Featuring Plateau Jewelers, Sammamish, WA

Eleven years ago Kelly and Sue Jensen found their way to the small, picturesque community of Sammamish, Washington—a long way from their home state of Texas—and never left. They fell in love with the town and the people and knew they had found a new home. Realizing that their skill sets and enthusiasm for fine gems and jewelry could provide a means to stay and raise a family, they established Plateau Jewelers (after the Sammamish Plateau upon which the store is located). The couple partnered with friends and offered fine custom designed jewelry in addition to the quality designer lines and discriminatingly selected showcase pieces to their patrons. The
Jensen’s soon discovered a penchant for jewelry design, and became immersed in the process, working with customers and sharing their delight in the custom pieces they fashioned.

Now the sole owners of Plateau Jewelers, Kelly (president) and Sue (vice president and full-time mom to Makaylee and Dallen) have established themselves in the community and brought their business to a new height as a full service jewelry store specializing in custom design. Most recently, they introduced CAD (Computer Aided Design) to expand their services and optimize the potential of their custom order jewelry.

True to his belief in education, Kelly Jensen became a Graduate Gemologist through the Gemological Institute of America, as well as a Certified Gemologist via the American Gem Society. Just one year ago, he embarked on another educational adventure with bench jeweler/shop manager Bruce Henderson to the Gemvision headquarters in Iowa to learn to use the Matrix jewelry design software he purchased. Here Jensen lays out a model for a customer who had very specific requests for the shape of his ring. To effectively achieve the desired outcome, he turned to CAD. While they regard themselves “newbies”, Plateau has produced over 100 custom orders using the software since completing the one-week program.

Plateau Jewelers’ high-performance team sells popular brands of luxury jewelry including their own. Their store showcases premiere jewelry lines such as Claude Thibaudeaux and Hearts On Fire alongside prestigious watch brands. While they are focused on turning their inventory, they are passionate about helping their customers find that perfect piece of jewelry. And
often, that means putting together a custom piece.

The first contact for customers at Plateau is with one of the sales/design staff. Pictured here are Kelsey Boys and Nancy Cindric. Kelsey was an art major at the University of Washington and is working toward a master’s degree in teaching. While she is the newest to the sales floor, she already has a Jewelry Essentials certificate from GIA under her belt. As customers view the inventory but can’t find exactly what they are looking for, Kelsey is happy to interact with the client, sketching ideas and incorporating them into exactly the right combination. She can sketch multiple views of a design to communicate the details for a customer, which is very helpful in the CAD design layout.

Over the years the Jensen’s have recruited and cultivated a top-notch sales and design team to help build and share in the success of Plateau. As the store manager, Kelly believes that the best way to serve their clients is to ensure that every employee understands their common goal and is able to offer valuable support and assistance. Staff members are not only trained for
in-store operations, but are encouraged to enroll in industry certification programs for continuing education. Most importantly,
they are trained to work together.

The team approach to sales and design has been a proven formula for success
at Plateau and it helped greatly in incorporating the new technology of CAD. Currently, two members of the staff design jewelry using Gemvision’s Matrix software, but the entire staff is involved in the process.

Betty Berg is Plateau’s charismatic full time sales associate-designer and has been with the company for 6 years. Betty holds three GIA certificates (Jewelry, Diamond and Colored Stone Essentials). She is well versed on their inventory and has a gift for finding just what a customer has in mind. Often clients will want to incorporate their own gems or one from the store’s selection in a custom design or convert an existing piece into something fabulous. Betty will then interview the person, jotting information on their in-store Custom Worksheet. She’ll ask about the customer’s lifestyle and design preferences, suggesting the best options for the customer, and then captures the essence of a custom idea in a sketch.

Like her co-workers Nancy has earned a certificate in Jewelry Essentials from GIA. In her custom order presentations, she incorporates the use of Plateau’s portfolios. The portfolios contain Matrix-created images (images generated by the software are as realistic as a photograph) and actual photos of finished pieces. To help communicate or illustrate certain points about stone setting styles, colors of metal, gemstone size and cut, Nancy shows several pieces that are designed and custom made by Plateau as well as jewelry on display.

The design is now ready for Kelly or Bruce to layout in CAD. Before they begin, they confer with each other to determine the best way to build the model for manufacturing—like whether the model should be made in one piece or more (different colored metals, or assembly strategy), or if one part of the piece should be designed with CAD and another part fabricated by hand. Plateau believes in providing customers with the best quality custom piece at a fair and honest price. This means working to the height of efficiency in production, which they achieve through a combination of techniques.

CAD designers need to know all the parameters of a submitted design. For this, all of the information is recorded by sales staff on the in-store Custom Worksheet which includes details pertinent to each potential custom piece, such as metal type and color, ring size, and gemstone size(s). Since the form is also used to prepare cost quotes, there is also a place to record receipt of customer gemstones or trade-ins of jewelry as well as time estimates for design, model making, casting, setting and other labor factors. Of importance is an approval statement on the back that the customer will sign upon viewing and accepting the wax model of their jewelry.

