In the Loupe
In the Loupe
Let's Talk with Ring Buyers (Part 5): A Custom Engagement Ring Journey
Michael interviews his eldest brother, Joseph, about his custom engagement ring process with Vincent from Arezzo Jewelers, revealing that custom projects can be affordable and quick when incorporating family jewelry pieces.
If you're considering a custom engagement ring, don't assume it will be more expensive or time-consuming than buying off the shelf. Talk to a jeweler about incorporating family pieces to create something meaningful and unique.
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Welcome to In the Loop with an episode of let's Talk with Ring Buyers and this is a recurring series that we do and this is a very special one because I'm interviewing my eldest brother, joseph. He's a long time In the Loop listener. What's up, joe? And we're talking about a custom ring build. That he actually did with another In the Loop guest and listener, vincent from Arezzo Jewelers, and it was a really interesting conversation. I had the same conversation two different times to talk about what the ring building process was like for a shopper and for the jeweler, and I get into that a little bit more, but it was very cool to compare and contrast what the experiences were like, in that custom ring projects are not always more expensive and I also think that the timeline was a lot quicker than I had expected. So let's get into it and enjoy.
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Speaker 1:And now back to the show. All right everybody, all right everybody. So I wanted to offer a little bit of reasoning for why I do these user interviews for ring buyers, and what I've learned over the course of a lot of years is that the things of importance for a shopper versus a retailer versus a vendor, versus a retailer versus a vendor versus a podcast host are all very different when it comes to an engagement ring process. There's no one way to do this, and especially if you're, you know, men buying for men, men buying for women, women buying for women or, like this episode, custom engagement ring processes are all very unique and offer an insight into an experience that I've never kind of undergone, and user interviews are one of those ways that UX designers can kind of better tailor their products and processes and journeys to make things more seamless or more comfortable. And what I've learned is that by me doing these interviews, retailers can sometimes better refine or get new insights into what's going through the mind of the shoppers. A lot of times I have a personal connection to these shoppers as well. This one in particular is my elder brother. This is Joseph. He's a longtime In the Loop listener, very supportive. He's probably listening to this episode. What's up, joe?
Speaker 1:And he had approached me and told me you know, I want to do a custom ring project. Do you have anyone that you recommend? And of course I recommended Vincent. He actually had done a ring project for me once upon a time several years ago, where he engraved my family crest onto a signet ring for me and it was super easy working with him. I've had him on the podcast several times in the past and also I just really like him. I think he's a good guy and I recommended it.
Speaker 1:But I also knew I wanted to be not involved in this process because to me it's very much a it's a personal thing. You know, a custom engagement ring or just engagement ring buying thing. I don't know if I would want to be at the center of it. It should just be between Joe and this. You know this guy and I didn't want to be kind of altering that or too heavily involved. So after the connection I sort of stepped away and left it to Joe and Vincent to sort out.
Speaker 1:But what was really cool in doing this interview? I had the interview twice. I interviewed Joe one-on-one about his, you know, ring building designing process and then I interviewed Vincent and we talked about the same things but through the lens of a shopper or, I guess, the guy, and then through the eyes of a jeweler, and the things that I noticed is that Joe was very concerned about a certain set of things, like he really wanted it to turn out good, he wanted to be under budget, he wanted to have the communication easy and with Vincent, he wanted to make sure that the shopper really liked it. And I think that having those kind of core principles out in the open with each other, with open communication, really made the process super great. So I'm going to hopefully have these interviews sort of intermingle with each other and you'll sort of see how, through different vantage points, through the eyes of a shopper, through the eyes of a retailer, you can see the same process and how there are different focuses, and I think that that's pretty cool.
Speaker 1:I haven't really seen very many of these Custom ring projects. I always thought that they were supposed to be really expensive and after talking with my brother, joe and to Vincent, I realized that if you come to this process with, for example, some material, then it doesn't have to be as expensive as if you came in with nothing. I also thought that the timeline was going to be a lot longer. I thought that ring projects took like four or five months because you know it seems so intense like a lot of things going on, and this one only took about like a month and I thought that was pretty cool. So please enjoy listening to my older brother and Vincent from Arezzo talk about a custom ring build project.
