Paul Krush

I am building a group of designers out on oDesk.com that anyone can contact and use themselves. Why am I building this group, not under my control? It’s an itch that I want scratched. I need this service myself and I have people contacting me on both sides. There are jewelry businesses from around the work that need CAD work done and I also have jewelry designers contacting me looking for work. I see oDesk as model that both sides can get together and do business. I think my actions will be the catalyst to get a large number of people using oDesk for jewelry CAD work.

Why do I think oDesk.com is so different?

• It offers transparency to both buyers and service providers
• You can view feedback of both parties and drill into a lot of detail of the process.
• You can use it for very small projects.
• Lower cost and higher availability of skills.
• They handle all the paperwork and money transactions
• They only charge 10% of the fee.
• They offer guarantees to both parties.
• You can see random screen shots of the designers computers as they are working.
• It’s very easy for a designer to post a portfolio on their profile page.
• It lowers the cost entry of hiring world-wide remote workers
• It’s easy in general for both parties to use.

Mind you this is all in theory! There are a lot of pro’s and con’s to this method. This is why I want to test out these ideas.

Really what options do you buyers have right now? You have to relationship with someone already. Or you have to find designers around the world by their websites. That’s too big of a leap for most people.

I will be publishing these random screen shots of the jewelry model being developed. I find this interesting as heck. People will be able to see the work of the designer in action. For me this is additional content is what makes this project worth pursuing.

For now the best place you can find designers are the general 3D model sites such as TurboSquid and the Classifieds1000 pages. And of course if your willing to pay western rates there is the Gemvision Service Bureau List and the Rhino jewelry section. There are too many individual people offering services on their web site to mention.

I had this idea for years and realized it’s not on the website. Just as you can write software to render frames of a computer animated movie, you can script out Rhino 3D to render people’s names into a name ring or name pendant for a post card. Say a jewelry store has 5000 people in their database. You could build a system that renders 5000 pictures for 5000 post cards each using the persons first name. You could render all sorts of address information into a post card. I think this would be eye catching as heck. Every year when Mother’s day gets near I flirt with this one.

Just to review each post card would be different. It would have a 3D computer rendering of jewelry designs that contain the persons name.

The scripted name pendants you see can also be rendered in a mass customized way like this. This is more of a highly specialized 2D font creation. You can script in a name and create all sorts of 2D rules on how swoops and hearts are applied. You can add 2D symbols till the cows come how in an automated fashion. After the 2D curve is extruded into the 3D model. You can also add 2 ½D art work into this. 2 ½D art work is neat because it can be represented by a grayscale image.

I had JewelryPostCards.com registered for a while, but I never wanted to jump into the jewelry marketing business, so I  dumped the name. Dell color laser printers are high quality and cheap enough to do stuff like this. You can buy software that helps you automated the address information, bulk rate info, and barcodes.

I think the money is just not in jewelry to do this sort of stuff. My prediction is these ideas will be fleshed out in Asia. They can market and ship directly to the western world. This has been going on with colored stones from Thailand and cell phone accessories out of Hong Kong for a long time now.

I will send you all the models on this site, about 166 of them on a CD for $50. This would include free shipping worldwide. I have had requests for this, and I need the money!

Click here to Pay with PayPal.

Or send a check for $50 to:

Paul Krush
1039 Rockport Dr
Carol Stream, IL 60188

CD will Arrive in 1-3 weeks.

Thanks, Paul

I can help, $50 per hour, one hour minimum. I can help with 3D models, but keep in mind I do not consider myself a seasoned jewelry designer. I am not a bench person at all, but I can help in hard areas of modeling in Rhino.

I can also give advice on getting into CAD/CAM for jewelry.

If you read my blog you know I am a software developer and highly interested in jewelry design software. If you have something you would like to me to create let me know to see if it’s possible. Also feel free to ask if you need technical assistance related to these areas.

Click here to pay for the first hour ($50) via PayPal:

Or send a check for $50 * (Total number of hours you would like) to:

Paul Krush
1039 Rockport Dr
Carol Stream, IL 60188

My email address is paul@paulkrush.com

Thanks, Paul

I have been running diamond auctions on eBay for 5 ½ years continuously. Stopping these auctions is quite a big deal for me. It’s an emotional because there is still a little profit left, I have been doing it for so long, and I guess because it was my first profitable business. It’s hard to know when to pull the plug. Averaged out, I have broke even on too many months to care. My time has to be spent on my new career in executive search and IT talent. I want to move on and learn new things. Probably the biggest reason is I want to do business face to face. The jewelry industry has been in recession for years. I am not emotionally invested in jewelry, this would be a dumb industry to start a new business in where I am working face to face.