After the design work is completed, renderings of the designs are produced using the Matrix generated design file and a color printer. Here Jensen unveils the rendered images of a custom designed ring to the joy of customer June Larson. He is able to review the design details with her from several viewpoints to ensure that June’s ring is everything she imagined and expected.

An appointment is set for the customer to come in and see computer generated images of their design. The realistic images often lead clients to believe the jewelry has already been made. The ability to show several views of the piece affords the opportunity to discuss any changes or adjustments. After the customer approves the design, the file is sent out to have a computer generated wax model produced on a Revo 540 mill. The instructions for milling the model come from the original CAD file, so the details are exact. When the customer reviews the actual wax model and signs off on approval, the manufacturing process begins.

Bruce Henderson, an accomplished bench jeweler, joined Plateau as shop foreman 5 years ago. He and his staff fulfill the custom orders, repairs and reconstruction work. Here he’s setting diamonds in a platinum and 18-karat yellow gold ring that Kelly designed using Matrix. The wax was carved using a Revo 540 mill. Bruce then cut the ring in half sending the top to be cast in platinum and casting the yellow gold shank at Plateau’s facility. After pre-finishing, the ring was reassembled. Bruce concludes, “Without a doubt, setting is so much more efficient in a piece that has been produced through CAD/CAM.”

Elise McKinney is Plateau’s apprentice jeweler. She’s a graduate of the University of Washington where she studied metalsmithing. Her interest in working at the benchdates back to her high school days when she requested Jensen as a mentor for her senior project and spent time in the store. She didn’t realize that she had made such a great impression on Bruce and Kelly back then, and was surprised and honored when she was sought for a position at Plateau after graduation. In college, Elise worked with another Rhino-based software for jewelry design and says, “Matrix is far more user friendly and has features that perform specific building tasks so helpful for designing jewelry.”

Often there are minor details that the shop staff will check with the original sales person. Here Nancy consults with Elise to
insure the proper stone arrangement of another design being completed. As a jeweler and Matrix user, Henderson clearly sees
the advantages of CAM models.  “You are able to design the settings and bearings in the model, making bench work move much faster. The models turn out so clean for casting, and the tiniest detail is retained, plus there is less metal waste”, Bruce enthuses. Like Kelly, he had always wanted to get involved in the hi-tech side of jewelry manufacturing, but was never able to make the time to do it. It was he who provided the final impetus to purchase and learn the program, visualizing all the production benefits
of CAD/CAM.



Jensen and Henderson lay out most pieces based upon customer requests, but as designers they constantly challenge themselves to create new twists on traditional items. One of their innovative ideas was the Fingerprint Charm—a mother’s charm with a fingerprint of her child captured for a lifetime in precious metal, and on the flip side, the child’s birth date. This charm could only have been produced via CAD/CAM.

As time permits, they also design unique jewelry for the store’s inventory which has created a special brand niche for their store. This line of jewelry doesn’t stay in the showcase long and can only be found at Plateau. They often add to their ‘virtual inventory’ in their portfolios, of jewelry designed and rendered in Matrix, but not yet made.

Jensen nurtures the team culture by involving every employee in store successes as well as work, like treating his staff to a
fine dinner together when monthly sales goals have been met, or holding the now traditional in-store design contests. He initiated these to spur creativity, increase awareness of good design and to promote participation and involvement. He sets the design criteria, budget and materials. Each employee submits a design for the contest and then votes for the best one according to established rules. During this process, the staff engages in lively discussion over the features and benefits of every design submitted. The winner is awarded $100.00 and the piece is manufactured for sale at the store, but not before everyone has
given input on the final design.

The combined talents of the Plateau staff are evident in the design and craftsmanship of their custom jewelry. These exquisite earrings were made especially for the annual March of Dimes benefit raffle. The Jensen’s and
Plateau donate a piece each year for the cause.

The Jensen’s enjoy getting involved in their community and their generous participation in charitable events brings attention to Plateau’s talents in turn. Word-of-mouth advertising manifests not only the appeal of their designs but the experience they provide their customers as well.

Jensen beams, “I’ve always loved design but there was always the difficulty of communicating your exact idea for production. With CAD/CAM, you always get your exact idea in the finished product. There is so much confidence and control with this program”.  Because custom design is unique by nature, he finds himself pressed to learn even more by experimenting with new techniques with each job—and it’s so much fun. The CAD images have made closing sales and customer approval easier and virtually eliminated reworking pieces due to misinterpretation of the design. CAD/CAM has made the custom order side of his business more efficient and has increased the production in his shop.

For information about Plateau Jewelers, visit www.plateaujewelers.com.