The Lost Dolphin
Jim Saylor Jewelers opened in Hawaii, on the island of Kauai, in 1976 and has been operating from that same location ever since. They are family owned and operated and are known for their quality, custom jewelry designs and the special attention and service they provide their customers. Recently they had an opportunity to put that special service to the test and they passed with flying colors.
The Lost Dolphin Challenge
A little while back, one of Jim’s customers came to him with a single dolphin earring and asked him if he could possibly duplicate the matching earring, as she had lost it and was heartbroken over the loss. Because of her emotional attachment to the pair of earrings, they held an irreplaceable, sentimental value, so she wanted her lost earring to be an exact duplicate of the original. Not a similar earring, not a replacement, not a slightly different earring – she wanted an earring with the exact same design as her lost earring.
However, the customer’s request presented a problem. The earring had been mass produced, but when Jim contacted the manufacturers of the earring, they told him it was no longer in stock and they could not reproduce the piece. Not wanting to disappoint his customer, Jim turned to Jewelrythis to find a solution.
Aron Suley, Jewelrythis’ master jeweler, immediately recognized what a huge challenge it would be to recreate the customer’s lost earring, but he also wanted to help, so with his typical diligence, he applied himself to the task.
The First Challenge
The usual procedure for duplicating a jewelry piece is to make a mold from the original and then produce the cast from the mold. However, although Aron did have one of the earrings, he wasn’t able to take it apart, which he needed to do in order to get the proper measurements. Instead, he had to take photos of the earring from different angles, and then using a photo editor and scale, measure all the stones and the parts. Aron then had to find a way to reproduce the earring’s likeness in a 3D environment working primarily from those photographs,. That was the first challenge.
The Second Challenge
A second challenge Aron faced was replicating the exact measurements required for this jewelry piece. Not only was its design very intricate and complex, but it also had many different measurements; the earrings were made from different metals and graduating diamond sizes. Plus, its surface was curvy, which is much more difficult to work with than a flat surface. Aron had to make sure that all of these different sizes and measurements exactly duplicated those of the original piece.
Design Sketch and Stone Plot Map
The Third Challenge
Another challenge was that the photographs Aron now had were of the earring in his possession, not of the missing piece. This meant that Aron had to recreate not the earring in the photo, but its mirror image!
According to Aron, “it would have been easier to recreate both of the earrings in a similar way, than to actually duplicate the lost earring.” However, this was not an option as the customer had her heart set on having the earrings that she loved ‘returned’ to her.
The Fourth Challenge
Yet another challenge was sourcing the black diamonds needed for the earring. Since the piece had many diamonds, and they were in a variety of different sizes, we had to measure them all separately and then search many different sources in order to find them in the right shape and size.
A Happy Outcome
Well, we’re happy to report that there was a happy ending to this story – the lost dolphin was returned to its owner. Aron successfully recreated the missing earring and Jim Saylor Jewelers was able to deliver it to a very relieved and grateful customer. “Good service is one of the hallmarks of my business and when I saw how much this pair of earrings meant to my customer, finding a solution to the problem became a priority for me. I was very proud to be able to find such an outstanding and unique solution, and mostly, I was proud that I was able to make my customer happy.” ~ Jim Saylor, Jim Saylor Jewelers.
You can see the happy ending in the photo below.
