If you have ever scrolled past a piece of jewelry online and felt something you have never felt in a store, this story is for you. Janet saw one OOAK necklace, made a single phone call, and never bought jewelry from a retail counter again.

The necklace that ended retail

Janet found me the way most of my commission clients do: she saw something that stopped her mid-scroll. In her case, it was a necklace I had designed for another client. She called the number listed and asked if she could buy it.

That is when I told her something that changed the way she thinks about jewelry forever. All of my pieces are one-of-a-kind. That necklace belonged to the woman I made it for. It would never be made again.

For most people, that would be the end of the conversation. For Janet, it was the beginning.

Monday mornings at the bench

Janet asked if I could make her something similar but different. I said yes. And then she did something that still makes this commission one of my favorites: she brought me the centerstone.

It was a labradorite, a stone she already owned and loved. She wanted me to build the necklace around it. We met at ten in the morning almost every Monday to work through the design together. Each meeting lasted about an hour. We talked about what the piece should feel like, how the stones should sit around the labradorite, and what metals would honor the centerstone without competing with it.

When the necklace was finished, and Janet came to pick it up, she cried. She told me it was exactly what she wanted.

That was the piece I titled "7-17-17." It became the first, named after the date we met, of what would eventually become somewhere between fifteen and twenty commissions.

"Again and again and again"

After the labradorite necklace, Janet came back for earrings to match. Then a new necklace. Then another pair of earrings. Then another. The pieces covered every category I work in: statement necklaces built from raw and faceted gemstones, matching earring and necklace sets, bold standalone earrings with druzy and pearl accents, and pieces featuring tiger eye, citrine, and amethyst.

Each commission started the same way. A conversation about what she was drawn to, what she wanted to feel wearing it, and what stones spoke to her. No formal intake process. No lengthy questionnaire. Sometimes it was a text. Sometimes it was a photo. Sometimes she walked into the studio and said "I want something new." That was enough to begin.

Each piece ended up completely different from the last, because that is how one-of-a-kind work functions. You cannot repeat it, even for the same client. The stone is different. The design is different. The moment is different.

Janet once described the experience of wearing my work in a way I have never forgotten. She said you feel the stones. First they feel cold against your skin. Then they warm to your body temperature. That sensation, that physical relationship between the wearer and the material, is something you do not get from a department store.

Mother's Love

Somewhere in the middle of those fifteen-plus commissions came the piece that changed both of us.

Janet lost her mother. She came to me wanting something that would honor her, something she could wear and feel her presence. This was not a typical commission conversation. There was grief in the room. There was love. There was the weight of trying to translate something that enormous into a piece of jewelry.

I designed a three-piece set I called "Mother's Love." A statement necklace, chandelier earrings, and a cuff bracelet, all in blue topaz. The blue was deliberate. It carried the depth and clarity Janet needed, a color that felt both expansive and intimate at the same time.

This was one of the most emotionally demanding commissions I have ever taken on. Not because of the technical complexity, although there was plenty of that. Because the piece had to hold something bigger than aesthetics. It had to hold memory.

From runway to bench

As our friendship deepened and the commissions continued, Janet's requests evolved. She began sending me screenshots from runway shows on Instagram, images of bold statement earrings from designers like Alexander McQueen, and asking: can you make me something like this?

If you have ever saved a runway photo to your phone knowing you would never spend four figures on the original, you already understand what Janet figured out. That screenshot is not a fantasy. It is a starting point.

The answer was always yes, but never a copy. Janet would send me the inspiration. I would study the form, the scale, the movement of the piece, and then figure out how to build something that captured the same energy using my own techniques and materials.

One pair started with a screenshot from an Alexander McQueen Pre-SS24 reel. The model wore a large sculptural disc on a long wire drop. I used die-cut hammered disks for surface texture and dimension, then soldered them together with a sturdy gauge square wire in an exaggerated length to capture the drama of the original inspiration pics. The finished earrings were architectural, modern, and unlike anything you could buy off a shelf.

Another pair started with a Reel on Instagram of oversized silver disc earrings from a couture runway. I used die-cut sterling silver discs, giving each one a super-polished surface, like a mirror, that catches and reflects light differently every time Janet turns her head.

The gold double teardrop earrings followed a similar process, except I cut the forms from lightweight gold sheet using a paper template, then soldered the pieces together. Keeping the gold thin enough to be comfortable while maintaining structural integrity is the kind of problem that only shows up when you are building by hand. You solve it at the bench, not in a catalog.

What fifteen commissions built

Janet has told me more than once that I became her sister. That the friendship we built through this work, the Monday mornings, the laughter, the tears during Mother's Love, the excitement of each new piece, is closer than what she has with her own siblings.

I do not take that lightly. The relationship between a jeweler and a lifetime client is unlike any other professional relationship. You are trusted with their milestones, their grief, their self-expression, and their joy. You learn what makes them light up. You learn what they need before they can articulate it. After fifteen-plus pieces, I know Janet. I know her aesthetic. I know what scale works on her frame, what stones she gravitates toward, and when she is ready for something she has never tried before.

But here is what I want you to know: that friendship started with a phone call. Janet was not a collector when she found me. She was not someone who had ever commissioned jewelry before. She was a woman who saw something beautiful online, picked up the phone, and asked a question.

Everything else, the fifteen-plus pieces, the Monday mornings, the Mother's Love memorial set, the runway-inspired earrings, all of it grew from that single conversation. She did not need to know anything about gemstones or jewelry design. She did not need a Pinterest board or a mood board or a clear vision. She just needed to say "I love that. Can you make me something?"

That is how every commission begins. Not with expertise. With a feeling. That knowledge is earned. Commission by commission. Year by year.

Janet said it best: "I haven't bought jewelry from a retail outlet since I've known Andrea." After more than a decade, she still has not.

The pieces: 15-20 one-of-a-kind commissions spanning over a decade, including a labradorite centerstone necklace (built around Janet's own stone), the "Mother's Love" memorial collection in blue topaz (necklace, chandelier earrings, and cuff), runway-inspired statement earrings hand-cut from gold and sterling silver sheet, gemstone cluster necklaces, and bold earrings in citrine, tiger eye, druzy, and amethyst.

The materials: Labradorite, blue topaz, citrine, tiger eye, amethyst, druzy, freshwater pearls, 14k gold, gold filled, sterling silver.

The timeline: More than a decade of commissions and counting.

The client: A woman who saw one necklace online, called the number listed, and never bought jewelry from a store again.

Janet has commissioned between fifteen and twenty one-of-a-kind pieces from Andrea Li, including gemstone necklaces, statement earrings, memorial jewelry, and runway-inspired designs. She continues to commission new work and collect pieces from Andrea's limited collections. If you are ready to start your own commission story, start a conversation.