Sharon Zimmerman

How do I read Analog or Vernier Calipers – Tool Talk!

This video shows you how to read analog or Vernier calipers – an essential jewelry tool great for measuring diamonds and gemstones, wire or sheet, or measuring the length of a ring blank.
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Building a Business with Purpose – an interview with Jared from Damadeo

How did you start doing what you are doing?The luminous crystals sprouting from the walls of the recreated Pala Mine tourmaline pocket at the Natural History Museum, not far from where we lived in NYC, beckoned from an early age. Were it not for the glass separating them from sticky-faced kids like me, I would…
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The Jewelry Industry Has a Problem

Portions of this post first appeared on Instagram on June 12, 2020 Black Lives Matter. Black lives with degrees and without; trans and cis Black lives; gay and hetero Black Lives; housed and houseless Black lives; Black lives in the United States and Black lives in the rest of the world. Resist the temptation to…
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Building a Business with Artistry and Beauty – Rada from Zaver and Mor

I met Rada from Zaver and Mor near the beginning of my business. I remember following her on Instagram and loving how passionate she was about supporting the artists she represents. Her love of the craft of jewelry-making and the people behind the craft came through every post and I knew that I wanted to…
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How I’m Pivoting My Business During a Pandemic – an Interview on Spark

Recently, I was interviewed on the Spark show at KXSF FM all about the steps to pivot your business during this time and beyond. For me, it involved a mindset shift, and the idea that I can warmly embrace reality everyday, in order to move my business forward. You can listen to this episode as…
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Building Supportive Small Businesses – An Interview with Liz Tucker of Poppy

Six years ago I connected with someone when we bonded over the fact that she was wearing a pair of earrings made by a dear friend of mine. We were both many states away from where this mutual friend lived, and she was far removed from her former profession – owner of Poppy in Columbia,…
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Building a Resilient Small Business – An Interview with Jena Hounshell

Caster extraordinaire Small business owners are a wild bunch. We often take big risks, make leaps of faith look like routine choices and we scare ourselves regularly. I often think of how much we are allowed missteps, failures, and mistakes as business owners, all in the name of learning and advancing. This was certainly true…
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Teaching Old Tools New Tricks – Taking the rust off of your tools

We have a saying in the jewelry business – you can never have too many tools! OK, so that’s not an official saying, but it should be. When a friend recently gifted me a bunch of their old jewelers’ tools – some of them doubles of tools I already had – I didn’t think twice;…
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Top Two Tips for Fixing Your Flex Shaft

Has your flex shaft ever seemed to run too hot? Or has it started making a weird grinding noise? Wait a minute, when was even the last time that you paused to do any maintenance on it? Most flex shaft motors are made to run for years and years with minimal intervention, but they do…
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3 Ways I Was Bad at Being a Jewelry Designer – now with a bonus mistake!

I was bad at being a jewelry designer…in the beginning. Very, very bad. I had cobbled together a line of jewelry from some half-formed ideas in my head, took some photos in a small photo tent with my point-and-shoot digital camera, released them in an Etsy shop, and dusted off my hands like I had…
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