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There’s a point in your work where starting from scratch every time just doesn’t make sense anymore.

In this episode, I sit down with Peter Gilroy of Bonny Doon Engineering to talk about how the hydraulic press can shift your process from one-off making into something more repeatable and intentional.

We get into what it actually does beyond cutting discs, how it changes the way metal moves, and why it can open up entirely new possibilities in your designs and production.

This is not about buying more tools. It is about understanding when the right tool becomes a turning point.

We cover:

• What die forming and coining actually mean
• Why press work creates strength, detail, and efficiency you cannot get by hand
• How one die can turn into an entire collection
• The difference between hobby presses and professional systems
• The idea of the “upgrade tax” and how to think long term
• How the press integrates with engraving, stone setting, and more

If you have been wondering whether a hydraulic press makes sense for your work, this conversation will give you a much clearer way to think about it.

You can explore more about Bonny Doon at https://bonnydoontools.com
and see what might actually fit your studio.

If you want to go a little deeper, I share key takeaways and additional teaching from each episode through my email list at https://courtneygrayarts.com
.

And if you have the chance to watch this one on YT, it is worth it. The visuals really help bring these concepts to life.

Support the show

Visit www.CourtneyGrayArts.com to read more about what I offer. Be sure to follow The Jeweler’s View so you never miss an episode! Now you can watch on You Tube: @theJeweler'sView. I’d love it if you could subscribe, and leave a rating and review by scrolling down on the main show page, this helps the podcast reach more amazing listeners like you.

💎 Have thoughts to share or just want to say hi? Reach out anytime and be sure to get on my VIP newsletter list. Welcome to the tribe!

– Courtney
Helping Jewelry Creatives access the knowledge, resources, and mindset they

need to achieve goals they once thought impossible.

Connect with me or check out the Transform Your Jewelry Business course at

www.CourtneyGrayArts.com

🤗 Linktree: All the Things

🎁 Get your FREE guide: Courage, Clarity, and Customers and

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Let the Work Lead: Choosing Jewelry Tools Without Wasting Money

Courtney Gray introduces The Jeweler’s View and explains that many jewelers slowly waste thousands on tools they don’t need, often buying out of aspiration or avoidance rather than necessity. She returns “back to the bench” to argue that a basic setup can produce a wide range of work and that progress comes from skill, repetition, and understanding materials—not accumulating equipment. As consistent work develops, it should dictate which tools to add, creating a bench tailored to real workflow instead of speculative purchases that cause clutter and distraction. She shares an example of an indispensable, modified tool (a bent eyeglass screwdriver) to highlight how personal solutions matter most. Before investing, she asks: what problem it solves, how often it occurs, and whether it’s a tool or skill limitation, and encourages learning from community regrets. Ultimately, tools support the maker’s unique eye and instincts.

00:00 Welcome to the Podcast
00:47 Why Tools Drain Money
01:16 Back to the Bench
02:18 Start With the Basics
03:08 Let Work Lead Tools
03:42 Avoid Tool Distraction
04:22 The Bent Screwdriver
05:30 Three Questions to Buy
06:15 Ask the Community
06:44 What Matters Most
07:41 Final Sendoff

Support the show

Visit www.CourtneyGrayArts.com to read more about what I offer. Be sure to follow The Jeweler’s View so you never miss an episode! Now you can watch on You Tube: @theJeweler'sView. I’d love it if you could subscribe, and leave a rating and review by scrolling down on the main show page, this helps the podcast reach more amazing listeners like you.

💎 Have thoughts to share or just want to say hi? Reach out anytime and be sure to get on my VIP newsletter list. Welcome to the tribe!

– Courtney
Helping Jewelry Creatives access the knowledge, resources, and mindset they

need to achieve goals they once thought impossible.

Connect with me or check out the Transform Your Jewelry Business course at

www.CourtneyGrayArts.com

🤗 Linktree: All the Things

🎁 Get your FREE guide: Courage, Clarity, and Customers and

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Appraisals, Documentation & Insurance: Protecting Custom Jewelry Before Something Goes Wrong

Courtney Gray introduces The Jeweler’s View and explains why jewelers and clients should prioritize appraisals, documentation, and insurance before a loss occurs. She shares a story of a client who lost a custom sapphire ring in a public restroom, but because it was professionally appraised and added to a homeowner’s policy, the loss became an insurance claim and a rebuild rather than a devastating event. Gray outlines what an appraisal includes (materials, stone details, design features, replacement value) and why appraisals may need updating as markets change. She emphasizes the jeweler’s role in normalizing appraisals and providing bench documentation—photos, records, stone details, and pre-setting documentation—to support insurance, remakes, and client trust. Additional examples include preserving molds for recasting and using CAD files, 3D printing, and digital scans to make custom work reproducible.

