On Hernias, Gemstone Shopping and Carved Drusy Moon Faces

Carved drusy moon face

I'm at home today (it's a Saturday) because I just had a hernia repaired yesterday so I figured I would catch up on some of my blog writing.  But be forewarned there might be a few ows! scattered around this article.

One of my favorite things to do is to buy gemstones. By now, my regular readers should know that I love to because I have such a love for colored stones.  Plus I love to spend money and I can do this guilt free because, after all, it's for business!

I have been in the business for so long now that I have focused down to some very trusted suppliers.  This is in part because they are excellent sources for the quality of goods I believe in selling.  It's also because with all of the new gemstone treatments out there I like to know who I'm actually working with so I know that the goods I get are exactly what I am told they are.  Because of this I don't often buy from new sources but when a gem dealer does stop in, I will always take a look because you just never know what someone might have.

Invariably I start out every conversation with a new dealer telling them that I'm not buying now.  Sometimes it's because I really am not buying at the time.  But it also makes them work a little harder to sell me something! And I can often cut through the chafe a little quicker.  Instead of showing me all the junk first, they'll usually pull out the better stuff.

So this past Tuesday I had a woman come in pulling her wheeled bag and she pulled out her card and introduced herself to me.  She was a family member of a 100 year old firm operating in Idar-Oberstein in Germany. Idar-Oberstein is actually one of the oldest (if not THE oldest continuously operating) gemstone cutting capitals in the world.  It has been a center for gem cutting for hundreds of years.  When I first started out on my own making jewelry I had one primary gemstone supplier and everything they sold came from Idar-Oberstein. They liked the material from there because when they bought a 7 mm x 5 mm stone, it measured 7 mm x 5 mm not 7 ish  x 5 ish.   The quality of the material (this was mostly agates, amethysts and other less expensive materials) was also always the best of the type out there.  Also for those of you who have some of my pieces with carved spectrolite, labradorite and moonstone faces, you know that they were all carved in Germany.  The Germans, if nothing else, are always precise and, like most Europeans (and Asians too--it seems only here in America that the dominant issue is price), tend to appreciate quality over any other factors.

So I was perfectly happy to look at her goods for awhile (even if my CEO---that would be my wife who pays the bills---has been clamping down on my spending lately) even though I didn't think I would buy anything.  And then, you know how it goes from here.....she had some things I simply had to have.  They had a lot of drusy quartz, including some largish round ones with moon faces carved into them. There was one white one with black spots that was just beautiful that had to stay with me (picture is above).  They also had some very unusual carved bead like pieces and I had to have a pair of the grey moonstone ones.  And then they had a stunning parcel of smallish (3.5 mm) fancy colored sapphires that I cherry picked all of the orange and orangey-red stones from.   Some of you may be familiar with my untreated smaller orange sapphires, which tend to be muted in color somewhat.  The oranges I got from this dealer are heated stones but they are incredibly intense, fiery, true oranges.

So all in all, I had a fun time working with this dealer and got a few nice things to boot.  Now I'd like to be able to say that the drusy carved moonstone face will be out in the cases soon but the second customer to look at it (I had shown it to one person a few days ago and Kady pulled it out to show someone today) bought it.   Sometimes I do just kind of know when the piece is the right one! But now that I have this new source I'm hoping to be able to get some more similar material in the future.

Oh and by the way,  ow, ow, ow.

New Store Hours

18k yellow gold and garnet earrings

I have talked about my new summer hours a couple of times already but now I want to announce new permanent hours.  But first, a little background:

When I decided to make my Thursday evening hours by appointment only it was actually for two reasons.  The first, of course, was because it was the summer and I felt like I deserved to get out of here a little earlier to enjoy the extra daylight and warmth.  The second reason, however, was because for the three months prior to the summer no one seemed to be coming in during my late hours on Thursdays.  I felt kind of ridiculous staying here late all the time when no one seemed to come in.  After all, I was doing it for my customer's convenience, not because I like to work late (not that I don't do that a lot anyway).  So I changed my hours to make 6-8 pm on Thursdays by appointment only.  And a funny thing happened.  Suddenly people were calling up every week to make appointments for Thursday night.  I have actually only managed to close at 6 pm on a Thursday two times since I started this.  Apparently people like to make appointments to see me.  Or they just don't really want me to go home early ever.  But for whatever reason, it actually seems to be working better for me. At least this way if I have to stay late it's for a reason. 

Consequently, effective immediately, my new permanent store hours will be as follows:

Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday   11-6
Thursday evenings from 6-8 by appointment only
Saturday 11-5

The new earrings above have some nice rhodolite garnets in them. 

