Nathan George, General Manager of Joshua’s Fine Jewelry
Abbi has been a friend of ours for several years. Over the years, my wife got to know her by working with her on church functions. I knew she would be an excellent employee. She had the right kind of people skills, and she truly cared about others. Though she had little knowledge about jewelry, our store doesn’t necessarily require such specialization. We’d rather choose prospects based on their character and then train them. This takes a little more time and investment, but it pays great dividends with trustworthy employees who work well on our team.
My dad, the owner of Joshua’s Fine Jewelry, has granted me a considerable ownership stake in the business and my responsibilities have increased greatly. I knew that Abbi was exactly the type of person that would work well in this industry. She has a tremendous eye for design, and she’s a craftsperson. After working here for about 4 or 5 months, we started teaching her how to use CounterSketch®, and soon after, she became a pro! Abbi understood the finer points of jewelry making, and she can communicate intricate details to our customers and our jewelers. She was a perfect fit. A few months ago, we sent her to Stuller for official CounterSketch® training that enabled her to hone her skills with the program.
Since then, she has become the best designer in our store, understanding our core concept: service first, people over things. Rather than just making a sale, we aim to build relationships with our customers because we all have a share in the same community. We are genuinely concerned with helping others with what they need. We ultimately hired Abbi because she understood these core values. The jewelry training was a secondary skill that we knew we could easily teach her. Nathan out.
Abbi Duvall, Creative Designer at Joshua’s Fine Jewelry
I got my start in the jewelry industry here at Joshua’s Fine Jewelry. I had been a family friend for quite some time when Nathan approached me about leaving my job at Starbucks and joining the Joshua’s Jewelry family.
A typical day for me begins with making coffee in the morning, making sure the store is clean, keeping our window displays up-to-date, providing customer service, and working on custom designs. Of course, custom design is my favorite part of my job and has become my specialty. It sparks my creative mind and presents me with new challenges. Every design is different, and every customer creates a new experience. In fact, intricate and detailed designs are my favorite projects. I find it exciting to discover whether or not a design turns out as I intend and how the customer expects.
Recently, I decided to create a Wonder Woman ring. It’s a trending theme and I wanted the ring to show our customers our ability to create anything they desire with CounterSketch® and custom design. In all honesty, I’m more of a Marvel fan than a DC fan. The only DC movies I’ve seen are the Dark Knight series, Batman vs. Superman, and now Wonder Woman. However, I was very impressed by the movie and the continual ‘Don’t tell me what I can’t do’ theme. After watching Wonder Woman, I read several articles about the characters and everything the director, Patty Jenkins, had to do to make the film. Along the way, I fell more in love with the idea of becoming my own Wonder Woman.
The Wonder Woman ring is a replica of the helmet given to her by Antiope (Robin Wright) who recognizes Diana’s (Gal Gadot) strengths and drive for success when others ignore it. The helmet becomes a symbol of strength, persistence, and sisterhood. My own design matches the helmet in the film, with more diamonds. They add flair and symbolize a modern woman who is strong under pressure, shining brightly through all circumstances! In designing this ring, creating the contours of the V on the top band was the main challenge I faced. As you can see, this is quite an intricate design with several small parts. The ring is solid which makes it heavy, durable, and pricey. At this point, the ring hasn’t made its way to a Wonder Woman’s finger but it has had several inquiries.
In addition to designing jewelry at Joshua’s, I spend my time engulfed in the Lord of the Rings universe, watching the Star Wars saga on loop, playing bass, and volunteering as a part-time youth pastor. I love my workplace and coworkers so much because of their dedication to our customers. My engagement ring is one of my very own custom designs that Joshua’s team produced right under my nose without me ever knowing. That’s some serious secret-keeping skills! I couldn’t ask for a better job.
If I could have a super power, it would be telekinesis and I would probably be a villain. Looking back on all of my favorite movies, I’ve realized that villains have more fun. Though I might land myself in prison one day, I’d have some pretty awesome stories to tell about my days as a super villain!
Abbi’s Wonder Woman ring perfectly demonstrates her customization capabilities. For more tips to drive traffic to your store, check out Selling the Story of Custom Design.