Speaker 1:Cheers, what is up everybody? I'm joined by my brother, super fan of In the Loop. He's named In the Loop, his number one podcast for the last five seasons in a row. We're hoping to make it six. Joseph Urpo, how are you doing today? I'm doing great, mike, thanks for having me. I can't believe it. We're finally having my other brother on. If you remember back I think it was back in season two I had my second oldest brother, steven, on to talk about his engagement ring buying process. He bought from a brick and mortar, just a regular store in the area that we grew up in. Joseph, you took a slightly different route. Give me like an overview, kind of idea on the vision you had for your ring project and kind of what you're you're hoping to do to make it special.
Speaker 3:Yeah, sure. So, like you said, uh, I'm a big fan of in the loop. I I download uh every week and I knew that I want to follow the custom engagement process. So, when I knew that we were going to be going down this route, um, I reached out to you and I asked uh for your suggestion on who you would suggest to be the best um custom jeweler. Uh, you said, uh, vincentcent. And I actually went back into the archive of in the loop and listened to his two episodes that he was, uh, he was on.
Speaker 3:Oh, that's cool um yeah, and then I took on the materials that I was going to be able to add to the engagement ring. Um, it was two diamond studs and I reached and I knew that I wanted to utilize a lab grown Emerald because I had listened to in the loop and we and the debates that you guys had had on lab grown versus mind. We had made up our decision, casey and I had made up our decision on how we wanted to handle that and I reached out to Vincent basically with what I knew we were going to utilize and he was really receptive on starting the process.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so kind of a cool couple of nuggets in there. So the first one I think that's really interesting is talking about the lab versus natural. You ended up going with an emerald. I guess lab, lab, emeralds not talked about as much as usually the debate about diamonds. We've discussed it ad nauseum. At this point on in the loop I almost even stay away from the topic because I feel like we've rehashed it so many times. Was there like a main thing you went to school for? You know environmental science and like nature related things? I guess, loosely, was that something that was a priority to you. Or was there something to do with with pricing?
Speaker 3:get a little bit more bang for your buck on a, on a, on a lab do with, with pricing, get a little bit more bang for your buck on a, on a, on a lab. It was a priority for casey. Um, she did not want, she did not want the ring, the, the, because of the political situations that are around, uh uh mine diamonds. But we did have, we do have mind uh diamonds as uh side side, side parts of the engagement ring. But the actual main center point is a lab-grown emerald.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think that's a really cool part. Adding the side stones into it, coming from these studs that you already had, like more of a family kind of piece, and adding them to the side of it I think is one of those sort of like something old, something new, you know that kind of thing. It felt really to complete it. But I actually went back and I found the. I went back and I found the conversation that I introduced you and Vincent in and it was really neat because Vincent actually had built out or had engraved my family crest ring and that was I knew that he had already, you know, was able to accommodate and very easy to work with. Let's talk about what was the next step, beyond emails. What did after you had a phone call with him or as you went through the process, what did you do afterwards? Did he provide a CAD file or a sketch? What'd that look like?
Speaker 3:So, like I said, I I had to take an inventory of the product that I had that was going to be that I made available to Vincent to to work around. Um, at the time of our engagement, casey's mom had actually recently died and Casey inherited two major jewelry pieces. One was a just over five carat diamond and the other one are total half carat um diamond studs. And we decided, you know, we're not gonna go with uh, the, the, the big, the big chonker, uh as the front, mainly because I can't afford security, uh to to be going around with us at every step of the way. And then also we wanted to have the basis be an emerald for, kind of in the basis that I had given her a clotta ring early in our relationship. So I knew what we had, I knew what the material was.
Speaker 3:I want the basis is a platinum band, and I I sent that information over to vincent and he said, well, here's what, here's what I think that it would look like. And actually he had recently done something very similar for another client. And then he had talked about what size, what am I looking for? And then actually the basis overall was price. I had given him my price point that I wanted to be able to pay for the entire thing. And he said actually, because I'm adding, I'm adding the two diamonds, I'm not purchasing those diamonds myself. Uh, it was actually cheaper for for me to do the custom, the custom part instead of making it myself nice.
