January 21, 2025 • 34 mins
Meet the unsung heroes of the jewelry world as Mike speaks with Stefanie Wesdorp from Jewel-Craft, a fourth-generation family business that handles service requests for hundreds of retail jewelers around the US.
Stefanie shares how Jewel-Craft has carved out a role as the hidden powerhouse behind so many jewelry stores. Tackling everything from intricate repairs to challenging customizations, Jewel-Craft manages to stay organized while handling hundreds of requests a day.
Learn more about Jewel-Craft: jewel-craft.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Welcome to In the Loop, the man behind the curtain
for a lot of jewelry stores.
They handle repairs and specialprojects and re-tippings and
all sorts of things like that,and they are kind of the secret
sauce for a lot of jewelrystores being able to handle what
their customers need.
Sometimes they don't even getthe credit that they deserve,
(00:39):
especially because they are aB2B company instead of a
customer-facing company, butthat doesn't make their job any
less important.
It actually makes it even moreimportant.
So I sat down and talked withStephanie all about what they
see when they get projects inthe most common projects, their
least favorite projects, howthey handle luxury brands that
(01:00):
come in, and if there's aspecial way to handle those, and
also what's on the cusp for2025.
Really cool talk.
I think that she is a fantasticleader, a fourth generation
business leader, and I thinkthat she has a lot to share.
So please enjoy.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
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Our mission reaches way beyondtechnology.
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And now back to the show.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
Welcome back everybody.
I'm joined by StephanieWestdorp from Jewelcraft.
How are you doing today,stephanie?
Speaker 3 (02:28):
Hey, I'm good.
Mike, how are you?
Speaker 1 (02:30):
Doing all right.
I was trying to explain to myparents who I was interviewing
and I was like, oh yeah,jewelcraft are kind of like the
man behind the curtain for a lotof jewelry stores.
Is that kind of a fairassessment, you know the kind of
the people who are getting someof these jobs done behind the
scenes.
Is that sort of like a fairkind of summation?
Speaker 3 (02:49):
Definitely we.
We are the jeweler's jeweler.
A lot of people don't know thatwe're here, but that's exactly
what we do.
We're here to have theretailers back and make sure
that they've got everything thatthey need for all of their
repairs or any custom thatthey've got everything that they
need for all of their repairsor any custom.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
Nice, yeah, because I guess my parents have always.
I'm sort of explaining thingsthroughout the years to them
like hey, did you know that notevery jewelry store does the
custom jewelry in-house?
Sometimes they're likeoutsourcing it, they work with
professionals that do it forthem, or same thing with repair
jobs, and they're like no, Ithought that they would do it
in-house.
And it's like some do, but alsosome people just don't have the
(03:31):
staff or the technology or thematerials, or just even like
they don't care to.
What is the?
Can you take me back andexplain to me kind of the origin
story?
And like how is it Earl, earlWestdorp that must be your
father grandfather started?
Speaker 3 (03:45):
Jewelcraft, great grandfather, great grandfather.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
Very cool.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
Yes, so I am fourth generation at Jewelcraft.
My grandfather and grandmotherdid a lot of the business and
really created a lot of thegrowth, and then my dad and my
uncle.
We've been in business since1947.
So me and my brothers and Ihave three cousins now.
(04:09):
We're all here all day, everyday, and again kind of behind
the scenes and making sure thateverything's getting taken care
of.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
That's really neat.
So, man, so you said 1945, didyou say 1947.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
So we're going into our 78th year.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
Oh my goodness.
So jewelry's progressed kind ofa lot since then.
There's new styles, even metalsare just a little bit different
than what they've been usingback then, but in the same way
things are relatively similar.
What has changed since Earlstarted it versus what
Jewelcraft is today?
Speaker 3 (04:46):
Oh, my goodness, I don't even know where to start.
I mean, I would say thetechnology.
I mean from a simple microscopeto you know, all of the CAD
programs, diamond testers, sothere's so much.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
But at the end of the day a repair is a repair and
that process really hasn'tchanged Increasingly.
It's more like fix this.
In this way there's a lot morekind of direction, it seems like
.
At least that's what I gatheredfrom your presentation at the
Punchmark Client Workshop thispast year.
Speaker 3 (05:32):
Yeah, definitely, and whether you use a torch or you
use a laser for the repair, andthen just making sure that all
of what needs to be taken careof is taken care of, that maybe
something comes in for a sizing,but maybe it needs more than
that and we want to make surethat we cover the basis and get
(05:52):
it all taken care of.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
So I can only imagine , though, you are sometimes
dealing with other customjewelers work, and you're
probably also dealing withvendors.
Is it work, and you're probablyalso dealing with vendors.
Do you ever get like rings orjewelry that's been done by a
custom jeweler and you're likeman, this thing was four seconds
away from losing this centerstone, or like the work on this
(06:15):
is really poor?
Or I guess, on the flip side,do you ever look at it?
It's like, wow, this person isreally impressive, for whatever
reason, is really impressive forwhatever reason, both of those
things.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
But nine times out of 10, the jeweler will call us
and say, hey, this job was alittle bit out of my scope.
I probably shouldn't haveattempted to do it.
I'm going to mark this to yourattention.
Can you get it fixed up andtaken care of for me?
So I have the benefit ofgetting to work directly with
(06:48):
the jeweler on the other side ofthe retail counter, and they
will be very honest and tell ushey, yeah, I botched this one or
this ring has been very wellloved by a customer, which is a
nice way of saying be up, yeah,it's, it might be it might be
time for a new mounting.
So it's really nice to be ableto have those very honest
(07:11):
conversations, whereas theretailer has to be really soft
and careful about what they aresaying to the end consumer.
So I do have it's a majoradvantage to get to work
directly with the retailer andhave those very honest
conversations.
Speaker 1 (07:26):
I guess it is one of those benefits of B2B versus B2C
, in that B2C, like you said,you do kind of have to I don't
want to say obfuscate, but youhave to have like a gentler
touch.
It's like oh yeah, this thingdefinitely needs like a little
looking at, but we'll get itfixed up.
And then when it's B2B, it'slike suddenly all the niceties
go away.
(07:46):
It's like this shank is totallymessed up.
If you don't fix it, like Idon't know what they were
thinking.
That kind of stuff we'vestarted to kind of it comes to
my attention every now and thenwhere it's like oh, we really
are dealing with customers in adifferent way because we're
dealing with businesses.
Speaker 3 (08:10):
And you guys probably have a similar type of
relationship with your owncustomers too, absolutely,
absolutely.
And our customers, I mean I'mso lucky I get to do all of the
trade shows, travel a lot, sothat FaceTime and building those
relationships is everything inthis business and really
important to me.
My primary focus at Jewelcraftis a lot of retention and sales
(08:30):
and just getting to know whothey are and what their needs
are so that I know how they fitinto the shop and I make friends
with most of them.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
Do you work?
Does Jewelcraft typically workon a retainer with a client, or
do they work on a per job basis?
Or how big the job is, or whatdoes that look like for the
billing?
