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I’m Joel Ragan, my business is J. Bennett Ragan Custom Designs
I work through CustomMade and I make custom jewelry.
I started in jewelry when I was 13 and it was completely by accident
My father was in the United States Airforce and he was stationed in Japan,
And we happened to be at the hobby shop and the hobby shop has lots of different things for people to do
Including something called lapidary.
And I looked at this sign and looked through the glass and saw all of these people were doing it and was like “What’s Lapidary?”
And my Dad, to my surprise, told me all about it.
And he actually took me in and started showing me how to cut stones.
We spent probably about 2 hours there, that day.
And about half way through it, I just looked at him and was like “How do you know how to do this?” because
You know, he was an accountant in the Airforce and
That’s when he told me the story of how he learned how to cut stones,
Which happened to be at the P.O.W Camp, and during the Vietnam war.
His first labor was cutting gemstones, and the Vietnamese would take them across the boarder into Thailand
And sell them on the black market,
He told me I couldn’t tell anyone about it, no one else in my family knew.
And it is something that has stuck with me ever since, every time I cut a stone I think about my Dad.
And him teaching me that, and knowing that it was something very personal to him
It just really sunk in deep with me and I just loved it ever since.