Speaker 1:That's why I mean definitely having some materials that you can kind of weave into the project definitely brings the overall pricing down and I think it's just like a great way. Actually, our parents, they redid or they made their wedding bands with reclaimed gold and I think that's just one of those you know makes it a little bit more special, a little bit more unique. So after you kind of outline everything for him, then what did he do? Did he like send you like a mock up for it, or did you have to mail him over the the, the stones?
Speaker 3:So, because I had the actual appraisals because Dan Casey's dad is very organized, he actually had all of the insurance appraisals available I was able to send that over to Vincent and then, with that information, he then sent me renderings of what it would look like before I even sent, uh, diamonds to him. Um, so he, I was actually able to see what it was going to look like at the end. Um, before I, even before I even sent him a dollar or sent him the diamonds, wow, he then. He then said, you know, wow. He then said you know, hey, I need the diamonds by this point in the in the setup, because he was able to have all of the prep work done and he goes. You know, I tracked it the entire time and the same thing happened on the way back, because that plus, I think my bikes are the most expensive thing I've ever sent through through the postal service.
Speaker 1:I get stressed about that and everyone seems to blasé over the fact that it's like just a parcel that just kind of goes seemingly through the system, but no one seems to stress about it. I know there are some jewelers that are, you know, sending parcels back and forth with their vendors or their manufacturers, and they're these packages that have like six figures high, six figure values in them and it's just like yep of it's part of the business. I get stressed about that for sure. So you sent him everything you'd already seen, the cad file, and then is this where he, you know, showed you, like a, what was the next step in the process for a custom ring build so he, he then sent me, uh, using his white box, he sent me the actual, the actual photos, um, and he goes this is what it's gonna look like.
Speaker 3:You know, this is actually what it looks like and I'm about to send it to you, you all good. And I and I said yeah, um, you know, and I I sent him I think I sent him a zelle to to his, to his account, and nice, and he and he said he shipped it. He shipped it to me that's really interesting.
Speaker 1:How long did this process overall take, from the second I uh introduced you to to him being like here's what it's going to look like. Do you want to accept payment? How long did that take about so?
Speaker 3:I'm looking at my emails and you put me in contact with him April 29th and I got an email from Bright about insurance on May 31st, so I think it was delivered on May 31st. So I think it was. Oh, it was delivered on May 30th, so one month.
Speaker 1:Wow, that's a way quicker turnaround than I expected.
Speaker 3:And a lot of that, I think, was you know I, I really wanted to make sure I approved of every step along the way. I was not interested in doing a. I'll pick that one, you know, from the display case. I wanted to have input in, or at least approval in, every step of the design.
Speaker 1:Do you feel like your ring is more special because of that as doing a custom ring builder project, like, for example, the only thing the only custom jewelry I've ever done is this engraving, and I think it's cool to know that this is a one of one. This thing exists. It is theoretically an heirloom in the fact that it, without the exception that it is kind of not that old Like how old does something have to be to be an heirloom With your design? I think it's pretty cool that you know you customize these things brought in these other pieces of jewelry. What does like doing a custom project mean to you? Is that like something that you always wanted to do or is it just purely out of utility in the fact that you know?
Speaker 3:casey had some very specific asks I think that I look at the ring on her hand and I think that I was a part of that. That's not just something that I bought stock. I a part of me is on her hand and it's not you know, it's not Cristiano Ronaldo's you know big ring that looks that looks like a piece of tinfoil wrapped together and then put on the back of somebody's hand. It's, it's, it's that is me with her, and so I really liked that as part of the process of going from dating to to to marriage.
Speaker 1:That's really nice. That's a really good way to look at it and I guess I mean I'd be remiss if we skipped. Give me an overview. How'd you propose? I think I kind of loosely know, because you mentioned it, but I heard something. It was very rainy. Give me a little detail about you proposing.
Speaker 3:The short story of it all Is Casey and I have kind of done this out of order. We have we've been dating and we actually bought a house together before we were engaged, which did cause a bit of difficulty with the paperwork, but, yeah, that's the only way that I knew how to do it at the time, so it wasn't that bad that, um, our house, the backyard, extends into a wildlife corridor. Uh, it's one of the, if not the favorite part of our house. Uh, so, and previously we have gone out the back and cleaned up the space, and I encouraged her that we should do this again, because we do like to make our community better. The things that we like to do, we like to make it better.
