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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 13, 1981)
Diamonds offer sparkling career Grassroot News, N .W .— The old cliche, “ Diamonds are a girl's best friend“ is vocationally realized by Rita Ishmael. She is gearing up to embark upon the world as a professional jeweler and diamond setter, with a resume of rings cut in to different sizes and styles. Her classroom and O -J -T is at Ray Schow School of Diamond Setting. “ I was walking in the area and went into the school to get a ring repaired. That's how I found out that this was a school. I always had jobs where I worked with my hands and as a diamond setter, I really ex- Ishmael is under the direction of the school's headmaster. Ray Schow. “ Been in the business for 33 years and had problems with fin ding qualified people and the union had restrictions on the number of people you could train. It has been my experience that many people who had jewelry training received it for recreational use. The industry needed productive people and couldn't pay a journeyman jeweler to spend his time training someone.” It was out o f this percep tion that Schow started his School of Diamond Setting five years ago. Schow tries to teach his students Rita Ishmael racaivaa coaching enough about the craft and business the art of diamond aatting. o f jewelry to enable them to find jobs in the industry. “ All it takes is a desire to learn so you can develop How did Rita feel about some basic a b ility ," says Schow, progressing through all the levels to explaining what it takes to be suc reach senior status? “ When I first cessful in the business. “ Machines started, I had so many things to can’t do it. The good thing about overcome. Sometimes I would start starting in the '80s is that the craft crying because I couldn’t do it. But and art o f diamond setting is my mother and children really already developed. Hundreds o f pushed me on and I just can’t say years ago a father taught his son and enough about the help my teacher he passed it down to his son and so gave me. I came over those humps on and so on. They were constantly and now I have patience and can perfecting diamond setting so that work fast. This is a skill where you we don’t have to experiment. And have to be able to work it with your you can learn all you need in four hands and know it in your mind. months at the school. We start with I ’ve been here since December 1st teaching the basic settings and add and have learned to handle it.” on as time goes on. We have a nice In this speciaitzeo field, Rita may flow o f training because we do be the only Afro-A m erican. “ I t ’s things as the students are able to not that the doors were closed handle them at different levels.” because it was hard for anyone to from bar inatructor aa aha laarna (Photo: Richard J. Brown) enter this field. But as far as I know, Rita is the first and the only and we need those examples,” Schow said about his star pupil. Rita has learned more than just the basic settings such as prong, swirled and hammer. She’s able to start with a metal, nickel, and shape and cut it to fit whatever type o f style she desires. Also, she’s able to engage in drawing on jewelry through a process called rending. Rita is willing and able to accept customers now and her long-term goal is to "open a shop in N.E. and have Gloria Phillips do the books.” Somehow it seems this will hap pen as we watch Rita Ishmael enter the glittering world of diamond set ting. Herndon set to address Citizens Party Fraa B icycle R ep air W orksh o p : Jack M iller o f the Bicycle Repair Collective will conduct this free workshop sponsored by the Eliot Energy House on Saturday, August 13, from 10 a.m. to noon. The Eliot Energy House is located at 3116 N. Williams Ave. Call 284-786« to reserve a space. Ron H erndon, co-chairman o f the Portland Black United Front, will give the keynote address at 7:43 p.m., Saturday evening, August 22, at the Oregon Citizens Party state convention at the Northwest Service Center, NW 18th and Everett, Por tland. The two-day event w ill also in clude a benefit fundraiser Saturday evening at 9:30 with The Boogie Band (fo rm erly Sheila A the Boogiemen). And on Sunday, August 23, Graham Lea from British Columbia’s New Democratic Party (and a former Cabinet minister during the N D P 's ad ministration in BC from 1972-73) will speak about that party’s suc cesses in Canada. Approximately 120 Citizens Party delegates representing the state's members will meet in issue caucuses and plenary sessions to hammer out the party’s 1982 platform . Backed by position papers drawn up over the past few months by party mem bers and experts from around the state, the platform will address state issues such as the timber industry, plant closures, human rights, agribusiness, the “ Sagebrush Rebellion," energy, transportation, a state bank, the state budget and tax structure, and many others. The Citizens Party, a progressive third party dedicated to instituting economic democracy in the U.S., is a growing force in Oregon as well as nationwide. From its inception last year, the party has gained national prominence with the presidential candidacy o f Barry Commoner, who polled a higher percentage of votes in Oregon than in any other state, and is becoming a real threat to both Republican "Reaganomics" and the moribund Democratic Par ty- Progressive voters disgusted with the recent defection o f some 30 Democratic Congressmen to the Republican ranks, giving victory to the president's tax package, recognize the Citizens Party as the only viable alternative to that kind o f cronyism and sell out of "representative democracy. ’ ' W o m an and C h ild ren In th e M a rtia l A rta: Benefit performance, August 21 and 22, Fighting Arts-Do Jump Theater, 3922 N. Williams. Open to the public, the performance begins at 8 p.m. CHUCK ROAST Bonalass U.S.D.A. Choice Beef Loin Rib Fresh, Center Cut Chuck Steak Boneless Be- Top Sirloin Steaks Pork Spare Ribs C o i 1C 20th b O IV IS IO N if 72nd b FLAVEL IE 16th b FR E M O N T * B U R N SID E at 21*t A N RAFAEL - H IO NE 1Z2nd Ftxeat Grows 7329 PACIFIC Oregon City 8 78 MOL ALL A Candy-1 0 6 1 SW 1« LLOVD CENTER 14410 SE D IV IS IO N J966 SE POWELL NE 74th b O K S A N M ILLS B O R O . SCO SE OAK Special Introductory O ffer From butch H a ir D e s ig n f o r M e n & W o m e n Formerly associated with Jon Peters Salon, Beverly Hills Reg. $20 H aircuts.................. $5 „ Shampoo, Condition, cut & style Reg. $850 M anicures............. $350 ■Hk Re9- $75°° Acrylic A rt Nails ..$3500 Reg. $15°° Pedicures Oflflk Reg. $20 Hair Color .......... $10°° Jeri Curl Reg. $ 6 5 . . . . . . . . . N o w $25 (With this Ad) Walk-ins welcome, but for y call 284-1897 for appointment butch 1405 NE Broadw ay • 284-1897