachment to that name, but you know it sound it sounds established. But I don't I want to get into this because I'm the people that I'm meeting on like online that are seem to be doing well, uh doing well is relative, I guess. But the ones who are, and this is the kind of thing I've been harping on for a long time, is how important bench jewelers are. Because when a a jeweler who can do benchwork, whether it be create, fabricate, just do repairs, when they go out on their own and start their own thing, those are the types of places that seem to be doing well. And the stores and shops that are struggling are if they don't have a good bench tooler or they just don't have one or they're outsourcing stuff, not that those can't be successful as well, but I think it highlights how important actual bench toolers are to this industry. And it's the reason why people like you can kind of just like, hey, I'm just gonna take a chance because at the end of the day, I did the same thing, and people need stuff fixed, and they need somebody they can trust and to do it right. And and those are the types of places that are thriving. So I know you're gonna be just fine, but um, I'm guessing you've seen like uh I'm guessing based on what you're saying, like since you've opened your own shop, has it just kind of been like this progressive, like speed up of business and clients coming in, like a snowball effect type thing?
SPEAKER_04I mean our yeah, yes and no, you know, um we're we're they don't just like they're not flooding in through the doors, you know. Um I get a 90% of the people that come in call first. Um and I'm able to I I try to kind of it's not appointment only, but I try to set up times that I'm available to look at their stuff. Um you know I'm I'm the only I've got Vernon, um, he's the he's the the guy with the glasses that's burning rings, you know, in my videos. Um which okay, side note the amount of people that can't tell that he melted that ring on purpose because I had a camera in his face and told him melt that fucking ring.
SPEAKER_01You know.
SPEAKER_04Holy crap, man.
SPEAKER_01That it's I just thought you were horrible at training your staff.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I'm saying it. Wait, bro.
SPEAKER_02I don't I don't think people understand like when your brain works like yours, and I'll say us too. It's like we're just we just gotta laugh and we we do stupid stuff. And this conversation came up with uh one of the I think you cut out. Uh oh. Can you guys? We can hear you just fine. Can you hear us? Oh, was it your phone? Well, we we lost Jake for a second, but we can see him. I just don't know if he can see us. Now we can't see him. He went away. Maybe he'll pop back on in a minute. But um, Brad, what do you want to say while we wait for Jake to come back?
SPEAKER_01I don't know. Do you want to try to help him get back? We can like pause.
SPEAKER_02Um, no, I mean we'll keep it going until he can we can edit all this out. Or not edit it all out. I don't know. Let's see here. He might just have to, it might have been something on his phone that might have dropped.
SPEAKER_01Turn it off, turn it back on. Unplug it, plug it back in. Unable to connect. Alright, now there's a problem. All right. You think it's our Wi-Fi?
SPEAKER_04You're mad.
SPEAKER_01Yep, yep. Yeah, I don't I think maybe it was definitely on our end, but yeah, I don't know. Yeah, it might have been our end. I thought it was you, but anywho, um I don't know. We told all the people it was you. Yeah. You're in Arkansas, right? And Arkansas internet, you know, just be going off.
SPEAKER_02We're we're figuring this out as we go, so thanks for being a guinea pig with us today.
SPEAKER_01Oh, no worries, no worries. Um, what were we talking about? What are we talking about?
SPEAKER_04You're you were talking about the way our brains work with I mean, I'm assuming comedy and and yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Well, like on the last episode, we had to go back because you know it I it's been apparent like over the years of just posting random stuff. And it's kind of uh we can talk about comedy and the way you're approached it and like the way you make videos because I think it comes from the same mentality. It's like I don't necessarily care if everything I post is funny to everybody because then it just it makes it impossible to even have fun doing it. And it's just like a little peek into how my how our brains work. And so if the if what you're doing is just kind of like crazy, and I I I kind of joked it was unhinged, which I don't think it's unhinged, but it's it's a little out there, and that's just who you are, and we're just expressing ourselves through um uh through through social media, just like we do like our jewelry work that we do. So um, I don't know, like you can talk about a little about like because I know if I scroll back through your Instagram far enough, is relatively new that you started just kind of like showing your personality and showing your sense of humor a little bit more, right?
