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
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