Retailing in America

18k and 22k gold earrings with boulder opals and green garnets

Imagine you walk into a jewelry store on a Saturday looking for a pair of earrings as a gift.  You see a nice pair you like and they are priced at $1000.  You want to spend a couple of days thinking about it so you leave and come back the following Wednesday.  There are the same earrings only they are priced at $500.  Okay so the price of gold has not dropped 50% in those five days.  Actually it's gone up a little.  Not wanting to forgo the deal you pay for them right away, but don't take them home that day because you don't want them in the house until you're ready to give them as a gift so your wife is really surprised.  You come back on Friday to pick them up.  While they are bringing out your pair from the back, you see another pair just like them (no one said they were one of a kind so you're not surprised).  And there on the price tag is $450.  You don't know what to say, but you figure that maybe it's an error so you take your earrings home and give them to your wife.  The next day (Saturday) your wife goes into the jewelry store for a slight adjustment and she sees the exact same pair of earrings and they are marked at $1000.  She's impressed by your largesse and comes home to tell you how much she's impressed.  Surprised by this you run back down to the store and sure enough they are priced at $1000 again.

Okay now imagine another scenario (as usual I'm working my way up to a point so bear with me here).  You walk into a jewelry store and you see a lovely ring you want to give to your wife.  You ask how much it is and the clerk says $1200.  You say, okay that seems fair, but you point out to the clerk that the ring doesn't have a final polish on it.  The clerk looks at you and says, yes.  A final polish is $50 extra.  Well you can't buy the ring without a final polish so you say okay.  When the clerk comes back with the now polished ring, she asks if you'd like a box for it.  You say, of course I want a box for it.  The clerk brings out three boxes and says okay, you can have this cheap paper box for an extra $25, you can have this nice cardboard box for $50 or you can have the super duper wood box for $100.  You hem and haw.  After all the $1200 ring is now at least $1275 and possibly $1350, but you go for the midrange box.  Then the clerk looks at you and asks if you'd like gift wrapping on it and comes out with another range of wraps at assorted prices.  The same thing goes for a bag to put it all in.  By the time you come out of the store the $1200 ring has become a $1450 ring.

These things sound really pretty stupid don't they?  I mean why should the same pair of earrings cost more or less on a daily basis unless gold is really wildly fluctuating?  And why should you have to pay for a bunch of extras that really should be included in the total price to begin with?  Would you shop at a jewelry store that did these kinds of things?

My wife and I are trying to plan our upcoming trip to California in January (it will be our 25th wedding anniversary trip!) and we've started looking at airfares (I see a few of you have suddenly caught on to my scenarios here).  Late last week, on the same airline, we could have paid TWICE what we could get the tickets for yesterday (Monday).  That's double the price!  Nothing changed but the day.  Nothing.  Oil prices didn't go up or down. The world was no more nor less in a crisis mode than it was last week (or ever it seems).

But of course then we had to also go down the list of "extras" as well.  Did we want extra legroom (in my book that's an absolute necessity these days)?  Did we want early boarding?  Did we want to bring luggage with us?  Bring in carry on bags?  Were we aware of the surcharges for assorted things? So even that half the price figure we were looking at wasn't quite accurate (although it was still half the price of the higher ticket with the same extras). 

Why is it Americans are so willing to put up with this nonsense?  You wouldn't tolerate it in a jewelry store.  As a matter of fact you would be fuming.  You wouldn't tolerate it in a toy store.  But for some reason, in certain businesses, we happily go along with this madness.  I can't imagine putting my customers through that.  What ever happened to establishing a fair price for the value and sticking with it?  An occasional sale is fine.  Even, in the case of airlines, lowering the fares slightly on less desirable flights (the ones at 6 am that you need to get up at 3 am to get to on time), but basically charging the same until market conditions change in general (rising costs for aviation fuel, labor, etc.).  Just imagine a world like that where you might actually be able to budget things with some idea of realistic costs.

Unfortunately Americans are so into the "deal" and have become so fixated on always finding the lowest possible cost on everything that they feed this insanity all the time.  Regrettably this works in a negative way as it forces companies to find ways to reduce all their costs to the point that jobs go overseas, our money goes overseas and suddenly everyone is wondering why their pay is shrinking and they can't even afford those "bargain" airfares.  Perhaps it's time to just stop and look at what we do to ourselves with this kind of nonsense.  And demand more accountability and more sane pricing from the companies we buy from.  Okay that's my soapbox speech for the day.

At the top are some new earrings I just made up with boulder opals and tsavorite garnets.  Kady got a really good picture of the colors in the opals and yes they look just that beautiful! And trust me. No matter what day you come in to my shop to see them, they'll be the same price. 

Extended Summer and Extended Summer Hours!

Due to global warming, I have decided to extend my summer hours as long as I can keep wearing my Hawaiian shirts in to work.   It looks like that is going to be at least through September at this point.  I'd like to add that this is one distinct benefit of global warming (actually it's probably the only benefit but that's another story) and I'm going to take full advantage of it.  So until further notice (or you seeing me wear long sleeve shirts) we will be continuing to have the following hours: Tueday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday 11-6, Saturday 11-5 and I am open by appointment only Thursday evenings from 6-8.  I'm partly doing this as the first four Thursdays I never got out of the shop before 8 anyway (because people kept making appointments) so I'm trying to get back a few of those hours.

