Nicole Curtis is my latest girl crush. As the host of HGTV’s Rehab Addict, she brings new life to homes that have seen better days. She is powerful, dedicated, and creative/innovative to no end. I don’t give a hoot about DVR unless it’s for this show. This morning, Drew and I were watching one of our recorded episodes. FYI, this is one of two shows that we watch together – she’s blonde and works on houses. He likes that.
Today it sparked a conversation about how custom work for a client, be it a homeowner or one of my jewelry clients, can be an overwhelming. Together, you work to come up with a design that 1) you’d be proud to put in your portfolio, 2)makes the client feel complete, and 3) requires a process that is as efficient as possible…i.e. NOT canning and starting over three times. I aspire to be as good as Nicole.
You want me to help you create your engagement ring? NO PROBLEM! That’s a blast. I’m actually working on creating a little portfolio to help you all see some of the rings I have put together. I’ll link that sometime soon.
For now — Let me introduce you to my most difficult project thus far…….aka the most rewarding.
A new client came to me with an idea: extravagant diamond and sapphire necklace for his lovely lady.
In a nutshell, “I want this to be something that my children, no matter what shape or size, can wear / I want this to be dramatic, but easy for her to wear wherever she’d like / I want something to drop down her spine at the nape of her neck / I want diamonds and sapphires from ear to ear / I want to invest”
HELLO?!?!
Design challenge?!?! I didn’t have anything to show him from my cases. I offered to draw with him and passed him a business card in hopes that he’d chew on the idea and come back to find me. Days later…an email!
Photos shared, ideas dissected, and drawings evolved. We came to a necklace, ring, and earrings set that contained the highest quality royal blue sapphires, diamonds perfectly matched by the eye, and a setting that will never be replicated. A pretty 6 figure dollar can get you something similar though.
It started with this:
It turned into this on my late fall beach vacation:
In order to satisfy the criteria…she needed to be able to wear this anywhere… I decided that the pendant needed to be able to be unhooked from the necklace and placed on a plain chain. This allowed her to “doll up” when she’d like…but also to enjoy just a gorgeous pendant on any other day.
It came to me from my Varna designer in a gorgeous wooden, cherry colored box.
My goal is to make my clients happy. That’s always number one. I make friendships too.
Behind the scenes? Amour-propre.
Internally Flawless 