Yep that's me with the red afro..circa 1978

I have been communicating with a local client who took me up on my suggestion to check out watchmaking as a new career path. He researched watchmaking schools in the U.S. and wound up attending my old school Gem City College in Quincy, Illinois. The last time he was in town we chatted and he filled me in on how his studies were proceeding and stories about some of his instructors. It turns out that he has one of my old instructors that taught me advanced watchmaking back in 1978! Don is the instructor’s name and I told him a story about Don and how he recruited me and a few other students to help him with a local project back in ’78. There was a small town called Palmyra, MO across the Mississippi river and about 30 minutes from our school. The town had an old tower clock that had not worked for many years in the town hall and they had called the school for ideas on how to get it fixed. Don volunteered and we were his assistants..The tower was four stories high and you had to climb up a horrible, rickety wooden staircase that was only 18 inches wide, no railing and curved up the corners of the tower. All our tools and equipment had to be tied, or taped to our bodies as the whole clock movement (mechanical parts) was suspended on two huge 12 x 12 wooden beams over an antique stained-glass cupola! If you dropped anything it would crash through the glass ceiling. The clock had stopped working over 20 years prior due to the passing of the janitor for the courthouse and he was the one who would wind the weight cable to run the huge clock. When he passed away, no one could find the cable handle to wind up the weights. When we crawled to the top the clock movement was covered in birdnests, feathers, birdpoop, hay and bat droppings. You could barely discern what it was or what it was supposed to do. Don instructed us (those of us who were brave enough to stand up there tied to the beams) how to clean off all the refuse and how to re-lubricate all the parts. Once we cleaned-off all the junk, the beautiful detail and mechanical workings of the movement became apparent. We lowered all the filth bags by rope, wound the weight stack cable to provide power for the clock and Don flipped a lever that allowed him to check where the striking mechanism had stopped. All of the sudden, this huge hammer above us  began striking this even bigger bell suspended over our heads! Dust, feathers, dirt and I’m not sure what else, rained on our heads as the bell chimed out the last hour that the clock had run many years ago. Don reset the strike wheel, we sprayed everything with a last coat of oil and descended the crazy stairs five hours after starting. When we came outside many of the townspeople had heard the bell (some for the 1st time) and gave us a hearty cheer and applause. I remembered a newspaper somebody taking our picture and back across the river we went with our filthy hair and clothes.
Well my friend told Don this story and Don came back to school the next day with these Polaroids to prove the story was true! Yep, that’s me with the red afro…circa 1978.

we don't look scared in this photo...

We have been performing a more common service for our clients that we don’t list on our website and don’t promote but, is important for clients to know. When you have a loved one who will be living in a partial or full care facility, you should give consideration to the security of their valuable or sentimental jewelry items. Many clients have come to us and asked if we can duplicate their loved ones’ jewelry so that their family member can still wear the ‘look-a-like” while the family secures the actual jewelry items in a safe place.

Now before your blood pressure begins to rise about this apparent deception, let me share my own Fathers’ scenario: My father Lyle was admitted to a wonderful care/living facility outside the Chicago area and there were approx.30 residents in total. Many, if not most, had issues with memory loss, dementia or distorted reality. My Father would sometimes leave his personal belongings outside of his room in common areas or other residents rooms. Most of the time these would find their way back to him (who would want his electric razor or book that he was reading or photo album?) but many times the staff could not locate missing items. His wife Judy thought it best to hold onto his good watch, rings and bracelet while providing him with a utilitarian watch and inexpensive wedding ring. Sometimes she still had to go hunt these down…When our clients come to us, they sometimes ask if we could re-create a sentimental and valuable item so their loved one will still have it to wear without worry of a valuable, mysterious loss. We can also remove a valuable diamond or colored gem (with signed permission of course) and replace it with a synthetic or simulant that looks just like the original. The family is thrilled because their loved one can still wear their favorite piece without the liability of theft or mysterious loss. I can’t begin to tell you of the many stories that we hear of treasured jewelry pieces that have gone missing from clients who are in care facilities or who have home healthcare  with various medications and many different people coming into and out of their homes. The heartbreak is no one knows what happens to these pieces of valuable jewelry…thrown away in a used tissue, hidden in a strange place and forgotten or one of dozens of other scenarios…

Feel free to ask us if you have a family member who might require our assistance with this kind of situation. Taking action now might give the entire family great peace of mind for a loved one’s jewelry legacy.

In partnership with the Southwest Florida Symphony (of which I am a past Board Member) we assisted in raising money for the Symphony’s Golden 50th Anniversary. We were asked to collect gold from potential donors that the Symphony would send our way and I also attended two Classic concerts and was available to accept gold donations in the foyer. The great recycling twist we added was that we used some of the donated gold to fabricate the cool ring that you see here. The small oval gems on the sides were also donated to the gold cause and we decided they would work well in our chosen design. The pinwheel-cut Amethyst in the center was our donation as was the labor and skill. The piece was to be auctioned at a Symphony gala but due to last minute communication snafus, the ring rested in our vault. We were able to place the ring in our showcase and a few weeks later we sold the one-of-a-kind ring to an admiring client. We were able to donate the check for the ring as well as a check for the remaining gold that was not used…a great re-use for a worthy, local cause!