Cindy Mikesell mentors, inspires women as long

Cindy Mikesell shows some of the beautifully designed work by others in her store. Her work is often not on display as it is usually created specifically for the buyer and sold directly to them.

Cindy Mikesell’s finely tuned skills include manufacturing, designing, creating and welding. She uses a small regular torch or a laser welder to solder different metals together.

Cindy Mikesell, owner of Mikesell’s Fine Jewelers in downtown Hamilton, has been working in the jewelry design business for 47 years.

Crafting a modern look for older and heirloom jewelry is perhaps the most enjoyable of all her work, said Cindy Mikesell.

Creating a necklace from a mountain lion claw is just one of the unique design challenges Cindy Mikesell has done in her 47-year career as a bench jeweler.

The fine details of jewelry-making work is down to the millimeter.

Some of the tools of the jewelry manufacturing trade wait for use on Cindy Mikesell’s work bench in Hamilton.

Cindy Mikesell, the owner of Mikesell’s Fine Jewelers in downtown Hamilton, has been working in the jewelry design business for 47 years, which is unique for a woman. She spent 37 of those in Hamilton and has been at her current location since 2004.

In honor of International Women’s Day and Women's History Month, Mikesell knows that change comes from meeting challenges.

She started with art school in college before working at a manufacturing shop on Whidbey Island, Washington. One day she saw her designs in a popular jewelry catalog, only to realize her boss’s partner had taken and sold them to the company.

“He didn’t even bother to ask,” Mikesell said.

She decided to open her own manufacturing jewelry store offering casting, bench work and design.

“It just came naturally,” she said. “I’ve always loved mechanics. It takes mechanics, math and just being able to look at something structurally and deciding if it is a sound repair or a design that is going to work.”

She designs pieces based on ideas customers bring her and works with "what they have," she said.

“People come in and bring me odd bits, old gold teeth, piles of antique jewelry, plies of great-grandma’s, grandma’s, mom’s stuff in a clump,” Mikesell said. “They may want a ring made or a pendant. That is really fun. They want it upcycled and given a more modern-day usage that they can wear and enjoy.”

Redesigning and restoring older and heirloom jewelry is perhaps the most enjoyable of all her work.

“Taking a piece of jewelry that should be retired and bringing it up to a level where it can be worn, carefully, as a special occasion piece is the best,” Mikesell said. “It’s great to see the finished product.”

She often works on a small scale using drawings that are precise to the millimeter. She wears reader glasses, goggles that magnify her work three times, and a laser welder that magnifies 17 times normal vision.

The tools of her craft line her workbench: burrs, specialty pliers, many hand tools and tools that she has modified and made. The back rooms where the graduate gemologist works include a variety of equipment, including a kiln for wax molds, a polisher, a steamer and a unit for electro-plating. She uses a small regular torch to solder different metals together and a laser welder for tighter precision.

“When you use the laser welder you do welding on stones that are heat-sensitive because you can hand-hold it,” Mikesell said.

The laser welder ranges between 190 to 400 volts and has an indefinite number of focal points.

Work on the premises includes casting, designing, sizing rings and ring-cleaning while you wait.

Knowing the properties of chemistry and metals are key, like which metal is perfect for the job at hand and the fact that gold melts at different temperatures. The purer the gold, the hotter temperature needed for melting and soldering. Allergies are also a consideration and people are less allergic to more pure gold.

Mikesell solders like metal to like metal.

“So, if I’m welding on something platinum, I use platinum, and if I’m working on 14-karat white, I’m using 14-karat white,” she said. “A lot of people don’t work in platinum because it is harder to polish and clean. You have to use so much heat that there’s a danger of burning the stones. But with the laser welder I can do all kinds of things.”

Platinum is more expensive, heavier and purer than gold.

“It takes four polishes to do a gold product; it takes 12 to do platinum,” Mikesell said. “It lasts forever and is usually non-allergenic.”