Speaker 3 (08:51):
So you know, our minimum is one we're here to do
what they don't want to do,don't have time to do or maybe
don't have the equipment to do.
We fix a lot of hollow ropechange simply because the
in-house jeweler is like oh yeah, that's going to Jewelcraft,
send that to Jewelcraft.
It just kind of gets, you know,lets them get that stuff out of
(09:12):
their pan and focus on thestuff that they're really good
at or really enjoy doing.
A lot of times the benchjeweler is the owner who really
needs to be out on the salesfloor, you know meeting the
customers and they get stuck atthe bench and it's like no, get
out there and sell that diamond,let us take care of that.
$9 repair.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
Yeah, yeah, that's one thing I've always learned.
Work smarter, not harder, right?
Exactly, hey, respect, I meansomeone.
Everyone's got to eat.
So the fact that there's like a, not a spinoff business but a,
you know, a part of the businessthat can handle those things
and that is what your specialtyis, that sounds amazing.
But what type of stores are youtypically servicing?
(09:53):
You mentioned the owner mightbe the bench.
At the same time, Are youtypically dealing with the
smaller end of stores, like lessthan $1 million, with, like the
smaller end of stores like lessthan $1 million, or do you go
all the way up to the I callthem mega stores, like the
multi-location and the 10 milrange?
Speaker 3 (10:12):
All of the above.
We have a very specialized shopand very specialized jewelers.
Not all work is processed theexact same way, but we can cover
again, covering all of thebases.
We really are yeah, From largechains to small chains and the
(10:33):
mom and pops.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
Man.
So I guess I've always wondered.
So you, your presentation atthe workshop, like I alluded to
earlier, was that you like, howcan you make our relationship
easiest?
Like sending in you weretalking about slips or is it
like packages and making surethat all the information was as
relevant and pertinent aspossible?
Sending them in, making sureeverything is, you know,
(10:57):
controlled, but at the same time, man, you must be just under,
especially at parts times of theyear, you guys must be
absolutely buried on theirpackages.
How do you make sense of the ofthe mails from?
Speaker 3 (11:09):
Dates.
Our shop is run by the calendar.
Everything is by the date andthat's why, at the workshop, we
really wanted to focus ontalking about intake.
When the sales person is at thecounter and they're taking in
that piece of jewelry, it'sreally important to look over
(11:30):
that entire piece and knowexactly what needs to be done,
so that we're not stopping a joband reaching out to them to say
, oh well, this is broken aswell.
Do you want to fix this?
Also Because that's going todelay the dates and delay the
turn time and getting the workback to them.
And it just kind of slows thingsdown here too a little bit.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
Because, at the same time, I can only imagine,
especially around, yeah,especially around, the holidays
we just got out of the holidaysI can only imagine how insane
and with a sense of like I don'twant to say panic, but like
it's very time intensive andlike time relevant Are you just
dealing with things like does itmake you have to work later
hours or do you ever get to like?
(12:12):
Do you publish, like hey, ourwait times are now at six days
instead of four days, kind ofthing.
So how do you handle kind ofthe communication on your end?
Speaker 3 (12:22):
Well, that is.
This is an interesting questionfor this particular week
especially.
We had to close on Monday ofthis week due to weather, and
this is also the busiest week ofJewelcraft's calendar.
Speaker 1 (12:38):
Right now really.
Oh, this is January 10th, ifyou're curious Okay.
Speaker 3 (12:42):
So everything that everyone got for Christmas.
They need its size, they needthe chain shortened, they need
links taken out of the watch.
So this is yeah, this is ourbusiest week of the year.
It's usually this week and nextweek and again it's the dates,
and we're very old school onsome things.
(13:02):
We've got Post-its and you knowkind of rubber band things to
be like okay, these need to bebooked in for this day, and then
, yes, we stay late and we havemandatory Saturdays.
It's a blackout period and alot of people in the industry
are familiar with that.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
Wow, that is a.
That's a toughie.
What kind of what are like themost common uh gigs?
You asked?
You said uh untangling hollowchains, what's what's like the
most common thing you got askedto do um, I would say probably
basic ring sizings.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
This time of year that's probably our heaviest um.
But setting stones, laserwelding those pieces maybe with
sensitive stones we're able totackle those and a lot of chain
repair, new clasps, new heads.
We can supply all of thefindings and have our own
(13:58):
inventory and can ordereverything that we need to be
here next day.
Keep it moving.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
So as people send things in, I don't want to say I
don't, I love the mail system,don't get me wrong, I do.
I always wonder you guys aredealing with thousands and
thousands and thousands ofpackages a year.
Your chances of havingsomething go wrong are higher
because of the fact you'redealing with such quantity.
Do you guys just buy likeinsane insurance that just
(14:28):
really kind of insulatesyourself from the possibility of
like, yeah, what if this fancyrock is, this package is missing
on the way in or on the way out, or something like that?
How are you protectingyourselves from the
eventualities of life?
Speaker 3 (14:53):
life.
We require every single one ofour customers to include a
replacement value when they'redoing their intake and they ship
to us, so that we know exactlyhow to cover that package and
get it back to them safely.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
Have you ever seen like a package come in that has
like a multi-million dollarvalue or anything like that, or
is there like an upper limit ofwhat you'll see?
Speaker 3 (15:11):
If they're willing to cover it, then we will take it
and we'll just a lot of timesthat is a special call to me or
my brother Ross, and somebodywill reach out and let us know
in advance like hey, this iscoming.
We're also in a tri-state areahere in Northern Kentucky, so
there have been times wherepeople have driven from
(15:35):
surrounding states somethingwith high value and then come
back and picked it up.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
Man, that is a level.
That's the thing is.
I hear all the time peoplewould, especially with
e-commerce.
They're like, oh, I would neverwant to put this product in the
mail.
And for that I'm always like,well, thousands of other people
are doing the exact same thingand they still keep on doing it.
So at a certain point I'm likeit's got to be safe enough for
(16:02):
them, so it needs to be.
It should probably be safeenough for you.
They're not going to.
The postal system isn't goingto sniff out.
This is your first time doingit and and suddenly nail you on
it or make you pay.
It's like, um, if entireindustries are built on the back
of of the postal system, it's,it should work most of the time,
(16:23):
right?
Speaker 3 (16:24):
Correct.
That's.
That's what we're alwaysbanking on.
Yes, and it's just reallyimportant.
Everybody knows, but it'salways a good reminder.
You know, don't write diamonds,don't write jewelry, don't
write gold on the box.
You know, don't make it obviousand tape it up a little bit
more.
You know, tape it up maybe alittle bit more than you would
to make it a little bit harderto get into.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
All right, everybody, we're going to take a quick
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There'll be more information inthe show notes below.
And now back to the show.
And we're back.
So I guess I guess one thing Ialways am curious about.
I see you at the trade showswhenever I go to them.
And recently you came to ourworkshop.
(18:17):
But again, being B2B, I'mcurious what it's like trying to
advertise and attract newbusiness.
