FORGE Jewelry

Mar 29

In their own words

“Instead of the traditional wedding jewelry store where everything’s under cases and chandeliers, we wanted a creative atmosphere. We wanted our guests at the center of the creative experience. We went with an industrial feel. We chose cement floors, and our goldsmith is out front with all the machines going. We also brought some softness, with vines painted on our cement floors and going up our walls. It’s an atmosphere our guests regularly tell us they love.”

-Rischelle Mikkelson

Jason’s Interview with Rischelle & Shawn

Jason

Today, we get to talk to a husband and wife duo, Shawn and Rischelle, from FORGE Jewelry Works in Provo, Utah. How did you get into the industry?

Shawn

Well, for me, I'll make a long story short. Growing up, I always loved rocks. I had a rock collection when I was little and would grab rocks anytime we’d travel around Utah. Utah is a great place to collect rocks because it's such a diverse area. My dad actually taught lapidary in junior high school. We always had rocks kicking around the house, and I saw how he polished. I was studying to be an architect in school. I got burned out and realized it's way too much math for me, not enough creativity. I ended up pursuing what I was doing part-time, and that was working in the jewelry industry. I ended up taking some GIA classes and then went on to become a graduate gemologist. After twenty years in the regular jewelry sector with a suit and tie and fancy showrooms, we decided we wanted to make it more of a shop atmosphere and focus on custom jewelry.

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Jason
Rischelle, what was it that got you connected with Shawn?

Rischelle
We were high school sweethearts. Our story goes way back. One of the things I always loved about Shawn is his creativity. Very artistic. And his people skills. He has a special way of connecting with anyone from different kinds of backgrounds. It just comes really naturally for him. With my entrepreneurial spirit, I have done several companies with the intent that Shawn and I would do something together eventually. And the timing was right. I was able to bring my business experience, and he brought his industry experience. We put it together and built FORGE. One of the big things that's important to me is giving back and celebrating love.

Jason
What do you both love about jewelry?

Shawn
Okay, I will field this one. The thing I love about jewelry and working in this industry is it's rare that you come to work and face someone that hates life. It's opposite. They’re there because they're in love. They want to celebrate a great event. They just hit a milestone. I love to be a part of life celebrations with these people. It's different every day. You never know who's going to walk through your doors. We focus on bridal, and so we get to take part in a lot of weddings, that what makes me tick and makes me want to show up at work every day.

Rischelle
I would add something similar to what Shawn said; I love the stories behind the jewelry. One of the things that I love about our concept is that we specialize in custom. My favorite thing is when couples or whoever is designing will bring a special element that tells their love story or is significant to them. When they go through that whole design process, and three weeks later, they come in to pick it up, we have heard squeals and screams and seen tears of joy and happiness. It is absolutely rewarding.

Jason
When people are coming to the store, what's the ambiance?

Rischelle
I have the task of creating the atmosphere. We wanted a creative atmosphere because we put our guests at the center of the creative experience. We went with an industrial feel. I was a little concerned at first because we chose cement floors, and we have our goldsmith right out front with his whole loud shop and all the machines going. I was worried that it might feel cold or masculine, so we brought some softness. We have vines painted on our cement floors and going up our walls.

Jason
Tell me about your custom jewelry process.

Shawn
People nowadays start their shopping online. They do a lot of looking and discovering by going to Pinterest or just Googling images. They'll bring in their picture and say, “This is what I'm looking for.” We have designer models, just out in the open on tables where they're actually able to pick them up, try them on. Many times, they find what they're looking for, or at least they find elements of what they're looking for. After they have a chance to look on their own, we'll take them over to what we call Design Stations. We have five of them in our store, and we're able to sit down with CAD, put these elements in a ring with them sitting right by us. We ask a lot of questions. Then, we're able to help them discover exactly what they want. In about three weeks, they have a beautiful ring that’s truly one-of-a-kind.

Jason
Are you seeing any cool trends in the industry?

Shawn
There's a few things we're noticing. Number one: we are doing an even number in yellow, rose, and white gold. Another trend that we're seeing is what we refer to as a starburst ring—taking some of these rings from the 1920s and making a center stone and then little diamonds in a halo-style but fancier, more gold elements. And then we're seeing some geometric shapes as well. Some people like the hard-core edges and angles.

Jason
What makes you different?

Rischelle
We specialize in custom design by helping the guests be the center of the creative experience. Instead of us trying to pick and choose what we think our guests might like and purchasing those pieces, we take a different approach. Most of what we have are designer models meant to help them figure out what they like, how things sit on their finger, those kinds of things. The next thing that always comes up, we work hard on helping our guests get the ring they want but at non-custom prices. We don't have a lot in live inventory, but we have incredibly competitive pricing. We have found that it works with any budget.

Jason
For the community, I know you do a lot—you don't have to talk about all the charitable acts of giving, but tell us a few.

Rischelle
That was one of our three pillars for starting FORGE. We wanted to be able to give back to our community in a significant way. We go to some of the local schools, teach them about entrepreneurship or the jewelry industry. We make a lot of donations to silent auctions. The one we are most significantly involved with is the Unique Foundation.We're excited to be a part of what they do. The Unique Foundation works to offer healing and hope to women who were sexually abused in their childhood. We have the honor of making a pendant for each of the survivors. We donate a significant amount of money to them so they can provide retreats for more and more women.

Jason
This is your chance to say whatever you like. What do you want us to know?

Shawn
I would say that dreams are tough to follow. But we've had this dream for a long time, and it's taken a lot of effort. A lot of tears, blood, and sweat, but it has absolutely been worth it. We're so grateful for the opportunity and how much our community has supported this concept. It's going to be great to see how far we can take this.

Rischelle
We can't do it without our amazing guests. We love them, and we love being a part of their life, building and forging those friendships. Our name FORGE, has so many levels of meaning. We love being able to be a part of others’ lives and celebrations and help many forge their forever.

Shawn
Our team has really made it possible. We have some amazing people, and they bought into this concept and supported us in our vision as well.