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- Apr 26, 2007
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This review hits two points that I think are equally important in the arena of collecting jewelry: craftsmanship and customer service. Jodie at Aragona Designs (http://www.aragonadesigns.com/) impressed me on both counts, so I wanted to give a shout-out and tip you guys off to another great vendor out there!
Jodie works with unusual stones and high-carat gold. I originally learned about her work, oh, eight years ago, when a friend posted a link to one of her annual sales, and I fell madly in love with a heart-shaped watermelon tourmaline necklace she'd made. My gentleman friend of the time saw how much I love it and got it for me for my birthday that year ... and then when she acquired an even lovelier example, she contacted him to give him first crack at it to make me a matching ring for an anniversary. Both were well made conversation pieces and very special to me, but after the gentleman and I parted ways, I just couldn't wear them without feeling a twinge, so I shoved them in the back of a drawer for half a decade. When Pre-Loved came along, they struck me as deserving better, so I posted them hoping they'd find a home where they'd be properly appreciated.
Somewhat embarrassingly (I should have thought ahead and seen this as a possibility!), Jodie came across the listings and very courteously got in touch to ask if there were any design elements that had caused me to fall out of love with the pieces, and if there was anything she could do ... and once I explained that I still adored her work but that they just had developed too much emotional baggage, she offered to make new pieces for me instead in a kind of buyback/tradeup.
I really can't emphasize just how above-and-beyond she went in accommodating me. She shipped me not one, but two beautiful boxes of opals to pick from. She waited patiently when the post office delivered the second box the morning I was leaving for a trans-Atlantic trip, causing the poor opals to hang out at my house for almost a month before I could return, do my picky-choosy thing with the stones, and get them back to her. She corresponded with me extensively about design choices and materials. She. Was. AWESOME.
I got my two new lovely opal pendants in the mail the day before Christmas, and I'm just so touched by the amount of time and energy she invests into making sure her clientele is really, really, really happy. And I'm as in love with her work as I ever was, if not more: as a silversmith myself, I know how hard it is to set opals properly, and these are housed in beautiful smooth matte bezels, 22k with a 14k base, carefully shored up beneath with small pieces of gold to put the irregular opals to best advantage, and hung on great big bails that will make it possible for me to wear these with chains or beaded necklaces. The opals are so pretty: one has this beautiful almost ultraviolet shimmer, and the other reminds me of nothing so much as one of the magic beans from the story of Jack and the Beanstalk.
I always thought Jack was kind of a jerk for how he acted when he encountered magic and hospitality. So, this is me trying to offset that cultural myth, and return the favor she did for me, even if it's only a tiny bit, by singing her praises to the sky. Jodie, if you see this review - thank you so much. I'll think of you every time I wear them, and remember what it means to be a really great jeweler ... on both levels.
Now, to the important part - the pics!
Jodie works with unusual stones and high-carat gold. I originally learned about her work, oh, eight years ago, when a friend posted a link to one of her annual sales, and I fell madly in love with a heart-shaped watermelon tourmaline necklace she'd made. My gentleman friend of the time saw how much I love it and got it for me for my birthday that year ... and then when she acquired an even lovelier example, she contacted him to give him first crack at it to make me a matching ring for an anniversary. Both were well made conversation pieces and very special to me, but after the gentleman and I parted ways, I just couldn't wear them without feeling a twinge, so I shoved them in the back of a drawer for half a decade. When Pre-Loved came along, they struck me as deserving better, so I posted them hoping they'd find a home where they'd be properly appreciated.
Somewhat embarrassingly (I should have thought ahead and seen this as a possibility!), Jodie came across the listings and very courteously got in touch to ask if there were any design elements that had caused me to fall out of love with the pieces, and if there was anything she could do ... and once I explained that I still adored her work but that they just had developed too much emotional baggage, she offered to make new pieces for me instead in a kind of buyback/tradeup.
I really can't emphasize just how above-and-beyond she went in accommodating me. She shipped me not one, but two beautiful boxes of opals to pick from. She waited patiently when the post office delivered the second box the morning I was leaving for a trans-Atlantic trip, causing the poor opals to hang out at my house for almost a month before I could return, do my picky-choosy thing with the stones, and get them back to her. She corresponded with me extensively about design choices and materials. She. Was. AWESOME.
I got my two new lovely opal pendants in the mail the day before Christmas, and I'm just so touched by the amount of time and energy she invests into making sure her clientele is really, really, really happy. And I'm as in love with her work as I ever was, if not more: as a silversmith myself, I know how hard it is to set opals properly, and these are housed in beautiful smooth matte bezels, 22k with a 14k base, carefully shored up beneath with small pieces of gold to put the irregular opals to best advantage, and hung on great big bails that will make it possible for me to wear these with chains or beaded necklaces. The opals are so pretty: one has this beautiful almost ultraviolet shimmer, and the other reminds me of nothing so much as one of the magic beans from the story of Jack and the Beanstalk.
I always thought Jack was kind of a jerk for how he acted when he encountered magic and hospitality. So, this is me trying to offset that cultural myth, and return the favor she did for me, even if it's only a tiny bit, by singing her praises to the sky. Jodie, if you see this review - thank you so much. I'll think of you every time I wear them, and remember what it means to be a really great jeweler ... on both levels.
Now, to the important part - the pics!
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