And you said you're focused alot on retention, but what about
the process of actuallyattracting new business?
And you said you're focused alot on retention, but what about
the process of, like, actuallyattracting new business?
Because in the end, your entirecompany is sort of based on the
idea of like not no one reallyknowing you exist.
(18:39):
You know no one is advertisingto their customers that they're
going to be sending it to you.
So is there kind of a best waythat you found to kind of
advertise that you are thisreliable man behind the curtain
or what's that like?
Speaker 3 (18:57):
It's.
It is a lot of the shows andbeing in the groups.
I would say that most newcustomers come from customer or
vendor referrals.
We do have a marketing firmthat has helped us rebrand over
the last couple of years and,you know, help direct some of
(19:18):
our marketing and targetingwhere we need to be targeting.
But at the end of the day, alot of it really is just a
customer referral or a vendorreferral or meeting at the shows
.
Some of the buying groups thathave, like the roundtables we
always know when the roundtablesare because all of a sudden
(19:38):
we'll get an influx of peoplecome to the booth and say I
heard about you at theroundtable.
So-and-so mentioned that theysend all of their work to you
and that really has been a majoradvantage in building those
relationships and that trust andgetting them to just kind of
bite the bullet and go ahead andship it.
(19:58):
Let's do this.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
That's that the highest compliment a retailer
can pay a vendor is exactly thatthose referrals.
When we see we're the exactsame way.
We pay attention to all theforums and we pay attention to
all the round tables and ifsomeone chouts us out, it's not
like it goes out into the void.
A lot of the time it echoesback and people come to our
(20:21):
booth or they come, they inquireabout a website and clients
that are willing to, I alwayssay, stake their reputation but
like kind of put their namebehind us.
It means so much to all vendors,but also especially people
where customers aren't supposedto know that we exist.
(20:43):
In the end we want to allowthem to spin whatever tail they
want.
We don't mind if someonepretends like they built their
website and we have a little tagat the bottom you could remove.
That costs a little bit ofmoney but we don't mind it,
because if you want to pretendlike you built your website so
that people trust you more, Iguess that that's okay with us.
(21:03):
And I am sure that there aresome stores that are um, they
don't mention that they aremailing it out and people just
assume, like my parents do, thatit's being fixed in the back of
the house.
But those referrals, man, theyreally can make or break a
business for sure.
Speaker 3 (21:20):
Absolutely, and I do love the forums as well.
They're it just.
It always feels so good to be,you know, tagged on a post from
you know a customer, or severalcustomers sometimes, and it's
just.
It's always really nice to see.
Speaker 1 (21:36):
That's really nice.
And so again back to thisworkshop presentation.
You were talking about how youcan make your job easier and
like, hey, we need to be clear,you need to write these things
on there.
You need to be clear, you needto write these things on there,
you need to date everything.
Um, let's talk about what is itthat jewelers could do that
drives you crazy that you'retrying to get ahead of Cause
(21:57):
that was the main focus of yourpresentation was, um, trying to
make it so that everybody's jobis is easier?
Um, it sounds like there weresome pretty specific examples
that you were trying to go afterreally quickly.
Speaker 3 (22:11):
Well, instructions for one.
You would be shocked how oftensomebody will send something in
and not include any instructionsat all.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
It's like OK, it's a ring.
Speaker 3 (22:23):
Are we re-tipping it?
Are we sizing it?
What size do you want it to goto?
It's really important, I thinkalso, like I said, to kind of
really evaluate the piece withthe customer.
Show them you know yourexpertise, show them that you
know what you're talking about,that you know that, hey, this
(22:44):
really needs new prongs.
If we don't put new prongs onthis, you might be at risk of,
you know, losing this stone,things like that, and mentioning
if a stone is broken or abraded.
We definitely want to know thatin advance, before it comes in,
so that we're not stopping atsaying like whoa, whoa, whoa,
I'm not touching this ring untilI know that they know that this
(23:09):
diamond has a chip on thegirdle.
Speaker 1 (23:11):
Yeah, is there like a point where it's like it
becomes your responsibility?
Is it when you unpackage apackage, or is it when you I
don't know like cut the bubblewrap off of the product itself?
Is there a point where you'relike okay, now is our
responsibility in your mind?
Speaker 3 (23:32):
Yeah.
So we really try and stop asmuch as possible while we're
doing our intake here at theshop.
We have a very specific waythat we enter jobs into a system
and everything gets loopedright at the start and
everything gets um, like thesize is taken and images are
(23:56):
taken as well.
So we stop as much as we can atthat point to say like, oh okay
, this stone, this stone ischipped, or you know, it's
missing a diamond and theydidn't mention that it was
missing a diamond.
Uh, we'll, right then reach outto the store and find out.
But once it hits the jeweler'sbench and we haven't reached out
(24:17):
and they're like, oh well, Ialready put prongs on this or
tightened the stone, and then Inoticed it was chipped.
That's on us.
We didn't catch it, they didn'tmention it and we'll, we'll be
the first to take care of itquickly.
Speaker 1 (24:33):
Is there anything that's like a job that comes in
and you're like, ah, these arethe worst, is there?
Is there a worst job for you?
Speaker 3 (24:41):
Yes, and it's an invisible set, anything.
An invisible set.
Bracelet, invisible set,earrings.
Invisible set rings.
An invisible set bracelet,invisible set, earrings,
invisible set rings.
We do it.
We've got two people doing itall day, every day, but everyone
in the industry will agree thatthat is the worst.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
Really so invisible set.
My friend just got engaged andshe has an invisible set row of
diamonds on her engagement ring.
Is it just because they'redifficult to get to or hard to
operate on, or like what makesit so hard?
Speaker 3 (25:14):
They're not all.
They're not all created equally.
Some of them are made betterthan others.
The grooved stones aren'talways easy to find and they
don't always just kind of snapin, so it's.
I feel like it's one of thosethings that just kind of turns
(25:36):
into a nightmare Once one fallsout.
It just kind of gets that ballrolling, and they're not fun to
work on at all.
Speaker 1 (25:45):
And one last one I was thinking of is I've
interviewed a lot of customjewelry designers on here before
and people who they, you know,they make their bread by
designing, you know, stuffyou've never even seen before
and a lot of times I kind of hadthis moment where I was like
maybe it's because the stuffwe've seen before is like the
easiest or best or mostefficient or cost or
(26:09):
material-effective way of youknow making the wheel, do you
ever get something in that'slike a custom jewelry design?
And you're just like, oh mygosh, this is the most like,
this is just all way too muchmetal or this is way.
The fact that this even made itthrough QC is insane to me,
specifically for custom jewelry,is that something you're seeing
(26:32):
as like the advent of?
You know custom jewelry designand CAD becoming more and more
popular and accessible?
Speaker 3 (26:39):
I mean, I wouldn't say that we do get requests that
shouldn't be done, like jewelrythat shouldn't be made, and AI
has kind of been playing alittle bit of a role in this as
well.
