She found thirteen pieces she loved on my website. Every single one was sold out. So she wrote them down by hand and asked me to make them again.
When everything you love is already sold
If you've ever browsed my website and felt that particular sting of finding a piece you love only to see it marked sold out, Judy knows exactly how you feel. She just didn't let it stop her.
Judy went through my website page by page. Not skimming. Studying. She wrote down every piece that spoke to her on paper, in her own handwriting, photographed her lists, and sent them to me. Then she asked the question that changes everything: can you make these for me?
That first list had thirteen pieces on it. All sold out. All one of a kind. All pieces that technically no longer existed.
My answer was yes.
Not exact replicas, because that's not how one-of-a-kind work operates. Every piece I make is shaped by the specific gemstones in front of me, and no two stones are identical. But the spirit of each piece, the color palette, the structure, the feeling it creates when you put it on? That I can recreate. And I did, thirteen times over, in that first batch alone.
What happens when even the materials no longer exist
If thirteen recreations answered the question "can she really do this?", then the Joan of Arc necklace answered the harder one: what happens when she can't?
By her second batch, Judy had spotted a necklace on my site named Joan of Arc. It stopped her cold. "Joan of Arc is my very favourite heroine from the past," she wrote. "Any chance you could custom that one for me or as close as possible."
Here's where honesty matters more than salesmanship. The original Joan of Arc was built around rare vintage components I'd sourced from an antique store that specialized in vintage jewelry. That store had since closed. The exact elements that made the piece what it was no longer existed anywhere I could find them.
I told her the truth. I could create a necklace with a similar gemstone cluster, but instead of vintage elements flanking the cluster, I'd use gemstone chains. It would carry the spirit of the original without pretending to be a replica. Different materials, same soul.
Her response: "As close as you can come to the original Joan of Arc would make me so very happy. Doesn't need the vintage parts."
When the finished piece arrived, her reaction is one I'll never forget.
"There are no words to express how much I love the Joan of Arc. It is absolutely a masterpiece. You did good, Andrea."
That's what "something similar" actually means in practice. Not a lesser version of what you wanted. A piece that was designed with the same intention, built with the same care, and loved just as much, sometimes more, because the conversation that created it made it yours in a way the original never could have been.
Three batches, three years, and gems hand-selected at the world's largest gem show
Judy's collection didn't happen in a single order. It unfolded across three commissioned batches over the course of a year, plus individual commissions that continued long after the original lists were finished.
When I traveled to Tucson in January 2024 for the gem show, the largest of its kind in the world, I asked Judy if there was a particular stone she'd been dreaming of. She told me she loved Herkimer diamonds and the chrysoprase and Peruvian opal from my Palm collection.
I went to multiple vendors at the AGTA and GLW shows looking specifically for the best chrysoprase, Peruvian opal, and chalcedony for her. Not browsing with her in the back of my mind. Actively hunting. When I found them, I texted her photos from the show floor. Those gems became the foundation of her third batch.
This is what a commission relationship looks like when it has room to breathe. Judy never rushed me. I never cut corners. And when the opportunity arose to hand-select gems from the best vendors in the world for a specific client, that's exactly what I did.
What "sold out" really means on my site
Here's something Judy's story makes clear that I want every visitor to understand.
When a piece on my site says sold out, it means that specific, physical piece has found its home. The gemstones in that exact configuration, the metalwork in that precise arrangement, those belong to someone now. I can't and won't pretend otherwise.
But the design language, the color story, the feeling that made you stop scrolling? Those live in my hands and in my studio. I know what gemstones I used, what techniques I drew on, and what made the piece work. When you ask me to create something similar, you're not getting a knockoff of someone else's jewelry. You're getting a new original that speaks the same language.
Judy understood this instinctively. She didn't ask for copies. She asked for pieces made in the same spirit, and she trusted me to interpret that. Across twenty-plus pieces and three years, that trust has never been misplaced.
Batch Number One:
The details behind the scenes
A few things about working with Judy that show what the commission process actually looks like in practice.