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I um I so it's funny there was it was a thing that I tried to do, but it didn't come out well, you know. Um, or I didn't I didn't I didn't have the consistency or like really put the effort into it because I was still at my my bench jeweler job at uh Diamond Center here in town. Uh shout out Diamond Center, you know. Um and I kind of cracked a couple of jokes and and was still kind of exploring making content and uh never really I don't know, it was it was kind of cringy and too try-hard, I feel like, but that's how a lot of content starts out, anyways. You know, you you guys had mentioned like uh being comfort being comfortable in front of the camera, and it's just kind of one of those things like you you start to get a gnat for. Um like that that introduction to me video was really hard to shoot. Uh and and something that I've been like is really I'm hoping that everybody sees more of is me talking on camera. Um, you know, about this little microphone. Um, I think I've posted like two videos um, you know, that I'm using the microphone that I'm talking. I'm not using like a track on. Uh and you know it I don't know. That that's that's something I want to get more into, but the the funny stuff, like I think it really started uh like last fall, around November. Um that I just saw a couple of videos and I was like, oh dude, this would be freaking hilarious to to film at the bench. And I think the first one was I think the first one was uh blue collar, blue collar worker. Um and and and that was like you know, I got to have fun and be silly and and and kind of like you said, I I think I'm a funny guy. I laugh at my jokes, you know.
SPEAKER_01So we think you're funny and we think we're funny, so you know, it is what it is. Dusty did say you were the funniest account on Instagram.
SPEAKER_03So I did say that. That's a little bit funny.
SPEAKER_02Well, and and that's all subjective, right? Because when you find somebody whose sense of humor kind of lines up with yours, you think they're the funniest person on the planet. And I think this is twofold. And what I really like and admire, I think, about you is like you're posting this is just like not only for yourself, but for your business. And I think as obviously in the jewelry industry, when people come across your account, it's like all this, it's it just feels authentic and real. Whether whether you like it or don't like it, or if it's your cup of tea or not, like I there's a lot of people that I like to watch because they're authentic, even if it's not like I don't think it's funny, or if it's not my style, whatever, because they come across as authentic. And I think that helps us with business too, because that's I think that's what the public or future clients they just want to know who they're about to deal with. And so if they walk in and you know, like in your case, they're gonna see dreads. Well, who cares? They already know what they're coming into, and they they get a little taste of who you are, and and so that's actually gonna attract more clients. Does it turn one or two away? Sure, just like the my sister's coming to help do some photography for some of our stuff here in the next, I think this week maybe. And uh, she listens to the podcast, so I have to mention my sister at least once every every other episode. And I was very uh I was telling her, I was like, hey, because she's a very good photographer and she's gonna take it serious. And I'm like, but I don't want it to look like it's not part of my store and my vibe and the way we conduct business. I don't want it to look too fancy and like we wear suits to work, like I'm wearing shorts and a jacket and t-shirts, and and that's always been our vibe, and I don't want our social media to look like to be not matching who we actually are, and and so I I admire people like you who can do that and just be like, yeah, this is who I am, and come on in and get an engagement ring made. And I think people like that, sure. Do a couple not.
