Job Spotlight: Eric Paul Marvets, jeweler and designer

Eric Paul Marvets knows what the holidays hold for the staff of John Paul's Jewelers, a longtime Columbus business operated by his father, John Paul Marvets, and mother, Norene Marvets.

Yes, they are in the retail world. But, no, they didn't even think of opening on Thanksgiving or Black Friday. But come Monday, it's all hands on deck for as many hours as it takes to get the job done for those ordering rings, pendants, necklaces and other pieces of fine jewelry in time for gift-giving.

"When it comes to Christmas season, we quit working 8-hour days and push it to 10 at first, then 12, and eventually 15 because everything we promised for Christmas gets delivered by Christmas," said Eric, 33, who is among a staff that also includes veteran jewelers James Sayers and Shawn Cornell.

"We cut (orders) off the first or second week of December," said the younger Marvets. "Sometimes we cut it off at Thanksgiving promising for Christmas. And then those last two weeks before Christmas we are working 15 hours a day. There are beds and cots here for naps so you can rest your eyes before going back to doing it, because they will begin to cross at some point."

If that's what it takes, so be it for Marvets, who comes from a family of jewelry craftsmen that includes his late grandfather and uncles who each have their own expertise.

Grandfather Marvets, a disabled Army veteran who settled in the Oakland Park neighborhood of Columbus, operated a bread-and-butter trade shop, doing repairs and other work for jewelry stores in town.

"In the '70s, my grandfather left everyday with a brown shopping bag, went to the mall, went to all of the big jewelry stores that people know in town and have been around forever," said Marvets. "He picked up (jewelry) and dropped off and went back."

That experience was the foundation for Eric's father, John Paul, who has been a jeweler since 1972, becoming a master gemologist, and spending years working in New York's Manhattan Diamond District.

In t oday, in t he family's 13th Avenue store (a former CB&T branch), Eric Marvets works with his parents, using a computer to design jewelry for customers, then turning the gold, diamonds and gemstones into a showpiece wedding or cocktail ring.

Aside from a computer and software program, the tools of Marvets' design trade include a $50,000 3D wax printer, an oven, a broken-arm caster, and silk cords used for polishing away oxidation and contaminants.

As a side note, the jewelers also are adept at repairing dentures, eyeglasses and vehicle remote control key fobs, using an ultra-precise laser welder in the staff's workshop.

The Ledger-Enquirer visited with Marvets recently to discuss his job, its challenges and why it can be tedious work on one hand, but very rewarding on the other. This interview is edited a bit for length and clarity.

With your family's jeweler heritage, was there ever any doubt you would do this?

At one point, I expressed interest in becoming a jeweler because I like carving waxes. I got to do a lot of the artistic stuff as a kid, like carve waxes. My father gave me a firm boot and told me if you ever become a jeweler, I'll kill ya.

It's not a very lucrative field being a bench jeweler. It's a labor field, a skilled labor field. But our mechanic makes more per hour than we do.

We charge what people think is a lot for a ring sizing; we'll charge $180 to do it. There's another store in town, they'll do $20. But the difference is they'll just size the ring. When you change the shape of a ring, all of the prongs loosen up because you're changing the diameter. All of those little prongs that are pushed down, when the ring changes shape, those prongs lift up. Now the stone's loose. It's not falling out. It didn't move that much. But the stones are loose. Two weeks later, you look down, and one of them is missing. It's rattled its way out of there.

So if you've got a ring with 50 stones, we're going to charge you $180 because we're going to go back and re-tighten 50 stones. Essentially, we reset the ring. And then it goes through a quality control process where somebody else goes and makes sure that there's not one loose stone on that ring, and then we give it back to the customer. If one does fall out, we replace it for free.

We would do (a re-sizing) for 20 bucks, if you didn't want us to do all of the right steps. But we don't want to do that because that's not what we want to be.

You do a lot of design work. Is that what you enjoy the most?

Yeah, I do enjoy creating ... It is more rewarding than not. If I work on something for eight hours and then the customer looks at it and goes, 'No, it's not what I had in mind,' that's eight hours that I've just put my craft into. I really love this (jewelry design) when I get done with it and then ... I delete it.

Avoiding such a situation means communicating well off the bat to get the best idea of what the customer wants?