She's not tech-savvy, and that was never a problem. Her grandson helped her check out the first time because the buttons wouldn't cooperate. ("Here comes my grandson pulling up from college and I told him to get on here quick and help me get this paid for, and of course it was done in 30 sec.") I created password-protected private landing pages for each batch so she could see only her pieces, at their prices, with her coupon code. By the third batch, she breezed through checkout on her own. The process should meet the client where they are, not the other way around.
She knows what works on her body. Judy has always been specific: no long dangle earrings, shorter lengths, pieces that flatter a shorter neck. She's right every time. A good designer listens to those instincts instead of overriding them. When she commissioned custom Tourmaline Bloom Earrings for her grandson's wedding, she asked for around two inches in length. That's what I made, and they were perfect.
She notices the things most people overlook. The packaging. The cleaning cloths. The handwritten note. "I forgot to mention that the packaging was awesome too. TY for the cleaning cloths too and the very nice note. I'm smiling all the way today." When someone pays attention to how you deliver, you know they're paying attention to what you create.
She displays her jewelry like art. Judy bought 3D floating frames from Amazon and put her pieces in her bedroom so she can enjoy them every day. Not in a jewelry box. Not in a drawer. Framed, on display, treated as the art she believes they are.
Batch Number 3:
A necklace for her grandson's wedding
By October 2025, Judy had finished all three batches on her original lists. But the relationship kept going.
She spotted a tourmaline vermeil spike necklace on my site and ordered it for her grandson's wedding in Texas that November. Then she texted: could I make a custom pair of earrings to match?
I created the Tourmaline Bloom Earrings to complement her necklace and shipped them with plenty of runway before the November 7th ceremony.
After the wedding, she told me about the evening. A young man from their hometown in South Dakota, who used to babysit her grandson, had gotten certified to perform the ceremony. He was nervous but did a wonderful job. And Judy's jewelry?
"Many compliments on my beautiful jewelry. People would look at it and oooo and awe! I tried to tell them about you and your jewelry but the noise was too, too loud."
She tried to promote my work at her grandson's wedding. Over DJ speakers. That's Judy.
The friendship behind the collection
I've been texting with Judy for over three years. She's a retired pharmacist from rural South Dakota who survived two open-heart surgeries and coded twice on the operating table. Doctors gave her less than a 1% chance. They called her a miracle. She doesn't talk about it much, but she shared it with me, and it changed how I see every piece I make for her.
She celebrated her 80th birthday in Las Vegas with her daughter and daughters-in-law, a week of living like queens, paid for by the family farm. Both of her sons, fourteen years apart, were born on her birthday, so she spent decades making their birthdays special before anyone made hers special in return.
She built a retirement home in Texas to escape the South Dakota winters, where wind chills hit negative sixty and she puts puppy pads on the floor because her dogs refuse to go outside. She watches my Pinterest. She checks my website for new pieces. Sometimes months pass between messages, and then we both text the same day, realizing we'd been thinking about each other at the same time.
"We have never met officially," she wrote, "but I miss you."
I miss her too.
That's what happens when a commission becomes a collection, and a collection becomes a relationship. Judy didn't come to me with a wedding date or a deadline. She came with handwritten pages and patience. She trusted my process, never rushed a single piece, and celebrated every delivery like a gift, not a transaction.
And it all started because she found thirteen pieces she loved, saw that every one was sold out, and decided that wasn't the end of the story. It was the beginning.
Batch Number Three:
The pieces: 20+ one-of-a-kind necklaces, earrings, and bracelets across three commissioned batches plus individual commissions, including a custom Joan of Arc necklace and Tourmaline Bloom wedding earrings.
The materials: Herkimer diamonds, chrysoprase, Peruvian opal, chalcedony, tourmaline, amethyst, rutilated quartz, prehnite, labradorite, moonstone, pearl, aquamarine, druzy, lodolite, green amethyst, peridot, 14k gold-filled, sterling silver, 24k gold vermeil.
The timeline: May 2023 to present (3+ years and counting).
The client: A retired pharmacist, heart surgery survivor, and self-described collector from South Dakota and Texas.
Every piece Andrea Li makes is one of a kind. If you've found something on this site that's already sold and you're wondering whether it's really possible to have something similar made for you, the answer is yes. Judy's collection is the proof. Start a conversation.