How to become Jewelers and Precious Stone and Metal Worker in 2024

Jewelers and Precious Stone and Metal Worker Design, fabricate, adjust, repair, or appraise jewelry, gold, silver, other precious metals, or gems.

Jewelers and Precious Stone and Metal Worker is Also Know as

In different settings, Jewelers and Precious Stone and Metal Worker is titled as

  • Artist
  • Bench Jeweler
  • Caster
  • Earrings Fabricator
  • Gemologist
  • Goldsmith
  • Jeweler
  • Platinum Smith
  • Restoration Silversmith
  • Silversmith

Education and Training of Jewelers and Precious Stone and Metal Worker

Jewelers and Precious Stone and Metal Worker is categorized in Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed

Experience Required for Jewelers and Precious Stone and Metal Worker

Previous work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is required for these occupations. For example, an electrician must have completed three or four years of apprenticeship or several years of vocational training, and often must have passed a licensing exam, in order to perform the job.

Education Required for Jewelers and Precious Stone and Metal Worker

Most occupations in this zone require training in vocational schools, related on-the-job experience, or an associate's degree.

Degrees Related to Jewelers and Precious Stone and Metal Worker

Training Required for Jewelers and Precious Stone and Metal Worker

Employees in these occupations usually need one or two years of training involving both on-the-job experience and informal training with experienced workers. A recognized apprenticeship program may be associated with these occupations.

Related Ocuupations

Some Ocuupations related to Jewelers and Precious Stone and Metal Worker in different industries are

What Do Jewelers and Precious Stone and Metal Worker do?

  • Position stones and metal pieces, and set, mount, and secure items in place, using setting and hand tools.
  • Smooth soldered joints and rough spots, using hand files and emery paper, and polish smoothed areas with polishing wheels or buffing wire.
  • Create jewelry from materials such as gold, silver, platinum, and precious or semiprecious stones.
  • Make repairs, such as enlarging or reducing ring sizes, soldering pieces of jewelry together, and replacing broken clasps and mountings.
  • Clean and polish metal items and jewelry pieces, using jewelers' tools, polishing wheels, and chemical baths.
  • Cut and file pieces of jewelry such as rings, brooches, bracelets, and lockets.
  • Select and acquire metals and gems for designs.
  • Compute costs of labor and materials to determine production costs of products and articles.
  • Examine assembled or finished products to ensure conformance to specifications, using magnifying glasses or precision measuring instruments.
  • Pierce and cut open designs in ornamentation, using hand drills and scroll saws.
  • Construct preliminary models of wax, metal, clay, or plaster, and form sample castings in molds.
  • Pour molten metal alloys or other materials into molds to cast models of jewelry.
  • Shape and straighten damaged or twisted articles by hand or using pliers.
  • Soften metal to be used in designs by heating it with a gas torch and shape it, using hammers and dies.
  • Determine appraised values of diamonds and other gemstones based on price guides, market fluctuations, and stone grades and rarity.
  • Grade stones based on their color, perfection, and quality of cut.
  • Plate articles such as jewelry pieces and watch dials, using silver, gold, nickel, or other metals.
  • Write or modify design specifications such as the metal contents and weights of items.
  • Create new jewelry designs and modify existing designs, using computers as necessary.
  • Buy and sell jewelry, or serve as agents between buyers and sellers.
  • Record the weights and processing times of finished pieces.
  • Lay out designs on metal stock, and cut along markings to fabricate pieces used to cast metal molds.
  • Mark, engrave, or emboss designs on metal pieces such as castings, wire, or jewelry, following specifications.
  • Cut designs in molds or other materials to be used as models in the fabrication of metal and jewelry products.
  • Design and fabricate molds, models, and machine accessories, and modify hand tools used to cast metal and jewelry pieces.
  • Research and analyze reference materials, and consult with interested parties to develop new products or modify existing designs.
  • Anneal precious metal objects such as coffeepots, tea sets, and trays in gas ovens for prescribed times to soften metal for reworking.
  • Weigh, mix, and melt metal alloys or materials needed for jewelry models.
  • Rotate molds to distribute alloys and to prevent formation of air pockets.
  • Rout out locations where parts are to be joined to items, using routing machines.