Speaker 3:So we jumped the fence, went out the back and had her, had her picking up trash for 30 minutes before we got to a space that we can really see from the back porch. That's where I proposed, and I was well prepared enough that I brought ribbon, and I was well prepared enough that I brought ribbon. So, that way, to mark the location where I proposed, and we now are going to be planting when the planting season becomes more advantageous, we are going to plant a tree at that spot. So that way for the next 10 years or something like that, we can look out and see the tree, know, hey, this was, this was our spot and it'll grow, as so does your love grow, wow man, the burbo family, we are so romantic.
Speaker 1:Golly, we're doing pretty good. Nice job, jojo.
Speaker 3:Yeah, especially when she complains about the outfit that she wore.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think every girl who's ever been proposed has that, you know what?
Speaker 3:Hey? We had to go pick up the trash.
Speaker 1:We had to go pick up the trash. You know, I really like that. I think that the custom design project is really one of those parts of jewelry that I think is really kind of underserved and under talked about that you can do. You can do anything custom if you wanted and honestly, it's not that outrageously expensive when you get over the cost of materials, because, in the end, what are we buying? We're buying, you know, gemstones and precious metals. If you already have those, it should be cheaper.
Speaker 1:And I think that's kind of a really interesting thing that your project was less expensive than your original kind of budget idea, partially because of the fact that you had something that you were going to do, no matter what you wanted to tie in these earrings, to kind of tie in some legacy into it. The fact that you did that, I think that was cool, no matter what, and the fact it brought the price down is even cooler. I think that's a really neat aspect to it, something I'm probably going to recommend to my friends as well that they should look into. Hey, do you have any legacy pieces or things you can do for the side stones or metal that you can add? Things like that? I think that it really just elevates the project and also just saves you some dollars too.
Speaker 3:It really freed up my budget to do other things. Right. It actually got to. If I had to spend the worth of the diamonds on the diamonds, I would have gotten a smaller gemstone, I would have gotten maybe not the most ideal metal for the band, but because I was able to free up the cost, I was able to be more specific and pick the things that she wanted Um it uh for for her piece of jewelry that she wears every single day and it's everything but going to sleep in and is that way she doesn't back herself out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, oh, really cool, jojo. One one last thing before we kind of wrap this is there anything you'd want me to ask Vincent about the process to get his perspective on? Because I would you know, this is the first interview I've had where I'm going to have the buyer or the client and then the jeweler talk about the same project and I'm hoping to kind of have two sides of the same coin. What would you want to know the perspective of him on?
Speaker 3:A really good question. I would like to know if the answers that I gave to the questions that he asked were they clear enough and did I give him enough runway, as an artist himself, to to do his art? Or was I, as an engineer, too specific and he felt like somebody who just was, uh, toiling away at his his, using his loop and his gem box and all that kind of stuff, and he got to? He just did the job and did he, or did he get to have fun doing it?
Speaker 1:yeah, it's really. That's a really interesting question because, of course you know this, I do a lot of painting, commissions, and one thing that's kind of funny about commissions is that it's not there's like a range to the direction. Some people are like, hey, can you just paint something beautiful? And then some people are like, hey, I want you to do exactly this on this size paper. I want you to tie in this image and this image and this image and both of those are actually not as good.
Speaker 1:The middle range, where they have some semblance of an idea but they leave it up to me to execute, is the best case scenario. When someone says like, oh, I want you to do what you want to do, it's just a really tough kind of prompt. But on the flip side, if someone's like you know, too specific, well, then that's not as fun either. That said, if you run a business, those very specific ones I mean, that's what pays the bills is, you know, you could very easily just churn them out and you already had everything kind of figured out. You put them on second base because you had a relatively clear picture of what you wanted. Yeah, I'll ask him that. See what his perspective is on it.
