Grandma’s Ring: The Incarnation of Heritage – An Interview with Netta Volpa

In light of this, I think the whole issue of coordinating expectations (through sketches, mock-ups) with a client who is bringing in a piece of old jewelry that has value to her is crucial, right?
“The truth is, no. I let people who I feel don’t trust me think. It takes a creative process and I can’t always know in advance what the final jewellery will look like. “So yes, of course, we coordinate expectations, I provide sketches, we work in several stages, etc., but a certain dedication is also required in the process. For this person, I can’t give up if I don’t feel it’s working, and I have enough experience that “surprises” are positive, and if I don’t feel it’s working, I will say it in advance, or I won’t. Take the money first and check myself, the material in front of me. ”

Has there ever been a situation where a customer was not satisfied with the final product?
“That happened to me when I was designing it, so we made another piece and changed it. And it just so happened that the jewelry ended up in the hands of other people in the family, and I designed other things for the clients.”

There is another situation where the customer does not understand the so-called “what is in hand”?
“The most extreme example was a man in his mid-20s who came to me with a ring that his grandmother had given him when he was a kid[after his mother died]. It looked almost like a child’s jewelry that had just been thrown in the trash. “Since he was about 8 years old, his grandmother had told him, ‘When you propose, you’re going to use this diamond,’ and that’s what I thought, so I examined the diamond and saw it was about 2 carats. I immediately provided him with a[gemological]certificate, and it turned out to be a $17,000 diamond.”

So did you end up using diamonds?
“No. I told him, ‘You can buy an apartment here, come buy a little diamond, leave you alone.'”