It's really important to havevery strict, set standards and
(27:02):
just make sure, okay, listen,we'll do what you're asking us
to do, but maybe we won'tguarantee it or we reach out to
them and say we would love tokind of alter this design just a
little bit to protect theintegrity of this piece when
it's made and finished and readyto go back to the customer.
Speaker 1 (27:22):
That's the thing is like.
Again with AI, these AI tools.
I think that some of them,they're gorgeous and they're
beautiful.
Again with AI, these AI tools,I think that some of them
they're gorgeous and they'rebeautiful, but especially things
related to, I think is itcalled tension set, where it's
like pieces on either side of astone, sort of pressing it in.
I'm always just like man.
It looks really cool, but Icannot help but think like I
(27:52):
wear my ring all the time and Ibang it and stuff, and I feel
like you're just one good bangor one one clumsy, clumsy
mistake of trying to grabsomething as it's falling to, uh
, losing your expensive stoneand not even noticing.
Speaker 3 (27:59):
Yeah, no attention, set rings are beautiful to look
at, but it is one of those whereyou size it once and it's
really not ever going to be whatit was when you bought it, and
it really just kind of dependson on how it was made and and
how it was produced.
Speaker 1 (28:18):
All right, one more.
Actually, I've got a millionquestions about these things.
So what about working on, forexample, luxury brands?
So things like, um you knowcertain watch brands that I
won't even mention my name, uh,certain um like luxury boutiques
, because I've I've seen onlinewith, like you know, if you go
(28:38):
to have like a you know aTiffany or Cartier uh bracelet,
um changed that.
Sometimes people won't want towork on it because they have
their own ecosystem of repairs.
Do you have any rules when itcomes to working with
established luxury brands likethat?
Speaker 3 (28:55):
I am really glad that you asked.
We have a lot of relationshipswith luxury brands where they
have actually come down to ourshop shown us how they do
certain repairs, so that we havebecome their authorized repair
house, so that we aremaintaining their brand.
Speaker 1 (29:16):
Oh weird.
Oh, I can see how it's a brandconcern for them, because yeah,
it's.
In the end people don't knowthat it was repaired, they just
think that that's what it lookedlike.
Speaker 3 (29:27):
Yeah, so we have, you know, david Yerman, one uh,
authorized repair house for forDavid German, and they've been
here, they've trained us, theytold us where to get the
oxidation and how to repaircertain pieces, and, yeah, so
they have told us how to repairtheir work.
Speaker 1 (29:46):
Interesting, yeah, and what and and what about
watch brands and any anything?
Do you handle watch brandsbecause I, or watch repairs
because I love watching thosevideos on online?
I that's like my specific brandof brain rot is watching watch
repair videos.
It seems very finicky, verytime intensive, very, uh, high
(30:12):
pressure because, god forbid,you lose one of those screws.
Is that something you guys arealso handling?
Speaker 3 (30:17):
Yeah, we have a state of the art clean room here at
Jewelcraft where all of our washrepairs are done, and we do
have lots of parts accounts withmajor brands.
I'm always like even just kindof like nervous or hesitant to
walk in there, like it's soclean and so quiet, and I'm
always kind of like holding mybreath a little bit like
(30:39):
something's going to, like I'mgoing to break something or
breathe on something wrong.
That's definitely their own.
Watches are their, their ownbreed.
You know it's very differentthan jewelry repair wow, super
cool.
Speaker 1 (30:53):
If you guys ever filmed some of those videos and
put them on on tiktok, I'm sureI'll see them, because darn do I
love that.
I, I like seeing the springuncoil, I like it all.
So, um, stephanie, what's nextfor, uh, for jewelcraft?
It seems that you have a veryloyal and established base.
You guys have been around forfour generations.
You guys are adapting with thetimes and keeping up with these.
(31:15):
You know product changes.
Is it just business as usual,keeping up?
Do you have ambitions forexpansion or moving into other
types of things?
What do you do as the fourthgeneration owner in this case?
Speaker 3 (31:28):
Yeah, 2025 is going to be pretty exciting for us.
We are doing a couple of newshows and the biggest thing
going on is that we areimplementing a new ERP in 2025.
Speaker 1 (31:44):
Oh, can you explain that a little bit more?
Speaker 3 (31:46):
Oh, I don't think I should be the one to explain it,
but we really just right nowwe're using a couple of
different systems and we're justreally excited to get
everything in one systemthroughout the entire shop.
It'll make things a lot easieron us and on our customers as
(32:07):
well, hoping that they don'tfeel the switch, but they might,
you know, notice a differencein the way that the invoice is
printed or the job ticket looks.
Outside of that, I'm really,you know, fingers crossed that
they don't feel it, but I knowit's going to be a big overhaul.
There's 270 of us here thatneed to be trained and get on
(32:27):
board.
Wow.
Speaker 1 (32:29):
That's the kind of stuff that I that I find is such
a like is that you know theterm like that's not a sexy
change, but those things are soimportant that can it can make
or break entire companies.
But efficiency is so so youknow, paramount to success.
But, stephanie, if someone'strying to maybe check out
(32:49):
Jewelcraft or learn more, ormaybe even get in for their
first gig, where can they go tolearn more?
Speaker 3 (32:57):
Absolutely.
You can go to jewel-craftcom,just like it sounds
J-E-W-E-L-hyphen-C-R-A-F-Tcomand reach out to me directly.
Speaker 1 (33:08):
Awesome and let them know that in a loop sent you, it
makes us look good too.
Stephanie, I can't thank youenough.
This is super cool.
This it's really is one ofthose things.
Finding out about the stuffthat's deeper, that kind of is
like the hidden part of thejewelry industry that makes
things run smoothly for allthese stores, is really quite
cool, and hearing that you guysare doing so well and continuing
(33:30):
to push forward is reallyexciting.
So thank you so much for yourtime.
I really appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (33:35):
No, thanks so much for having me.
It's always fun to catch up.
Good to see you and see youguys around soon.
Speaker 1 (33:41):
Absolutely All right.
Thanks everybody.
We'll be back next week,tuesday, with another episode.
Cheers Bye episode.
Cheers Bye, all right,everybody.
That's the show.
Thanks so much for listening.
This week, my guest wasStephanie Westdorf from
(34:03):
Jewelcraft and you can learnmore about them at Jewelcraftcom
.
That's Jewel-Craftcom.
It'll be in the show notesbelow.
This episode was brought to youby Punchmark and produced and
hosted by me, michael Burpo.
This episode was edited by PaulSuarez with music by Ross
Cockrum.
Don't forget to rate thepodcast on Spotify and Apple
Podcasts.
It takes one second and itreally helps us.
Leave us feedback onpunchmarkcom slash loop.
(34:24):
That's L-O-U-P-E.
Thanks.
We'll be back next week,tuesday, with another episode.
Cheers Bye.
Welcome to In the Loop, the man behind the curtain
for a lot of jewelry stores.
They handle repairs and specialprojects and re-tippings and
all sorts of things like that,and they are kind of the secret
sauce for a lot of jewelrystores being able to handle what
their customers need.