Speaker 3:I think it's a really kind of aware thing to even ask, yep, but jojo, anything else before we get you off your favorite podcast of all time uh, the one thing that I'd be remiss in saying is that in the process in the, in the engagement action, two things that I made sure that I had to do was just that I had to make sure that her dog now our dog, Rory, was apposaled to. So the first step of that was I pulled out her ring out of my pocket before we went out and I went to show Rory the ring to make sure that she approved Rory the ring, to make sure that she approved. As I opened it up, I found out that the box that I had grabbed was the studs.
Speaker 3:Uh, like the empty studs yeah yeah, yeah, it was not the ring. I'm so glad that I did that because if I didn't, I would have gone through the whole process of having Casey pick up trash and be out in the in the wildlife corridor, opened it up and no ring to put on her finger for. So, uh, make sure that you you check and you know which box that you you grab, and also make sure that you get the, uh the authorization of, uh the two important people in her life uh, rory the dog, and uh, her her dad, dan. So those were the two things that I uh that I took care of before that that's very cute, that is.
Speaker 1:It's so funny. Imagine you go to propose, have this a whole, whole moment and everything. It's just like two, two stud shanks, just like hanging out just empty. Just really start the, the relationship or the rest of your life off and kind of like a with a big old f-bomb yeah I love it.
Speaker 1:well, dodo, I really appreciate it. Super cool getting a chance to have you on. I've now had both my brothers on In the Loop and, yeah, I think that it's kind of a full circle sort of moment. You've been one of my longtime supporters for In the Loop. Every now and then you'll send me a text, as you've listened to one of the interviews, and say like, oh, you know, that's a really interesting tidbit and I think it's kind of cool that you still listen to it occasionally. I think that's a really neat thing.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know recently to date the date of this episode. The chat GPT five episode just came out and I'm running through that and it's actually teaching me about what what the use, some additional use of of GBT and jewelry is not my, is not my industry.
Speaker 1:Well, I appreciate that. Thanks everybody, I always love these. Uh, let's talk with ring buyer episodes. One of the longest running series that we've had've had, but this one just a slightly different one. Got to have my brother on and also talk about a custom design project from start to finish Really neat. All right, everybody, we're going to take a quick break and hear a word from our sponsor. This episode is brought to you in part by Stone Algo's Jeweler OS.
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Speaker 1:Thanks, and now back to the show and we're back. What's up everybody? I'm joined by Vincent Spolaccio from Arezzo Jewelers. How are you doing today, Vincent? I'm great, Mike. How are you so well? I've had you on a couple of different times. We've talked about you as a jeweler and we've talked about your focus in what I call nerd jewelry, which I love. But one thing I've always admired is that you have this understanding of custom jewelry, and recently you did a custom jewelry project for my brother. Is that a big part of your business as a jeweler?
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, um, in my store it's probably my, it's my job. It's my biggest job in the store. Personally, I am the custom jeweler here, so it's um, I'm the only person that handles it. I pretty much do everything, start to finish, so I do have a a pretty good formula to handle these.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so you recently did an engagement ring project for my brother, Um, so one of the things I was, I was kind of outlying, uh, this, this project, and what I wanted to discuss with you. First of all, custom jewelry is something I just always assumed custom meant more expensive and after speaking with my brother which we're hopefully going to be cutting in a couple of parts of the conversation to hear it does not seem like custom always means that it's just immediately way more expensive. It was just one of a kind Is that kind of what you typically?
Speaker 4:see. Correct. Yeah, so custom jewelry can mean a lot of things. Custom jewelry essentially just means that the ring is being made or any piece of jewelry is being made for a specific customer. That does not at all entail that it's more expensive, especially when it comes to an engagement ring. The majority of the time the customer, the gauge ring that he wants or he or she wants, is something that's not totally out there. So it's like for your brother, for instance. He wanted a beautiful three stone with the cushion a square cushion, emerald in the center and two rounds on the sides. That's something I could formulate pretty quickly because it is more of a it's a traditional three stone design. Formulate pretty quickly because it is more of a it's a traditional three stone design. So that's not something that's going to incur a high custom costs, as if somebody wanted something completely unique, completely ornate and something I had to come up with on my own. That's a totally different custom process. I'm sure that.