Financially it was a bigger deal when I pulled the plug on making jewelry. That was easier because it was basically bust all the way. Not listing on eBay any more is emotional. It’s not like I am selling my eBay ID. I think it will have substantial value one day. Started in Dec of 1998, it’s 9 years old. The ID GemHunt.com is Grandfathered in. eBay has not let people register domain names as eBay ID’s.

I am still going to sell diamonds, but I am not going to pay to advertise them. So for the past 5 ½ years I paid eBay $224K. It’s like I gave them a house. I sold $5.4M in diamonds, but many were repeat sales and referrals. So I paid them 4.1% of sales. Compared to a retail store this is not bad. It started out 1-2%, and is now up to 7-10%. The margins on the sale over the years have shrunk. It was easier when I was one of the first in the business. There is no room left to pay eBay. With no profit there is no business. I knew this in the beginning, and have spent the past 5 years fighting it. This is called the “evils of discounting”. I got into this business because information became available to consumers on how to buy diamonds at a wholesale price. I am one of the people that taught that information. But you never win at this game, there is always someone fighting harder for the last percentage point of margin. Diamonds have suffered because of this. Diamonds have valve because they were promoted. With less people promoting diamonds, their demand drops. The value stays the same because the dollar is dropping and demand is coming from outside of the US. People want stuff from Best Buy instead. Will the demand pick up like it did in the 1970’s because of inflation? I am not going to try to guess that. I can always get back in the business. This time I will have a network build out locally.

How big is jewelry for Rhino?

I keep hearing that jewelry is only a small part of Rhino. I don’t think so. As for production users I think it’s sizeable. You did not see this pages like these just 4 years ago.

Check out the Job section on Rhino:
http://www2.mcneel.com/rhinojobs/jobs.asp
11 out of 15 are jewelry jobs! These are not stale positions, they expire in 3 months. There is quite an international trend there.

For 3rd party Rhino products there is quite a large section for jewelry:
http://www2.rhino3d.com/resources/

Also a Indian jewelry designers job board:
http://board.classifieds1000.com/India/Wanted/jewellery_designer_jobs
Notice how much is CAD based.

And one more link. Here is some news on laid back Bob McNeel:
http://www.upfrontezine.com/2007/upf-521.htm

Interesting….

Paul Krush

This has all been talked about before. I am just framing the concepts differently.

As first glance most people would say this is oil and water, but I don’t see it that way. Steps can be taken to bring model sharing closer to software and software closer to sharing. With the release of uber-builders and scripting in Matrix Version 6 I think Gemvision is taking a small step in this direction.

It makes for an interesting exercise if you ask these two questions:
1.) How can Internet Model Sharing be more like Jewelry Design Software?
2.) How can Internet Jewelry Design Software be more like Jewelry Design Software?

These can be small steps toward each other, but end I see a product that is a combination of both these services. Yes, I’m calling jewelry design software a service.

Steps to bring jewelry design software closer to model sharing:
1.) Making the final model more parametric. It’s finished, but it has handles all over the place to change it.
2.) Some 3D Art can be standardized, and directly injected into a builder. Such as:
Standard panels for class rings
Standard tops for signet rings, pendants, etc.
Collar sections of rings.
Really any element can be standardized, and then offered as an option.
2.5) You can build a model and the builder can cycle through the standard art available.
3.) Offering the design software in an Internet browser. Yes this is a jump, but standards and tech to make it happen are forming right now.
4.) Put a live human into the jewelry design software and offer this service live. No Joke. Yes, even I am dreading the day jewelry design software has an Indian accent. Cool, but scary! It’s called Artificial Artificial Intelligence.
5.) Offer community and collaboration tools directly inside of the software. A share my screen/model button. This would be a lot easier if the software was web based.

We do some of these steps already manually, but sometimes it can be done with a person that does not know CAD. Like a store employee or even a customer standing at a kiosk.

Step to bring model sharing closer to jewelry design software:
1.) Offering models that have parametrics already built into them. An example would be a model with the Matrix WIP 6 handles already in the model.
2.) Offer models that have the parametrics automated. Like you can play with the controls before you downloaded the model?
3.) Offer models that the standard 3D art can be changed on the fly, and seen in real time with the sharing interface.
4.) Offer manual changes to the models being shared. (We will resize this ring model for $xx.xx)

Reasons why you would want to marry the two concepts:
1.) Profits. This creates a new product category for the wholesale or retail customer. They can claim that they designed their jewelry.
2.) CAD designers can start with a model that is closer to the final design.
3.) This brings more people to the table. Most jewelry sales people do not work with CAD.
4.) It’s the Burger King business model. Have it your way. This gives the customer far more control over the model.
5.) These concepts create more ways to get the designer’s creative juices flowing.

This is all about building intelligence into the design of the model. The model has to be simple to allow this, but it can be done in many different ways.

I use Gemvision terminology here, but these concepts are already in use in other industries.

