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Jeanette Blacy, a third-generation jeweler and licensed gemologist, is celebrating 20 years of doing enterprise in Outdated City.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

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

Blacy bought 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. Sooner or later, everyone was sick with the flu and I bought recruited to work the counter. I’ve been within the biz ever since; I suppose you would say it’s in my DNA.”

Rising up in Los Gatos, Blacy and her twin sister Janet had family members in Placerville who they liked 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 We’d make jewellery and promote it to the hippie jeweler in Outdated City.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 purchasers. “Earlier than we start the design course of, I ask them to deliver the piece they put on probably the most, so I can determine the right way to make one thing that can work along with what they have already got. It’s vital to think about dimension 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 recognition due to all the eye paid to the royals of late. “Pearls are basic; everybody ought to have a strand of pearls. It’s a fundamental.”

She notes that rose gold may be very sturdy, however yellow gold is on pattern, particularly in present bridal. Additionally, she says, “Oval diamonds are highly regarded.”

Blacy spends a great deal of her time appraising particular person items in addition to collections, making solutions on the right way to add worth by changing or updating items, or by including one thing new.

“How issues go collectively is essential,” she says. “It has to stream and match somebody’s life-style. There isn’t a sense in having jewellery that you just don’t put on. I attempt to get into their thoughts and mind and determine what they need and wish.”

Blacy is herself a giant fan of Christopher Designs, and actually wears a patented L’Amour Crisscut diamond. “All his cuts are actually spectacular,” she says.

Blacy’s Vault is positioned at 51 College Ave. Appointments most well-liked to 408-354-9500.