Tah-handcrafted-jewelry.com
Title
TAH Handcrafted Jewelry
Contact
- TAH Handcrafted Jewelry
-
- UPLAND CA
- United States 91786-6064
-
- 909-481-3537
Description
In 1973, I enrolled in my first jewelry class at Claremont High School in Claremont, California. That first experience prompted me to continue taking jewelry classes through graduation in 1976. In 1977, because of the interest I had developed in this craft, I started working for Figg Custom Jewelry, a small jewelry manufacturing company that was in Claremont at the time. I graduated from Citrus Community College in 1979 with an Associate in Arts degree. Then, after studying aerospace engineering for a year at California State Polytechnic University Pomona, I became a full time employee. Since this was a small company, I learned many different aspects of the jewelry industry. My duties included jewelry design, jewelry fabrication, jewelry photography, punch and die grinding, punch press setup and operation, computer systems maintenance, order entry, invoicing and purchasing.
In 1984, I obtained my business license in order to make custom jewelry in my free time. This allowed me to explore and learn other jewelry making techniques such as casting, stone setting and engraving. I was the purchasing Manager when I left Figg in July of 1993. In May of 1994, I distributed a "TAH Handcrafted Jewelry" catalog to several gift boutiques, the response was not as well as I had expected. In January of 1995, I began displaying my jewelry at art fairs. This turned out to be a better way for me to sell my jewelry than the catalog. It allows me to meet potential buyers and to have the time to design and fabricate my labor-intensive custom and one of a kind jewelry.
In late 1995 I was asked to organize and teach a jewelry fabrication class. This ongoing project, through Citrus Community College, takes place every Wednesday evening at Glendora High School. It is part of the Glendora Gems Lapidary club where they have instruction in lapidary, jewelry casting, jewelry fabrication and wire wrapping.