SPEAKER_04Who cares? Yeah, and to be honest, man, yeah, I I go through and I read this is I did a big study, I say a big study. I did a study on everybody's Google reviews, and there was a few things in common. Number one, they wouldn't buy my shitty jewelry. Okay, number two, they made me feel funny because I wasn't wearing a suit and tie. Yep. And I basically just took those and I was like, cool. Well, if we just number one, don't buy people shitty jewelry and don't advertise that we buy jewelry, that problem's completely gone. And if and if I don't want to wear a suit and tie, I don't want to I'm not gonna cut my hair. Like, so I in theory, everybody should be feel comfortable coming in here. It's a really relaxed, you know, uh location. Um the the the building itself, and and you know, it I've got it set up around here that it's just a workspace, you know. It it's almost hard to call it a jewelry store as much as it is a studio. Um, yes, we have jewelry cases. Um, the only thing in the jewelry cases is people that work here's jewelry. Um, you know, we've got three apprentices, which I want to loot back on. Um we're we're talking about how important bench jewelers are. Um uh but you know that's just kind of how it works is I want people to feel comfortable. Um I I am just a guy, you know, that is doing something I like to do, you know, and um it I attract people with money and I attract people without money, you know, and I try to help them all just because they need help, you know, and not look into their pockets too much. And um, you know, problem solving is like the backbone of what we do as jewelers. Uh and and that's not just at the bench while we're trying to fix a ring or or uh you know it's it really falls into that customer service of okay, how do I help this person? Uh this are these are all the numbers that they've supplied to me. How do I make it all add up to what they want? You know, and and uh I don't know. I just I just want I'm I'm I'm not gonna say, oh, I just want to help people like I'm a doctor or something, you know, it's but it's like I do want to like come to come to some solution with people, so yeah.
SPEAKER_02The conversation that I find myself circling back to is honestly, and and we'll ask you about this too, because there are parts of this industry and this trade, especially when you're doing repairs and making uh creating stuff that is extremely frustrating. And uh it's easy for myself to just, and I've said it before, just to go home and think about like, man, like you know, we had to change you know 17 batteries today, and I kept like yesterday was awful here at the shop because we just kept getting interrupted with just silly stuff that's time wasting. But then there's always like if I remember all the people that came in and picked up their stuff and they were just like over the moon, excited about how good it looks and the repair or the refurbishing we did or the custom job we just finished. And it does like it does remind you like, man, this is just it's a fun, it's a fun job, and we get to do silly stuff like this, we get to laugh, and yeah, I mean we kind of poke fun at at different people and and client situations, but um, I kind of do want to ask, because now that you're I know you said you're by appointment kind of, but like already you're saying like eight months to a year in, just kind of being open, I guess, to the public. So what what are just some like silly, frustrating, annoying or just bad experiences you've had just dealing with the public in general? Because I know you've had to have at least a few.
SPEAKER_04Oh I mean, I haven't had a bad experience that came out with bad results. I I haven't I haven't had an experience that uh like directly with a client that I okay. I've got one client that I want to fire, okay? One client. But it's it's really not even that big big of a deal, you know. Uh they came in. I hope they never see this. I think they won't. I promise you they won't.
SPEAKER_01Uh they're not gonna be one of the 17 that listen.
SPEAKER_04They had this big old Topaz heart, right? 15 millimeter Topaz heart, and uh two 10 millimeter topaz hearts, and they wanted settings in 14 karat gold and like adamant about this. I like I might have to send you screenshots of this conversation after we get off the park.
SPEAKER_01Oh god.
SPEAKER_04And like I said, I am solution oriented, like sometimes like to to the point of like I will find a solution even if it means I make no money on this. Like, well, I I very much chase that's that's my personality too.
SPEAKER_01That's why I have to work for Dusty because I would be out of money.
SPEAKER_02I'm just like cut because cut these losses while we can. This job is over. Tell them sorry, we can't help them.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, well, I I'm okay. Um I'm I'm not 10 years in, and I'm a Google review chaser, you know. If at the end of the day I can get this person to leave me a five-star review, that's worth it. It was worth it. That's that's where I am at currently in my career.
SPEAKER_02Well, um, so they come in. Yeah, that's where I spent the first at least two to three years, too. It's just absolutely I want everybody to be happy. Yep. I want to say no to no one. Yeah, you really want a good review.
SPEAKER_01Like you can't, you're not in a position to turn money away.
SPEAKER_02But then eventually you're you're just like, but nah, we ain't doing that. I don't care if I get a bad review.
SPEAKER_04I'm about this far away from fuck you money. You know, yeah, yeah. There you go.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, we ain't there yet either. We're close. I'd like to say we're close, but we're not.