Sometimes they don't even getthe credit that they deserve,
(00:39):
especially because they are aB2B company instead of a
customer-facing company, butthat doesn't make their job any
less important.
It actually makes it even moreimportant.
So I sat down and talked withStephanie all about what they
see when they get projects inthe most common projects, their
least favorite projects, howthey handle luxury brands that
(01:00):
come in, and if there's aspecial way to handle those, and
also what's on the cusp for2025.
Really cool talk.
I think that she is a fantasticleader, a fourth generation
business leader, and I thinkthat she has a lot to share.
So please enjoy.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
This episode is brought to you by Punchmark, the
jewelry industry's favoritewebsite platform and digital
growth agency.
Our mission reaches way beyondtechnology.
With decades of experience andlong-lasting industry
relationships, punchmark enablesjewelry businesses to flourish
in any marketplace.
We consider our clients ourfriends, as many of them have
(01:41):
been friends way before becomingclients.
Punchmark's own success comesfrom the fact that we have a
much deeper need and obligationto help our friends succeed.
Whether you're looking forbetter e-commerce performance,
business growth or campaignsthat drive traffic and sales,
punchmark's website andmarketing services were made
just for you.
It's never too late totransform your business and
(02:02):
stitch together your digital andphysical worlds in a way that
achieves tremendous growth andresults.
Schedule a guided demo today atpunchmarkcom slash go.
And now back to the show.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
Welcome back everybody.
I'm joined by StephanieWestdorp from Jewelcraft.
How are you doing today,stephanie?
Speaker 3 (02:28):
Hey, I'm good.
Mike, how are you?
Speaker 1 (02:30):
Doing all right.
I was trying to explain to myparents who I was interviewing
and I was like, oh yeah,jewelcraft are kind of like the
man behind the curtain for a lotof jewelry stores.
Is that kind of a fairassessment, you know the kind of
the people who are getting someof these jobs done behind the
scenes.
Is that sort of like a fairkind of summation?
Speaker 3 (02:49):
Definitely we.
We are the jeweler's jeweler.
A lot of people don't know thatwe're here, but that's exactly
what we do.
We're here to have theretailers back and make sure
that they've got everything thatthey need for all of their
repairs or any custom thatthey've got everything that they
need for all of their repairsor any custom.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
Nice, yeah, because I guess my parents have always.
I'm sort of explaining thingsthroughout the years to them
like hey, did you know that notevery jewelry store does the
custom jewelry in-house?
Sometimes they're likeoutsourcing it, they work with
professionals that do it forthem, or same thing with repair
jobs, and they're like no, Ithought that they would do it
in-house.
And it's like some do, but alsosome people just don't have the
(03:31):
staff or the technology or thematerials, or just even like
they don't care to.
What is the?
Can you take me back andexplain to me kind of the origin
story?
And like how is it Earl, earlWestdorp that must be your
father grandfather started?
Speaker 3 (03:45):
Jewelcraft, great grandfather, great grandfather.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
Very cool.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
Yes, so I am fourth generation at Jewelcraft.
My grandfather and grandmotherdid a lot of the business and
really created a lot of thegrowth, and then my dad and my
uncle.
We've been in business since1947.
So me and my brothers and Ihave three cousins now.
(04:09):
We're all here all day, everyday, and again kind of behind
the scenes and making sure thateverything's getting taken care
of.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
That's really neat.
So, man, so you said 1945, didyou say 1947.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
So we're going into our 78th year.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
Oh my goodness.
So jewelry's progressed kind ofa lot since then.
There's new styles, even metalsare just a little bit different
than what they've been usingback then, but in the same way
things are relatively similar.
What has changed since Earlstarted it versus what
Jewelcraft is today?
Speaker 3 (04:46):
Oh, my goodness, I don't even know where to start.
I mean, I would say thetechnology.
I mean from a simple microscopeto you know, all of the CAD
programs, diamond testers, sothere's so much.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
But at the end of the day a repair is a repair and
that process really hasn'tchanged Increasingly.
It's more like fix this.
In this way there's a lot morekind of direction, it seems like
.
At least that's what I gatheredfrom your presentation at the
Punchmark Client Workshop thispast year.
Speaker 3 (05:32):
Yeah, definitely, and whether you use a torch or you
use a laser for the repair, andthen just making sure that all
of what needs to be taken careof is taken care of, that maybe
something comes in for a sizing,but maybe it needs more than
that and we want to make surethat we cover the basis and get
(05:52):
it all taken care of.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
So I can only imagine , though, you are sometimes
dealing with other customjewelers work, and you're
probably also dealing withvendors.
Is it work, and you're probablyalso dealing with vendors.
Do you ever get like rings orjewelry that's been done by a
custom jeweler and you're likeman, this thing was four seconds
away from losing this centerstone, or like the work on this
(06:15):
is really poor?
Or I guess, on the flip side,do you ever look at it?
It's like, wow, this person isreally impressive, for whatever
reason, is really impressive forwhatever reason, both of those
things.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
But nine times out of 10, the jeweler will call us
and say, hey, this job was alittle bit out of my scope.
I probably shouldn't haveattempted to do it.
I'm going to mark this to yourattention.
Can you get it fixed up andtaken care of for me?
So I have the benefit ofgetting to work directly with
(06:48):
the jeweler on the other side ofthe retail counter, and they
will be very honest and tell ushey, yeah, I botched this one or
this ring has been very wellloved by a customer, which is a
nice way of saying be up, yeah,it's, it might be it might be
time for a new mounting.
So it's really nice to be ableto have those very honest
(07:11):
conversations, whereas theretailer has to be really soft
and careful about what they aresaying to the end consumer.
So I do have it's a majoradvantage to get to work
directly with the retailer andhave those very honest
conversations.
Speaker 1 (07:26):
I guess it is one of those benefits of B2B versus B2C
, in that B2C, like you said,you do kind of have to I don't
want to say obfuscate, but youhave to have like a gentler
touch.
It's like oh yeah, this thingdefinitely needs like a little
looking at, but we'll get itfixed up.
And then when it's B2B, it'slike suddenly all the niceties
go away.
(07:46):
It's like this shank is totallymessed up.
If you don't fix it, like Idon't know what they were
thinking.
That kind of stuff we'vestarted to kind of it comes to
my attention every now and thenwhere it's like oh, we really
are dealing with customers in adifferent way because we're
dealing with businesses.
Speaker 3 (08:10):
And you guys probably have a similar type of
relationship with your owncustomers too, absolutely,
absolutely.
And our customers, I mean I'mso lucky I get to do all of the
trade shows, travel a lot, sothat FaceTime and building those
relationships is everything inthis business and really
important to me.
My primary focus at Jewelcraftis a lot of retention and sales
(08:30):
and just getting to know whothey are and what their needs
are so that I know how they fitinto the shop and I make friends
with most of them.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
Do you work?
Does Jewelcraft typically workon a retainer with a client, or
do they work on a per job basis?