The ring pictured (badly---I apologize, Kady's not in to take a picture, I just finished it and the customer is coming in to pick it up right away and my finger was the only one available)  is a custom job I just completed for a customer using his 3 ct. blue sapphire and some diamonds made in 18k yellow gold and 950 platinum.  I'm always happy to use a customer's stones to make up one of my signature rings!   And isn't my pinky cute!

More on Security (But This Time it's Mine)

Not too long ago I wrote a series of pieces on your security and safety.  Today I want to write about MY security and safety. 

18k Ethiopian opal earrings

Yesterday I was soundly berated for having terrible customer service by a customer calling to complain that her husband, who was coming in to get her ring cleaned, was turned away from the door because he came by before I had opened (he was 40 minutes early).  She was furious that he had traveled a distance (which he had) and she couldn't understand why I wouldn't let him in since 1) they were customers--and therefore I should have recognized him, 2) he had traveled so far to get here and 3) since I was on summer hours, which she inferred were different than my normal ones in the morning, and therefore I should have allowed him entry. A number of years ago I got a complaint on Yelp from someone who was irritated I wouldn't let her in after closing hours even though I was obviously still in the store. And more recently, a customer on Yelp also complained I had too many security signs up on my door and that they were intimidating.

So let me first discuss her actual complaints and then I'm going to explain exactly why I do what I do.  Yes these people were customers but I have thousands of customers and I have well over a thousand who routinely come in to have their rings cleaned and checked.  So unless you're in my store with some frequency you can't expect me to recognize every person who comes to my door.  Maybe when facial recognition programs get better, and I can afford one, this won't be such a problem.  I also have customers who come from all over Massachusetts, and other states (one from Chicago who never misses a cleaning) and they all are pretty much aware of my normal hours, and on the rare occasion when they show up early, they are usually fine with having a cup of coffee down the street while they wait for me to open.  As for the summer hour thing, I have a sign posted on my door with my slightly reduced hours, however they were only shortened on the closing end, not the opening end.  For thirty years, I have never opened my doors before 11 am.  This has never changed.  It is posted on my door, every cleaning reminder that goes out clearly has our hours on it, it is all over my website, and there is always that old concept of calling up to check on hours beforehand.

But all of these things are really moot.  What is important here is the REASON I won't open my doors before or after my normal hours.  Every single jewelry related security organization and insurers KNOW that most robberies occur either just before or just after your opening and closing times.  Criminals like to gain access before you open because no one else is in the store besides the employees so it makes their job easier (if you can call it a job).  Additionally jewelry is usually exposed during the set up process and not in either the cases or the safe.   They will often come in just before closing time for the same reason.  Criminals have been known to routinely dress up as delivery men specifically to get in before opening hours.  For this reason, my insurance company, does not allow me to let people in then.  It is just too dangerous.

Okay, so I hear yourselves saying, well I'm not a criminal and I know that so why shouldn't I be allowed in?  First of all, because if I don't know you well, I have no idea whether or not that is the case.  Even if you have been in my store and bought something from me it doesn't mean you are still the same type of person who bought from me originally. (Here are two cases in point: I was passed a bad check for a replacement wedding band from a customer who had gotten his first one from me. We were never able to collect on it because he had become a drug addict and was on a rapid downward spiral in his life.  And then we had a young woman once who bought and paid for one pair of earrings and stole a second pair at the same time.)  Secondly, and more importantly, I can't tell who might be behind, or off to the side of you.  As soon as I open the door for you, it is possible someone out of my sight can slip in behind you. 

And this is the real problem here.  If a criminal comes in somehow, not only is my life placed at risk (as is yours if I let you in and they come in behind you), but all of my livelihood is at risk and all of the pieces that my customers have entrusted to me are at risk as well.  How would you feel if something you had in for repair with me, or a stone of yours that I was making a new piece up with, was stolen, because a customer insisted on me breaking protocol to accommodate their needs?

Now you're probably thinking, oh this kind of stuff doesn't happen in places like Cambridge.  But it happens everywhere.  And it's far worse than most people think.  Did you know that total losses from jewelry industry thefts are higher than losses from bank robberies almost every year? While I have never, knock on wood, actually been held up in the store, we have had incidents of thefts (including one almost 30 years ago when we weren't set up yet and we allowed a customer in and he got away with an entire bag of jewelry) throughout our 30 years on the block.  We have had grab and runs, sneak thefts and even had a set of keys stolen. 

And besides all of these issues, when you come in before I open and I have to stop my set up process to help you, I can't always get set up on time, which either means I'm back to letting people into my store before I'm properly secured or I'm delaying other customers who do come by at the appropriate times. Additionally, my cleaning equipment takes time to get warmed up in the morning so routinely it isn't even ready before my opening time. 

So if you come to my store before I open, please expect to be turned away. Even if you see me in the store I cannot, and will not, let you in.  This is for your safety, and to be quite frank, more importantly to me, my safety as well.