As a registered jeweler and a Gemological Institute of America graduate, she knows her stones.

“Diamonds ... are probably my favorite, but I really kind of like them all,” she said. “There are very few that I dislike, but emeralds are really fragile. Montana sapphires are lots of fun because they come in different shapes and colors. The majority come from up on Skalkaho (Pass) and I have people who cut and bring them to me. There is a wide variety of different stones around here.”

She does not cut stones but prefers metalwork and design.

“I don’t have the patience for sewing or faceting, but I could do this until the cows come home,” Mikesell said.

Jewelry fashion and the types of styles, metals and stones cycle through popularity, similar to clothing fads.

“Shoulder pads were in, then shoulder pads were out. Bell bottoms were in, pencil skirts are out or in or whatever,” she said. “It just depends on who is doing the advertising or which movie stars are wearing what.”

Having a jeweler on the premises is key to customer service at any jewelry store, she said.

“Other stores have salespeople, and they are in sales,” Mikesell said. “They usually don’t know what goes into making a product. Here we can come up with the answers, show people the work we’ve done and educate them, like on how you size a ring. There are a lot of public misconceptions and having a great staff that knows the answers and been to school like diamond grading and color stones is great.”

Mikesell said she has always had a great staff, each bringing their unique personalities and abilities. Her current staff includes store manager Susan Wetzsteon, SueAnne Iman, LaDonna Grotbo and a high school intern. She employs college students in the summer and they return at Christmas for the busy season.

“The college girls are great. They have high energy and remember how to work a computer,” Mikesell said. “That’s a skill I don’t care to have. I tell them if they want me to learn the computer then they are going to have to sit at the welder, a simple deal. I make everyone sit at the welder and see how fine of work it does.”

Mikesell said she and all of her staff can answer questions about the jewelry that customers bring.

“Depending on what it is, we can tell you the history of the stone, how the diamond was cut, the era of the setting and what the setting was made out of. Sometimes we can tell if it has had a really hard life or if it was just worn lightly.”

She said that in the past ladies only wore their jewelry to dress up for church.

“They used washboards and all kinds of stuff,” she said. “Back in the 1915s-20s they were more careful with it. Now the girls just put it on and wear their jewelry and wonder why it doesn’t last as long.”

Ear piercings are no longer offered as the insurance rates rose too high, but years ago the trend was for jewelry stores to do the piercings.

“I had a girlfriend help and one day we pierced 100 ears, $2 for the pair,” Mikesell said. “Unique experiences included screaming children, yelling mothers. Oh well, hindsight.”

Mikesell said she chose her career wisely.

“It is still fun after all these years,” she said. “It is not always about the jewelry, it's about the people."

Wetzsteon, who has worked at Mikesell’s Fine Jewelry for 15 years, said that historically, female bench jewelers are in the minority.

“Not only has Cindy successfully opened and operated an independent jewelry store, but she has employed and mentored women of all ages,” Wetzsteon said. “She is always willing to share her wealth of knowledge and love of jewelry.”

Some of the tools of the jewelry manufacturing trade wait for use on Cindy Mikesell’s work bench in Hamilton.

Cindy Mikesell shows some of the beautifully designed work by others in her store. Her work is often not on display as it is usually created specifically for the buyer and sold directly to them.

Cindy Mikesell’s finely tuned skills include manufacturing, designing, creating and welding. She uses a small regular torch or a laser welder to solder different metals together.

Cindy Mikesell, owner of Mikesell’s Fine Jewelers in downtown Hamilton, has been working in the jewelry design business for 47 years.

Crafting a modern look for older and heirloom jewelry is perhaps the most enjoyable of all her work, said Cindy Mikesell.

Creating a necklace from a mountain lion claw is just one of the unique design challenges Cindy Mikesell has done in her 47-year career as a bench jeweler.

The fine details of jewelry-making work is down to the millimeter.

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