Speaker 1:I mean AI very popular right now and increasingly. I know that I mean you could just just open up chat gpt to right now during this episode and spin up the most insane engagement ring you've ever heard of. Do you have people come to you and just be like, hey, can you make this? Is that?
Speaker 4:oh yeah, you're probably battling yes, um, before, back when we were doing it, like a year or two ago chat, gpt and mid journey they came up with some pretty crazy designs that just cannot be made. But it's gotten a lot better and the pictures have become a lot more photorealistic. Uh, and also the the results of the ai has been coming way more traditional designs than than it used to. So when it I'm sorry, go ahead. No, I, I, so I. Uh, my 10-year anniversary was two years ago. I used AI to design my live stream.
Speaker 1:Oh, really, that's so cool. What kind of prompts are you getting on your end, because you obviously understand the ring process better than this AI probably does. Are you specifying the shanks and what the band is going to look like?
Speaker 4:kind of yes, I'm doing, I'm trying to be as specific as possible. I'm not really putting too many technical terms. I'm uh trying to, I, I type it in as if I'm trying to explain it to myself and I'm the one sitting at the bench. Uh, I don't. I know there's like code words and a lot of stuff you could use in chat, gpt, but I just go, I wing it, I, I wing, I tell it, I wing it, I tell them what I want. If it doesn't shoot out what I want, I modify this prompt and do it again. So I don't have a formula for prompts.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't have a formula either, I to me, I just think I'm trying to explain it. But in explaining it to that part to my mom, uh, in the past I've been like it's okay to also give it these words that give it like some wiggle room, so that it's not just a hard rule, it can also kind of allow for some interpretation. But maybe just reeling this back in to this ring project, yes, so I my brother was like hey, I want to do a custom ring. I already kind of know what I want. Do you have anyone you recommend? Of course, recommend you you had done. I actually have it on right now, my family crest. I'm still very proud of it. This is probably the only difference between an heirloom and a piece of custom jewelry is just how long it's been around. I think is pretty much kind of what it comes down to.
Speaker 4:Well, I consider, if I make a custom piece of jewelry, I consider that an heirloom, because it's not something that they're just, it's not a, it's not a fast fashion piece.
Speaker 1:It's not a costume piece, so even if they're the first person wearing, you recommend Gave him your name, introduced it. But what was really interesting is my brother, joe, already kind of knew what he sort of wanted, because he had talked to his now fiance about this, but he also had some materials with him, materials with him. So what was fascinating, I thought, was that he had these studs, um that his uh yeah, pretty nice. Is that something you find is like common in custom?
Speaker 4:projects as people bring material to you. Uh, it's getting more common. Uh, I actually encourage it. I love doing that. I love, uh, repurposingosing. Sometimes I'll take a couple rings or several ring pieces of jewelry and I'll put that all in a piece. So I actually love doing that. That's repurposing, so that's like creating a new heirloom, or bringing breathing new life into an heirloom, taking something like from your, from a family's past and making a future for it rather than sit in a box. I love doing that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's really kind of interesting, though from a business perspective if you don't mind me peeking behind the curtain on this, not at all. For example, I've started getting into wine. I like wine. I like wine when I go out for dinner, and one thing you can do that I've learned after watching some videos on it is you can buy a nice bottle of wine, and then you can, if you go to a kind of fancier restaurant, you can call in and be like hey, I was wondering if you guys do on corking, I can bring my own bottle, blah, blah, blah, and most fancy places actually will allow you to do that, and if you have a bottle of white, they'll put it on ice for you.
Speaker 1:Um, the thing is is I sometimes wonder if they're kind of like, ah, like I wish that you wouldn't, because they obviously are losing something on. You know, if I buy a bottle of a nice wine, there would be a lot more. Are you at all, as a business owner, kind of along the lines of like sort of like losing some of the markup by not providing the studs and going to Rapnet or Stuller or whoever you get your stones from? What does that look like as a business owner?
Speaker 4:Well, when it comes to that, like I'll do it if I'm providing a majority amount of service material like so if someone came to me with every piece, like here's the gold, here's the back, can you just put this all together for me? I would kindly refuse that. But when someone comes to me saying this is from my mom, this is from my grandma, this is from this, I want to make something out of this I don't really think of it as that um is that it's just. It's just a different service that I'm offering. That's just how I think about it.