SPEAKER_04We're not so closer. I I don't have time. Okay, I've I've got a buddy in in Colorado, Rob Cowden. Shout out Rob Cowden. He um he helps me with uh CAD overflow. Um not necessarily jobs I don't want to do, it's not all like that, but sometimes I just I have I'm running the shop, I've got three apprentices, I've got I've got clients, I there's just a lot going on, and sometimes I don't have time to actually sit down and do the CAD work for a customer. Um so I collect all the information, I hand it off to him, uh, he'll he'll return me, you know, a pay amount um if the client likes it. We just we have a good working relationship. He gives me the cads, I make the quotes up for, and it's like three grand for for like a matching uh a pendant with matching earrings, and she's like, I'm not I'm not gonna pay that. It it's they're topaz hearts, and I'm like, yeah, why the fuck are you asking me to do this in the first place? Like exactly if you fucking know it and I know it, then what why are we here?
SPEAKER_01You know, yeah. Um man, yes, every day.
SPEAKER_04And so I think I quoted her, I quoted her in 14 karat, 10 karat, silver. I quoted her making making the the smaller hearts the pendant in instead of doing the whole set. And like I I don't know how many different quotes I made her. Um and finally uh she I I did. I this is like the first time I I think I've ever done this, um, at least this deep into the process. Like, she had said no to everything, was adamant about 14 karat, and even messaged me and told me, I'll tell you what I can do. I can pay a thousand dollars for 14 karat yellow bill for the whole set. And I was like, okay, um, well, I'm sorry, I don't think we're gonna be able to come to an understanding or an agreement here. Um, you I've got your stuff. You're welcome to come by the shop tomorrow and pick it up.
SPEAKER_01And uh feels good, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_04Yeah, and she said something else, I can't remember. She tried to keep the conversation going. Oh, yeah. And I was like, you know, I was like, I I think I just doubled down and was like, I'll be here tomorrow. For what time do you want to come get this? You know, some something nice, you know, and she comes into the shop and she's like, you know, I think I will go with the silver quote. And I'm like, had that moment of do I say yes? Do I do this, or do I just like tell her to get out of the store? You know, uh dude, we've all been there.
SPEAKER_02I know I knew this, I knew somehow when this story started, I was like, he's about to hold up the piece and be like, I just finished it last night because that's who we are, like, we do want to help people, but man, I'm telling you, like uh it it it's tough because and I I bounce a lot of stuff off my wife because I'll come, you know, I'll I'll tell like a similar story like that and how frustrating it is. And she's like, People just don't know, but I'm like, Yeah, but I've given them so many opportunities to know, and I we're we go over the top explaining, and sometimes it's just you just want to punch a wall and just tell people to come pick up their stuff. It's like just come get it, like it's okay. Like I'm finally at the place where I'm like, it's okay if we don't if this is not a good fit, or if we can't deliver what you want, and then I know if somebody's gonna go you know to it to the next town over and get something. Like, I'm okay with that. Like, we we all have stuff to do, like you're busy, I'm busy. All the actual bench dealers I know are busy, and so like I'm okay with it. Now, to to do what you said, that definitely was not my mentality for like the first few years. Um, but it is fun when you get there and you just start kind of places. You have to go through this this like early stages of starting anything, really, of just you learn your lessons and we're just constantly adapting. I mean, we complain about watch batteries all the time, and so we're just like, hey, let's just keep raising the prices, and like, hey, let's start, you know, doing this, and hey, we're gonna stop doing these three services that honestly just cause us stress, annoyance, it's time wasters, it doesn't pay enough. And so it's taken, yeah, it's like a 10-year process to kind of figure out when to say no, when to say yeah, when to bend over backwards and fill out.
SPEAKER_01And when we're saying no, it's it's honestly for the it's good for us, it's good for the customer. I mean, it's it would not end up well. So um so you brought three, so you're talking about your three apprentices, you actually brought three people into this disaster.
SPEAKER_02That sounds stressful to be honest, right? That sounds so stressful trying to train one person how to do benchwork, much less three.
