Poll Question. Is this skill a trade or an art skill?

[rust]

A specific example please.

Leonardo da Vinci, "Virgin of the Rocks", painted on order for the Milane-
se Confraternity of the Immaculate Conception. Leonardo even had to
be sued to complete this painting after he had accepted the payment, he
very obviously did not want to paint it.

Rembrandt, "The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp", painted on order
for Dr. Nicolaes Tulp.

 

[DeadMike]

From the perspective of being a jeweler who made customized high end pieces of jewelry for 10 years, which included carving the wax, making the molds, casting the jewelry, cutting or cabbing the gemstones, trimming, polishing, etc... that part is very much "art".

Out of curiosity for one who has never been a jeweler, how much geology and metallurgy skills would a good Jeweler posses? In Traveller terms if you could. To be a really fine artistic Jeweler. Thank you in advance, Mike

 

[rust]

Out of curiosity for one who has never been a jeweler, how much geology and metallurgy skills would a good Jeweler posses?

I think this is very difficult to answer, mainly because some of the best
works of art in this field have been produced hundreds or even thou-
sands of years ago by people who most probably did hardly have any
geology or metallurgy skills as we today would define it.

A couple of years ago I did visit the Bulgarian national museum and took
a look at Thracian jewelry that was more than 5,000 years old. It was as
artistic and beautiful as one could imagine, and some of it would be very
difficult to copy today for almost all jewelers, but the people of the time
worked from experience and skill only, without any real scientific know-
ledge.

 

[Treebore]

From the perspective of being a jeweler who made customized high end pieces of jewelry for 10 years, which included carving the wax, making the molds, casting the jewelry, cutting or cabbing the gemstones, trimming, polishing, etc... that part is very much "art".

Out of curiosity for one who has never been a jeweler, how much geology and metallurgy skills would a good Jeweler posses? In Traveller terms if you could. To be a really fine artistic Jeweler. Thank you in advance, Mike

Rust is correct as to the purely artistic elements, as to the Geology and Metallurgy in Traveller terms, I would say I have a general Geology of 2, but with regards to gemstones, precious and semi precious, as well as silver, gold and even copper metals, I would say I easily have a 4 (I am so good I can tell you which mine deposit around the world a stone is likely from due to the types of inclusions it has, try and find anyone else who can do that!)

As for Metallurgy, I do not have a broad skill in this, so I cannot walk into a steel factory and start working. My knowledge is all about melting down gold, silver, etc... what percentage of old I can mix with new, using a centrifuge to get any air bubbles out, after pouring it into a mold, that I made from wax carvings I did,

So I think its best to just treat the jeweler skill, or any skill related to something so specific, as knowing anything and everything they need to know in order to create "jewelry". So I think it is best to just assume they know everything otherwise you would need to break it down into a whole bunch of skill sets, faceting, cabbing, casting, carving, identification, etc...

So I would put my personal Jeweler skill at a raw 4, before INT bonus.