Customer Stories

In June, I was invited to attend the wedding shower of Customer MJ -- one whose wedding jewelry I made earlier this year.

MJ explained to me that she wasn't interested in traditional wedding shower gifts. Instead, she wanted her friends to contribute money towards a custom design I would make for her. This was a novel idea to me, but it took on more meaning for me when I attended the shower and met her friends.

Her birthstone is topaz, so we settled on a blue topaz and white pearl design. She wanted a short, double-strand necklace with matching earrings. At the shower, I brought the stones I'd be using, plus a few different design ideas, and some clasps for her to look over.

She made her selections, her friends got a peek at the gift they were buying for her, and I had what I needed to make this very special gift.

Of the various repairs I did last month, one of the more unusual pieces was a woven necklace adorned with carved mother-of-pearl leaves in graduated sizes. The clasp needed to be reattached, but in this case, with a needle and thread rather than the usual metal components. Click on the closeup for a look. The customer explained to me that the necklace was her mother's, and although she doesn't know where her mother bought it, she says it's the only necklace she remembers her mother wearing. Intriguing.

When Customer C brought in her broken jewelry to repair, she had a multi-strand necklace, from which 1 strand had come loose. Rather than restring it, we came up with the idea to create a bracelet and earrings to match the necklace. This made the most of the broken strand, while keeping within her budget.

I attached the earring dangles to textured jump rings that were a good match with the gold-tone bead caps in the necklace. I strung the bracelet on a very sturdy stretch cord called Elastoma. More on that in a future newsletter. Click on the photo for a close-up:

It seems as though Customer M has had me repair almost everything in her jewelry box. Here's a sampling from one of her last orders: Six bracelets and a necklace, most of which she bought on trips around the world. Click on the photo for a close-up.

When Customer M pick up some repairs I had just completed, she brought another set with her. Among the items was a small pair of earrings which she held up to show me, adding that these were her favorites. She showed me the spot on one of the earrings where a bead was missing. This, she explained, was a woolly mammoth fossil bead, and although it was tiny, she loved it. She bought them at a museum while on vacation in Alaska.

We had a good laugh as I told her I was pretty sure I didn't have any woolly mammoth fossils in my bead stash. The fossil bead is at the top of the earring; can you pick out the original from my glass bead look-alike?

(Highlight box for answer)

The earring on the left has the woolly mammoth fossil bone bead.

Three days before her wedding, Customer MJ came over because she still hadn't found the right jewelry to wear with her dress. She loved one of my necklaces, but the length was wrong for the neckline of her dress, and she wanted the earrings a bit longer too. I made her the set and since her wedding was on Valentine's Day, I added this neat clasp:


Read her comments and see her wedding photo.

Customer S gave me her grandmother's beautiful faceted blue glass necklace and told me it was too short for her to wear. She loved it, and asked if I could find a way to make it about 2 inches longer, and with earrings to match.

I borrowed the necklace and took it with me on various trips, whenever I visited antique shops, bead shows, and bead shops in other cities. Because this was a vintage necklace, I had to find just the right color blue (or clear) to match. It took more than 4 months to find the right beads and work them up into a new design to make them fit. Now Customer S has the necklace and earrings, and thinks fondly of her grandmother whenever she wears them.

Customer M told me, as I examined a necklace that needed to be restrung, that it originally belonged to her mother, but was now in her daughter's possession. Grandma Lucy, she told me, was a very special grandma who once danced with the Prince of Wales (Edward VIII) when her father was the mayor of San Diego in the 1920s. How awesome!

A customer with metal allergies came to me and I had her test two nonallergenic metals. When we found one she could wear, she brought 5 pairs of earrings for me to change the ear wires. She handed me one pair and said, "These earrings were the first gift my husband ever gave me, and I'm sorry I could never wear them. That was 28 years ago. He'll be so happy to see me wear them." It was an absolute thrill for me to swap out the ear wires and give her back this gift.

As a result of doing metal allergy research for this and other customers, I have discovered clasps made from stone, plastic buttons, and more. Metal allergies don't mean you can't wear jewelry. You just have to be a bit more creative in order to make it work for you.

One customer had difficulty putting on and taking off her jewelry. Since most of the pieces I make for her are custom-made, I always use magnetic clasps, which she loves. She can take off and put on her jewelry with ease. As a result of this, I've gathered a good collection of magnetic clasps for various sizes (and weights) of necklaces. Even if you don't have trouble undoing clasps, magnetic clasps are beautiful and functional too.

This is the story of a most unusual necklace, a triple strand of striking reds and blacks, and how this very customized order developed. A customer saw this bracelet on my website and asked if I could make a necklace like it using red and black stones:

We discussed various options for red and black stones, including coral, onyx, and jasper. When we met, Jen looked through my boxes of red and black, and fell in love with a black lava rock bead, and she wanted an asymmetric design. From that, I worked up a draft design, took photos, and sent them to her:

Once she saw my draft, the image in her mind began to take shape. Instead of a single strand, it was to be three. And she wanted more lava, plus some of her own beads from a discarded necklace. Jen wanted the beads to be placed randomly, or at least to look that way.

It turned out to be difficult to make something random! While the necklace does follow a pattern, the beads placed on each chain do not. It was both challenging and rewarding to make this necklace, modeled here by the owner. Click the photo below to view a close-up.