00:00 Welcome to the Show
00:51 Why Documentation Matters
01:20 Lost Ring Insurance Win
03:23 What an Appraisal Covers
04:26 Bench Documentation Basics
05:35 Recasting with a Mold
07:01 Modern Digital Records
07:42 Trust and Protection
08:28 Process Checklist and Wrap
09:13 Outro and Next Steps

Support the show

Visit www.CourtneyGrayArts.com to read more about what I offer. Be sure to follow The Jeweler’s View so you never miss an episode! Now you can watch on You Tube: @theJeweler'sView. I’d love it if you could subscribe, and leave a rating and review by scrolling down on the main show page, this helps the podcast reach more amazing listeners like you.

💎 Have thoughts to share or just want to say hi? Reach out anytime and be sure to get on my VIP newsletter list. Welcome to the tribe!

– Courtney
Helping Jewelry Creatives access the knowledge, resources, and mindset they

need to achieve goals they once thought impossible.

Connect with me or check out the Transform Your Jewelry Business course at

www.CourtneyGrayArts.com

🤗 Linktree: All the Things

🎁 Get your FREE guide: Courage, Clarity, and Customers and

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Sourcing Is Relationships: Building Trust With Gem Dealers

The episode argues that successful gemstone sourcing is less about finding vendors and more about building relationships with dealers who will support you when problems arise. The host recounts cracking a ruby during engagement ring sizing and needing to replace it at their own cost; because of an established relationship, the dealer helped significantly and the replacement stone was even better, leaving the client thrilled. The script highlights how long-term trust, illustrated by Karen Richards’ decades of relationship-building at the Tucson show leads dealers to know your taste, set stones aside, and source proactively for you. Practical steps include paying on time, clear communication, thoughtful questions, follow-through, sharing finished-piece photos, and saying no professionally, while recognizing dealers evaluate you too. It also discusses ethical sourcing as informed, transparent partnerships rather than perfect traceability.

00:00 Sourcing Is People
01:16 Ruby Ring Disaster
02:13 Saved by Trust
03:36 Tucson Relationship Masterclass
05:38 How to Build Dealer Trust
06:43 Dealers Judge You Too
07:15 Shortcuts for New Jewelers
07:48 Ethical Sourcing Reality
08:36 Final Takeaway and Outro

Support the show

Visit www.CourtneyGrayArts.com to read more about what I offer. Be sure to follow The Jeweler’s View so you never miss an episode! Now you can watch on You Tube: @theJeweler'sView. I’d love it if you could subscribe, and leave a rating and review by scrolling down on the main show page, this helps the podcast reach more amazing listeners like you.

💎 Have thoughts to share or just want to say hi? Reach out anytime and be sure to get on my VIP newsletter list. Welcome to the tribe!

– Courtney
Helping Jewelry Creatives access the knowledge, resources, and mindset they

need to achieve goals they once thought impossible.

Connect with me or check out the Transform Your Jewelry Business course at

www.CourtneyGrayArts.com

🤗 Linktree: All the Things

🎁 Get your FREE guide: Courage, Clarity, and Customers and

...

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Courtney Gray, metalsmith educator and host of The Jeweler’s View, shifts into practical jewelry industry guidance, starting with gemstone sourcing and buying stones online. Using a real engagement-ring story about a misrepresented “natural” tanzanite that turned out to be synthetic, she explains that lab-grown gemstones aren’t inherently bad; the real risk is lack of transparency. She covers essential stone-buying safeguards for jewelers and clients: always confirm return policies, demand clear treatment disclosure (heated, fracture-filled, irradiated, coated, oiled), and understand the difference between natural gemstones, lab-grown stones, and simulants. Courtney also notes when gem lab reports (GIA, AGL, GRS, IGI, SSEF) matter, why bench testing has limits, and why trusted supplier relationships and reputation are the best quality control for building long-term client trust.

Support the show

Visit www.CourtneyGrayArts.com to read more about what I offer. Be sure to follow The Jeweler’s View so you never miss an episode! Now you can watch on You Tube: @theJeweler'sView. I’d love it if you could subscribe, and leave a rating and review by scrolling down on the main show page, this helps the podcast reach more amazing listeners like you.

💎 Have thoughts to share or just want to say hi? Reach out anytime and be sure to get on my VIP newsletter list. Welcome to the tribe!

– Courtney
Helping Jewelry Creatives access the knowledge, resources, and mindset they

need to achieve goals they once thought impossible.

