DK Jewelry Design Questions

[pricescopenewbie]

Hello All! I am thinking to contact DK on a bling project, and I have seen some recent posts recommending using their in-house jewelry designer Amy. I think that is great idea esp. that I am not sure if my ideas are feasible. I have never working with DK, so I wonder if they charge extra to involve Amy in the work? Do they set up a virtual meeting to discuss about the project? I have contacted DK a couple times before via email and very hardly did I get any response, to the point that I gave up. I know they are super busy and I am not any big client out there, but would there be a good way to communicate with them?

Thanks a lot for your great input!

 

[daisygrl]

Hello All! I am thinking to contact DK on a bling project, and I have seen some recent posts recommending using their in-house jewelry designer Amy. I think that is great idea esp. that I am not sure if my ideas are feasible. I have never working with DK, so I wonder if they charge extra to involve Amy in the work? Do they set up a virtual meeting to discuss about the project? I have contacted DK a couple times before via email and very hardly did I get any response, to the point that I gave up. I know they are super busy and I am not any big client out there, but would there be a good way to communicate with them?

Thanks a lot for your great input!

I contacted DK just a few days ago and he has been very responsive so I am not sure what is going on with your emails.

To answer some of your questions, they do not charge extra to involve Amy - she is his wife and is very involved in the process of making jewelry and her involvement is free of extra charges.

I do not know about any virtual meetings - that seems rather time consuming. DK is great at replicating designs, so if you have something very specific in mind, send him as many pics as possible and he will send you a CAD... and then go from there.

I live near by so I was offered a free CAD to try on before they make a ring, which is something I want to take an advantage. They are very responsive in person, though.

 

[tyty333]

Amy is involved in all their work from what I've seen (and experienced). Its not like you have to ask for her involvement. They do
not charge extra for her CAD work and you usually don't pay until your ring is complete (from my experience). Sometimes you
do have to call to get their attention (they are very busy) but most of their work is via email/CADs from what I've seen.

My process was
- sent email with explanation of setting and pics to DK
- received quote from DK
- agreed on price
- Amy generated CADs
- Several back and forths with the CADs until I was happy and approved
- I sent them my stone
- setting generated in metal
- stone inserted
- pictures were sent to me for my approval
- paid in full
- ring sent to me
- happy customer

On the other hand, I'm wondering if they are not hands-on enough for you to be a good match? If you need too much hand-holding
they may not be a good match.

Perhaps you should present your ideas here on PS and get input from experienced PSers. There are quite a few posters on PS
that can help you narrow down what you want and whether its possible.

 

[caolsen]

Amy is involved in all their work from what I've seen (and experienced). Its not like you have to ask for her involvement. They do
not charge extra for her CAD work and you usually don't pay until your ring is complete (from my experience). Sometimes you
do have to call to get their attention (they are very busy) but most of their work is via email/CADs from what I've seen.

My process was
- sent email with explanation of setting and pics to DK
- received quote from DK
- agreed on price
- Amy generated CADs
- Several back and forths with the CADs until I was happy and approved
- I sent them my stone
- setting generated in metal
- stone inserted
- pictures were sent to me for my approval
- paid in full
- ring sent to me
- happy customer

On the other hand, I'm wondering if they are not hands-on enough for you to be a good match? If you need too much hand-holding
they may not be a good match.

Perhaps you should present your ideas here on PS and get input from experienced PSers. There are quite a few posters on PS
that can help you narrow down what you want and whether its possible.

This has mirrored my experience with David on several rings. It’s been a great experience but I wasn’t aiming for anything I thought wasn’t feasible. What are you thinking about @daisygrl ?

 

[prs]

FWIW Amy is not David's wife. They are certainly not romantically involved, but are best friends for sure. David and Amy started the business together about 20 years ago, and I believe are equal partners in the ownership.

Amy definitely supplies her fair share of brains to the partnership, and is the organizational genius behind the business. She handles almost all the design work, and has a group of designers who produce the actual CADs. She juggles lots of projects that are in various stages of development, and somehow manages to stay on top of all of them. She knows where to find everything in that office, including David's loupe which he misplaces regularly. As far as I can tell, David gets involved in designs when things get complicated and they need to put their heads together to come up with the right solution. I can assure you that you want and need Amy's full involvement in your project.

Amy told me they get about 500 emails a day!!! She has two or three ladies in the office who help her handle the emails. I don't know how they determine priority. My guess, and this is only my guess, is the emails that are specific get answered first. For example for a new project you could supply a photo of your stone and and its dimensions, together with an inspiration photo. That would be easy to quote and easy to get a CAD started, so easy to answer. On the other hand a ten paragraph email talking about many different ideas with nothing really specific might never get answered.

 

[daisygrl]

FWIW Amy is not David's wife. They are certainly not romantically involved, but are best friends for sure. David and Amy started the business together about 20 years ago, and I believe are equal partners in the ownership.

Amy definitely supplies her fair share of brains to the partnership, and is the organizational genius behind the business. She handles almost all the design work, and has a group of designers who produce the actual CADs. She juggles lots of projects that are in various stages of development, and somehow manages to stay on top of all of them. She knows where to find everything in that office, including David's loupe which he misplaces regularly. As far as I can tell, David gets involved in designs when things get complicated and they need to put their heads together to come up with the right solution. I can assure you that you want and need Amy's full involvement in your project.

Amy told me they get about 500 emails a day!!! She has two or three ladies in the office who help her handle the emails. I don't know how they determine priority. My guess, and this is only my guess, is the emails that are specific get answered first. For example for a new project you could supply a photo of your stone and and its dimensions, together with an inspiration photo. That would be easy to quote and easy to get a CAD started, so easy to answer. On the other hand a ten paragraph email talking about many different ideas with nothing really specific might never get answered.

When I visited them, DK referred to Amy as his wife. The live together. I mentioned it in here casually but it would be best if the original post stick to its point.

 

[tyty333]

On the other hand a ten paragraph email talking about many different ideas with nothing really specific might never get answered.

Definitely not a good idea to do this! Remember the poster that sent 50 images for a very simple solitaire setting? (Ain't nobody got time for that!) He got back a very generic looking CAD of a setting you could have bought off the shelf for which they wanted to charge $2.5k (@glitterata named it the "difficult customer" price).

 

[pricescopenewbie]

@tyty333 @daisygrl @caolsen @prs Thank you so very much for sharing your experiences! I have admired a lot well-made DK jewelries here (including your amazing pieces) and I so want to work with them!

I emailed them a few months ago about a specific ring setting and attached a few pictures, waited for about a week without response. So I messaged them on IG and told them about the email, They said they will check but never got back with me. I wonder if it is because of the timing? It was around April or May. Is that their busy season?

 

[tyty333]

I would call if I were you @pricescopenewbie . You may need to resend the emails that you sent back in April. I think things were
just kicking off again in April/May from what I can remember.

 

[pricescopenewbie]

@tyty333 that must be it. I hope they are slowing down a bit now.

 

[prs]

I'm sure persistence will pay off and show them you are serious about being a customer.