Afterwards I met a jeweller from Vancouver who gave me a list of local contacts, I packed up my car and moved to the coast. I spent the next several years in production work doing finishing, polishing and setting stones. There were many nights when I drove home wondering if this was the right career for me.
Soon after, I got a job with a diamond setter and thought, now this is neat. The gemstones are the icing on the cake. I was hooked. So I spent the next 10 years setting, practicing and doing as much as I could to fine tune my skills. There was quite a demand for diamond setters so I found myself a downtown office and began establishing my reputation as a jeweller and a diamond setter.
One night, a friend brought Carole to visit my studio. We all went out for drinks and he left us alone. It was a setup; we have been together for 13 years now. Carole is knowledgeable about business and encouraged me to set up a studio on Granville Island.
Granville Island is a unique place. If I had opened my studio anywhere else, I would have been just another jeweller, but here I am recognized as an artist.
Both Carole and I love pearls. We feature them prominently in both of our designs. Carole strings pearls (and has started a silver sine called The Carole Line). One of my pearl rings won a Canadian Jeweller’s Buyer’s Choice Award.
No matter what I do or where I go, I end up surrounded by jewellery. When I take a holiday, I end up checking out designs in the local jewellery store. And when I go into a drug store, I flip through fashion and bridal magazines looking for the latest trends. Other men find this strange.
“What are you doing?”, they whisper as they walk by.
I’ve been living and breathing jewellery for 34 years. For the first 15 years I wondered if I could make a living. Then when other jewellers wanted me to set their stones and my pink pearl ring won a design award, I finally thought, "I can do this!"
Platinum, Gold or White Gold?
Platinum is the most expensive of the metals used in jewellery design. Platinum is a more valued metal because of its purity of 90 to 95 percent. Most people who have metal allergies are able to wear platinum because of the small amount of alloy. Platinum has a natural rich silver colour and is very durable. The biggest advantage of platinum is that it has no memory; it can be molded, sculpted and manipulated without the worry of breaking, making platinum the best suited metal to hold diamonds and gemstones. The more complex the design of a jewellery piece, the more suited it is for platinum. The public has embraced platinum in the last few years and its popularity has steadily grown. From a jeweller’s point of view, platinum will always be the preferred metal, especially in bridal sets, but fashion and preference will always be the driving force for jewellery clients.