JOB TITLE: Bench Jeweler – Lexington, KY

DEPARTMENT: Production 

REPORTS TO: Onsite Jewelry Manager

EFFECTIVE DATE: 7/2024

Melanie Casey is seeking a detail-oriented bench jeweler with three or more years of professional experience in jewelry making/metalsmithing! This full-time position will be responsible for ring resizing, stone setting, earring post and necklace assembly, and bringing raw castings to a final polish. This position will be Monday to Friday, 40 hours per week with optional overtime. Training is provided to guide Jewelers through the nuances of our product line.

This position is ideal for someone who wants to be in production jewelry as a long-term career, and will be able to take advantage of the combined years of business and jewelry-making experience at Melanie Casey. We are looking for patience, enthusiasm, and the willingness to go the extra mile to learn a new skill.

Our Lexington, KY studio Bench Jewelers are seated at a dedicated bench outfitted with a bench microscope to set diamonds and other gemstones ranging in size from .0025 to 5 carats. Besides bench scope, our jewelers are each outfitted with their own hand tools, torches, and fume extractors. Laser welders are shared amongst a handful of benches.

Ideal candidates are meticulously detailed, love making jewelry, and enjoy participating in friendly studio life. Jewelers operate under minimal supervision and are capable of self-critiquing their own work with an inspector’s eye.

jewelry repair

Specific Job Duties/Responsibilities:

  • Full time, onsite. Relocation assistance available.
  • Must be able to execute most products in our line and be willing to train on more complex pieces until fully mastered. Our full product line can be found at www.melaniecasey.com.
  • Must have the ability to bring a raw casting through to the final perfect product, ready to deliver to our clients. This process includes cast cleaning, sizing, stone setting, polishing, and quality checks.
  • Ring sizing: exact “spot-on” sizing up and down of our delicate 1.2mm ring bands
  • Polishing: carefully executing a bright mirror finish without reducing the metal or prong material on our delicate pieces
  • Earring post assembly that is centered and straight
  • Stone setting: prong-set round and some fancy cuts with the ability to learn others quickly, and a lot of small melee prong settings. All stones must be tight, straight, and without any shifting whatsoever. Please note that many of our designs feature two prong settings which are particularly unforgiving to set.
  • Ability to be extremely critical of your work and able to perform self-quality checks.
  • Excellent written communication skills are required for this role. You must be able to communicate with our in-house team regarding quality, questions, and anything that needs further attention on every work order.
  • Use our Specifications sheets to achieve optimal results.
  • A willingness to learn the Melanie Casey way of doing things so that we can achieve consistent results across all of our jewelers.
  • This role will not be required to cast, hand-fabricated from sheet, or design. This role will exclusively make finished jewelry from a casting.
  • The candidate should be an exacting quality-focused jeweler who has mastered working in gold and stone settings. This person should be capable of learning how to produce our entire product line with minimal instruction.

Required Qualifications/Skills:

  • Must have at least 3 years professional experience working in fine jewelry.
  • Degree or completed certificate in metalsmithing is required.
  • Self-driven and organized.
  • Able to meet deadlines.
  • Must have a long-term commitment to this position.
  • Background checks and reference calls will be completed prior to acceptance for this position.
  • We do require candidates to pass a bench test to demonstrate proficiency in the listed required skills. To secure the position, candidates must complete two separate rounds of bench testing and demonstrate excellent communication skills throughout the hiring process. Testing may be conducted through the mail or in person. Bench testing scores determine pay rate.

 

Please send cover letter, resumé and any other requested materials with the job title in the subject line to jobs@melaniecasey.com