After seeing and hearing 'quality' traipsed around the jewelry industry since I can remember (which must be a long time ago because the first time I was behind a jewelry store counter I was 2 weeks old) the word 'quality' completely lost its meaning. How can every other jewelry store be the highest quality when the term stands not for the common but the standouts?
This idea of quality played constantly in my mind as I was developing the concept for the Abbey. I wanted the studio to be good, and the word quality kept coming into my mind as I wanted to define what goodness was (I hate empty and meaningless descriptions). When I went to look up what quality meant, I was engulfed. There are just as many descriptions of the word as there are advertisements that use it. I knew there had to be more.
I decided to read 'Zen and Art of Motorcycle Maintenance' by Robert Pirsig again as the book is devoted to the philosophical exploration of quality as undefinable. It truly is, quality is a part of everything yet it cannot be separated from what is being analyzed for quality. Everything has its own quality. Yet how can quality not exist on its own? I can look at a piece of jewelry and say it is quality or not, I can definitely feel the quality. Another person could look at the same piece and notice if it had quality or not as well. I was stumped.
The breakthrough came when I sat down with a good philosopher friend to discuss it, and he told me I was on the wrong path. Quality can be anything, so you can't get to it. He said I have to discover where it comes from. Quality doesn't exist in what we are observing, quality is merely the reflection of what it was that created it. This was brilliant! This is why it was so difficult to describe and it could have an infinite number of definitions at the same time.
Quality is the reflection of what created it. How is this important to jewelry? Because everything we put into what we do is what we get out of it. When I see true jewelry of quality, it is because a lot of thought and care went into creating it that way. This is the difference between a one of a kind Harry Winston piece made with exquisite attention to detail and a piece from the local jewelry mart that was made in a sweatshop in China. Somebody cared about making the Harry Winston piece, whereas a sweatshop piece was created with the desire for money. A big difference that can actually be perceived even in a writing.
Quality is the reflection of the people who create the jewelry. It is a reflection of their skill, their craft, their knowledge and thoughts while working on it, it is a reflection of their souls and very essence. I realized that to create good quality jewelry, we must first be the goodness we want to put into it. To improve the jewelry, I had to improve myself and my team.
Thus, integrity became all encompassing for me. Integrity is the sum of who we are. It is our hearts, what we care about. It is our minds, what we think about. It is our hands, what we do with what we know and what we care about.
With Everything.
Justinder
Photo by Justinder Singh
dear Justinder,
ReplyDeleteinteresting point of view, really I never thought about it that way, you know I think what you wrote in essence means like the saying that the eyes is the mirror of man's soul, also what he creates is a mirror to his soul but from a different corner, I mean if you was honest you will carve every jewelry piece with every breath out of your soul, as if it would be the only heritage that will be left after you gone.
Wonderfully put my dear Reham!
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