Your Favorite Jeweler

Aug 30

In their own words

“I always enjoyed art and hands-on craftsman projects. But once I started working with jewelry and design, I fell in love with it. We specialize in custom design. We do everything that we can in-house; we have CAD design, 3D printing, and casting, all the way to diamond-setting and the finished product.”

-Matt Hughes

Jason’s Interview with Matt

Jason

We're back on Meet the Jewelers and today I'm talking to Matt Hughes from Your Favorite Jeweler. How did you get into the industry?

Matt

I'm actually first generation. I had a friend that owns a jewelry store. He just thought I'd be a good candidate to be an apprentice jeweler. I accepted the job and the rest is history. I worked for him for about seven years. By two years in, I could be considered a basic bench repair jeweler and continued to grow and did a lot of self-teaching.

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Jason
What was the journey like to where you are now?

Matt
From there, I went straight to self-employment and decided to open my own store in another city. We specialize in custom design. We do everything we can in-house. We have everything we need to be able to do CAD design, 3D print, cast, all the way down to diamond setting and finished product.

Jason
Are there family members part of your operation now or people you’re apprenticing?

Matt
No. I have tried to apprentice, but it takes a lot of time, and being a somewhat new business, I need all the time I can get to be able to focus on the business. Also, it’s hard to find the right fit for an apprenticeship. I would definitely like to give back in that regard and have an apprentice that I could take under my wing. I'm sure that'll be later in the future.

Jason
Did you always have an artistic side to you?

Matt
I always enjoyed art. I've enjoyed hands-on craftsmen-type projects and do-it-yourself. I really didn't know a whole lot about jewelry. I knew some about gemstones. Once I started to work with jewelry, I fell in love with it and seemed to be good enough to be able to do it as a career.

Jason
Why do you think people trust you?

Matt
I think the biggest reason for that is that we're just honest. We're transparent. We price items in our case, the prices are visible. There's a trustworthiness that I think people can rely on and that tends to get us repeat customers. I try to put myself in their shoes. We should be able to do whatever they need. Going above and beyond. It could be an heirloom piece. It could be their lifetime wedding engagement ring. Sometimes they may just come in for a simple sizing. Keeping a positive attitude with them, making them want to shop with us, I think that's what customer service means to us.

Jason
How do you differentiate yourself against the other great jewelers in Tallahassee?

Matt
There's the custom design. Doing everything we can in-house will definitely differentiate us. This may not always be the case, but I try to meet and deal with every customer that comes through the door.

Jason
Are there any cool trends or jewelry designer brands that you want to talk about?

Matt
We don't do a lot with the designer brands, especially since we make jewelry in-house, but I've really been liking the trend of simplicity. Simple clean designs, it ends up being more about the stone that you're setting into the piece. I've always tended to start my design or creation of jewelry with just a stone. I think about that stone, how it feels and looks, and then create a piece around that.

Jason
What influences you as you're thinking through your designs?

Matt
I usually end up being influenced by nature. I really like designs that have a natural feel—leaves, vines, things like that. I enjoy designing anything, any type of style. I like the challenge. Whatever somebody wants, that's really what's most important. I look forward to the challenge of being able to create whatever they're designing in their head.

Jason
I'm sure you've done a lot of engagement rings, what are some top proposals?

Matt
There was somebody that ended up proposing by one of those banners that get pulled behind a plane. That was kind of unique.

Nowadays, most people are bringing her in, or they're already talking to her about the ring and the design of what she wants. A lot of times it's not a surprise anymore. It is pretty cool to hear sometimes when the guy is still keeping it a surprise.

Jason
Looking forward five, ten years, where do you think Your Favorite Jeweler will be?

Matt
Hopefully, we'll still be in business. We don't have big endeavors to grow as a giant jewelry store or anything like that. We just really want to keep the small business feel and focus on the important things, which includes family and just living life. We look forward to being able to have a little more time away from the business, and hopefully, in five-ten years, it'll be a little more stable to where we can have more time away.

Jason
Share whatever you like with Meet the Jewelers about Your Favorite Jeweler.

Matt
Any custom design that you need, if you've always wanted to create something that you just can't find anywhere else, then we'd be happy to do it. And we really care about what we create. And anything that you need locally, repair, watch repair, then we'll be happy to do that as well.