Jeweler / Precious Stone / Metal Worker

Design, fabricate, adjust, repair, or appraise jewelry, gold, silver, other precious metals, or gems.

O*NET reports this occupation under titles such as: Appraiser; Artisan Jeweler; Bench Jeweler; Caster; Gemologist; Goldsmith; Jeweler; Polisher; Silversmith; Stone Setter

Tasks

• Clean and polish metal items and jewelry pieces, using jewelers' tools, polishing wheels, and chemical baths.
• Smooth soldered joints and rough spots, using hand files and emery paper, and polish smoothed areas with polishing wheels or buffing wire.
• Create jewelry from materials such as gold, silver, platinum, and precious or semiprecious stones.
• Cut and file pieces of jewelry such as rings, brooches, bracelets, and lockets.
• Examine assembled or finished products to ensure conformance to specifications, using magnifying glasses or precision measuring instruments.
• Make repairs, such as enlarging or reducing ring sizes, soldering pieces of jewelry together, and replacing broken clasps and mountings.
• Compute costs of labor and materials to determine production costs of products and articles.
• Position stones and metal pieces, and set, mount, and secure items in place, using setting and hand tools.
• Grade stones based on their color, perfection, and quality of cut.
• Select and acquire metals and gems for designs.
• Shape and straighten damaged or twisted articles by hand or using pliers.
• Create new jewelry designs and modify existing designs, using computers as necessary.
• Plate articles such as jewelry pieces and watch dials, using silver, gold, nickel, or other metals.
• Record the weights and processing times of finished pieces.
• Construct preliminary models of wax, metal, clay, or plaster, and form sample castings in molds.

Knowledge

• Customer and Personal Service
• Design
• Production and Processing
• Sales and Marketing
• Administration and Management
• Mechanical
• Administrative
• Engineering and Technology
• Mathematics
• Economics and Accounting
• Fine Arts
• Education and Training

Skills

• Active Listening
• Speaking
• Critical Thinking

Abilities

• Near Vision
• Finger Dexterity
• Arm-Hand Steadiness
• Oral Comprehension
• Oral Expression
• Originality
• Category Flexibility
• Visualization
• Problem Sensitivity
• Deductive Reasoning
• Information Ordering
• Visual Color Discrimination
• Speech Recognition
• Speech Clarity