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In a land of good ol’ boys, Valerie Naifeh carves her own niche and comes out on top.

By Cara Woudenberg • Online Editor

Valerie Naifeh has lived her entire jewelry design career — and life — in Oklahoma.

Born and raised in Tulsa, where she began as a jeweler’s apprentice, she now resides in Oklahoma City, where her retail store is based. While many designers gravitate to the coasts to seek their fortune, Naifeh’s home-field advantage has given her business a boost.

“There is kind of a good ol’ boy network in Oklahoma,” she says. “But I’ve found that women and men [here] are excited to see a woman succeed. They’ve seen me grow. . . . They’ve watched me and cheered me on. I think they’re proud of me.”

A 23K yellow gold necklace with a 22K pendant with tourmaline, garnet, and diamond from Valerie Naifeh . Photo by Todd Murray.

The success of her business proves that she has tremendous local support, as does the outpouring of votes she received in Colored Stone’s 2006 Reader’s Choice Award competition, in which she took first place.

“You’re absolutely in ‘ahh’ when you walk into Valerie’s store,” says Reader’s Choice voter Felicia Smith. “The layout of the store shows the unique style of Valerie. Her eye for quality and distinction to be different from all the rest is what impresses me. She puts herself into every piece she makes.”

“This gal is setting the jewelry fashion trend in Oklahoma and her jewelry is in high demand,” claims another voter and local customer. “I always like to see a hometown girl make good on a grand scale.”

According to Naifeh, being the hometown girl is her advantage in the local market. In larger cities on the East Coast and in California, there is a large pool of really good designers, she says. “One of the fortunate things about working in this part of the country — and Oklahoma in particular — is there are not a lot of people who do what I do.”

But her customers feel that her personal touch is what makes her special. Much of Naifeh’s business is based on custom work, and many people bring in older pieces or items that have been passed down through their families. Naifeh makes something new out of each one.

“Customers bring in something they’ve inherited, and they ask me to make something out of it,” says Naifeh. She takes the stones they have and does an extensive interview with the person, finding out about their wardrobe and interests, and then she builds on that. “I create a truly custom piece — not just pieced together. That’s how I really built my reputation.”

A pair of earrings in 22K gold with tourmaline and garnet from Valerie Naifeh. Photo by Todd Murray.

The Tulsa Beginnings

Naifeh was drawn to the arts from an early age. “My whole life I was very creative,” she recalls. “My father was a sculptor and a painter . . . and I was surrounded by a lot of artists.”

It took her a while to find the right outlet for that creativity. After switching her studies from commercial arts to fine arts to liberal arts, in the end she graduated from the University of Tulsa with a degree in English literature.

Like many other designers, her move to jewelry “wasn’t intentional. I kind of fell into it,” she says. When a Tulsa jeweler named Ann Garrett was looking for an apprentice, she interviewed Naifeh and offered her the chance to train in jewelry design and bench manufacturing. Although Naifeh didn’t have any jewelry experience, Garrett felt it would be easier to mold someone without preconceptions about jewelry design.

“She hired me on a three- to six-month trial basis,” recalls Naifeh. “She sat me down at the bench and gave me a tube of wax to make a wedding band. The minute I sat down, I knew that’s what I wanted to be doing. I am very visual, and I like working with my hands.”

At first, Naifeh thought she’d stay with jewelry design for a year and see how it went. She remained working with Garrett for seven years until 1991, when she struck out on her own, at first working for another retail store on the sales floor and contracting their shop to make her own pieces. While doing this, she formed Valerie Naifeh Design Group in 1993, and eventually, in 1997, she moved from Tulsa to Oklahoma City. A year later, she opened her own retail store, changing the company name to Valerie Naifeh Fine Jewelry, reflecting her change from wholesale to retail.

In addition to her retail business, she has wholesale accounts in California and Idaho as well as Tulsa. Her business currently employs two full-time jewelers and a new apprentice, who focuses on drawings for their backlog of custom work.

Color Crusader

A 22K gold bracelet featuring two of Naifeh’s favorite gemstones: tourmaline and garnet. Photo by Todd Murray.

“I have always loved colored gemstones,” Naifeh says. “[They are] my favorite thing to sell.” As an artist, Naifeh used a lot of color in her painting, a hobby she has given up to focus more on jewelry design. “When I did paint, my paintings were very abstract and contemporary, and I used very vibrant colors.” This love for color has carried over to her jewelry design.

In her first years as a jeweler’s apprentice, she traveled all over the world — Hong Kong, Thailand, China — on stone buying trips, where she learned the colored stone and pearl business as well as design and manufacturing. Although most of her stone buying now is done domestically at shows and from regular suppliers, her use of color has not waned.
“I am still heavier in color than diamonds,” says Naifeh. “We carry more color and are recognized for that.” Naifeh uses a lot of pink and green tourmaline in her jewelry, as well as pink and red spinel and multicolored freshwater pearls. Her newest collections feature blue moonstone in 18K white gold and 22K yellow gold with granulation.
Even though color is her “bread and butter item,” even Naifeh is surprised at how well it is currently selling. “I haven’t seen colored stone sales like this since 1986, ’87, ’88,” she says. “We’ve always sold color, but it’s just huge right now. . . . It’s amazing how much awareness there is. Hollywood really affects our business.”

As her customers become more aware of color through the media and by seeing what celebrities are wearing, they start to ask more questions about color and the stones they are purchasing.

“People generally want to know something about the stone — not a lot, not a gemological lesson. But they want to know something about the stone [they are buying]. . . . If someone is really interested, I give them articles from Colored Stone and other magazines to teach them.”

Naifeh chooses gemstones by the brilliance, tone, and intensity of the color. “I don’t mind paying more for gemstones that are well cut, or cut by ‘designer’ cutters because they stand out and sell the fastest,” she says. “People are attracted to brilliance in colored gemstones just as they are in diamonds. They also recognize if a stone has more intense color than what they have seen elsewhere. I have many clients who will say, ‘I didn’t think that I liked peridot, but I sure like that one. It is so much more green than the others I’ve seen.’ ”

With a mix of uniqueness, local influence, and personal touch, Naifeh has created a thriving business that has made an impact in the community and on the readers of Colored Stone.

“For some artists, [the jewelry business] is ego-driven,” she says. “You can’t fault it; it’s part of the artistic process. But when I work with an individual, it’s about what they want — it’s not about me.”

MORE: Click here for the runners-up to the Reader's Choice Awards.

July/August 2006 • Dubai: Color in the City of Gold • Reader's Choice Award: Hometown Girl • Gem Imports: U.S., Europe, Japan • In This Issue