Jeweller

Job overview
A jeweller makes, repairs, designs or sells jewellery.

Often the profession is passed on from father to son.

A large percentage of jewellers on the manufacturing side are males. Women venture into the business, but usually in designing and selling.

What do people do in this job?
The jewellery profession can be divided between craftsmanship, salesmanship and?
management.

• Craftsmanship involves creating and designing jewellery?

A designer needs to visualise what jewellery he is going to make, defining the metal and other materials like precious stones and beads needed to give his ideas a form.

Sometimes craftsmanship involves repairing jewellery, which is not always as easy as it sounds.

Repairs take more effort than making a new piece of jewellery because the piece has to be restored to its original form without damage to its intricate details.

• Salesmanship: Selling jewellery is an art and the person doing it should have a good knowledge of jewellery in general and be persuasive.

As jewellery is always expensive, people think a lot before buying.

The jeweller needs patience to allow the customer to try various pieces before deciding which to buy.

• Management: There is wide scope for management in large international jewellery-making companies, among the more famous of which are Tiffany?'?s and Cartier.

What kinds of people are suitable for this career?
People starting off in the jewellery business need to combine physical deftness and manual skill.

Later, business acumen will be called for.

What qualifications are needed?
Normally jewellers will have trained in one of the design schools to be found in the larger population centres.