Growing Up in the Stone Rescue

As a child living just up the street, I was drawn to their house like a magnet. Every day after school, I'd find myself in that basement workshop, mesmerized by the transformation happening around me. My grandparents weren't just collectors—they were stone whisperers, finding potential in the overlooked and forgotten. They taught me to see beyond surface imperfections, to understand that every chip, inclusion, and weathered edge held a story worth preserving.

Summer meant one thing: the rock, fossil, mineral, and gem show. We'd park our RV and spend 2-3 days immersed in a world where discarded specimens found new admirers. While other kids my age were saving allowance money, I was collecting crinoids from the creek all year long, bringing them to trade like the Native Americans once did. It was my currency, my way into this incredible world where nothing was ever truly worthless.

Those basement sessions became my education in second chances. Testing stones to reveal their hidden compositions, learning to work with garnets that others had passed by, rubies with character-building inclusions, tiger's eye with stories written in their bands. Even through college, I'd return home to craft jewelry alongside my grandfather, then 89 years old but still steady-handed at giving stones new life.

Following Their Footsteps

In 2022, nearly fifty years after my grandparents' life-changing journey and two years after my grandfather's passing, I found myself standing on the shores of Gemstone Beach in Orepuki, New Zealand, with my husband. I was searching for the same magic they had discovered, hoping to feel that connection across the decades. The wind whipped through my hair as the cold water lapped at my feet, each wave revealing new possibilities that the sun would transform moments later.

I returned again in 2024, this time with my family, spending several days combing the beach with the same patient hope my grandparents had shown me. Though I never found those elusive sapphires, I brought back jars of stones—each one a small rescue, each one destined for a new chapter. Later, looking through old family photos, we discovered that my grandparents had actually visited Birdling Flats, not Gemstone Beach proper. But it didn't matter. On both trips, I felt exactly what I needed: that same sense of purpose, that same calling to give earth's treasures the homes they deserved.

The Mission: Every Stone Deserves a Home

This is how Sommelier was truly born—not just from understanding that every stone has a story, but from recognizing that some of the most beautiful stories are rescue stories. Just as my grandparents gave purpose to rough stones pulled from creek beds and desert floors, I rehome stones that have been forgotten, overlooked, or abandoned.

We don't just create jewelry; we create forever homes for geological refugees. Whether it's a Victorian-era sapphire gathering dust in an estate sale, a collection of "imperfect" diamonds deemed unmarketable by traditional dealers, or a vintage piece of jewelry whose original owner has been forgotten, each stone finds its way to someone who will treasure it completely.

The Art of Stone Rescue and Rehoming

Not every stone comes with a documented provenance, but every stone carries the story of its formation—millions of years in the making. Some have reports, some have histories, but most arrive with only the stories I can read in their inclusions, their color variations, their unique characteristics. And sometimes, the most beautiful part is imagining their backstory: Whose engagement ring were you? What anniversaries did you celebrate? What proposals did you witness?

We work exclusively with natural stones—each one carrying millions of years of earth's authentic story that no laboratory can replicate. These stones may have been hastily discarded, tragically undervalued, or simply misunderstood, but through thoughtful transformation, we reveal their true magnificence.

But more than rescuing stones, we match them with their perfect people. Every piece seeks not just an owner, but a guardian—someone who understands that they've been chosen to continue this stone's story, to give it the love and appreciation it has always deserved.

Our Philosophy

• Every stone has unrealized potential waiting to be unlocked

• Natural stones carry earth's authentic story that lab-created stones cannot replicate

• Imperfections and mysteries make stones more interesting, not less valuable

• The right connection between stone and person creates magic

• Transformation creates more value than perfection ever could

• Every piece is authentically one of one—from transformation to code

The Sommelier Code

Each Sommelier piece carries its unique transformation DNA engraved inside the band—your guarantee that this piece is truly one of one. Six letters in three pairs trace the journey: stone source, design origin, craft location. Three numbers mark its singular place in our collection. This coding system ensures each piece is impossible to counterfeit while telling the discrete story of its modern alchemy.

One code, one piece, one guardian—one of one.

The Legacy Continues

This is jewelry with a rescue story and a soul. This is the continuation of a family tradition that began on a New Zealand beach fifty years ago—a tradition of seeing potential where others see flaws, of giving second chances to earth's treasures, of understanding that the most beautiful things are often the ones that need us most.

This is Sommelier—where every stone finds its person, where every piece carries both the wisdom of the earth and the hope of a new beginning.

Still carrying that Australian opal from 1974, still believing every stone deserves to be loved.