Looking for a jewler able to create a custom piece and some gold too

J D Sauser

Silver
Nov 20, 2004
2,940
390
83
www.hispanosuizainvest.com
I am looking to have a custom piece of gold jewelry made to order (my design/photos).
I need a qualified -no tourist BS- jeweler who CAN do it and is trust worthy... preferably in Puerto Plata (region) or Santiago (I hardly go to Santo Domingo anymore, but at the present time, I am open to all recommendations).

I would also be interested to buy some 18 carat (750/1000) yellow gold -maybe old jewelry- to use for this project. I think I might need about 20-25 gr. total as the project may be 16-18gr finished.

Welcome to post here with suggestions or PM if you have gold for sale (only from known board members, I will not meet up in a back alley with a member who signed up today and only has one post ;) )

Thanks! ... J-D.
 

drescape24

Bronze
Nov 2, 2011
1,918
0
36
Hi J.D.,
I have used a Jeweler in Sosua many time. His name ( if I remember correctly) is Hugo. He has made my wife earrings, rings, and a waist chain. All in silver with amber and larimar. He also made he a money clip. We were very happy with his work and prices.
To find him, drive on Pedro to super super coming from downtown and turn left on David Stern and on the first corner on the right is his shop.
Hope all works for you.
John
 

Ken

Platinum
Jan 1, 2002
13,884
495
83
Talk with Patrick in Sosua. His store/shop (Patrick's Silersmithy) is on Pedro Clisante next to Restaurant Morua Mai, across from La Roca. You can see some of his work on display in his store. He has been in business a long time.
 

J D Sauser

Silver
Nov 20, 2004
2,940
390
83
www.hispanosuizainvest.com
Hi J.D.,
I have used a Jeweler in Sosua many time. His name ( if I remember correctly) is Hugo. He has made my wife earrings, rings, and a waist chain. All in silver with amber and larimar. He also made he a money clip. We were very happy with his work and prices.
To find him, drive on Pedro to super super coming from downtown and turn left on David Stern and on the first corner on the right is his shop.
Hope all works for you.
John

Thanks John. I think I have visited that man (little building and has a big Rotweiler waiting for tigueres?). Sadly, he tried to BS me: He suggested that while the piece would be around 20 gr. I would require about 25 gr of material. (I know that), but then he tried to suggest that that extra 5gr. was "waste" and would be "lost" ("se pierde"). I giggled like giving him a chance to make it a joke, but he insisted that the gold would "fall" ("se cae") on the ground and be waste ("basura")... we're talking USD $200.oo in "garbage" here. Imagine, if he does a job a day he would be sweeping about $6000.oo of "waste" a month onto the street. TIGUERAS would line up laying on the side walk to turn golden faster than Gringas get a tan on the beach! :D
I tried to explain to him that I know that one needs more material to start with and some would be carved out... But that given the value of precious metals, I also know that one works OVER a dust collector and can save/recuperate 90+% of that gold... which then is melted and given or credited back to the customer. He still preferred to unleash his "tigueraje" on me... ("es que aqui en Republica Dominicana...") and I decided I'd take my business elsewhere... I just don't know where yet.

I am glad YOU fared well with him.

... J-D.
 

belgiank

Silver
Jun 13, 2009
3,251
103
0
J-D,

As I am from Antwerp, I had several friends in the diamond and jewelry business. 3 of them were world famous gold smiths. They always told me that if you brought in old gold to be recuperated, you would lose about 20% with melting it down again (impurities, etc...). I can guarantee they were not trying to screw me, as I only bought new gold from them.

They also only worked with 18ct gold. I am surprised this would be available here, as Belgium is one of the rare countries to work with such high quality. Most countries use 14ct, or sometimes even 9ct.

Good luck

BelgianK
 

Africaida

Gold
Jun 19, 2009
7,775
1,341
113
J-D,

As I am from Antwerp, I had several friends in the diamond and jewelry business. 3 of them were world famous gold smiths. They always told me that if you brought in old gold to be recuperated, you would lose about 20% with melting it down again (impurities, etc...). I can guarantee they were not trying to screw me, as I only bought new gold from them.

