Los Gatos resident Jeanette Blacy, a third-generation jeweler and licensed gemologist, is celebrating 20 years of doing enterprise in Previous City.

Blacy’s Vault of Los Gatos, a full-service jewellery store specializing in customized jewellery styling by in-house designers and goldsmiths, will likely be holding a particular exhibiting of certainly one of their favourite designers, Christopher Designs, on Nov. 4-5, to rejoice this milestone. Appointments for this occasion are by reservation solely.

After all, you’ll be able to at all times reserve one other time to satisfy with Jeanette and her crew and see all of their branded collections, which embrace Memoire, Lika Behar, A Hyperlink, Afarin, Roman+Jules and extra.

Blacy acquired began within the jewellery enterprise 47 years in the past, courtesy of her mom.

“My mother’s household got here to California from Boliver, MO,” says Blacy, who has a gemologist diploma from the Gemological Institute of America. “Her uncle was a watchmaker throughout WWI. She helped them as a bookkeeper, after which labored for jewelers in San Diego. My mother and father moved to Los Gatos in 1960, and my mother managed a jewellery retailer in Cupertino. At some point, all people was sick with the flu and I acquired recruited to work the counter. I’ve been within the biz ever since; I suppose you could possibly say it’s in my DNA.”

Rising up in Los Gatos, Blacy and her twin sister Janet had kinfolk in Placerville who they beloved to go to.

“We’d dig within the foothills and discover beads,” says Blacy. “It was an Indian treasure trove. We’d make jewellery and promote it to the hippie jeweler in Previous City. We’d promote the items for $5 or $10 after which go to the Wine Cellar to drink coke and eat French bread. No, my mother didn’t know!”

Blacy’s aesthetic guides her in designing jewellery for shoppers. “Earlier than we start the design course of, I ask them to carry the piece they put on probably the most, so I can determine the best way to make one thing that may work along with what they have already got. It’s essential to think about measurement and elegance, and whether or not they have a tendency towards trendy or classic.”

Requested about tendencies, Blacy says pearls have positively seen a rise in reputation due to all the eye paid to the royals of late. “Pearls are traditional; everybody ought to have a strand of pearls. It’s a primary.”

She notes that rose gold could be very robust, however yellow gold is on development, particularly in present bridal. Additionally, she says, “Oval diamonds are very talked-about.”