Or how big the job is, or whatdoes that look like for the
billing?
Speaker 3 (08:51):
So you know, our minimum is one we're here to do
what they don't want to do,don't have time to do or maybe
don't have the equipment to do.
We fix a lot of hollow ropechange simply because the
in-house jeweler is like oh yeah, that's going to Jewelcraft,
send that to Jewelcraft.
It just kind of gets, you know,lets them get that stuff out of
(09:12):
their pan and focus on thestuff that they're really good
at or really enjoy doing.
A lot of times the benchjeweler is the owner who really
needs to be out on the salesfloor, you know meeting the
customers and they get stuck atthe bench and it's like no, get
out there and sell that diamond,let us take care of that.
$9 repair.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
Yeah, yeah, that's one thing I've always learned.
Work smarter, not harder, right?
Exactly, hey, respect, I meansomeone.
Everyone's got to eat.
So the fact that there's like a, not a spinoff business but a,
you know, a part of the businessthat can handle those things
and that is what your specialtyis, that sounds amazing.
But what type of stores are youtypically servicing?
(09:53):
You mentioned the owner mightbe the bench.
At the same time, Are youtypically dealing with the
smaller end of stores, like lessthan $1 million, with, like the
smaller end of stores like lessthan $1 million, or do you go
all the way up to the I callthem mega stores, like the
multi-location and the 10 milrange?
Speaker 3 (10:12):
All of the above.
We have a very specialized shopand very specialized jewelers.
Not all work is processed theexact same way, but we can cover
again, covering all of thebases.
We really are yeah, From largechains to small chains and the
(10:33):
mom and pops.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
Man.
So I guess I've always wondered.
So you, your presentation atthe workshop, like I alluded to
earlier, was that you like, howcan you make our relationship
easiest?
Like sending in you weretalking about slips or is it
like packages and making surethat all the information was as
relevant and pertinent aspossible?
Sending them in, making sureeverything is, you know,
(10:57):
controlled, but at the same time, man, you must be just under,
especially at parts times of theyear, you guys must be
absolutely buried on theirpackages.
How do you make sense of the ofthe mails from?
Speaker 3 (11:09):
Dates.
Our shop is run by the calendar.
Everything is by the date andthat's why, at the workshop, we
really wanted to focus ontalking about intake.
When the sales person is at thecounter and they're taking in
that piece of jewelry, it'sreally important to look over
(11:30):
that entire piece and knowexactly what needs to be done,
so that we're not stopping a joband reaching out to them to say
, oh well, this is broken aswell.
Do you want to fix this?
Also Because that's going todelay the dates and delay the
turn time and getting the workback to them.
And it just kind of slows thingsdown here too a little bit.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
Because, at the same time, I can only imagine,
especially around, yeah,especially around, the holidays
we just got out of the holidaysI can only imagine how insane
and with a sense of like I don'twant to say panic, but like
it's very time intensive andlike time relevant Are you just
dealing with things like does itmake you have to work later
hours or do you ever get to like?
(12:12):
Do you publish, like hey, ourwait times are now at six days
instead of four days, kind ofthing.
So how do you handle kind ofthe communication on your end?
Speaker 3 (12:22):
Well, that is.
This is an interesting questionfor this particular week
especially.
We had to close on Monday ofthis week due to weather, and
this is also the busiest week ofJewelcraft's calendar.
Speaker 1 (12:38):
Right now really.
Oh, this is January 10th, ifyou're curious Okay.
Speaker 3 (12:42):
So everything that everyone got for Christmas.
They need its size, they needthe chain shortened, they need
links taken out of the watch.
So this is yeah, this is ourbusiest week of the year.
It's usually this week and nextweek and again it's the dates,
and we're very old school onsome things.
(13:02):
We've got Post-its and you knowkind of rubber band things to
be like okay, these need to bebooked in for this day, and then
, yes, we stay late and we havemandatory Saturdays.
It's a blackout period and alot of people in the industry
are familiar with that.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
Wow, that is a.
That's a toughie.
What kind of what are like themost common uh gigs?
You asked?
You said uh untangling hollowchains, what's what's like the
most common thing you got askedto do um, I would say probably
basic ring sizings.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
This time of year that's probably our heaviest um.
But setting stones, laserwelding those pieces maybe with
sensitive stones we're able totackle those and a lot of chain
repair, new clasps, new heads.
We can supply all of thefindings and have our own
(13:58):
inventory and can ordereverything that we need to be
here next day.
Keep it moving.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
So as people send things in, I don't want to say I
don't, I love the mail system,don't get me wrong, I do.
I always wonder you guys aredealing with thousands and
thousands and thousands ofpackages a year.
Your chances of havingsomething go wrong are higher
because of the fact you'redealing with such quantity.
Do you guys just buy likeinsane insurance that just
(14:28):
really kind of insulatesyourself from the possibility of
like, yeah, what if this fancyrock is, this package is missing
on the way in or on the way out, or something like that?
How are you protectingyourselves from the
eventualities of life?
Speaker 3 (14:53):
life.
We require every single one ofour customers to include a
replacement value when they'redoing their intake and they ship
to us, so that we know exactlyhow to cover that package and
get it back to them safely.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
Have you ever seen like a package come in that has
like a multi-million dollarvalue or anything like that, or
is there like an upper limit ofwhat you'll see?
Speaker 3 (15:11):
If they're willing to cover it, then we will take it
and we'll just a lot of timesthat is a special call to me or
my brother Ross, and somebodywill reach out and let us know
in advance like hey, this iscoming.
We're also in a tri-state areahere in Northern Kentucky, so
there have been times wherepeople have driven from
(15:35):
surrounding states somethingwith high value and then come
back and picked it up.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
Man, that is a level.
That's the thing is.
I hear all the time peoplewould, especially with
e-commerce.
They're like, oh, I would neverwant to put this product in the
mail.
And for that I'm always like,well, thousands of other people
are doing the exact same thingand they still keep on doing it.
So at a certain point I'm likeit's got to be safe enough for
(16:02):
them, so it needs to be.
It should probably be safeenough for you.
They're not going to.
The postal system isn't goingto sniff out.
This is your first time doingit and and suddenly nail you on
it or make you pay.
It's like, um, if entireindustries are built on the back
of of the postal system, it's,it should work most of the time,
(16:23):
right?
Speaker 3 (16:24):
Correct.
That's.
That's what we're alwaysbanking on.
Yes, and it's just reallyimportant.
Everybody knows, but it'salways a good reminder.
You know, don't write diamonds,don't write jewelry, don't
write gold on the box.
You know, don't make it obviousand tape it up a little bit
more.
You know, tape it up maybe alittle bit more than you would
to make it a little bit harderto get into.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
All right, everybody, we're going to take a quick
break and hear a word from oursponsor.
This episode is brought to youin part by National Rarities.
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(17:08):
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(17:31):
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Learn more about NationalRarities at national raritiescom
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(17:55):
raritiescom.
There'll be more information inthe show notes below.
And now back to the show.
And we're back.