SPEAKER_04Well, okay, so apprentice one, I mean, my goal, my goal has never been to do repair work. Uh but I'm like entrepreneur business minded. It's undeniable, especially with my relationship with my uncle, and seeing that he was able to do what I'm currently doing for 40 years and pay for a house and and have a child and all this stuff, you know, um and and and retire and sell his business and and be comfortable that repair work is you know something you gotta get over. But uh I I brought in my apprentices specifically to train so that I won't have to do those repairs one day. Um and and Vernon, it's so hard to even call him an apprentice anymore. Um he's a in in the in the terms of seeing.
SPEAKER_01He's melting rings, so I don't I don't know what you'd call him.
SPEAKER_02Until he saw Melton Rings as an apprentice. No, no.
SPEAKER_04In the in the term in the The terms of signet jewelers, he's a B jeweler, right? So okay. He can do most stuff. He can do most stuff. You know, he can chain repairs, sizings, uh, set he's the really the last piece of the puzzle is he needs more experience setting melee diamonds and and you know little prawn work and stuff. He's not really at uh center stones, that's kind of uh a you know direction we're going. He's starting to do laser laser repairs, um which is like the biggest thing that I'm I'm having to stop my time as an owner and and and doing custom stuff to do it is the is the uh laser work. Um but you know he I told him get a piece of paper and you set 50 melee stones to success without my help, and your your apprenticeship is over. Um, and then I've got two other girls that are they alternate, so he's super self-sufficient. Vernon can come in, he can go to the repair bucket, he can look into at jobs and pick out what he can and can't do. And at this point, literally it's everything except for the laser jobs. Um, because we're not getting that high level uh of repair jobs. I I gotta do a couple stone settings here and there that you know in some center stones, but uh the girls come in on Tuesday through Friday and they alternate days. So I've only got one person in the shop uh that like I have not babysit, but I have to like answer a lot of questions for. So those how I approach apprenticeships is I I basically I put them on the same timeline that I was on, right? So uh I gave them all the tools and I say, okay, I need you to go make this. Um you know, right now they they have casting grain, they have scrap silver and stuff, and they're melting it down in the crucible, pouring it out, rolling out wire, turning it into a region, sizing it up, sizing it down, and then starting that whole process over again. Um and they essentially they do that every day when they come in, unless I tell them they need to do something else. Um and once they've done that for the day, then they can work on making something for the case or something that they're passionate about because I think that's a big thing that keeps people coming back or or showing up to do it. Is there has to be, I mean, that's what was missing from Signet, you know. Um, it's just work, work, work, and and I mean, like you didn't you said, yeah, you didn't do an apprenticeship there. I mean, dude, they stuck me on polish for six months. All all the only thing I did was polish rings, put them in boxes, and and mail them, you know, um, and sweep and clean. And uh it god, am I fucking good at polishing though? Holy fuck!
SPEAKER_02Hey, you right, right, exactly. I mean, everybody wants to start people at polishing, but I mean it is you do learn quick because a bad polisher can mess up some some good work. Now, Jake, here's the unfortunate part of our conversation that we have to actually open our shop. But what I have learned about this is we need to go to appointment only because my goodness, I already know we're gonna have some watch batteries lined up, and then um I can get uh our our our awesome part-time girl Ari just walked in, so she's patiently and waiting for us to to get off of here so we can all get to work. Man, I didn't want to cut this conversation short, but I tell almost every guest we have like you got to come back um and hop on here again so that we don't have to so we can keep this going. Does that sound good?
SPEAKER_04Yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER_02All right, dude, keep doing what you're doing, keep cranking out content. At least, if anything else, you got we we love what you're doing. And uh, we're gonna end this with telling everybody to make sure you go follow Critter, the designer. Um, not only is he doing great work, but uh putting out some some fire social media content. So, Jake, thanks again for coming on, and we hope to see you soon, bro.
SPEAKER_04All right, thank you for having me. I'll talk to y'all later.
SPEAKER_02All right, thank you, and just let that audio finish downloading and then uh we'll talk to you soon, man.
SPEAKER_00Another one done. Time to pack it in. Red and dust, it's time to tie it up grid. Next way with the dust we'll complain to you next week to back to the best back to the best with the test we do that we'll do. Back to the best to you next week.