Speaker 4:If someone brings, brings me in a pair of diamond earrings, like like your brother did, I am happy to put those in a in a ring, because if I don't have, if I didn't have them, I'd have to go buy them anyways. There's one less thing I have to produce, and it's and it, uh, it helps the customer know, like have a better idea what the final product's gonna look like, because I'm using their items too yeah, and I think it maybe it does make it more personal and much more like tied to them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but for example, you you know my family I guess has like a little bit of a history with this my, my mom and dad actually had their um, uh wedding bands made from reclaimed uh gold. You know my mom's like loose earrings and a couple of bracelets that she didn't ever wear, and then they melted them down and they made a pair of bands In that. That example. Would you take that on or is that two answers to that.
Speaker 4:Two answers to that, because that's a hard one. When someone brings me a lot of gold, you can't just melt it and make a new piece. It's just not how it works. You can't throw it all into a crucible, throw some fire on there and it's going to melt into a nice piece of gold in my brain you, you could do right yes, the thing is like when you, when you're purchasing gold jewelry, you're purchasing diluted gold.
Speaker 4:So you're purchasing gold with an alloy. So let's say, 14 karat gold is 58 and a half percent pure gold. Then there's alloys, so there's either silver, nickel, uh, brass, copper to change depending on the color of the gold. Uh, each piece, depending on where it's made, they have different alloys, even if it's the same yellow gold here. Yellow gold here one's using copper, one's using brass, one's using a lesser alloy. You mix all those together.
Speaker 4:Yes, they will mix together, but when you try to create a final product out of it, there will be a ton of gas bubbles and what we call porosity, so a bunch of holes will always appear and it'll be brittle and it'll break. So if we do that, there's two things that we offer. If someone wants to give us all their gold, either we take all their gold and we give them a value, and that that we'll buy that gold, and that will actually go the furthest. And 90% of people say, yeah, absolutely, we'll take that gold, put it to something new and we'll use whatever stones we could use. That's the most of the time how it works. But if someone had like, says no, this gold is very sentimental. I need, I need it to be this gold.
Speaker 4:Okay, not a problem, it's got to go to a refiner and there's probably going to be a 10 to 30 loss on it because we're going to refine it back. Yes, because we got to refine it. It's called uh, you assay it. So if you refine it, we got to make, we're going to make it back to 24 karat and then dilute it again to make a properly finished piece of jewelry. So that costs more, but you're still, you're getting your gold back. So, because there's a lot more work involved in that, so we do offer that majority people don't off, uh, don't go for it, uh, unless they're just doing a plain wedding band. If it's a plain wedding band, like by all means, just, we could go that route what a man it's so funny I've been doing this thing, this, this, for this podcast for like six years.
Speaker 1:I I did not know. I thought that, uh, they cut um 14 karat with the same metals, no matter where you were. Wow.
Speaker 4:That's crazy. When I buy Italian gold from one factory and then I buy gold locally, if it's manufactured in Mexico, you hold the two next to each other. They look completely different. That's because the alloys that they use are different.
Speaker 1:There's no standardization on that.
Speaker 4:The standardization is just the ratio, oh I mean oh, wow because there's accepted metals that are. There's a. There's a whole bunch of metals that are acceptable to alloy alloy with gold. Some are more expensive than others that's super fascinating.
Speaker 1:What a really cool, cool little piece. But so back on this ring project. I wanted to kind of ask about the back and forth. So how, as my brother Joe, one thing he said that he appreciated about working with you is the communication was very, very easy. It was maybe because, you know, uh, you came recommended. It felt like he was speaking with, like um, I don't want to say a friend, but more like uh, someone that you knew to make a friend, yeah, like a friend there you go.
Speaker 1:So, like, as a result, you kind of have this relationship and and it's kind of more push-pull easy. Uh, what's your? How do you kind of bill for your communication as a custom project because, like charge, you mean, how do I charge? Yeah, like, are you building that into the entire project? Or are you because what if someone you know requires a lot of hand holding and it's taking a lot of your time? You're not even behind the bench, you're just texting or emailing with them.
