Twenty-five years ago, I wasn’t sitting in a private consultation room in Hatton Garden helping clients choose diamonds for bespoke engagement rings.
I was making jewellery in a body piercing shop in Camden.
And the shop had a slogan that probably tells you everything you need to know about the place:
“If you can pinch it, we can pierce it.”
It was called Sacred Spirit, and looking back at these old newspaper cuttings recently reminded me just how much has changed and, strangely, how much hasn’t.
From Camden to Hatton Garden
Today, I’m a bespoke diamond jeweller based in London’s Hatton Garden. I’m a member of the London Diamond Bourse, I’ve spent decades working with diamonds and precious stones, and more than 920 clients have now left me a five-star Google review.
But careers rarely start where they end.
Mine started somewhere rather different.
Sacred Spirit was a body piercing shop in Camden, and alongside the piercing side of the business, we made and sold jewellery.
It was the late 1990s and early 2000s. Camden was Camden. Body piercing was booming. Jewellery was bold, personal and often a way of saying something about yourself.
And I loved making it.
Apparently, diamonds were still a ‘girl’s best friend‘
In September 2001, I appeared in the London Jewish News for a competition with Sacred Spirit.
The headline?
“Diamonds are a girl’s best prize.”
There I am in the photograph, considerably younger, talking about diamonds and custom-made jewellery.
The article says that I could “custom-make jewellery for clients” and that we placed an emphasis on attention to detail and the individual requirements of the customer.
Sound familiar?
It also quotes me explaining the four Cs of diamonds: colour, carat, clarity and cut.
Twenty-five years later, I’m still talking about them.
The diamonds may be bigger these days and my surroundings have certainly changed, but apparently I’ve been giving people diamond advice for longer than I care to admit.
The jewellery has changed. The principle hasn’t.
There’s quite a journey between making jewellery in a Camden piercing shop and creating bespoke diamond engagement rings in Hatton Garden.
But when I look back, there’s a very obvious thread running through all of it.
Jewellery is personal.
It was personal when someone walked into Sacred Spirit wanting a particular piece made for them, and it’s personal when someone walks into my Hatton Garden studio today looking for an engagement ring they’ll wear for the rest of their life.
I’ve never been particularly interested in simply selling someone whatever happens to be sitting in a cabinet.
I want to know what you like. What you don’t like. Who the piece is for. What it needs to mean. Then we create something around you.
That was true in Camden.
It’s still true today.
25 years of learning
Of course, a lot happens over 25 years.
I’ve handled thousands of diamonds. I’ve made countless engagement rings and wedding rings. I’ve remodelled inherited jewellery, restored treasured pieces and created jewellery to mark births, anniversaries, proposals and some of the biggest moments in people’s lives.
I’ve built relationships throughout the jewellery trade and become a member of the London Diamond Bourse.
And perhaps the thing I’m proudest of is the trust clients have placed in me along the way, reflected today in more than 920 five-star Google reviews.
You don’t get 25 years into a career without changing, learning and getting better at what you do.
But I quite like knowing that the fundamentals were there right at the beginning.
Where were you 25 years ago?
Finding these newspaper cuttings has been a brilliant reminder of where it all started.
From Sacred Spirit in Camden to bespoke diamonds in Hatton Garden.
From body jewellery to engagement rings.
From “if you can pinch it, we can pierce it” to helping people find diamonds they’ll hopefully still be wearing another 25 years from now.
It’s been quite a journey.
And I’m not finished yet.
If you’re looking for something truly personal, whether it’s an engagement ring, a completely bespoke piece or jewellery you already own that deserves a new chapter, come and see me in Hatton Garden. Maybe you have a 25 year anniversary coming up!
Let’s create something together.
