By Design Gems

May 4

In their own words

“There are many different facets (no pun intended) to jewelry and gemology that, unless you’ve studied it, and it takes years to understand. Part of it is educating the customer, teaching them what the stones are. For example, tanzanite is a beautiful stone, but it’s soft, so if you put it into a ring or something that’s going to get a lot of dings, it’s going to wear over time. We’ve had customers bring in a stone they bought somewhere else, and it looks like a rough stone—there’s no facets left on it. We’ll take the stone out [of the setting], and recut the facets on the top of it to reuse the stone. We can refurbish old stones. That’s a dying art—many American jewelry stores aren’t doing faceting anymore—but we want to make an old tradition more abundant.”

-Matt Flynn

Jason’s Interview with Matt

Jason

We're back on Meet the Jewelers and today we're talking to Matt Flynn from By Design Gems. Matt, how did you get into the industry?

Matt

Originally, I started in glassblowing for many years, gaining experience and building that business, as well as an artistic outlet. After a certain point in time, I finally convinced my Mom, we went ahead, and as a project to actually spend more time together, have something we're building as a family. We went ahead and started this, and even my sister participates from time to time when she has the opportunity.

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Jason
And your mom before this, did she have any jewelry experience?

Matt
Nope. Everyone's first generation, no previous experience, but I've worked with a lot of amazing mentors throughout the years. It's been quite an experience and a transition too.

Jason
It looks like you started your career in gem cutting and you also picked up CAD/CAM and design work. Tell us about that journey.

Matt
Originally when we started, I met my mentor for faceting at the gem shows. After that, we realized, after having the opportunity to buy the building we're currently in, that it was really hard just to sell gemstones to the public. I went to the Revere Academy and studied with Alan Revere. He had an academy out in California for quite a while. I was in San Francisco when I trained. A beautiful place. Unfortunately, they don't have the academy going anymore, but, I got to experience studying under a lot of amazing teachers there. That kind of solidified our direction as a jewelry store: give people the opportunity to wear their jewelry, rather than just buy a gemstone to look at. 3D printing was the next evolution of CAD/CAM. That was something we studied in Detroit. EnvisionTEC is the producer of our 3D printer machine. It's amazing how much detail they can get into it. I learned casting at the Revere Academy while I was out there and we had a complete shop. We can cut your gemstone, we can design the jewelry.

Jason
Are there any brands that you carry, or is everything you do custom design?

Matt
There are a few different brands we carry. A lot of the large brands, like Stuller. But overall, a lot of the stuff we have in store is designed by local artists or ourselves. One of my friends designed with my mom an entire jewelry line. It's a team effort. I can't do everything, but between all of us, we all have the ability to make a complete shop.

Jason
What's the feeling like when you enter your store?

Matt
We always have someone up front that's knowledgeable. They've had many years of experience in gemology, like my sister actually went to GIA. I think connecting and educating customers is one of the most important parts.

Jason
How do you educate your customers?

Matt
From our experience. They come in and we explain to them the gemstones. If they're looking for specific colors—a lot of people, for instance, don't know that garnets come in a multitude of colors and we have just about all the different colors here. There's so many different facets to, no pun intended, jewelry and gemology. It's helpful to have somebody to talk to. Educating the customer, teaching them what the stones are, if they're hard or soft. For example, if you have Tanzanite—it's a very nice, beautiful stone, but it's very soft. So if you put it into a ring or something that's going to get a lot of dings, it's going to wear over time. We've had customers that didn't buy the stone from us, then they bring it in and it literally looks like a rough stone. There's no facets left on it. It's just been beat up over time. We'll have to take the stone out, re-cut the facets on top of it to actually re-use the stone. We can take your old stones that have seen a lot of wear and tear and refurbish them.

Jason
Tell us about how you give back to the community?

Matt
We've done a lot of different things, like on Old Colorado Avenue they have different events like Mad Hatter Day. We actually dress up in costumes. I'm the Mad Hatter. My mom dresses up as the Red Queen. My friend down here was Alice this year. We've given to the schools, donated a lot of money to the community, help out with art and all these other communities that are trying to support individuals that need it the most.

Jason
Are there any pieces in the store right now that you think are really exciting?

Matt
We have a tsavorite garnet. It's definitely the largest and prettiest I've seen. It's from an old estate piece, valued at $38,000. All of our stones are rated by our master GIA appraisers. My sister's a GIA appraiser. I have my friend, a master appraiser, appraise all our stones, so we can make sure that we're on key on market all the time.

Jason
How many carats is that garnet?

Matt
That one is 5.11 carats and it's a pair. It's actually an old-school fabricated ring in 18 karat white and yellow gold, hand-made, something that you don't see nowadays.

Jason
Tell us, the people in Colorado Springs and the adjacent cities, why they should be stopping by.

Matt
Honesty's the most important thing. Giving equal attention and quality to any job, big or small. Even one of our first clients, that was actually referred to our store from one of our clients at a gem show, is still with us today. It's good to keep on bringing them back through proper attention, quality of work, and proper education. Because if they don't understand why you're doing something, then it's not nearly as meaningful.

Jason
How are you dealing with the shift in marketing? How's that affected your store?

Matt
We didn't have too traditional a mindset when we originally started. We were on social media early on to start building awareness. You’ll see in our posts, we'll have educational parts where it actually explains in-depth a lot of things that a lot of people don't know about gemstones.