The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-02-25
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
FREDERIC j. HASKIN. Director,
Washington, D. Q.
AN ART THREATENED WITH
EXTINCTION.

I
employed in an industry of which the
public knows almost nothing-that of
making high grade jewelry by hand
The facts about this trade were
brought out at a conference held by
| the JeWelry Crafts association IN New
i York. The leading topic of discussion
among the jewelers. present was the
enormous wages which their Workmen
are demanding and receiving, and the
difficulty which they experience in
man making as high as $3.50 to 5000
| a Week! Yet some of the JeWelry
workers and diamond settlers get that
much, while weekly earnings of a
Hundred or more are not uncommon.
A good workman gets about 81 an
| hour, while an exceptional one may
| make SO. The standard week is ~
! hours. and time and a half is paid
| for overtime. AS there is always a
shortage of competent workmen, most
| of the men work overtime during a
great part of the year, and so pile up
their enViable earnings.
During the war conditions were even
better for the workmen and worse
for their employers. Some of them
, during that period were making as
! high as 5 5 an hour and double time
for overtime. The employers objected
to the demands for more money and
less working hours and long strike
! took place. The result was the estab-
! lishment of the open shop principle.
| This was not as great a victory for
| the employer as it usually is, because
! the shortage of first class workmen
| enabled them still to successfully de-
| mand very high wages.
| These men are interesting, not so
much on account of their spectacular
earnings as because upon them de-
| ponds the survival of an ancient art
which is threatened with extermina-
! ut mi n
so many other arts, by the modern
domination of machinery.
Machine Made Jewelry Cheaper.
| Certain lines of machine-made jew
elry may be beautiful and often are.
/ Some materials can be worked very
| successfully by machinery, and of
| course machine-made jeWelry is much
/ cheaped than that made by hand, and
/ so within the reach of persons who
could not otherwise afford jewelry at
all. The place of machine-made jew
/ elry is secure and not to be criticized
| but the fate of jewelry-rnaking as an
: ART is in the hands of those jewelers.
and their workmen who do fine hand
work. This art IS threatened by the
scarcity of workmen. In this country,
| especially, few young men care to go
| into a trade in which it takes ten to
| fifteen years to become fairly pro-
| ficient. AS a result of this, the United
| states mas DSen S6lllAS many OIL lts
! high grade jewelers. from Europe, a
preponderance of them from Germany
and France. Many of the skilled work
men were killed or disabled in the
war. The restrictions of the new i'm
migration law prevent others from
coming to this country. Hence the
difficulties of the modern manufac-
turing jeweler.
These makers of handwrought jew
elry truly have behind them a great
| artistic tradition. The making of jew
elry has always been recognized as a
high art, and in the Italian Rennais-
| sance it attained its highest dignity.
! jewelers. in the italian cities OF that
period were often sculptors and paint
| ers as well, and were often quite as
famous for their work in jewelry as
for that in other arts. Botticeln head
a group of such artists. Benvenuto
| Cellini is another celebrated Italian of
the sixteenth century who was jew
eler and goldsmith and made beautiful
ornaments for the gorgeous potentates
of that day.
Fine Handicraft Formerly.
UAtil the introduction of machinery
the making of jewelry remained fine
handicraft In colonial days in this
! country, and in the early days of the
republic, there were many goldsmiths,
some of whom enjoyed considerable
regulations, altho they were not to be
| compared with the great artists of
Renaissance Italy. The making OF
cheap jewelry by machinery was a
blow to fine work by hand, just as
machine work was to the making OF
pottery, fabrics and many other things.
It is true the designer still was neces-
| sary. but long series of articles were
made on a single design, and both the
execution of designs and the materials
to be used were limited by machine
processes.
Modern designers of jewelry do not
seem to achieve regulations outside of
their own trade. 1t is characteristic
of modern industrialism that the
artists are buried under the business.
SO that an especially beautiful piece of
work is known by the name of the
firm that sold it but never BY that OF
the man who created 1t.
| Furthermore, the designer and the
workmen are now distinct, where once
they were the same person. Some
times the jewelry manufacturer him
self is the designer, while he employs
the highly skilled workmen to carry
/ out his ideas. The designer is an artist
! possessed with a thoro knowledge of
jewelry construction and usually one
who has, grown up in the business.
How Jewels Are Designed.
When a customer desires a brooch
/ or pendant or ring mounting. the de-
4
celluloid or. paper an exact picture of
the article as it will look when fin
ished. Perhaps several designs will
/ be submitted before one is accepted by
! the customer. In the case of very ex-
| penSive and elaborate pieces of work.
a. wax m odel is sometimes made. This
i is extremely difficult work which only
a few of the designers are able to do
artistically In this wax model the
j metals and jewels are shown in their
natural colors as nearly as possible.
/ According to a jewelry manufac-
turer who also designs jewelry for
fashionable folks in the national cap
/ ital, there is constantly increasing
demand for well designed, we'll made
I hand-wrought jewelry. AS he e&-
planned it, it gives discerning people
| an opportunity TO express their indi-
/ viduality and taste. Everybody likes
/ something different. People are now
| going to makers of jewelry, he said
| in much the same way that they GO
/ to their tailors-to have something
j DISTINCTIVE made To rnant cert ain CON