Leaving Your Mark
Custom jeweler Tom Linenberger’s Wabi Sabi approach
I took my retail business into the custom jewelry arena in 1984. When I received the casting equipment that I had ordered from my supplier, I will never forget what he said to me: "When creating and finishing your piece, you don’t have to make it perfect—it’s okay to leave behind an imperfection. This way the customer knows it was handmade."
Being a perfectionist, I felt that logic would make a good excuse for an inexperienced jeweler, or one who was rushing things. I have found that my clients expect perfection, and if there is the slightest irregularity in a piece it tends to pop out like a visible inclusion in a diamond or strong color zones in a colored stone. When a customer spots an imperfection like that, he or she will usually choose not to buy the stone, or will want to buy it at a discount.
So how do I juggle my—and my client’s—desire for perfection with the sage advice my supplier gave me almost 30 years ago? I take a similar approach to Lee Krombholz in infusing the Wabi Sabi aesthetic into my designs. Here are two examples:
• In this man’s wedding band, I created a surface that replicates waves. I made a point with this ring to avoid overdesigning it, or obsessing about every little detail, to get a more organic finished piece. I designed this ring on the fly by creating irregular profile shapes and then randomly placing them for the surface sweep. This gave the surface an organic and hand-carved feel as opposed to looking like a wave that was carefully calculated on a computer screen.
In addition, I decided to hand twist a wire edge rather than mill the details, giving the ring a complete hand-created look. Sometimes, the best way to infuse your fingerprint into a CAD design is to choose a part of the piece that you can craft by hand instead of milling the entire piece.
• In this vintage-style 14k white and rose gold pendant, I broke it down into numerous pieces and handmade the rose gold beads. To finish the piece, I had to assemble all of the parts and add milgrain. When hand assembly is required to bring together various parts of a CAD design, you have the opportunity to leave your mark.
In this piece, the biggest impact that I had is in the final textures. In response to the requests from many of my client’s for non-shiny finishes on their jewelry, I have been either bead blasting surfaces or applying a brushed surface with an arsenal of wheels. I am also experimenting with applying special textures to the surfaces of milled models using a wax pen. I feel this can truly transform a model, giving it a unique hand-applied texture and infusing the Wabi Sabi aesthetic into the piece.