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Jewelry Repairs: The Gift of the Beader |
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Written by Dara Spiotto
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Tuesday, 15 July 2008 |
Jewelry Repairs: The Gift of the BeaderIt never fails. When a friend introduces me to someone new, they say, "This is Dara, she's the beader." Like I have it stamped on my forehead as my most important and honored attribute or my number one identity: I AM BEAD WOMAN! And then their eyes get wide and they say, "Oh! You?re the beader!" Conversation ensues. Eventually they come around to the question they wanted to ask me right from the introduction: Do you do jewelry repairs?
 Dinosaurs in the Jewelry Box
Rear Their Heads and Roar
One of many blessing of doing bead work is that you never have a broken piece of jewelry in your jewelry box. But for the non-beader it can be a junkyard of abandoned adornment going back to high school era. It's not that they don?t like their baubles, it just that one little loop came off a pendant and they can?t wear it any more, multiplied by a hundred other articles of jewelry. So the radar goes into high gear in case they ever meet someone who can fix it and they get the opportunity to ask.
The Beader Plan of Action If you?re like my friend Irene who owns a bead store and joyfully helps anyone and everyone repair or rebuild their old jewelry right on the spot, then the world needs more people like you. If you?re like me, then you tend to wince at the prospect and back away slowly. I guess over the years I?ve become more selfish with my beading time. In the few precious moments that I have to do beading, I don?t want to be repairing stuff that doesn?t belong to me or someone related to me. There are exceptions, of course. My neighbor Mary Lynn came to me with a few bags of stuff that turned out to be the simplest repairs in the world, and added up to a total of a whopping $2.95 in materials to fix. This neighbor is a great friend that my family loves dearly. She kept trying to insist on buying my son an expensive rug as compensation but that would have been  ridiculous. So I called her and demanded that she come over and put $2.95 into my son?s piggy bank or else there would be hell to pay. :-) It is important to me that she feels like she can come to me for repairs, since most of them are no-brainers and easy for me to do, so I have to let her compensate me in a way that she feels is fair. But she?s got to be reasonable, too. Negotiations are ensuing.
Beader for Hire? Occasionally I get a weird situation where I?m put on the spot. One e-mail from an acquaintance came out of the blue one day. It said, ?How much do you charge to repair a stretchie bracelet?? That was it. No hello, no how are you. No signature. In the group of ladies that I know this person from, no mention of repairs have ever come up, although they do know that I bead. I admit that I instantly felt taken advantage of. Just because I bead doesn?t mean I?m available for repairs, whether they offer to pay me or not. I know someone who?s a professional mechanic, but I would never e-mail him and say, ?How much to install a carburetor?? That?s presumptuous and annoying. No stretchie string for me. I intentionally skipped that trend of beading because I felt it limited the lifespan of the beadwork too much. I declined the invitation to repair her bracelet, and suggested she go to our local bead store that?s only 4 miles south from where we both live, since all the supplies are there and the staff is more than willing to help. She didn?t want to do that. That?s fine. She?ll have to wear her bracelet on her ankle, I guess.
 A Change of Perspective
Then this weekend I got whomped. My husband?s Grandmother is doing a total remodel on her home. She?s literally gutting out most of the inside and replacing / re-upholstering / re-organizing everything, down to each tiny detail. My Mother-in-law is orchestrating it all for her and so far it has taken months, but it's almost done. It's down to the nitty gritty. They hauled out her jewelry box this past week, and when it opened you could almost feel the history pouring out of it. And you guessed it, many things in there were broken, had missing parts or were out of style, or at least beyond her personal current taste (being 80 years young). So they went through it, bit by bit, and sorted out all the stuff that needed attention. And do you know where that box of repairs landed? You guessed it. Right in front of me.
If Only Beads Could Talk We looked at it all, piece by piece. Some of it I had made for her in years passed. Some of it was fine jewelry, and some was yard sale bargain bin, but all of it she had loved. There are stories in that box. My perception of it only held a glimmer of the  history it had. And because it was Grandma?s jewelry, it seemed somehow familiar. I?ve got my work cut out for me in remembering what needs to be done to each piece. Some need to go from silver to gold findings. Some need to be re-designed, and others need to be sized. I know one thing? As I work on it all, I will think about Grandma and her life, her stories and travels, and I will gain a new appreciation for the future boxes of crippled jewels that pass into my hands in need of mending. It was a good lesson, one I won?t forget.
?Surely, in a world filled with many crucial problems it seems unimportant to adorn our bodies; yet the self esteem gained from the act of creating is indeed valid.? ~Margie Deeb, Out on a Loom |
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