Jewelers

• Smooth soldered joints and rough spots, using hand files and emery paper, and polish smoothed areas with polishing wheels or buffing wire.
• Create jewelry from materials such as gold, silver, platinum, and precious or semiprecious stones.
• Make repairs, such as enlarging or reducing ring sizes, soldering pieces of jewelry together, and replacing broken clasps and mountings.
• Clean and polish metal items and jewelry pieces, using jewelers' tools, polishing wheels, and chemical baths.
• Select and acquire metals and gems for designs.
• Compute costs of labor and materials in order to determine production costs of products and articles.
• Mark and drill holes in jewelry mountings in order to center stones according to design specifications.
• Examine assembled or finished products to ensure conformance to specifications, using magnifying glasses or precision measuring instruments.
• Construct preliminary models of wax, metal, clay, or plaster, and form sample castings in molds.
• Pour molten metal alloys or other materials into molds in order to cast models of jewelry.
• Cut, shape, and smooth gemstones, pearls, and metal pieces, using abrasives, grinding stones, and power and hand tools.
• Soften metal to be used in designs by heating it with a gas torch and shape it, using hammers and dies.
• Determine appraised values of diamonds and other gemstones based on price guides, market fluctuations, and stone grades and rarity.
• Alter existing jewelry mountings in order to reposition jewels or to adjust mountings.
• Grade stones based on their color, perfection, and quality of cut.
• Plate articles such as jewelry pieces and watch dials, using silver, gold, nickel, or other metals.
• Write or modify design specifications such as the metal contents and weights of items.
• Create new jewelry designs and modify existing designs, using computers as necessary.
• Examine gemstone surfaces and internal structures to evaluate genuineness, quality, and value, using polariscopes, refractometers, and other optical instruments.
• Buy and sell jewelry, or serve as agents between buyers and sellers.
• Record the weights and processing times of finished pieces.
• Lay out designs on metal stock, and cut along markings to fabricate pieces used to cast metal molds.
• Fabricate, modify, or repair jigs, fixtures, and hand tools such as scrapers, cutters, gougers, and shapers.
• Mark, engrave, or emboss designs on metal pieces such as castings, wire, or jewelry, following specifications.
• Cut designs in molds or other materials to be used as models in the fabrication of metal and jewelry products.
• Design and fabricate molds, models, and machine accessories, and modify hand tools used to cast metal and jewelry pieces.
• Research and analyze reference materials, and consult with interested parties in order to develop new products or modify existing designs.

Source: O*NET OnLine information for Jewelers.

• Judgment and Decision Making - Considering the relative costs and benefits of potential actions to choose the most appropriate one.
• Critical Thinking - Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions or approaches to problems.
• Time Management - Managing one's own time and the time of others.
• Speaking - Talking to others to convey information effectively.
• Complex Problem Solving - Identifying complex problems and reviewing related information to develop and evaluate options and implement solutions.
• Management of Financial Resources - Determining how money will be spent to get the work done, and accounting for these expenditures.
• Mathematics - Using mathematics to solve problems.
• Monitoring - Monitoring/Assessing performance of yourself, other individuals, or organizations to make improvements or take corrective action.
• Active Learning - Understanding the implications of new information for both current and future problem-solving and decision-making.

Source: O*NET OnLine information for Jewelers.