Doing an overlay and inlay silver bracelet of a peacock back about 1975ish there were 160 holes but also 160 stones cut to fit in each hole plus a bit of gold and it took several months but it was sold for $5000.
While I was working on it with the silver part about 80% done along comes this guy and tells me he has this gadget that could cut out the whole thing stones and all in a few minutes and how many hundred would I like.
Now I had not met the man before but I had seen his work that looked like an Inca wall but made of turquoise as a bracelet. To see one was jaw dropping, but to see several together, all with exactly the same “random” pattern the effect was quite different, and you could never “un-see” it, and his suggestion fell on my ears with a similar effect of someone telling me how much money I cold make selling my daughter to a brothel so I declined his offer.
In later years as part of the Ceramic League I watched the universe change as fine artistic hand made porcelain could not get $30 while literally across the highway similar sized mass produced very inferior Talc clay pots were selling well for $300 at Pottery Barn and where the piece individually made by a craftsman multiplied the value many times, now it was seen as inferior.
Things are less extreme now in either direction in part because the distinction is muddier. Where before I was fighting the accusation that lost wax casting was not “truly hand made” now the computerized tools we use does not make our work equivalent to Barbie Doll levels of mass production.
Aside from that rant, my original point was to haul out a jewiers saw just in those areas where the laser failed as the repair could be nearly invisible 
