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As many of you know (and as my latest blog post shows), the family recently returned home from New York.  While we were there, Mark did some research on our suppliers based in the city, and we made a few visits.  We recently got a renewed interest in one of our suppliers with whom we’ve kept in contact for years, but haven’t done much business with lately.

They are in the forefront of a new movement that I hope will take hold:  The Fair Trade and Green movement.  As part of our responsibility to you, we are researching more companies like this.  They use only 100% recycled metals from earth-friendly refineries, avoiding pollution and destruction of local lands. 

They are also concerned with human rights—employing only United States workers.  If we can keep business within the country, we know that the workers are protected by labor laws and that they can work in a safe, clean environment. 

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, they use completely conflict free diamonds.  This has always been an issue close to our hearts; no jewelry is worth someone’s life. 

In truth, the jeweler industry has been doing a lot to clean up its act in recent decades.  Nearly 25 years before the label ‘conflict diamond’ ever came out, we were working on ways to ensure that war and conflict would never again have a role in our business.  There are numerous precautions and checkpoints that we practice every day in order to ensure that everything in our store comes from reputable sources.

Every diamond supplier we buy from comes to have a personal relationship with us before we consider using their stones.
 
 
 
 

Back home again from another whirlwind vacation with the family.  Its always been my philosophy to see as much as a city has to offer while you're there.  A friend told me that New York City would be a one or two day trip at most, but we spent 5 non-stop days of sight seeing.

I guess it must be said that The Big Apple would not be on the wish list for vacations most years.  My daughters and I love the theatre, and my husband loves historical sight-seeing, but to be quite honest, the prices of New York are a little too rich for our blood most years.  I keep telling people that the years we could have afforded to go, the city wasn't affordable and this year when things need a second thought before we spend money on them, the city just was affordable.  It is truly a once in a lifetime sort of experience, so we just made a way and went.  When the opportunity presents itself, sometimes the only thing you can do is sieze it.

There was still some convincing to be done.  My husband, Mark only knew the New York City of the 1970's; not exaclty a place to bring the family.  But my daughter and I had gone just 5 years ago as part of her Drama Club class trip.  NYC has done a lot of cleaning up in recent decades and now it is bustling with tourists and things to do and see.

Thanks to a heap of research about tour buses and museam passes, we found ourselves on the top of an open-air double decker bus by 10:30 the morning of our arrival in the city.  The girls loved how easy it was to take pictures and Mark loved the relaxed (and safe) feeling of just being able to ride and be narrated to.  In that first day, we got to see the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty.  Our hotel was just off of times Square and we all enjoyed getting to see the lights at night... and getting to take in all of the colorful characters of New York City.

What would any family trip be without a visit to some of our friends and suppliers in the area?  It always seems to work itself in there, and this trip was no different.  This year we went to visit some of our good friends and jewelery suppliers with offices in the area.  While there, we introduced the girls and swapped stories about small business and family vacations.  Our friend told us about how his 9-year-old recently refused an ice cream trip on the hopes of getting to stay behind and find Paris Hilton at their hotel in Miami.  I must say, it is interresting to see who the rock stars of today seem to be.  More than that, it is just nice getting to chat with our business partners on a friendly basis. 

It is nice to know that there are other people out there who value their families so much, and who realize just how blessed we are to stay in this business and still have time to get to know our kids.  In a world where Paris Hilton is cooler than ice cream to a 9-year-old, knowing my kids is sometimes hard, but always worth it.

 
 
Despite my 14 year old sister’s and my own best teenage effort, this year’s family vacation was actually an enjoyable one. We found ourselves in Nashville, Tennessee for the week. This is the music capital of the world, but did we visit any honky-tonks? No! Instead, we accompanied Mom and Dad on a buying trip to American Pearl Company. Because we were pretty sure that neither Keith Urban nor Taylor Swift had recently done a song at the pearl shop, Molly and I were less than enthused about the day’s visit.

We arrived at the front door to the American Pearl Company and were greeted by a friendly little dog. (This was a vacation day and everyone in the office could be relaxed.) Ok, so playing with the dog gave us a hopeful option as to how to spend the meeting time.

Next, the manager came to the door and welcomed the whole family into her office. As we sat down at the table, the afternoon suddenly seemed to be looking up; all around me were display boards covered with trendy pearl earrings, brightly colored pearl bracelets, and my favorite piece a pearl choker with a rainbow of colors. The staff was more than accommodating, inviting Molly and I to get up and look around and even try on our favorite pieces. Doing business with Mom and Dad was getting more interesting by the minute.

As Molly and I browsed, we overherd the sales lady giving a brief history of the company. She said that American Pearl Company was all started by one man and is still run by his daughter. Today, they are the only pearl manufacturers in America. That seems like an impressive statement, considering the vastness of the American population and commerce. She went on to say that even the expert Japanese pearl growers are buying their shell nuclei from American Pearl Company, and they’ve been relying on the US for years. That’s right, down home Tennessee is the birthplace of the majority of all cultured pearls in the world. If that’s not a cool statement on American made goods, I don’t know what is.

The pearls start as shell nucleus that is harvested right there in Tennessee, and then American Pearl keeps some of the nuclei and sells the rest to other pearl farmers, planting their own pearl seedlings. The ones who stay in Tennessee are implanted into hand picked oysters from the Tennessee and Mississippi rivers. Once filled with the nucleus, an oyster will grow in the pearl farm for three to five years, until the pearl is of a desired size and durability. After the long wait, farmers harvest the pearls and send them to the designers who in turn make beautiful pieces of jewelry.

The result of all of this down home farming and waiting is a beautiful array of colors, shapes and sizes of pearls that create classic white strands or trendy colored earrings. Who knew following Mom and Dad on a business meeting could yield such good eye candy? Dad picked out some great pieces for the store and Molly and I put in our two cents as well.

And no worries, Mom and Dad did take us to the Grand Ole Opry while in town. Molly and I got our fix for musician heartthrobs this summer, and more importantly, learned that Mom and Dad really can be a good time.

-Whittley Lewis

Daughter of Mark and Rebekah Lewis