| Jeweler
Joe Needham started 'young and dumb,' grew to love design
By Alison Baugh
April 15, 2008 | Joseph Needham may
not have initially wanted a job at the family business
at age 13, but he has come to enjoy his work and the
technological changes he has seen.
Joe's family has owned S.E. Needham
Jewelers in Cache Valley since his great-grandma founded
the business in 1896. While Joe's dad owned the business,
he was mostly involved on the financial side. When he
turned 13, Joe's dad asked him if he wanted to start
working at the jewelry store.
"I said, ‘No, I'm 13,'-- but
let's just say I got the job," Joe said.
Joe was still at Logan High school
and was involved with the art program there. After school
he worked at the jewelry business, learning the trade
of jewelry. Most of it was self taught through observation
and trial and error, he said. Often he would take on
jobs other jewelry stores would refuse.
"I was young and dumb enough
not to realize the risk level," Joe said.
During this time Joe said the work
he did involved using hand tools to fix and make the
jewelry. After the jewelry design was carved from a
piece of wax with a small knife, a mold was made and
then filled with liquid metal for the ring. The jewels
were then placed into the piece of jewelry by hand by
the setters, which would often take hours to ensure
nothing broke in the process, Joe said.
A few years later, Joe attended the
Revere Academy of Jewelry Art in San Francisco, Calif.,
to "learn what I knew and whatever else I didn't know,"
he said. Joe became a goldsmith, doing more casting
of the jewelry and other jobs. His dealing with the
public grew until he became shop foreman.
His interaction with customers takes
place at his dark wood desk to the right of the front
entrance. Here he has a perfect view of Main Street
and of the Logan Temple. While this is the third home
for the business, all have been on Main Street, attracting
with the slogan "The middle of the block at the sign
of the clock." Joe is always found dressed in the best.
One day he wore a gray suit and light lime green, almost
yellow tie stitched with pale gold flowers. His light
brown hair is always spiked just enough to give the
idea that he has an artistic side, but professional
enough customers will place their trust in him.
Joe's desk shows just how much of
a role technology now plays in his work. Instead of
sketching the design by hand, the business now uses
a computer program to create a 3-D view of the piece.
Joe and his brother Sylvan Eugene Needham decided the
business needed some updating and Joe said when he heard
about the new computer system that was available he
decided it would be worth the expense.
"You always have to be changing
with the times or your get passed by," Joe said.
The CAD-CAM computer software has
not only changed the process of making jewelry but also
of the type of people who do the work. Joe said there
was one goldsmith who worked for the business for more
than 20 years, who was replaced with a man in his late
20's who could learn and work the computer designing
system easier. The older goldsmith still does some hand
work, but the majority is done with the CAD-CAM. Finding
someone who had the artistic ability to design the rings
and use the software is hard, Joe said. There are only
two employees at the shop who use the system, Joe being
one of them.
"Understanding jewelry is what
is it all about, the computer part is teachable," Joe
said.
While Joe doesn't do much casting
anymore, he can take the ideas customers bring and set
them up on the computer to make sure the buyers get
what they want. He will build a 3-D model of the ring
and place jewels of any cut. Color can also be added
to the design, showing the customer what looks like
a photograph of the exact ring.
"We can see exactly what it's
going to look like before it's even made," Joe said.
Joe explains the process he goes
through when he does make a piece of jewelry. After
the 3-D model, codes are sent to another computer that
will carve the model in a piece of green wax. Joe said
the computer sends up to 50,000 to 60,000 codes per
ring depending on the intricacy of the design.
"Hand carving is neat, but
nothing can compete with the perfection of the computer,"
Joe said.
Once the wax model is made, the model
is placed in a small round container about the size
of a toilet paper roll. The container is then filled
with plaster and hardens. Joe then places the container
in a kiln using metal tongs. The kiln gets to over 1800
degrees Fahrenheit and not only melts, but evaporates
the wax. Once the wax is melted, Joe puts the plaster
into the casting machine. Here the metal is melted through
electronic waves, with no human hands pouring it into
the plaster. After the metal is removed, it is still
a rough look, Joe said. Joe then polishes it with a
sand polisher that spins while he holds the ring in
front of him. Next, Joe uses an ultra sonic machine
to clean the jewelry. Last, Joe, or a diamond setter,
carefully places jewels into the ring.
Joe recently placed 195 diamonds
in one ring. He estimated he went over the ring 2,000
times in the six hours it took him to place the diamonds
by hand. This ring isn't usual, Joe said, even for family
of jewelers.
"Heck, my wife is married to
a jeweler and hers isn't even that much. OK, I guess
almost," Joe said.
Joe met his wife, Jenilyn while an
art major at Utah State University in 2003. The next
year they were married. Joe of course designed his own
ring, with the only request from Jenilyn being that
the diamond be a classic, or round, cut.
"Since he was the ring designer
I left it all up to him," Jenilyn said.
Joe said he makes two or three pieces
of new jewelry for his wife each year. Most recently
he made a mother's ring that had diamonds on the outside
and his son Christian's birthstone in the middle. Jenilyn
said this was one of her favorites next to her wedding
ring. Joe said he designed his wife's wedding ring,
but it's time to change it.
"I'm bored with it," Joe said.
"She isn't bored with it, but I am so I'm going to redesign
it for our fifth anniversary."
Joe plans on saving the diamond and
using it in the next ring because he can't afford to
buy a new one. While Jenilyn knows about the upcoming
change to her ring, Joe plans on surprising her with
earrings and a necklace to go along with her mother's
ring. He never understood how important it is to have
a complete matching set of jewelry until he got married,
Joe said.
Joe has entered some of his pieces
in jewelry competitions. One took sixth in an international
competition. If the pieces "aren't funky" they won't
go anywhere, Joe said. He felt his piece should have
done better, but he will keep entering competitions.
"You can get inspiration from
anything," Joe said. "You take a part of anything you
see and make it a design."
While in school they would be given
an object or part of the body, such as the ear, and
have to design a piece using that shape. He said his
favorite inspiration came about five years ago, his
350 Z Nissan. The ring was a solitary diamond with a
base of the ring curving to look like the car.
Joe is always doodling and coming
up with new designs, Jenilyn told members of their church
congregation. If Joe ever looks like he is falling asleep
in church and his head is down, don't worry he isn't.
He is probably just coming up with a design for a new
piece of jewelry, she said.
Joe's creative side it seen in a
variety of areas, Jenilyn said. He not only designs
jewelry, but he paints, draws, is designing their backyard
garden and puts together some unusual stuff when cooking,
but it usually turns out good, Jenilyn said.
"He's very creative. He's definitely
dominant on the creative side of the brain," Jenilyn
said.
Joe's creativity may help him to
start his own line of jewelry someday. He has started
out by selling his pieces at the store to see how customers
feel about them. They have done well so far, Joes said.
The style that would set Joe's rings apart is the curve
on the bottom band. He uses a bubble euro shank style
which he said is designed for comfort and to stop the
ring from turning.
The computerized system allows the
designer to be more precise and faster, Joe said. CAD-CAM
may limit the designer's creativity to some extent,
but it also unlocks new doors.
"You still have to be creative,"
Joe said. "You do what the customers want."
The combination of the new technology
and Joe's creative skills have turned his unwanted after
school activity into a viable job.
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