Stuller Makes It™: Building Relationships With Custom Jewelry Design
Buchkosky Jewelers grew their custom jewelry design business, one piece at a time.
As we continue to tell the story of customization through the Stuller Makes It™ campaign, we are highlighting the amazing possibilities that come with creating long-lasting relationships with our customers through the art of custom jewelry design.
As the demand for custom jewelry continues to grow, many businesses have come to realize how essential custom jewelry design technology can be for their business’ growth. Not only does it open up another door of revenue and profit for them, but it also leads to a world of possibilities for their customers. This month’s customer feature highlights Sauli Hirsimaki, the lead CAD custom designer at Buchkosky Jewelers said it best: “Customization allows us to create jewelry that fits our customer’s personality instead of having them pick from a case full of selected styles to please an abundance of people.”
Buchkosky Jewelers has been doing traditional wax carved custom designs for decades but decided to dip their toes into the realm of CAD custom jewelry design and has found another way to boost their custom jewelry business. They’ve allowed the demand for custom jewelry to help flourish their thriving business even more while satisfying the particular tastes of any customer who walks through their door.
Thriving With Custom Jewelry Design
Helmuth W. Buchkosky founded Buchkosky Jewelers in 1939 in a shoe store in North Minneapolis, MN, where he specialized in diamonds and watch repairs. He had a counter to work at, a watch bench, and a display in the window to let onlookers know he was open for business. Today, the business is a third generational jewelry store — still proudly serving the Minneapolis and St. Paul areas.
The relationship between Stuller and Buchkosky Jewelers dates back all the way to 1993 and happily continues today. Sauli began working at the family business in 2003, after marrying into the Buchkosky family. Without any prior experience in designing custom jewelry, he was eager to dive into the world of CAD custom jewelry design because he knew that the demand for customization would grow more popular as time passed.
“I worked and continue to work closely with our in-house bench jeweler to help with my design work. He would offer valuable advice on what was needed to make a workable design.”
Sauli Hirsimaki
Lead CAD Custom Designer
Fast forward to 2013, and Sauli had helped to integrate CounterSketch®, the jewelry design program that many of us know and love, into the business’ design process. Today, they have upgraded to MatrixGold®, giving them even more creative freedom when helping their customers design the perfect custom piece in a CAD design program. Their knowledge of custom jewelry design has immensely grown into their core values of always striving to meet the customer’s needs while also finding innovative solutions to those needs.
Everyone at Buchkosky Jewelers quickly understood that creating custom jewelry designs in a CAD program is a great opportunity to form even more relationships with customers. Suppose a customer is comfortable with your creative capabilities and knows that you can create beautiful custom jewelry while always taking their personal style into account. In that case, they are more likely to return time after time. This is incredibly accurate for a particular customer of Buchkosky Jewelers who is always coming back for more unique and beautiful custom jewelry pieces.
A Taste for CAD Custom Jewelry
When asked about some of his favorite custom jewelry design projects that he got to help create with the design team, Sauli immediately thought of a particular client, who he now considers much more than a customer. This recurring customer always comes across jewelry pieces that she likes but wants to add her own spin to them. She commonly asks to change the color of the metal, add more stones, adjust the size, you name it. After expressing her concerns, needs, and wants to the design team, she always gives them complete freedom to add creative touches to the new and updated design. Since Sauli has worked with her and the design team for so long, he feels confident in his ability to create custom jewelry pieces that he knows she’ll love. Buchkosky Jewelers has designed over 30 custom pieces for her over the years, all being individually unique.
This customer’s loves large, high-quality styles that are colorful and luxurious. When I asked Sauli to share a favorite custom piece that they designed for her, he had a difficult time choosing — so he chose three!
Custom Times Three
The first custom jewelry piece he chose is a beautiful three-stone cuff bracelet. This two-toned cuff’s structure was cast in 14k white gold and accented with 18k yellow gold around the trim. All three stones are natural Blue Topaz that Buchkosky sourced. The middle Topaz is a 59 carat emerald cut accented by a 23 carat pear-shaped Topaz on either side. This particular piece took some patience from Sauli and the customer to ensure that the cuff would fit perfectly around her wrist. Sauli had Stuller send them a resin of the bracelet, which revealed that the base where it was open was not shaped correctly to her wrist. “She came in and tried on the resin sample, which immediately showed that the ‘points’ angled down away from her wrist and would require adjustments. It turned out perfectly in the final design.”
The second piece that came to Sauli’s mind was a pendant that he personally named “The Sunrise Pendant.” This necklace pendant is around two inches wide and is set with Portuguese Citrine and Stuller Diamonds®. Thanks to the warm medium, slightly red and orange color, and vivid contrast, anyone could see how this piece got its name.
Now, this third and final piece was a little special not only for the customer but also for Buchkosky Jewelers. This breathtaking infinity ring was actually created as a thank you gift from Buchkosky Jewelers themselves. They wanted to express their appreciation of her business and the long-lasting relationship they formed with her over the years. This ring was set with 23 graduated diamonds that ranged in multiple colors of a rich brown hue. The piece required a two-part assembly to account for the “over-under” design. They attached the two parts only after the stones were set in the under portion of the ring.
“When someone gives you the freedom to design something that is your own while also working along with their input to create their idea into fruition, that really is special.”
Sauli Hirsimaki
Lead CAD Custom Designer
The relationships, incredible designs, and creative capabilities that come with custom jewelry design are astounding. And with a jewelry design program or the Stuller CAD/CAM Services team in your corner, it can be easy to create the perfect piece. Let Stuller help you design, create, and manufacture any idea that you can think of and help you leave a lasting impression with your customers — just like Buchkosky Jewelers.
Check out some of our previous Stuller Makes It feature blogs to catch up on all that you might have missed the past few months.
Stuller Makes It™: Customizable
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