The Bench Jeweler, the Jeweler from Odesa, and Why Your Ring Might Fit Differently in January

Volume 10 – Fall 2024

Jerry’s jewelry career started in 1981 in part-time sales. Within a year, he was managing a store and befriending a jeweler from Odesa, Ukraine, teaching each other English and the bench trade, respectively. This issue features his story, and it’s a good one: the lesson he took from it wasn’t mastery, but the wisdom to recognize the limits of his own expertise. That philosophy has guided his work at Simms since 1992.

Beyond Jerry’s story, this issue covers two November birthstones with deep historical roots (topaz, which ancient Greeks believed could make its wearer invisible, and citrine, the so-called Merchant’s Stone), a practical cold-weather ring tip that explains exactly why your rings feel looser in winter, and an introduction to Andreoli, a four-generation Italian jewelry house whose intricate latticework designs just arrived in our cases.

Read the Fall 2024 Illuminations and learn what to do before your rings start sliding off this winter →