Susan,
You are to be congratulated for your attitude and professionalism
and double congratulations on th opening of your new store.
The gem business is a difficult one with may pitfalls for the unwary
(particularly in beads where anything pretty might be cut and some
sort of name put on it) but isn’t this true of any business.
However, it also offers the potential for many rewards. Knowledge
is the key or as Gary notes “the way” in the Eastern philosophical
sense, to sucess in any sort of endevor.
In 1978 I started a little shop on the harbor in Padanaram (South
Dartmouth) Massachusetts. It was small, so small in fact that the
space is currently a sucessful hotdog stand. My professional
background after college was in community organizing (the Alinsky
method). I formed a partnership with a young woman who had just
graduated from a local college with a minor in jewelry. Gold was out
of style and very expensive so we specialized in silver jewelry, what
else would you wear with a workshirt and jeans.
One day a young woman, a friend, came into the shop. She was getting
engaged and wanted us to get her a diamond and make her a wedding
ring. Well I knew nothing about diamonds but I knew somebody who
knew somebody in the trade so I got the diamond. When the dust
cleared I realized that we had made more money on that diamond than
on our work. It had been one of the first gold projects as well. So,
I began to investigate gems.
With a degree in Philosphy I had a solid academic background and
figured it would be easy enough to learn about gems, I would go to
the library, borrow some books and voila. Unfortunately I found, as
many of you may have, that all the books that I borrowed had
versions of the same stuff, lore, physical characteristics, origin,
chemical composition. What I wanted to know was about judging quality
so I could buy with some confidence but none of the books helped.
Dealers came to the shop with gems to sell but they were short on
I thought they were holding out on me and that got me
mad and you never want to get and ex-alinsky style organizer mad.
I decided that I would go to the source, find out about gems then
write a book and tell everybody. Well it took twenty years and visits
to most of the major gem producing areas in the world but then its
cold in New England in the winter and now in Secrets Of The Gem
Trade, The Connoisseurs Guide To Precious Gemstones is exactly what I
have done, told everybody.
Kindly email me your address and I will send you a copy as a gift
for your grand opening.
Richard W. Wise, G.G.
www.rwwise.com
For Information and sample chapters from my new book: