MY LIFE©  -  CHAPTER 44 (part 1)  - JEWELLERY DESIGNER ? HA HA HA

 

In 2004 I closed the last of my clothing shops, TEO and SWEATERS. Both were in La Linea and I was already seeing a decline in sales generally. By then I had clocked up nearly 44 years in the “rag trade”, having started in the family business as soon as I finished my GCEs. I was tired of clothing and the last trade show I attended, in Madrid, convinced me I was over the hill to choose modern fashion trends.
In fact, confession time!
I took my (2^nd) wife with me to that show who loved fashion clothes. I was looking through the samples I was being shown, by a very young chap full of energy and enthusiasm:
“And this is the latest in jeans for the coming season ….FLARED & BELL BOTTOM JEANS!”
I looked at him, perhaps with something of a jaundiced eye and replied:
“I was selling these in the 1960s, in the 1970, in the 1980s even ….nothing new in it, my friend”
He was crestfallen, probably hadn’t even been born then.
That was when Wife No:2 looked at me very seriously and said:
“David, do you realise you could be the father …or even the grandfather… of these young models and sales guys?”
With a comment like that, is it any wonder I decided to retire? …and in case you are thinking it, No! That remark had nothing to do with the divorce that came but a few months after that. ….
So, in 2005 I decided I would open a silver jewellery shop in Gib, Beau Jangles Jewellery,

converting the long entrance corridor at 123 Main Street into an arcade, with two rooms at the back refurbished into the jewellery shop itself. I remember my son Asher telling me:
“Dad, you know nothing about silver jewellery!” He was right too.
My reply?
“Great, that means I cannot go any lower so I can only go up from here!”
Of course he was right and in the first 6 months I made several costly mistakes, but I recovered and became much energised with this new venture.

At about that time, an acquaintance of mine came to see me with a …. pebble.
“David, picha, tu me puede hacer un colgante pa’ mi mujer con esto?”
(David, mate, can you make a pendant for my wife with this?)
I looked at it, and at him: “What is so special about this? It’s just a pebble”
“No, not just a pebble. We went on holiday to Greece, me and my wife, and I chipped this off from the stone steps in the Acropolis … so I want to give it to her as a souvenir of the holiday …. She came back pregnant we had such a good time”
Too much info!
In fact …. I was rather shocked at what he had done …. but then business kicked in.
“OK … yes, I can design a pendant from it … hhmm it is a corner piece so I can turn it peak up to look like a pyramid shape … yes, yes, ok”
Other than basic Art while in the Grammar School, with the gentle and harassed Mr Hermida, I had never taken any lessons in any for of art or design in my life.
What did I know about designing jewellery?
Sweet Fanny Adams!... as the saying goes…. but it would be fun to try.
I do not have a photo of the finished piece, but here is the first sketch, showing how I drew a casing of gold rods to hold the … pebble… along the edges and it would hang as a pyramid. He loved it. His wife loved it ….and that started me off in the direction of designing pieces to sell in Beau Jangles.

A few weeks later I contacted an Israeli designer, and with all the hutzpah I could gather, I asked her to do a small range of pieces using antique Roman Glass. The charming lady, thinking I knew what I was talking about, agreed and in fact we sold all the range very well. I only have a photo of a necklace which I called Angel Wings …

and that started me on yet another adventure, the GRATITUDE COIN.
My good friend Jean from Insight Magazine brought me a video.
“David, this is just the sort of thing you’ll love”
I played it. It was all about “The Secret”  from a book by Rhonda Byrne.

 I immediately realised the concept of gratitude had a huge potential to be transposed into jewellery.
I sat down and designed The Gratitude Coin,

which has been the runaway best seller of all my designs. Working with a workshop in Israel, run by a fabulous couple, Malik and Michal, specialising in Roman Glass, we came up with the first Gratitude Coin, a sterling silver coin pendant with a 2000 year old centre of Roman Glass.
Alison Prior modelled it for us, I loved her peaceful expression which went so well with the whole idea of the design.

Success was immediate ….and I have an anecdote which I will share with you now.
In the first month we had the Gratitude Coin on sale, a very tall, very thin guy walked into the shop.
“I wanna see the Gratitude Coin!” he stated, brusquely, in a marked America accent.
“Certainly sir ….. here you are … each is unique since each piece of glass is different from the next …”
“I am an alcoholic!” he interrupted me, forcefully.
(I was uncertain if to congratulate him are say ‘sorry’!)
“…and this is what they teach us in AA … to be grateful for what we have and gather strength from such gratitude”
So the man buys it and leaves. Another satisfied client, I thought, happily.
Two or three weeks later I get a call on the phone.
“Is that Beau Jangles?”
“Yes….”
“I wanna speak to the designer”
Hhmm … me? Wow, yes, OK ….
“Yes, this is David speaking. What can I do for you?”
“I’m Richard….”
“Richard????” I could not think of a Richard, or which Richard, at that moment.
“Richard the alcoholic!”
“Aahhhh yes, yes, that Richard! How are you? Everything OK?”
“Yup, thanks …. You remember the Gratitude Coin you sold me?”
“Indeed I do” I could not forget, could I?
“Well, every morning, as soon as I have breakfast I hold the Gratitude Coin in my hand on my way to work. I keep it in my hand nearly all the time and it reminds me to always be grateful for all I have.”
“Thank you for sharing that with me.” I was rather pleased about that.
“Well, my AA group is so impressed at the change in me since buying it, they want one each. Can you send me 8 more?”
You know, when you do a painting or write a poem or … design something … and an outsider tells you how much he appreciates the concept, the thought, the effort you put into it …and at such a beneficial level to others, that touched my heart, I can tell you.
I know that some others in the trade smirked when they heard I was a jewellery designer. But if someone designs a piece of jewellery (in fact many designs) and they sell …. what else is he?
(to be continued)