Summer is Here and More On Why I Do What I Do

Summer has finally arrived, both technically and in reality.  We're in the middle of a short heat wave here and my faithful employee came back from a trip downtown for me complaining about how disgusting it is outside.  Fortunately we're well air conditioned here.


Because it is summer, I wanted to let people know a few things about upcoming schedules.  We will be closed the week of July 4 (June 30-July8) for a break (no trips planned this year) and for the months of July and August we will be changing our hours slightly.  During this period we will be open until 8 on Thursdays by appointment only.  Otherwise we will be closing at 6. Also we will be closing an hour earlier on Saturdays at 5. So our hours will look like this: Tue, Wed, Thur, Fri 11-6 and Sat 11-5 but open by appointment only on Thursday evenings until 8.

It's been an interesting month in a number of ways.  I saw my pearl/opal dealer again, and despite my vow not to buy anything from him, I still came away with some interesting strands of South Sea keshi pearls (pictures will follow as soon as they are strung), a beautiful pair of boulder opals and a strand of boulder opal beads (not round ones).  Unfortunately the opal beads seem to have been laid claim to by my wife so, while I will get a picture of them up at some point, this particular strand won't be available.

I also recently spent some time with a new customer working out what she wanted for an engagement ring.  This was her second marriage and her first husband had died awhile ago.  She wanted to use some older diamonds she had and I was happy to accommodate her. What was interesting about it though was the long discussion we had about how the diamonds had come to her, why she wanted to use them, how good her first marriage had been (despite the fact that much to her dismay her original engagement ring was a family piece that she didn't like---but she wore anyway because, as she said, sometimes you just have to give up some things for a relationship to work), and how excited she was about her new relationship.  During a good deal of this conversation I had another customer waiting.  When the first one had left the store, the second one said to me: "I had no idea how much like a therapist you are!".  And in some ways, truer words were never spoken.  Sure I make and sell jewelry and run a small business as best I can, but because of the product I deal in, there is a tremendous amount of emotion, sentiment, love, and memory involved, and as someone who is assisting customers with their pieces that carry these feelings, I tend to hear a lot of it.  However, not only do I not mind this, I actually really enjoy it.  I get a chance to learn about new people, and to hear stories of important events in all of their lives.  It always makes me stand in awe of what meaning is attached to my pieces as well.  And that kind of sums up why I do what I do. 

Speaking of meaning, love and emotion, the picture above was given to me recently by a couple whose engagement ring and wedding bands I custom made for them. They were made of 18k white and yellow gold and her engagement ring has a blue sapphire in it.