Qualities of Good Jewelers and Precious Stone and Metal Worker

  • Arm-Hand Steadiness: The ability to keep your hand and arm steady while moving your arm or while holding your arm and hand in one position.
  • Finger Dexterity: The ability to make precisely coordinated movements of the fingers of one or both hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble very small objects.
  • Near Vision: The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
  • Manual Dexterity: The ability to quickly move your hand, your hand together with your arm, or your two hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble objects.
  • Control Precision: The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
  • Problem Sensitivity: The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing that there is a problem.
  • Visualization: The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
  • Category Flexibility: The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
  • Deductive Reasoning: The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
  • Information Ordering: The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
  • Originality: The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
  • Flexibility of Closure: The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material.
  • Fluency of Ideas: The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
  • Visual Color Discrimination: The ability to match or detect differences between colors, including shades of color and brightness.
  • Speech Recognition: The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
  • Selective Attention: The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
  • Inductive Reasoning: The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
  • Speech Clarity: The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
  • Oral Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
  • Oral Comprehension: The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
  • Perceptual Speed: The ability to quickly and accurately compare similarities and differences among sets of letters, numbers, objects, pictures, or patterns. The things to be compared may be presented at the same time or one after the other. This ability also includes comparing a presented object with a remembered object.
  • Written Comprehension: The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
  • Mathematical Reasoning: The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem.
  • Multilimb Coordination: The ability to coordinate two or more limbs (for example, two arms, two legs, or one leg and one arm) while sitting, standing, or lying down. It does not involve performing the activities while the whole body is in motion.
  • Far Vision: The ability to see details at a distance.
  • Number Facility: The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly and correctly.
  • Wrist-Finger Speed: The ability to make fast, simple, repeated movements of the fingers, hands, and wrists.
  • Written Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
  • Depth Perception: The ability to judge which of several objects is closer or farther away from you, or to judge the distance between you and an object.
  • Speed of Closure: The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns.
  • Reaction Time: The ability to quickly respond (with the hand, finger, or foot) to a signal (sound, light, picture) when it appears.
  • Time Sharing: The ability to shift back and forth between two or more activities or sources of information (such as speech, sounds, touch, or other sources).
  • Auditory Attention: The ability to focus on a single source of sound in the presence of other distracting sounds.
  • Hearing Sensitivity: The ability to detect or tell the differences between sounds that vary in pitch and loudness.
  • Response Orientation: The ability to choose quickly between two or more movements in response to two or more different signals (lights, sounds, pictures). It includes the speed with which the correct response is started with the hand, foot, or other body part.
  • Memorization: The ability to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and procedures.
  • Rate Control: The ability to time your movements or the movement of a piece of equipment in anticipation of changes in the speed and/or direction of a moving object or scene.
  • Static Strength: The ability to exert maximum muscle force to lift, push, pull, or carry objects.
  • Trunk Strength: The ability to use your abdominal and lower back muscles to support part of the body repeatedly or continuously over time without "giving out" or fatiguing.
  • Explosive Strength: The ability to use short bursts of muscle force to propel oneself (as in jumping or sprinting), or to throw an object.
  • Dynamic Strength: The ability to exert muscle force repeatedly or continuously over time. This involves muscular endurance and resistance to muscle fatigue.
  • Speed of Limb Movement: The ability to quickly move the arms and legs.
  • Extent Flexibility: The ability to bend, stretch, twist, or reach with your body, arms, and/or legs.
  • Spatial Orientation: The ability to know your location in relation to the environment or to know where other objects are in relation to you.
  • Peripheral Vision: The ability to see objects or movement of objects to one's side when the eyes are looking ahead.
  • Night Vision: The ability to see under low-light conditions.
  • Glare Sensitivity: The ability to see objects in the presence of a glare or bright lighting.
  • Gross Body Equilibrium: The ability to keep or regain your body balance or stay upright when in an unstable position.
  • Gross Body Coordination: The ability to coordinate the movement of your arms, legs, and torso together when the whole body is in motion.
  • Sound Localization: The ability to tell the direction from which a sound originated.
  • Dynamic Flexibility: The ability to quickly and repeatedly bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with your body, arms, and/or legs.
  • Stamina: The ability to exert yourself physically over long periods of time without getting winded or out of breath.

