Part 12 - A Silver Lining
Peter does not really like silver, so for you, Peter, when you are reading this, it is a platinum lining.
I try to find something positive in every experience. At the very least bad events are learning experiences. For the first few months after we opened Soulmates, I was so angry and hurt that I could not see beyond those feelings. I felt like if you can't trust your own mother-in-law, if she could do and say the horrible things she did, then nobody was worth trusting. In these journal entries I have taken snapshots of the types of things she did and said to us, but they are not comprehensive. There are volumes of terrible things about which I could have written. That is a lot of bad stuff to process.
At first we tried to run our shop the way Nancy had run her shop and things were not working. We quickly realized the major fallacy in our thinking; we had devised the proposals to make a shop successful on our own. We had good ideas and needed to trust our instincts and ideas. We needed to throw out Nancy's book on how to run a jewelry shop and start from scratch.
I enrolled in the Gemological Institute of America to get proper training and credentials. Peter began an independent study program on jewelry manufacturing. When we look back now and talk about how long Nancy was in business without even some of the most basic knowledge of gems, gemology and jewelry manufacturing we realize how lucky we were to have the opportunities we have today. We take every opportunity to learn as much as we can about the truly fascinating field of jewelry.
Peter has trained apprentice jewelers. I am knowledgeable enough to be insured to appraise jewelry and have been published in national trade magazines. We were invited to assist in teaching a jewelry class at a local high school and were able to share our knowledge for over 2 school years with the young people. It was a rewarding experience.
On top of that, our clients are the most wonderful people. One of our clients made a beautiful granite and steel-based coffee table as a thank you gift (it is in the shop.) Another one of our clients brings in flowers every time we make a piece for her. We have been invited to more client's weddings than I can count. Our clients bring in their grown children to shop when it is time for them to be married, what an honor! We have even employed a few grown children of clients in our shop. And when we go to the Tucson Gem Show every year, we have a number of clients who simply give us cash and trust us to buy something special for them. I appreciate their trust and confidence more than I can say. I could go on and on but the bottom line is that we count many of our clients as our friends, and that is something that we never could have had at Nancy's store. I am grateful to be surrounded by such wonderful people, it is an honor and a joy to make jewelry for them.
We made our shop comfortable and welcoming, with a sitting area and another area with toys and books for visiting children. We have decorated the shop with various eccentric pieces we have gathered over the past 10 years and it is so much fun to share the stories behind them. Having your own shop is always a struggle, but we love it.
The bad things that happened in the past were not pointless nastiness, they were stepping stones. We did not let them make us bitter or unwilling to trust others. We have grown better for having those experiences. We learned to trust and educate ourselves to become truly professional jewelers, which is a never-ending process. When I look back, I cannot regret the horrible experiences because they are a part of bringing us to where we are today. That is the silver lining.