So I guess I guess one thing Ialways am curious about.
I see you at the trade showswhenever I go to them.
And recently you came to ourworkshop.
(18:17):
But again, being B2B, I'mcurious what it's like trying to
advertise and attract newbusiness.
And you said you're focused alot on retention, but what about
the process of actuallyattracting new business?
And you said you're focused alot on retention, but what about
the process of, like, actuallyattracting new business?
Because in the end, your entirecompany is sort of based on the
idea of like not no one reallyknowing you exist.
(18:39):
You know no one is advertisingto their customers that they're
going to be sending it to you.
So is there kind of a best waythat you found to kind of
advertise that you are thisreliable man behind the curtain
or what's that like?
Speaker 3 (18:57):
It's.
It is a lot of the shows andbeing in the groups.
I would say that most newcustomers come from customer or
vendor referrals.
We do have a marketing firmthat has helped us rebrand over
the last couple of years and,you know, help direct some of
(19:18):
our marketing and targetingwhere we need to be targeting.
But at the end of the day, alot of it really is just a
customer referral or a vendorreferral or meeting at the shows
.
Some of the buying groups thathave, like the roundtables we
always know when the roundtablesare because all of a sudden
(19:38):
we'll get an influx of peoplecome to the booth and say I
heard about you at theroundtable.
So-and-so mentioned that theysend all of their work to you
and that really has been a majoradvantage in building those
relationships and that trust andgetting them to just kind of
bite the bullet and go ahead andship it.
(19:58):
Let's do this.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
That's that the highest compliment a retailer
can pay a vendor is exactly thatthose referrals.
When we see we're the exactsame way.
We pay attention to all theforums and we pay attention to
all the round tables and ifsomeone chouts us out, it's not
like it goes out into the void.
A lot of the time it echoesback and people come to our
(20:21):
booth or they come, they inquireabout a website and clients
that are willing to, I alwayssay, stake their reputation but
like kind of put their namebehind us.
It means so much to all vendors,but also especially people
where customers aren't supposedto know that we exist.
(20:43):
In the end we want to allowthem to spin whatever tail they
want.
We don't mind if someonepretends like they built their
website and we have a little tagat the bottom you could remove.
That costs a little bit ofmoney but we don't mind it,
because if you want to pretendlike you built your website so
that people trust you more, Iguess that that's okay with us.
(21:03):
And I am sure that there aresome stores that are um, they
don't mention that they aremailing it out and people just
assume, like my parents do, thatit's being fixed in the back of
the house.
But those referrals, man, theyreally can make or break a
business for sure.
Speaker 3 (21:20):
Absolutely, and I do love the forums as well.
They're it just.
It always feels so good to be,you know, tagged on a post from
you know a customer, or severalcustomers sometimes, and it's
just.
It's always really nice to see.
Speaker 1 (21:36):
That's really nice.
And so again back to thisworkshop presentation.
You were talking about how youcan make your job easier and
like, hey, we need to be clear,you need to write these things
on there.
You need to be clear, you needto write these things on there,
you need to date everything.
Um, let's talk about what is itthat jewelers could do that
drives you crazy that you'retrying to get ahead of Cause
(21:57):
that was the main focus of yourpresentation was, um, trying to
make it so that everybody's jobis is easier?
Um, it sounds like there weresome pretty specific examples
that you were trying to go afterreally quickly.
Speaker 3 (22:11):
Well, instructions for one.
You would be shocked how oftensomebody will send something in
and not include any instructionsat all.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
It's like OK, it's a ring.
Speaker 3 (22:23):
Are we re-tipping it?
Are we sizing it?
What size do you want it to goto?
It's really important, I thinkalso, like I said, to kind of
really evaluate the piece withthe customer.
Show them you know yourexpertise, show them that you
know what you're talking about,that you know that, hey, this
(22:44):
really needs new prongs.
If we don't put new prongs onthis, you might be at risk of,
you know, losing this stone,things like that, and mentioning
if a stone is broken or abraded.
We definitely want to know thatin advance, before it comes in,
so that we're not stopping atsaying like whoa, whoa, whoa,
I'm not touching this ring untilI know that they know that this
(23:09):
diamond has a chip on thegirdle.
Speaker 1 (23:11):
Yeah, is there like a point where it's like it
becomes your responsibility?
Is it when you unpackage apackage, or is it when you I
don't know like cut the bubblewrap off of the product itself?
Is there a point where you'relike okay, now is our
responsibility in your mind?
Speaker 3 (23:32):
Yeah.
So we really try and stop asmuch as possible while we're
doing our intake here at theshop.
We have a very specific waythat we enter jobs into a system
and everything gets loopedright at the start and
everything gets um, like thesize is taken and images are
(23:56):
taken as well.
So we stop as much as we can atthat point to say like, oh okay
, this stone, this stone ischipped, or you know, it's
missing a diamond and theydidn't mention that it was
missing a diamond.
Uh, we'll, right then reach outto the store and find out.
But once it hits the jeweler'sbench and we haven't reached out
(24:17):
and they're like, oh well, Ialready put prongs on this or
tightened the stone, and then Inoticed it was chipped.
That's on us.
We didn't catch it, they didn'tmention it and we'll, we'll be
the first to take care of itquickly.
Speaker 1 (24:33):
Is there anything that's like a job that comes in
and you're like, ah, these arethe worst, is there?
Is there a worst job for you?
Speaker 3 (24:41):
Yes, and it's an invisible set, anything.
An invisible set.
Bracelet, invisible set,earrings.
Invisible set rings.
An invisible set bracelet,invisible set, earrings,
invisible set rings.
We do it.
We've got two people doing itall day, every day, but everyone
in the industry will agree thatthat is the worst.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
Really so invisible set.
My friend just got engaged andshe has an invisible set row of
diamonds on her engagement ring.
Is it just because they'redifficult to get to or hard to
operate on, or like what makesit so hard?
Speaker 3 (25:14):
They're not all.
They're not all created equally.
Some of them are made betterthan others.
The grooved stones aren'talways easy to find and they
don't always just kind of snapin, so it's.
I feel like it's one of thosethings that just kind of turns
(25:36):
into a nightmare Once one fallsout.
It just kind of gets that ballrolling, and they're not fun to
work on at all.
Speaker 1 (25:45):
And one last one I was thinking of is I've
interviewed a lot of customjewelry designers on here before
and people who they, you know,they make their bread by
designing, you know, stuffyou've never even seen before
and a lot of times I kind of hadthis moment where I was like
maybe it's because the stuffwe've seen before is like the
easiest or best or mostefficient or cost or
(26:09):
material-effective way of youknow making the wheel, do you
ever get something in that'slike a custom jewelry design?
And you're just like, oh mygosh, this is the most like,
this is just all way too muchmetal or this is way.
The fact that this even made itthrough QC is insane to me,
specifically for custom jewelry,is that something you're seeing
(26:32):
as like the advent of?
You know custom jewelry designand CAD becoming more and more
popular and accessible?