Tools Used by Jewelers and Precious Stone and Metal Worker

  • Adjustable bench vises
  • Air compressors
  • Automatic lathes
  • Awl sets
  • Bail pliers
  • Ball peen hammers
  • Banding pliers
  • Battery testers
  • Bead reamers
  • Beading pliers
  • Beading tools
  • Beading tweezers
  • Belt sanders
  • Bench knives
  • Bench refractometers
  • Bench top polishers
  • Bending pliers
  • Bent chain nose pliers
  • Binocular magnifiers
  • Blow torches
  • Bow closing pliers
  • Bow opening pliers
  • Bristle brushes
  • Bur gauges
  • Burnishers
  • Burnishing tools
  • Case presses
  • Casting torches
  • Chasing hammers
  • Chasing tools
  • Cordless power drills
  • Cross locking tweezers
  • Crucible tongs
  • Curved nose pliers
  • Dapping cutters
  • Dapping punches
  • Dapping tools
  • Dead-blow hammers
  • Diagonal cutters
  • Dial gauges
  • Diamond testers
  • Diamond tweezers
  • Digital calipers
  • Digital gauges
  • Digital scales
  • Disc cutters
  • Double horn anvils
  • Draw tongs
  • Drill presses
  • Electric hot plates
  • Embossing hammers
  • Engraving blocks
  • Engraving tools
  • Eye protection
  • Flask tongs
  • Flat horn anvils
  • Flat nose pliers
  • Flex shaft machines
  • Flush cutters
  • Flux brushes
  • Foot-powered hammers
  • Fretz hammers
  • Fume hoods
  • Gas torches
  • Gem gauges
  • Gem holders
  • Gem tweezers
  • Gemological microscopes
  • Gold testers
  • Grinding stones
  • Hand drills
  • Hand files
  • Handheld magnifiers
  • Head and shank tweezers
  • Hex anvils
  • Hole punch pliers
  • Hole punching pliers
  • Jeweler's loupes
  • Jeweler's saws
  • Jewelers screwdrivers
  • Jewelers shears
  • Jewelers' chain-nose pliers
  • Jewelers' loupes
  • Jewelry mandrels
  • Jewelry scissors
  • Jump ring makers
  • Laser welders
  • Light boxes
  • Locking tweezers
  • Loop closing pliers
  • Looping pliers
  • Magnetic tumblers
  • Mallets
  • Metal stamping dies
  • Micro bevel cutters
  • Micro pliers
  • Milgrain machines
  • Milgrain tools
  • Mini band saws
  • Mini bench vises
  • Mini shears
  • Mini tweezers
  • Nylon pliers
  • Oblique end cutters
  • Parallel jaw pliers
  • Parallel pliers
  • Pattern tweezers
  • Peening hammers
  • Pen platers
  • Planishing hammers
  • Plastic coated tweezers
  • Plastic mallets
  • Pneumatic gravers
  • Pocket crimpers
  • Polariscopes
  • Polishing units
  • Polishing wheels
  • Precision files
  • Precision rulers
  • Precision screwdriver sets
  • Respirators
  • Ring bending pliers
  • Ring clamps
  • Ring cutters
  • Ring holding pliers
  • Ring looping pliers
  • Ring rollers
  • Ring shank pliers
  • Ring sizing sets
  • Ring stretcher/reducers
  • Riveting hammers
  • Rolling mills
  • Rosary pliers
  • Rotary tumblers
  • Round nose pliers
  • Routing machines
  • Sable brushes
  • Scratch brushes
  • Side cutters
  • Sidecutters
  • Silversmiths' hammers
  • Solder cutting pliers
  • Soldering guns
  • Soldering tweezers
  • Specialty forming pliers
  • Split ring pliers
  • Stamping dies
  • Steam cleaners
  • Stone gauges
  • Stone setting pliers
  • Straightedges
  • Texture hammers
  • Tongs
  • Tracing punches
  • Tweezer nose pliers
  • Ultrasonic cleaners
  • Utility tweezers
  • Vacuum pumps
  • Vibratory tumblers
  • Watch hand removers
  • Wire brushes
  • Wire cutters
  • Wire cutting tools
  • Wire gauges
  • Wire looping pliers
  • Wire twisting pliers

Technology Skills required for Jewelers and Precious Stone and Metal Worker

  • Adobe Illustrator
  • Adobe Photoshop
  • Computer assisted jewelry design CAD software
  • Customer information databases
  • Intuit QuickBooks
  • Inventory tracking software
  • Jewelry store point of sale POS software
  • Metal designing software
  • Microsoft Excel
  • Microsoft Outlook
  • Microsoft Word
  • Retail management software
  • Web browser software