Suspicion and Dislike

**see footnotes

A lady visited the store today; She had the diamond from her mother's engagement ring, and wanted a necklace custom designed using the diamond. She was worried though, and wanted us to promise to use the exact same diamond in the necklace that she was giving us in the velvet bag.

It seemed like an odd fear to me....or if it was a legitimate fear, what a crappy jeweler to swipe somebody's diamond and exchange it for a cheaper one! We handed her a loupe and showed her how to recognize her own diamond and ensure she got the right one back. She left, a bit less suspicious and a bit more jewelry savvy.

----------


Our most frequent customers are other retail jewelry stores in town, who have limited repair abilities beyond cleaning and polishing. We do everything for them, from soldering engagement rings and wedding bands together, to resizing, replacing stones, straightening prongs, repairing settings, everything.

The owner of one of these stores came in today and practically pitched a bulky envelope at me in her haste to be rid of it. The rest is just touchy enough for me to claim qualified privilege and quote the remainder of the story --

"So there's this customer, this big black man named Eli. He has no taste and spends the majority of his time in jail. Now this is silver" (gestures at the offending ring) "and its ugly - just awful - but it's what he wants so we have no choice. Just...well....replace the missing stone and see if you can polish it up" *doubtful glance at the stained ring* "He just likes the gleam, you know?" (I feel like the word she was looking for was BLING...)

"We moved locations five years ago and we thought we'd lost him. We were sick - just sick to discover him waiting on our doorstep. Heaven only knows how he found us again. And the WORST part is - we have to hear about his jail time! Listen - I don't want to hear about it! If you were stupid enough to get there, just keep it to yourself...."

It was a colossal hunk of solid silver, weighed about a pound, and the head, studded with sketchy looking sparkly stones, was almost the size of a golfball. I was excited for Eli's evident pawnshop snag, and I sincerely hope he is pleased with the new shiny version when we clean it all up.

---------------


loupe - pronounced "loop," this handy tool is a magnifying glass designed specifically for looking at fine jewelry. Obviously, in basic form, it makes visible aberrations you can't see with the naked eye.
http://jewelry.about.com/od/jewelryappraisal/ss/loupe.htm


solder, soldering - pronounced "Sotter, sottering," the soldering torch is an open flame that burns at 1700 degrees F. Pyro!
http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-solder-for-Jewelry-purposes/


envelope - every piece of jewelry that enters the store gets a special envelope with a number stamped on it. Please don't lose your claim check with the job number on it. And please know that we record your contact information on this envelope, which is subject to remain in our less-than-exemplary filing system till the end of eternity.


qualified privilege - ie.....don't sue me ;-)
http://www.duhaime.org/legaldictionary/Q/QualifiedPrivilege.aspx