Back From Vacation and Meeting Up With Old Friends

The Ventana Wilderness

I have just returned from our annual vacation to California, hence the long delay in writing articles for my blog.  We were celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary and it was a very nice trip. The weather was absolutely wonderful (from our point of view---from California's point of view it was terrible as they are experiencing a severe drought), we got out and about quite a bit, visited Napa, saw lots of wildlife and ate a lot of (mostly) good food.  One of the best things that happened though was that we ran into an old friend.  About five years ago I wrote this blog: http://spirerjewelers.blogspot.com/2009/09/custom-work-iv-and-why-im-in-this.html 
about a prior trip to Big Sur that we had made (actually to celebrate our 20th anniversary).  In it I talk about the great time we had with Chef Philippe Breneman and the ring that I made up for him.  By the time we had returned to California after I made Philippe's ring he had moved on from the hotel group that he had been working for and we were unable to locate him anywhere.  We made inquiries at Ventana (the inn we stay at) but responses were vague and no one that we spoke to was able to tell us where he had gone to, much to our dismay.

But as it happens, on this trip, I had a discussion with the general manager of Ventana and Philippe's name came up.  As it turns out he had recently opened, with two other partners, a new restaurant in Los Gatos, which conveniently was on our way back to the hotel we were staying at for one night in order to be closer to the airport.  When we walked in, we could see Philippe in the open kitchen and as I walked closer his eyes got wider and wider.  He held up the hand with his wedding band and looked at me and said: "Is that Daniel?".  We had an extremely pleasant reunion and were once again served with a simply phenomenal meal.  We told him to just give us whatever he wanted to and he personally brought each dish out to us, explained what was in it and treated us as if we were royalty despite not having seen him in five years.  What a simply wonderful experience!  Not only was the food even better than our first experience with him (I truly think he is one of the best chefs in the country right now) but he was as wonderful as we remembered him to be.  It was a fantastic finish to our trip.  If we had a choice, and he were closer to where we were staying, I'm sure we would have eaten there every night!  The name of his restaurant is The Lexington House and you can find their website here. I know many of my readers are local to this area but if you should be going to California in the future and you are anywhere near Los Gatos you should absolutely look them up.  His partners, incidentally, are both mixologists and they have quite the drink scene going on as well.

He gave me his band to bring home, clean up, and redo the sandblasting on it so when I have done that I'm going to get Kady to take a new and better picture of it which I will post here shortly.  Kady is off getting married this weekend (the nerve!) so I can't get her to take a picture yet but when she's back I'll get it posted. 

This is one of the best things about my business.  The connections made, because of the emotional content of what I sell, can be so strong that they can survive even long gaps in contact.  You may not remember where you got your last iPad or television set, but you always remember where you got your wedding band.  And when it is worn by someone who believes in doing business the same way as I do it's even more special!

The picture above, by the way, is one I took when I had walked about a mile and a half up the mountain road behind the inn.  If I had turned 45 degrees you would have seen the Pacific Ocean as well. 

More New Things in for the Holidays

Here are some pictures of some beads I recently got in. The light blue are natural color (unheated) aquamarine crystals:
 

Natural color aquamarine crystal beads

These darker blue beads are tumbled tanzanite.  I haven't actually ever seen anything quite like this before in tanzanite:

Tumbled Tanzanite Beads

The pendant below is a new one I just made up with all natural color unheated orange sapphires:

18k Yellow Gold and Orange Sapphire pendant

That's it for today.  Just wanted to show you some of the new goodies. 

On Charging a Fair Price for a Product

18k gold loop de loop bracelet with orange sapphires

I read an interesting article in the paper the other day about how some of the mainstream, larger retail outlets have started teaching their employees how to bargain with their customers.  In other words they were giving them permission to have an ongoing sale all the time basically for anyone who asks for it.  Unfortunately this type of practice leads to a plethora of ethical issues.  First of all it means that everything is basically on sale all the time.  But if something is on sale all the time, then there is no "real" price anymore.  The sale price becomes the real price and it would require further deductions for anything to be considered on sale.  Secondly it's unfair to customers who don't know to ask or are too timid to ask for a discount.  They end up paying more than anyone else is for exactly the same item.  These people also end up supporting the sales prices for the other customers because without some of the people paying full price, the stores couldn't afford to give the discounts they are to the ones who ask for it. Third, and most importantly, it means that most stores will raise their prices to cover the discounts they are being asked for. This is both unethical and again punishes those who can't, or won't, ask for the discount.