Speaker 3 (26:39):
I mean, I wouldn't say that we do get requests that
shouldn't be done, like jewelrythat shouldn't be made, and AI
has kind of been playing alittle bit of a role in this as
well.
It's really important to havevery strict, set standards and
(27:02):
just make sure, okay, listen,we'll do what you're asking us
to do, but maybe we won'tguarantee it or we reach out to
them and say we would love tokind of alter this design just a
little bit to protect theintegrity of this piece when
it's made and finished and readyto go back to the customer.
Speaker 1 (27:22):
That's the thing is like.
Again with AI, these AI tools.
I think that some of them,they're gorgeous and they're
beautiful.
Again with AI, these AI tools,I think that some of them
they're gorgeous and they'rebeautiful, but especially things
related to, I think is itcalled tension set, where it's
like pieces on either side of astone, sort of pressing it in.
I'm always just like man.
It looks really cool, but Icannot help but think like I
(27:52):
wear my ring all the time and Ibang it and stuff, and I feel
like you're just one good bangor one one clumsy, clumsy
mistake of trying to grabsomething as it's falling to, uh
, losing your expensive stoneand not even noticing.
Speaker 3 (27:59):
Yeah, no attention, set rings are beautiful to look
at, but it is one of those whereyou size it once and it's
really not ever going to be whatit was when you bought it, and
it really just kind of dependson on how it was made and and
how it was produced.
Speaker 1 (28:18):
All right, one more.
Actually, I've got a millionquestions about these things.
So what about working on, forexample, luxury brands?
So things like, um you knowcertain watch brands that I
won't even mention my name, uh,certain um like luxury boutiques
, because I've I've seen onlinewith, like you know, if you go
(28:38):
to have like a you know aTiffany or Cartier uh bracelet,
um changed that.
Sometimes people won't want towork on it because they have
their own ecosystem of repairs.
Do you have any rules when itcomes to working with
established luxury brands likethat?
Speaker 3 (28:55):
I am really glad that you asked.
We have a lot of relationshipswith luxury brands where they
have actually come down to ourshop shown us how they do
certain repairs, so that we havebecome their authorized repair
house, so that we aremaintaining their brand.
Speaker 1 (29:16):
Oh weird.
Oh, I can see how it's a brandconcern for them, because yeah,
it's.
In the end people don't knowthat it was repaired, they just
think that that's what it lookedlike.
Speaker 3 (29:27):
Yeah, so we have, you know, david Yerman, one uh,
authorized repair house for forDavid German, and they've been
here, they've trained us, theytold us where to get the
oxidation and how to repaircertain pieces, and, yeah, so
they have told us how to repairtheir work.
Speaker 1 (29:46):
Interesting, yeah, and what and and what about
watch brands and any anything?
Do you handle watch brandsbecause I, or watch repairs
because I love watching thosevideos on online?
I that's like my specific brandof brain rot is watching watch
repair videos.
It seems very finicky, verytime intensive, very, uh, high
(30:12):
pressure because, god forbid,you lose one of those screws.
Is that something you guys arealso handling?
Speaker 3 (30:17):
Yeah, we have a state of the art clean room here at
Jewelcraft where all of our washrepairs are done, and we do
have lots of parts accounts withmajor brands.
I'm always like even just kindof like nervous or hesitant to
walk in there, like it's soclean and so quiet, and I'm
always kind of like holding mybreath a little bit like
(30:39):
something's going to, like I'mgoing to break something or
breathe on something wrong.
That's definitely their own.
Watches are their, their ownbreed.
You know it's very differentthan jewelry repair wow, super
cool.
Speaker 1 (30:53):
If you guys ever filmed some of those videos and
put them on on tiktok, I'm sureI'll see them, because darn do I
love that.
I, I like seeing the springuncoil, I like it all.
So, um, stephanie, what's nextfor, uh, for jewelcraft?
It seems that you have a veryloyal and established base.
You guys have been around forfour generations.
You guys are adapting with thetimes and keeping up with these.
(31:15):
You know product changes.
Is it just business as usual,keeping up?
Do you have ambitions forexpansion or moving into other
types of things?
What do you do as the fourthgeneration owner in this case?
Speaker 3 (31:28):
Yeah, 2025 is going to be pretty exciting for us.
We are doing a couple of newshows and the biggest thing
going on is that we areimplementing a new ERP in 2025.
Speaker 1 (31:44):
Oh, can you explain that a little bit more?
Speaker 3 (31:46):
Oh, I don't think I should be the one to explain it,
but we really just right nowwe're using a couple of
different systems and we're justreally excited to get
everything in one systemthroughout the entire shop.
It'll make things a lot easieron us and on our customers as
(32:07):
well, hoping that they don'tfeel the switch, but they might,
you know, notice a differencein the way that the invoice is
printed or the job ticket looks.
Outside of that, I'm really,you know, fingers crossed that
they don't feel it, but I knowit's going to be a big overhaul.
There's 270 of us here thatneed to be trained and get on
(32:27):
board.
Wow.
Speaker 1 (32:29):
That's the kind of stuff that I that I find is such
a like is that you know theterm like that's not a sexy
change, but those things are soimportant that can it can make
or break entire companies.
But efficiency is so so youknow, paramount to success.
But, stephanie, if someone'strying to maybe check out
(32:49):
Jewelcraft or learn more, ormaybe even get in for their
first gig, where can they go tolearn more?
Speaker 3 (32:57):
Absolutely.
You can go to jewel-craftcom,just like it sounds
J-E-W-E-L-hyphen-C-R-A-F-Tcomand reach out to me directly.
Speaker 1 (33:08):
Awesome and let them know that in a loop sent you, it
makes us look good too.
Stephanie, I can't thank youenough.
This is super cool.
This it's really is one ofthose things.
Finding out about the stuffthat's deeper, that kind of is
like the hidden part of thejewelry industry that makes
things run smoothly for allthese stores, is really quite
cool, and hearing that you guysare doing so well and continuing
(33:30):
to push forward is reallyexciting.
So thank you so much for yourtime.
I really appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (33:35):
No, thanks so much for having me.
It's always fun to catch up.
Good to see you and see youguys around soon.
Speaker 1 (33:41):
Absolutely All right.
Thanks everybody.
We'll be back next week,tuesday, with another episode.
Cheers Bye episode.
Cheers Bye, all right,everybody.
That's the show.
Thanks so much for listening.
This week, my guest wasStephanie Westdorf from
(34:03):
Jewelcraft and you can learnmore about them at Jewelcraftcom
.
That's Jewel-Craftcom.
It'll be in the show notesbelow.
This episode was brought to youby Punchmark and produced and
hosted by me, michael Burpo.
This episode was edited by PaulSuarez with music by Ross
Cockrum.
Don't forget to rate thepodcast on Spotify and Apple
Podcasts.
It takes one second and itreally helps us.
Leave us feedback onpunchmarkcom slash loop.
(34:24):
That's L-O-U-P-E.
Thanks.
We'll be back next week,tuesday, with another episode.
Cheers Bye.
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