They also only worked with 18ct gold. I am surprised this would be available here, as Belgium is one of the rare countries to work with such high quality. Most countries use 14ct, or sometimes even 9ct.

Good luck

BelgianK

18 ct is very common BelgianK, never knew 14 ct existed until I moved to the US, lol. Even here in the US, any decent jewelery store will carry 18. 22 ct is also common in other parts of the world.
 

J D Sauser

Silver
Nov 20, 2004
2,940
390
83
www.hispanosuizainvest.com
20% losses due to impurities, K?

The only employee job I ever held was at a company in Switzerland which had it's own foundry. They even had the license to cast the bars for Credit Suisse and 12Kg bars for the National Bank. Believe me, there is no such thing as 20% losses! 1% losses would raise red flags all over the place in that business. They did all recycling for the region, dental tech. and "industrial" jewelry like wedding rings and chains. All from the foundry to rolling gold flat to cutting, stamping and machining.
The impurities in the foundry float up, black spots. It gets skimmed off and then re-melted to get all the gold off the impurities. Even at "only" 18 bucks a gram back then... they dealt with kilo loads.., they could never afford to "loose" double digit percentages up in what, smokes?
Same with the jewelry dept. Workers had to leave their working shoes IN the shop, they would get scraped every month. Even so, they had rolling brush entry pads to brush off any dust of small gold particles... in a year they'd recollect over 100gr there! In a company with 220 employees.
If you believe the boys at Antwerp are in the business of "loosing" 20% gold, I have some other stories to amuse you with.

Scrap Gold is usually paid 20% off the value of it real gold content. There are COSTS involved with melting... most of all if you seek to do it commercially bulk. And then, there is PROFIT. COMMERCIAL gold buyers everywhere, do not hoard their gold, but just have it melted and sell it for it's real value bulk, where they buy it up piece by piece and make a LIVING doing so.
If you buy a 750/18Ct piece of gold and bring it to a jeweler who can melt it down... the cost is minimal, the loss due to evaporation is in the per-mil range and the question of impurities can be cleared out 99.% by cleaning the exterior of the original piece before melting it to make the new one.

When a jeweler works on a creation, he will need more metal to work with than the piece will finally weight. That extra gold does not magically "evaporate", it may become small particles and even file dust. But a jeweler, aware of the cost of the material he works on, while go to great lengths to recuperate in dust collectors the most of it.
When a jeweler tries to tell me, that 5 out of 25gr of Gold will "magically" go lost, he's either totally inept and would be drowning in gold dust without knowing (highly unlikely) or just a scam "artist"... well, "artist"... not even an artist... just one with a dummy schmuus he thinks he can pitch on dumb Gringos.

Btw. MOST jewelry in Switzerland is 18Ct. While most in Germany will only be 14Ct or less. In the US, FINE jewelry is 18Ct too and all the "bling" stuff is 14Ct or 8Ct. Spain uses 18Ct. I remember buying all sorts of 18Ct gold articles in 18Ct in Antwerp in the late '80's.


... J-D.

J-D,

As I am from Antwerp, I had several friends in the diamond and jewelry business. 3 of them were world famous gold smiths. They always told me that if you brought in old gold to be recuperated, you would lose about 20% with melting it down again (impurities, etc...). I can guarantee they were not trying to screw me, as I only bought new gold from them.

They also only worked with 18ct gold. I am surprised this would be available here, as Belgium is one of the rare countries to work with such high quality. Most countries use 14ct, or sometimes even 9ct.

Good luck

BelgianK
 

expatsooner

Bronze
Aug 7, 2004
712
11
0
I would recommend using Joyeria Brador their main office is in Santo Domingo but they have stores all over.

INFORMACI?N DE CONTACTO

I have been in their main workshop in the capital and they have many talented jewelry makers. They will cost more than most but you will not have one worry about quality or workmanship.