Jewelry designer puts Point on the map

By Jim Lundstrom

Thomas Dailing has reached a point in his career where he is recognized by peers and customers alike as a master jewelry designer. But there’s no resting on laurels.

“There is no arrival,” he said. “You’re continuously chasing. No matter how high the bar rises, you keep going up. You set your level and you have to surpass that. Then you set the bar a little higher. It’s a continual bar-raising process. There is no arriving. It’s a journey, a fabulous, remarkable journey and exploration.”

Accolades have rained down on Dailing and his design team at Lee Ayers Jewelers in downtown Stevens Point, but 2008 has been an especially good year.

“There’s been a landslide of accolades in the last few years, but this year has been remarkable,” Dailing said. “As of this year, I’ve become recognized by some of the biggest designers in the country.”

The first came in January with publication of “Masters: Gemstones: Major Works by Leading Jewelers,” featuring the works of master designers in London, New York, Toronto, Chicago, San Francisco and Stevens Point.

The book was curated by Alan Revere of the Revere Design Academy of San Francisco.

“He’s a world-renowned jewelry designer and runs a world-renowned jewelry academy,” Dailing said. “He compiled a book of 40 different international designers he considers to be the 40 top designers of our time. He started with 1,500 designers and weeded it down from there. Each receives a chapter in this book.

 “In the world of jewelry design, this is a massive work. Things like this don’t come out very often at all,” Dailing said. “It’s really like a time capsule for cutting edge at this particular time in jewelry design. It puts me down in history as being one of the best.”

The second came in May in Las Vegas when a Dailing piece won the 2008 Saul Bell Design Award, sponsored by New Mexico jewelry industry supplier Rio Grande (the award is named for the late company founder).

“I had a national clientele base, but now I’m actually nationally recognized by my peers,” he said. “In the jewelry world, most people are just knocking off everybody else. I’ve designed several looks, styles of designing, that are distinctly recognizable as mine, which is a real oddity in this world. There’s just a fistful of people nationwide who can claim that.”

Dailing designs from scratch, and often collaborates with gem cutter Richard Homer.

“He is internationally known. He’s a pioneer as well,” Dailing said. “Many of my national award winning pieces, he and I have collaborated on them. He’ll come up with a new stone cut that’s never been done before, and I’ll take that stone and innovate a piece around it that will often incorporate innovative stone setting techniques. It’s just a way to get further out from the known boundaries of jewelry design.”

Dailing studied art at UW-Stevens Point from 1984 until 1986, and began his career in repairs at Lee Ayres Jewelers in 1986, a year after the store opened.

“My brother, Jim Dailing, helped open the store with Lee. He was the store’s designer and repair person. He got busy with custom work and got behind on repair, so I came on. That was within the first year or so.”

After learning repair on the job, Dailing moved into designing at Lee Ayres, a position he has held the past 19 years.

“Here we are in a small city in the middle of the United States with one of the finest jewelry designers in the country,” said Lee Ayers. “This means a lot to me and I feel fortunate to have Tom as part of our store and its services. We work well together and our customers appreciate his personal qualities in addition to his service. I am proud
of Tom and his accomplishments. He is a great designer and I am happy that he has been recognized for it.”

Dailing said the gemstone is the starting point of the design.

“I find shapes and patterns that best compliment that stone,” he said. “I try to achieve fluidity, a sense of oneness, so it doesn’t look like a ring and a stone and side stones. The whole thing blends together as one. Achieving that balance is just unbelievably challenging. If it were easy, everybody would have great designs.

“I try to keep in mind that I’m not designing for now, because now becomes old instantly. All things fall to the hands of time. If you make it so it withstands all time, that’s the ultimate of design. People 30 years from now look at it and say, ‘That looks fabulous’ instead of ‘Oh, that looks so ’60-ish’.”

To see some of his work, go to ayersjewelers.com.