We do. I generally do a (computerized) pencil sketch before we get started. I use the CAD (computer aided drafting). I'll measure her fingers, measure her stones, and put them in space relating to each other. And then I'll come into Sketchbook Pro and do a pencil sketch of what it looks like. (Note: That includes picking a base color for the metal, adding highlights and lowlights, then sending the design via email to the customer).

When the email comes back, I'll make the computer model. The computer model never impresses anybody. They always think it looks hideous and there's a reason for that. These prongs are standing straight up. They're taller because you want leverage to bend. The more leverage you can put on a prong to bend it, the more control you have.

Every design job seems to be a learning experience of sorts?

One of the benefits that I have is I get to see every company's mistakes. Every week people come in here not because things are going well for them. Something was wrong and they'll send it back to the manufacturer and it'll come back again and do the exact same thing ... The third time, they'll ask somebody (who will say) take it to John Paul's.

Do you see a lot of online jewelry that people bring in?

If people want to buy cheap fashion jewelry online, that's great, go for it, it's cheap. It's not going to hold up.

Why do they buy it?

They're just used to shopping online. They're afraid of being taken advantage of and (embrace) the impersonal nature of the Internet. The software program is not choosing to take advantage of this person over another person. They feel like if they go to a (local) jeweler and they have no relationship with them, that jeweler's just going to put one over on them and not care.

They think the local jeweler will squeeze them for every dime?

Right. And that does exist in the real world and there is a reason to fear that. That's a very valid thing.

There are two different kinds of people in the jewelry industry. It's filled with people who are trying to get one over on you, and then it's filled with hard-working guys that you met at the bench over there (in our shop) that just work hard. Every day they work with their hands and try to do quality work.

So there are some tough consumer experiences?

I hate giving people bad news about something that they purchased ... We're in the happiness business. Usually, when I get finished with a job and hand them a ring, they go 'Oh, it's wonderful.' But, then, I get this stranger walking in for the first time and I take a look at it and we come back and go, 'OK, this is a $1,500 diamond.' 'No I paid $5,000.' (And we tell them) I'm sorry, but do you see this? This is why this is that.

How often does something like that happen?

Daily. Every day somebody comes in with a diamond and they will say, 'I bought this on the Internet. Can you just tell me I didn't get screwed over?' And we'll look at it.

They're looking for assurance?

And we do that. We offer appraisals for anybody ... If they ask one question, it's 'Does this stone match this piece of (authentication) paper?' Yes, they match. 'Does this stone match this receipt?' Every time.

But the number of people that come in here and got a deal (on the Internet) is like one in a hundred. And I can tell you exactly where those deals are. They are on eBay and they've been buying from a person.

What about buying from a name-brand store?

If you buy a diamond from a mall store, you're paying for mall rent, and you're paying sales commission, and you're paying for a Fortune 500 company.

And the Internet businesses?

The Internet guys, their overhead is essentially zero. It's the cost of a server and a stockroom ... and it ships directly from the diamond dealer to the customer. If someone buys a ring with the diamond, it goes to a trade shop in China or India or Thailand, where they assemble it and mail it to the customer.

So they're getting the customers' money up front, and all of the work is being done in Third World countries. They are graphic designers, they're computer programmers, they're not jewelers.

Is the holiday season big for wedding purchases?

Our traffic definitely picks up. This is engagement season. All of the families are coming together for the holidays. So when families get together, that is usually when you want to make a big announcement.

For sure, people get engaged in the spring and summer, but the bridal issue of Columbus and the Valley comes out in January for a reason. There's a lot of people that are freshly engaged coming out of the family holidays and the winter.

Are all rings custom-designed or do you have stock jewelry rings just waiting for people?

We service three types of customers. We have the guy that comes in and says, 'I need this today. I'm going to do it.' So he's the 'I've been on the fence. Today's the day.' He comes in. He spends 15 minutes. He buys a ring and he's gone, as quickly as he came. He gives it to her that night.

Then we have the couple that comes in, and we have approaching a thousand models that people can view. A model's already made. They come in and look at all of the models and then they go (snaps a finger), 'That's it. That's the one.' That's the guy and the girl coming in and shopping together, and they'll pick out what it is they want.

And then we'll have the people that come and say, 'This has to be different. This has to be one of a kind. Here is my idea for it. This is what I want.' And it doesn't look like anything in the catalog. There is nothing to order. So that's where we make it.