By the way artificial artificial intelligence is a really cool concept. I have not thought much about it for jewelry design. It’s all about humans interacting in complex ways with each other with complex software.

The convergence is coming!

What do you think?

This was only a matter of time. I am not going to let these assets depreciate. I still have Rhino and I can always use a service bureau if I want to make jewelry. I don’t know where I am heading with jewelry design software. I would like to write something, but it’s a hobby at this point. You can look at my views and think I’m a flake or a visionary. The farther you go out on that limb the more of flake you become. At some point your not writing business plans, but sci-fi stories.

I have revolutionary ideas about consumers designing their own jewelry that I have been developing for years. Few people see what I am talking about and the rest think I’m nuts. Sometimes I start believing these naysayers. For the past week I have thinking I should hang it up and go totally corporate, say good by to jewelry software, and become an Oracle developer. Well it’s been months really. OK, I’ve been like this all my life. I put my foot down a few years ago and said I was finish the goals that I start. It’s hard to believe I’ve had my own business in the jewelry industry for 5 ½ years.

As my ideas get better and I have more experience with jewelry I times are getting tougher in the industry. Stores are going out of business and people are more interested in Best Buy than jewelry. Consumers are so educated that the products have turned into commodities. Asia is cranking up production, doing great work, and crushing manufactures here in the States. Franchises make it difficult for the independent to survive. The trends are not good at all. But, I see something different. What happens when consumers have a chance to design the jewelry themselves? Look at how incredibly popular beading is. Heck, there are no consumer jewelry design packages right now. There has to be room for one person in the world to make some cash at this software.

I see past these tough times for the jewelry industry. There is always going to be room for jewelry. Just thing what’s going to happen when all these electronic devices start getting so small they can be put into jewelry elegantly? Cell phone or mp3 player in your custom earrings? Why not? I think the number of medical monitoring devices will fit into this category as well.
It’s very hard to decide when to quit with these ideas. What if I’m a few weeks away from the finding right ingredient to make this all come together? How do I stay motivated?

The deeper I get into this, the harder it is to get out. I really think I have a great business plan for free jewlery design software for consumers. I need to get this plan on paper and criticized! I know. I need to talk to a lot of people about this. This is one reason I started a blog.

Mass custom over the Internet is not sustainable say past 2012? It’s going to be copied and margins will go to zero. Asia will be king of mass custom for jewelry on the Internet, that is if the US dollar stays king.

What I have heard and taken to heart is for mass custom to work in an independent retail store:

1.) You need the relationship.
2.) You need to build the local community
3.) The business needs to be sustainable.

How do you do mass custom in an independent store and fits these rules? I’m not sure. Maybe a creation and teaching studio where people design their own mass custom items? They would use jewelry CAD software that outputs a simple finished model. It would be a social event with small classes (3-6 people). The computers would have to be taken away from time to time. I have thought about maybe a U shaped table that has the screens under the table so people can see each other and not the back of a computer display. Then there would be a main display for teaching. It would have to be about people collaborating, not people starting at screens.

Heck one could have foo foo drinks. Now this sounds like a Tupperware party or the “Jewelry Design Café”. Now it sounds like a hobby and not a business….

I think there could be a take home version of the software. Sure it could incorporate a website some how, maybe the model sharing database, but the real communication would take place at the store.

Also I see people using this store to make jewelry for their organization. It might be a hobby for them, or they might take advantage of discount pricing and have a little hobby business of their own.

I see this like how people get together in stores and do scrapbook crafting or bead work, except higher end. I am talking about designs that are very simple. A ring with names and symbols. A chain, pendant, or key chain that was build with 3D profile “clip art” that built into the software. Simple, Simple, Simple models.

I think kiosks for mass custom design in the retail store are a slippery slop. They are going to show up in the chain stores, Wal*Mart and such. But how do kiosks build a relationship with the customer? I have some very cool ideas about using hardware buttons and sliders for a kiosk in a store. It’s pretty easy/low cost to integrate hardware these days. More cool that practical, but Sensible Claytools fits into that category.

You could also have such a system scan stock forms for 2D or 2 1/2D model building. You could use this to put the customers handwriting and basic art work on the jewelry automatically. And of course you can incorporate 3D scanning into the mass custom system, like kids handprints and such. Somewhere there has to be a way to do mass customization and fit these 3 rules I have laid out. I really think something like “Build a Bear” for jewelry has huge potential, even if it’s not on the Internet.

I’m sure such a store would have different types of customers. In the experiments I have done I have had a few people interested in affirmations. These are spiritual in nature, or goals, or general loving reminders, or what ever. I can see such a store teaching goals or offering personal couching services and selling jewelry tokens to cast the goals and affirmations into store (well metal).

Really if you look at these ideas such a store is not selling jewelry. It sells experiences. It sells tickets to the jewelry design Disneyland.

Paul Krush