Speaker 4:It's more of. I have a minimum than I don't really want to. Hey, I'm charging you $700 just to use me, because you could go anywhere and they could get a custom project done anywhere. It might take longer, but I'm not going to charge just to use me. I'm going to charge, basically, like when everyone else does. It's gonna be, uh, whatever the product is, it's just a minimum. So like, if I'm gonna do a custom ring for you, gotta spend at least 2500, like I can't. I'm not gonna do, um, like a one carat lab diamond set in the air and whatnot. So like set in a single solitaire ring like I, that's. That's basically how it just has to be worth it more than I'm gonna charge. I'm gonna charge you for a cheap ring. I'm gonna charge you more. You know, no, I try to be competitive with the pricing, so I'm not gonna charge extra for certain custom jobs, unless it's very ornate and I'll, you know, put that uh ahead of time.
Speaker 1:it's really do you just joe was talking about, like he was texting and working with you? Do you have like a work phone and like a private phone? Or how do you kind of separate your life, your business life and life?
Speaker 4:Yeah, instead of another phone, I just have a Google Voice number. I set that up a couple of years ago. Just go on Google, you could get a new phone number. For I just have a Google Voice number. I set that up a couple of years ago. Just go on Google, you could get a new phone number for free and download the Google Voice app. And that's my work cell phone, so all on the same phone. So whichever number you call, it's still going to come to the same phone, which is great, works perfect. I don't have to switch between phones.
Speaker 4:But the reason why I'm pretty good at back and forth communication because one, there's, my main job here is bridal and custom uh. Two, this is I'm well aware of. This is the third largest purchase you're probably going to make in your life your house, your car gauge bearing, and this is, uh, it's a love story and I'm not going to screw that up. Yeah, I'm going to be and I'm a part of it and I want to be as much a part of it and I want to be'm a part of it and I want to be as much a part of it and I want to be a good part of it. I don't want to be a hard part of that process so I've done it plenty of times.
Speaker 4:I have a pretty solid workflow. I know I anticipate a lot of questions that people are going to ask me, so I try to answer them beforehand and I kind of got an idea, idea what my clients want and how they want to be helped. So for all these years like I I just become, I got a steady workflow and it works good for me it's really cool, man, uh, it's fascinating.
Speaker 1:Also, having experienced it both, you know, working with you, uh, on this podcast on my own ring, but then seeing my brother do this, I made a very conscious decision. I did not want to be involved in the project at all beyond the introduction and even to the point. I actually saw you at the client workshop. I was talking to you and I was like no, I don't want to see, I don't want to see anything. I don't want to even hear about the project because if I get involved, I have to be very involved. I can't just be a little bit involved, I have to be so in. And to me, like you said, it's a, it's very personal, it's a love story and it's kind of like I don't even want to, um, I don't want to, I don't want to get into it because it's their story and uh. But I will say, having been on this side, their story, yeah and uh. But I will say, having been on this side, you made me look really good and I really appreciate you handling my brother's?
Speaker 4:uh, my brother's.
Speaker 1:I appreciate you thought of me, it was a huge honor, ah, and it turned out spectacularly, and I'm sure you already heard, but she said yes and uh. So, casey, if you're listening to this, welcome to the family very excited. I can't wait. So, vincent, I can't thank you enough, man, it was really really cool to hear about your project. It was my pleasure.
Speaker 4:Your brother was awesome to work with, so it was honestly God my pleasure, and I can't thank you enough for having me do it for you, Heck yeah, man, if people are listening and they want to see more of your work and maybe refer some clients over to you. Uh, where should they go? Arezzo Jewelers Uh, my handle online is.
Speaker 1:Arezzo Jewelers or wwwarezzojewelers. Bye, check them out. This episode was brought to you by Punchmark and produced and hosted by me, michael Burpo. This episode was edited by Paul Suarez with music by Ross Cockrum. Don't forget to rate the podcast on Spotify and Apple Podcasts and leave us feedback on punchmarkcom slash loop. That's L-O-U-P-E, thanks. We'll be back next week, tuesday, with another episode. Cheers, bye.
