I love to see how a designer's journey has shaped their craft and career.  One thing that often surprises me is to learn of the common beginnings that many jewelers share, and have then gone on to carve completely different career paths.  JohnMedeiros is an exceptional artist, and despite his huge success, has never taken a step back from his designs and remains involved in the design and manufacturing process from start to finish.  Here is the story of how he started out on his path to building a successful jewelry brand.

John started his career in jewelry when his family moved to America from Portugal. Rhode Island, where they settled, was once the fashion jewelry capital of the world with over 85% of all fashion jewelry created in that state.

He has always displayed a strong work ethic, and to earn money after school he started working in the local jewelry shops.  Starting when he was twelve, after a few years he had worked in every department of a jewelry company. The experience allowed him to see each stage of jewelry making, from engineering, to polishing, to design, and beyond. He worked on all kinds of jewelry in various styles, and the vast amount of knowledge he gained stood him in good stead for branching out on his own.

In 1985 he founded his own company, Tahoe Jewelry, and started manufacturing for wholesalers. He created fine jewelry for them for many years until deciding that he wanted to create his own designs and collections. His ideal contrasted with the wholesalers, who were all about creating something at lower cost, while John wanted to create the highest quality jewelry at an affordable price. Motivated by his own creativity and business ideas he started designing his own pieces at night from a base alloy plated in rhodium and 14kt gold, and in 2000 he launched the John Medeiros brand. The rest, as they say, is history, with the brand quickly growing and gaining a loyal following of keen customers.

Remaining true to his sense of craftsmanship, John still creates every piece in Rhode Island, and is proud that is is all done by hand. Inevitably, he has some equipment that makes it a little easier to create in bulk and meet the demands of his customers, but nothing is outsourced. Each piece is made from start to finish in his Rhode Island factory, where he oversees the entire process.

Sadly, John Medieros is one of the very few remaining companies that make all of their pieces in Rhode Island, with many outsourcing designs to factories abroad where the jewelry is mass produced.  The company is certainly a dying breed in the Rhode Island jewelry industry, but it is encouraging to see one man who has remained loyal to his ideals as an artist, and inspiring to know that his lack of compromise has not meant a lack of sales!

Read more about John Medieros in our interview,  or visit his website, www.johnmedeiros.com.