They say never burn a bridge you may need to cross later. Sandy Jones took that advice to heart when she left her first Atlanta job 35 years ago. Knowing only that she didn’t want to sit at a desk, she’d only been at her first job a year when life took her in another direction. Although she’s traveled many miles since then, evolving her design talent and jewelry career, life has a funny way of dropping you right back where you started, and Sandy couldn’t be happier.
Sandy Jones
As a newlywed in the early 1980s, Sandy’s mother-in-law, manager of the Jewelry Department, recommended her for a position registering brides at Charles Willis, Inc., a fine jewelry and gift store in Atlanta. Typical desk jobs didn’t interest Sandy, but this non-traditional job intrigued her. Her immediate past experience as a bride added youthful energy to this Atlanta landmark. While working at the store she met the pearl designer/stringer who took the time to teach her how to string pearls. Sandy practiced at home and started dabbling with designing jewelry.
When an unexpected health issue left the store without a stringer, they called on Sandy to fill the holiday gap. What she lacked in experience she made up for in perseverance. Every mistake, and there were numerous ones in the beginning, required starting over. It made her work even harder to get it right.
This new found talent prompted her to buy beads and pearls and dive deeper into jewelry design, putting her pieces in the cases at Charles Willis. At the same time she picked up stringing work from other stores, and obtained her resale license in 1984.
Over the next ten years Sandy grew her retail stringing business, working both with retailers and consumers. Often her clients would commission one-of-a-kind pieces stretching both her talent and creativity.
Sandy began her career in jewelry at Atlanta-based Charles Willis. 35 years later she has returned and has her name on the building.
Needing a break she backed off the show circuit in 2007 and rode out the Saks/Neiman business until she was told they were eliminating independent vendors. It had been a sweet gig, but she could use the rest.
Then, at the age of 60, she became a silent partner in a local Atlanta retail shop. Having experienced the ups and downs of the business, Sandy calmly maneuvered her way through a partnership that eventually dissolved in 2015, only to find her phone ringing once again in 2016.
Tanzanite necklace designed by Sandy.
This time, however, Sandy doesn’t walk into her new position as an industry rookie. Instead, she brings decades of design and retail experience with her, as well as something else – her name. The sign out front reads, “Charles Willis”, and underneath that it says “Sandy Jones Jewelry.” She sells her own designs alongside the regular merchandise and welcomes custom orders and redesigns. And the best part of all is her mother-in-law was around to see it all come to fruition on opening day last September.
It was a glorious homecoming.
