'Jeweler Cam' gives Wisconsin jeweler a global consumer base
Appleton,
Wis.—If you do a Google search for the term "jewelry repair,"
Expert
Jewelry Repair & Design, based in Appleton, Wis., will pop up as
one of the top 10 search results.
And if you go to the shop's Web site and click on "Jeweler Cam," you're
likely to see—live on the computer screen— one of the
store's
master bench jewelers creating a custom piece or restoring a family
heirloom.
"We
get a lot of comments about how people enjoy watching the jeweler
work," says Randy Kester, Expert Jewelry's s owner. "In our next
version, a visitor to the site will be able to control the camera, to
zoom and pan. If the jeweler happens to be working on a piece of yours,
you can call him on the phone and discuss it as you watch."
The
shop was opened about four years ago by master goldsmith Gary Stein,
who decided to start a retail shop where customers could go in and talk
directly with the goldsmith.
"I got to know Gary as a
customer of his; then I broke my leg in an accident and was laid
up—I'd
been framing houses for 30 years and was feeling kind of burnt out
anyway—so I taught Gary to use the computer and he taught me the
jewelry business," Kester says. "I ended up buying the store from Gary,
who still works with us."
Expert employs two master
bench jewelers, who specialize in the manufacture of 24-karat gold
jewelry, which Kester says is especially popular in Appleton's Asian
community.
"Most locals are used to 14-karat jewelry,
and when they see 24-karat, they sometimes don't think it's real
because it's so yellow," he explains. "It's also softer, and doesn't
wear as well, and it's about twice as expensive as 14-karat. But our
Asian
customers give us good advice on what to make."
The
local customers range from businesses to parents who want a custom
class ring for their children to grandmothers who want to craft family
heirlooms to pass down.
Because of its presence on
the Web, Expert gets orders and requests from all over the world. A
German businessman caught sight of some earrings that Expert had
produced for a local café, and ordered several pairs for the
wives of
his clients. A California woman sent a picture of a single earring,
hoping (and discovering) that Expert could duplicate its lost mate so
that her husband wouldn't know the difference.
One of Expert's bench jewelers even gets the occasional
marriage proposal via e-mail.
The physical store is less than 1,200 square feet, and
features custom-made showcases built from recycled Balinese teak wood.
"It's a low-pressure atmosphere, where you can watch the
bench jewelers at work and learn about lost-wax casting,"
Kester says. "We have a whole wall that displays custom pieces, and
it's our goal to show nothing but our own work in our showcases."
Aside
from the Internet, Kester promotes his company by displaying some
pieces at an art gallery near Milwaukee, and by donating pieces to
charity auctions.
He also gets good word-of-mouth business from employees of Jewelers
Mutual Insurance Co. in the nearby town of Neenah—and from
Appletonians
who've found that Expert can do just about anything.
"We've
had at least three customers walk out of the store crying because our
jewelers were able to rework an heirloom piece that the customer had
thought was destroyed and unwearable," says Kester. "We involve the
customer in the design of custom pieces, so they can say, 'Look what I
helped create.'"