Connect with me or check out the Transform Your Jewelry Business course at

www.CourtneyGrayArts.com

🤗 Linktree: All the Things

🎁 Get your FREE guide: Courage, Clarity, and Customers and

...

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Courtney Gray introduces The Jeweler’s View and shares a past conversation with a student who had six months to make her jewelry business work before returning to a full-time job. Courtney explains that whether six months is enough depends on starting skill level, available hours and focus, pricing and required sales volume, existing audience, comfort with selling and follow-up, consistency of visibility, and most critically, defining what “working” means as a specific income number. She notes six months can create traction (visibility, conversations, early sales), but predictable sustainability usually takes longer, with real movement often appearing after a year of consistent effort and stabilization commonly taking three to five years. Courtney emphasizes quality is only the floor; makers must educate buyers, ask directly, follow up, and stay visible, using specificity and structure over hope to build something that lasts.

Support the show

Visit www.CourtneyGrayArts.com to read more about what I offer. Be sure to follow The Jeweler’s View so you never miss an episode! Now you can watch on You Tube: @theJeweler'sView. I’d love it if you could subscribe, and leave a rating and review by scrolling down on the main show page, this helps the podcast reach more amazing listeners like you.

💎 Have thoughts to share or just want to say hi? Reach out anytime and be sure to get on my VIP newsletter list. Welcome to the tribe!

– Courtney
Helping Jewelry Creatives access the knowledge, resources, and mindset they

need to achieve goals they once thought impossible.

Connect with me or check out the Transform Your Jewelry Business course at

www.CourtneyGrayArts.com

🤗 Linktree: All the Things

🎁 Get your FREE guide: Courage, Clarity, and Customers and

...

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Courtney Gray shares the second major crossroads in her business: during COVID, she had to choose between storing and waiting out the shutdown of Creative Side Jewelry Academy or selling it, and she sold after recognizing her real capacity, health, and energy could not sustain that version of the business while building what was next. The transition was messy and painful, involving community abandonment, slander, and a prolonged period of depression, illness, and multiple hospitalizations, reinforcing that pushing past capacity eventually forces consequences. She emphasizes that letting go only works when you fully release what no longer fits, and that you can’t build what’s next with your hands full of what was. She offers clear questions to assess capacity and direction, reframes letting go as honesty rather than quitting, and connects these lessons to why she built Transform. The next episode will address time and how long change takes.

Support the show

Visit www.CourtneyGrayArts.com to read more about what I offer. Be sure to follow The Jeweler’s View so you never miss an episode! Now you can watch on You Tube: @theJeweler'sView. I’d love it if you could subscribe, and leave a rating and review by scrolling down on the main show page, this helps the podcast reach more amazing listeners like you.

💎 Have thoughts to share or just want to say hi? Reach out anytime and be sure to get on my VIP newsletter list. Welcome to the tribe!

– Courtney
Helping Jewelry Creatives access the knowledge, resources, and mindset they

need to achieve goals they once thought impossible.

Connect with me or check out the Transform Your Jewelry Business course at

www.CourtneyGrayArts.com

🤗 Linktree: All the Things

🎁 Get your FREE guide: Courage, Clarity, and Customers and

...

Send us Fan Mail

Courtney Gray explains that stalled momentum doesn’t mean a maker isn’t talented or worthy, it usually reflects the sustained effort required to build something from scratch and the work needed to restart after interruption. She recounts starting her jewelry business at 24, then dismantling it to complete a welding technology internship in Germany, and returning home to a year-long struggle to regain traction, which triggered self-doubt.

The turning point was a clear decision to fully commit rather than keep an “easy exit,” followed by consistent action, studio space, creating, visibility, follow-up, marketing, and relationship-building. She encourages listeners to define what they’re building, what sustainability means, their financial threshold, capacity, and a 12-month commitment, and notes real sustainability took about five years for steady income.

Support the show

Visit www.CourtneyGrayArts.com to read more about what I offer. Be sure to follow The Jeweler’s View so you never miss an episode! Now you can watch on You Tube: @theJeweler'sView. I’d love it if you could subscribe, and leave a rating and review by scrolling down on the main show page, this helps the podcast reach more amazing listeners like you.

💎 Have thoughts to share or just want to say hi? Reach out anytime and be sure to get on my VIP newsletter list. Welcome to the tribe!

– Courtney
Helping Jewelry Creatives access the knowledge, resources, and mindset they

need to achieve goals they once thought impossible.

Connect with me or check out the Transform Your Jewelry Business course at

www.CourtneyGrayArts.com

🤗 Linktree: All the Things

🎁 Get your FREE guide: Courage, Clarity, and Customers and

...