State of the Art's Industry
manufacturing company that had
30 years of uncatalogued rubber
molds. There was no way to access
them easily for use again. Aalund
introduced the student to the en-
tire casting process so she would
understand the role that molds and
waxes play in manufacturing, but the
student’s sole job that summer was
to inject wax into each mold, iden-
tify it with a catalog number, and
put the molds on shelves by style.
With waxes conveniently set out
in trays, the salespeople could see
the designs and their identifi cation
numbers, and the right mold could
be found quickly when a customer
requested that design.This semi-skilled task, when
fi nished, noticeably increased the
company’s sales of older designs.
Four years later, says Aalund, the
company is still appreciative. “It was
just that one bit of help for them,
and four years later, they’re still
seeing the benefi t,” she says. Once
dubious but now a believer, the
company continues to take on ap-
prentices. “Once you get the system
set up and you see it works,” says
Aalund, “you get more courage to
take on more.”
At one time, a well-run and busy
trade shop would have been a
perfect place for an apprentice,
but the number of trade shops has
been shrinking. Bench jewelers
have moved to smaller independent
stores or to mall stores whose cus-
tomers don’t want their jewelry to
leave the premises. While customers
like the idea, and stores get a bump
from the repair charges, “these are
the kinds of stores that don’t take
apprentices,” says Aalund. They may
have only one bench jeweler, and he
or she may work in a small booth.
Even in a larger shop, all the bench-
es may be occupied by skilled and
busy jewelers.
For small businesses, whose
margins are small to begin with, thethought of taking on another em-
ployee with the expenses of wages,
insurance, and taxes isn’t appealing.
Yet even for a small store, the gain
can be worth the investment, as a
Canadian study points out. The study
found that for every dollar invested in
apprentice training, a company can
get back between $1.38 and $1.44. In
businesses where margins are thin,
that’s not chicken feed.When They Leave
“They’ll only leave” or “I’m just
training my competition” are com-
mon reasons given for not off ering
apprenticeships. While it is true that
often an apprentice leaves the shop
that has trained him or her, Aalund
says there are very good reasons
why this happens, but it doesn’t
have to.
First, jewelry store owners, trade
shop managers, and bench jewelers
have to widen their idea of what a
jeweler looks like. She talks about a
former student of hers who, when
she went to apply for jobs, got ex-
actly the same response Aalund had
gotten 40 years before: that training
a woman destined for marriage and
children was a waste of resources.
“In college jewelry programs,” says
Aalund, “87 percent of the students
are women, yet in the industry,
they’re never off ered the jobs, and
if they are, they’re off ered 50 to 70
cents on the dollar compared to men.
That’s why they leave. They think, if
you’re going to pay me less, even if
my work is better quality, or I work
faster, the only way I’m going to
make money is to start my own busi-
ness.” Aalund says when she makes
presentations at jewelry industry
trade shows, she looks out at a sea
of mostly male faces. When she pres-
ents at the entrepreneurial Society
of North American Goldsmiths, it’s
women who are in the majority.
Second, apprentices leave be-
cause there is no establishedMicki Lippe works in the studio with her most recent apprentice, Nina Hartman.
PHOTO: COURTESY MICKI LIPPE“The best way
of keeping
someone you’ve
trained is to
offer a com-
petitive wage
once they’ve
finished.”
74 LAPIDARY JOURNAL JEWELRY ARTIST