I’ve been working at Douglas FIne Jewelery since August, and in that time I’ve learned a TON. I work with James Dixon, a master platinum smith, and our boss, Steve Douglas. It’s been great. I am now very familiar with our Roland MDX-40 cad machine, as well as Protowizard and interfacing that with Rhino3D. I am also getting very good at repair and fabrication using the laser welder, which allows us to not only fully assemble a piece with laser welds if necessary, but to tack elements together for soldering. I do most of the silver repair and fabrication, both custom work and stock items, and most of those have been up on facebook, though I’ll be adding images to my picasa gallery asap.

I have now extensively experienced fabrication and repair work with 14k yellow and white gold, 14k rose gold, silver, and copper. I’ve also done some cleaning and buffing on a few platinum pieces to take some of the work off of James.

I’ve learned what it means to enjoy going to work, and I’ve also gained a solid appreciation for the guidence that James and Steve provide. I’ve also found that I know more specifically where my interests are invested. Though the high polish “bridal quality” work we do 90% of the time is a good challenge and really requires a high degree of precision, attention, and skill, my love for the slightly rougher work that belies a reference to the process has been deepened. Being able to bring a piece to a high polish is excellent, and I can and will use that in my own work, but I am more drawn to the aesthetics and the qualities of “medieval art”. My precious metal of choice is still silver, though given the funds and the customer, I do like working with gold.

More to follow!

-Doug/Cedric