Today we’d like to introduce you to Christine Lucas.
Christine, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
BDJI was conceived before I was a glimmer in my father’s eye. Jewelry is in my genetics. I was born a jeweler’s daughter and grew up spending time with my father in his shop in the famous Jewelers Exchange Building in Boston.
The time I spent watching my father hand-craft custom pieces as a child was precious to me. As I started to get older, I began to learn the jewelry business and helped my father and family after school and weekends in his shop. My dad was born in Andros, Greece and learned his craft skills in Athens, Greece. As an adult, I ventured out into the world myself, working as a professional singer, in business, marketing and traveling the world. After all those adventures, I still gravitate back to my roots in jewelry. Now, as an adult, the cultural and artistic history and the classical and technical skills that my father brought to his jewelry designs inform my vision for choosing the pieces in my collections. In my own travels to Greece, Turkey, France, Italy and Dominican Republic, I encountered so many creative and skilled jewelers that have never been able to feature their work in the United States. I am really excited to tell their stories and introduce their pieces, so everyone can enjoy their one-of-a-kind designs.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
My vision is to bring international jewelry collections to my customers in the United States. But building an international business has not been quite as smooth a road as I’d imagined. I’ve had to learn about customs, shipping lead times, and even cultural and language barriers. But all of this has been worth it to bring in unique, masterful pieces of jewelry and to see very excited, happy customers.
Please tell us about Boston Designer Jewelry Imports.
Boston Designer Jewelry Imports combines our family’s tradition of curated fine jewelry, specializing in international and domestic custom made, one of a kind, never seen before designer pieces with the convenience of shopping from home. I really serve two different audiences: discerning jewelry customers and my designers. The BDJI website creates opportunities for international and domestic designers who want to be discovered in the North American and global designer jewelry markets. Our international pieces are being imported from Dominican Republic, Greece and Turkey. What sets us apart from others is the real uniqueness of every piece of jewelry — whether it’s the quality of the gemstone or the design itself. I’m most proud of our rare pieces coming from other countries and typically difficult to find in the U.S. For example, in my travels, I found a mesmerizing, blue gemstone called Larimar. This rare, blue, gemstone, only found in the Dominican Republic, is also known as a healing stone. I also fell in love with a captivating, contemporary, tanzanite ring made from our Greek Designer, Yorgo. This one of a kind art piece was created with great skill and love using 14k white gold and 18k yellow gold swirl with tantalizing, tanzanite and diamond. This piece will make your heart melt with its beauty. Along with our show stopper Turkish Tulip ring. The silver, emerald, and diamonds are eye-catching in a completely unique never-seen-before ring from Turkey. One would also call it an evil eye ring. You can’t help but stare at it. What sets us apart from others is that every piece of jewelry I present has its own unique quality and extraordinary story to tell about the designer who made it. Just like my customers, the unique and extraordinary women and men who wear them.
Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
As a child, I would go to my father’s shop and while he worked, I would play with the other jeweler’s children in the Boston Jewelers Exchange Building. After playing, I would sit beside my father’s bench and watch him create masterful jewelry, talk about the customer he was creating the piece for and the story behind his art. Once, he finished his work, I would often travel with him to deliver the exquisite pieces to the customer home’s or jewelry stores that employed his talents such as Dorfman Jewelers, Shreve, Crump & Low and DePrisco Jewelers. I would have enjoyable, in-depth conversations with the store owners about fine jewelry and the designers.
Pricing:
- Our gemstone, Lorimar collection runs from $85 for a pair of Nina sea blue earrings to $400 for a four-stone-other worldly beautiful Larimar necklace to a high end $8000 for our custom, one of a kind, art pieces.
Contact Info:
- Address: Marblehead, MA
- Website: www.bostondesignerjewelryimports.com
- Phone: 617-817-5461
- Email: info@bostondesignerjewelryimports.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BostonDesignerJewelryImports/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bdjichristine/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/bdjichristine
- Yelp: https://www.pinterest.com/bostondesignerjewelryimports/pins/
Image Credit:
Kim Furnald Photography
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