Good as Gold

Perched on a tall stool poring over a raised desk lit by a large window, Jeff Reynolds fashions a pendant and earrings out of elk teeth. First he will hand carve a wax model of the jewelry which will later be replaced by 14-karat gold.

And not everyone could make beauty out of real teeth.

"Right now that’s pretty popular,“ he said. “I wouldn’t say it’s a dying art, but really good wax carvers are hard to find.“

In the small second-story room, Reynolds, 34, painstakingly, handcrafts rings and other jewelry using files, knives and dentistry tools while the whirling and banging of machinery sounds in the background. He crafts for local jewelry company, Marcelle Jewelers, as well as other companies throughout the Western states.

“It’s just a hobby mostly, “Reynolds said about his profession of 13 years. “It just so happens that you can feed your family by doing it. I mean, you can’t have a better job than having it be a hobby and getting paid for it at the same time. That’s a real blessing.“

Most of Reynolds' work is designing custom jewelry.

“It starts when somebody comes in with an idea or a picture, or whatever they want, and all fashion a wax model from that, “he said.

Many customers that request custom rings want a combination of rings that they have seen in different pictures, an inherited ring melted down and crafted differently, or they just want a ring that is completely unique.

Getting custom made jewelry will usually add between $50 and $200 to the price, but Reynolds said many people believe the price is worth receiving a one-of-a-kind piece of jewelry.

Reynolds said he first learned to craft jewelry in a Logan High School shop class. A few years after high school Reynolds said he started working at Marcelle‘s Jewelers polishing rings and repairing jewelry. But as demand for custom rings increased, Reynolds was asked to begin crafting jewelry.

“Basically, I taught myself.“

First Reynolds will hand-carve a wax model of the jewelry piece that includes diamonds or other precious stones (or elk teeth). Next, a plaster-like encasement is built around the jewelry “tree" that looks just like that: A central trunk with rings, earrings and pendants branching from the middle. The tree is fired to temperatures ranging from 800 to 1300 degrees Fahrenheit, creating a mold into which he forces molten gold or silver either by vacuum or centrifugal force. The metal is then cooled, setting the precious stones inside, and the jewelry is buffed, polished and clean.

Reynolds said that he can create four to five wax models a day.

“It’s hard work. You have to have a passion for it, and you have to have certain abilities to be artistic,“ he said. “It requires very small movements, very detailed control of the hand, I guess. And that’s not something that everybody could do. It takes a number of years to get skilled at it.“

Although he recently graduated from Utah State university with a master's degree in business administration, Reynolds said he will continue crafting rings and expanding his business.

“There’s a lot of people in the world that go to work and really hate what they do. But I come to work and I’m really excited and pumped.“