My question goes back to one I brought up recently (in this article about the airline industry).  Why is it that we have such a big problem with charging a fair price for a product and sticking with it?  Admittedly a lot of this issue falls on the heads of the retailers out there because they encourage this kind of behavior and we seem to fall for the hype and the idea that we are getting some kind of a "deal".  Unfortunately usually we aren't getting a deal, for a variety of reasons.  Often the retailers simply mark their items up more knowing that they are going to be negotiated down, so it's not really a deal. 

Or sometimes stubbornness on our part may also lead one to think they're getting a deal. I have a very good friend who hates to pay full price for anything (despite the fact that he can afford pretty much anything he wants---in part it might come from when he was a lot poorer).  He told me a story once of spending three hours driving around town to get a better deal on a set of tires.  I think on that search he managed to ultimately save himself a hundred or a hundred and fifty dollars.  Sounds pretty good on a $600 purchase.  But let's say he paid the full price at the first place.  He'd have three hours to do something far more productive with, whether that would be more time at work (where he would get paid), or with his family, or just going to see a movie and relaxing a bit.  Now I know we don't think along exactly the same lines (my idea of a vacation is to go somewhere for awhile and do nothing---his is to go do everything possible in the area he's vacationing in) but in three hours I could have: 1) made up a beautiful new piece of jewelry worth way more than $150 2) caught up on my sleep so that I could actually see straight most of the time, 3) spent some time with my wife doing something we like to do together, or 4) gone out to get some needed exercise thereby increasing my life span a bit.  All of these things are worth far more than the money I would have saved if I had pursued the same exercise in tire purchasing. 

So in my store I believe in putting my pieces out at a fair price for the value you get.  I have an advantage over many retailers in that you can't get my work anywhere else but that doesn't mean that I sell my goods for more than they are worth.  I price it in a way that lets the customer get something of value with stringent warranties, that is creative, made locally, often with recycled materials, allows me to make a modest living, and allows the customer to have something that very few other people have. People know what to expect when they come in my shop and that's exactly the way I like it.

The bracelet at the top is a piece I just put out. It's one of my loop de loop chains but I have added some of the orange sapphires I got from my new German connection that I also got the jellyfish earring carvings from.

Jellyfish Earrings

22k and 18k gold moonstone "Jellyfish Earrings"

I am now open every day until Christmas so if you want to stop by anytime please do.  My hours are Monday-Friday 11-6, Saturday 11-5 and Sunday 12-5.

The earrings pictured above just went out in the cases yesterday.  In this blog article I talked about my new source from Germany for the drusy moon faces and a few other goodies. Well this pair of bluish gray carved moonstones are some of the other goodies I got from them.  I had altogether different plans for them to begin with but they kept evolving as I spent time with them and this is what I came up with.  I think they're really pretty fun!

18k yellow gold "S" link chain

The chain pictured here is a custom job I just finished up for one of my best customers.  In fact I had made a chain similar to this years ago and you can see it near the end of the YouTube video you can click on at the side of the page here.  He saw that one and decided he needed one too for his wife. 

I also just got in a strand of some beautiful natural color aquamarine crystals that are quite striking as well as a strand of tumbled tanzanite beads that I have never seen anything quite like before.  They are strung up and ready to go.  I hope to get a picture of them up here in a few days.

It's the holidays after all so I'm trying to make sure the cases are stuffed.  And now I'm off to keep working on some more new things I have rolling around in my head.  Look for new pictures later this week.


Oh and one last picture. This was my wife's Christmas present this year with a pink tourmaline and sapphire accents:

She loved it and I can make one just like it for you too!
 

And as a last minute addition here is the new moon face pendant:

I'm Churning It Out But It Keeps Selling

Working seven days a week does wonders for my production.  I made this mokume gane pendant on Friday:

22k, 18k palladium white gold, 18k pink gold and diamonds

It sold on Saturday. 

I also sold my new watermelon tourmaline bracelet on Saturday.  That one looked like this:

22k and 18k gold bracelet with watermelon tourmalines

Suzy, if you're reading this I'm sorry but it's gone to a new home. 

And I made these garnet earrings up recently and they've also left the premises.  

18k yellow and white gold earrings with garnets

However this doesn't mean all of the good stuff is gone.  I just made these up in white gold:

18k palladium white gold and diamonds

And tomorrow I'm going to have some pictures of another pair of pretty wild, new jellyfish earrings for you.  I'm sorry I have to run and make some more new stuff.  Enjoy!