How many are in the latter category?

... I would say 10 percent buy custom made.

How long is that customized process?

It averages about three weeks, because we work in a workflow here. And that makes everybody (on the staff) happy.

At the end of my week, I'll take a print and cast it over the weekend. So on Monday, last week's orders are in Shawn's box. Now we also have repairs coming in, so Shawn gets a week to fit it in. If he's got to do a lot of torch work one day, he's not going to go set up his setting bench. But if he's doing a lot of setting bench, he's going to do all of his setting work that day.

When he's on a bench, he's on that bench for a day. So that week we fit it in with all of the repairs.

And then it goes to quality control, my mother. She's a perfectionist. She will find whatever's wrong with it and tell you about it. And she inspects aesthetics, safety ...

A common problem?

If a ring is snagging in your hair, it's a bad ring. That goes back. The prongs need to be touched up. When dad was a one-man shop, he would have to do all of his own quality control. After it came out of the cleaner he would have to look at it. ... But once it passes my mother's inspection, it's good.

How many hours of work total, on average, does it take to get a custom ring done?

On a handmade ring, in a good situation ... You've got a four-hour model, casting has two hours of labor, and cleaning you have an hour. And then setting (diamonds), you have about four hours. So you've got about 11 hours.

But we've got a 100-percent satisfaction guarantee. So if they don't like it, we start over and it's included in the price. That's very, very rare. And it's usually due to some lack of communication.

What's the toughest aspect of being a jeweler?

The hardest part about being a jeweler is that there's so much competition in this field; there's so much money in the jewelry industry.

There is competition on the craft side, because there's no way for the average person to know if the diamond they bought was a good deal. There's no way to know if the ring they bought was well crafted. You have to really know what you're doing to tell if you've got something good or something bad.

What is your father's role, his mission?

Dad works with most of the custom rings when they come in. He spent 40 years listening to a client, getting their requirements ... He understands what it is they want. He spent a lifetime looking at jewelry, buying jewelry, repairing jewelry. There's not a design in this world he hasn't seen.

But, overall, being a jeweler is a constant learning experience?

There is no way to learn this business overnight. You learn through trial and error for a lot of things. It is very rare that I make ring that the prongs are too thin anymore ... I've got 22-inch monitors here looking at a prong that's six-tenths of a milliliter thick. Looks big enough to me on the screen, but when I print it, six-tenths of a milliliter does not look very big once it's in your hand. That's tiny. You can't even see it. How's that supposed to hold anything down? So you learn through failure.

You're workaholics during the holidays?

We see our families over Thanksgiving. On Sunday, we kiss them goodbye and then we go to work. Last year, I know I got home at 9 p.m. on Christmas Eve. We hand delivered the last few things on our way home to people, and I ended up putting a bicycle together until about 3 in the morning after I hadn't slept for a month.

What is the most rewarding aspect of being a jeweler?

Actually, just about everything here is painful to do. The thing that makes it all worth it is people fall out (with satisfaction) when they see the finished product. They're full of worry and anxiety going into it and, when they see the final product, they fall out.

We have glass doors for the (jewelry bench) shop so that the boys can see the customers. We'll let them know that piece is about to go out the door. The only time they'll come onto the floor is when they know something they worked hard on, that they had a hard time on, is about to go out the door, and they see it.

We are in the happiness business. The only way you can last is quality; you're not taking advantage of people.

That's not always the case?

The number one buyer of diamonds from us are people that are doing it for the second time around. It's not the first-time diamond buyer. They don't come to us. They assume we're too expensive just because we buy the best diamond to put in the counter. It doesn't mean we can get you the other (cheaper) one you can afford. It's that we just don't stock them.

Bio

Name: Eric Paul Marvets

Age: 33

Hometown: Born in New York City

Current residence: Columbus

Education: 1999 graduate of Carver High School

Previous jobs: Software developer for about 10 years

Family: Wife, Sunny, and daughter, Journey; and four dogs, one cat and six fish

Leisure time: Has his own YouTube channel, and participates in an online forum geared toward helping those in the jewelry profession; enjoys writing computer programs

This story was originally published November 29, 2014 at 9:32 PM with the headline "Job Spotlight: Eric Paul Marvets, jeweler and designer."