As much as the jewelry she designs, Rebekah Brooks loves the connections she makes with her clients. “We get to be involved in the biggest milestones in people’s lives,” she said.
From engagement and wedding rings to anniversary, birthday - and especially at this time of year – holiday gifts, Rebekah and her team of skilled jewelers craft handmade original designs, create custom jewelry, and set every stone for engagement rings.
Most of their diamonds are antiques - a niche in terms of diamond rings, as are the low-profile wearable rings they create. Most other types of rings are made in China, Rebekah noted. Almost every piece is made locally by hand. They also restore antique pieces, repair jewelry, and remount diamond rings.
Recently, a woman who was getting married brought in a photograph of her grandmother, taken in the 1930s. In the photograph her grandmother is wearing a necklace that the bride wished she had to wear on her wedding day. Rebekah was able to recreate the necklace.
The studio uses CAD (computer-aided design). Like the necklace recreated from a photograph, they can take a customer’s idea and make exactly what they want.
In addition to the flagship Rebekah Brooks store and studio on Main St. in Northampton, there are stores in Boston and in Harvard Square in Cambridge. The Cambridge store attracts a diverse clientele because of its proximity to Harvard University.
“One customer at the Harvard Square store was an African Princess, and we made her engagement and wedding band in the tradition of her family heritage,” Rebekah said.
The studio also engraves on memorial pieces and even on urns. “It’s very spiritual,” the work we do,” Rebekah said.
“We really are an old-fashioned jeweler,” said Rebekah, noting her focus on longtime clients and building relationships with generations of families. “We’re that kind of classic jewelry business,” she added, but with one exception – Rebekah is a female jeweler, which is something like being a rare gemstone in the business.
With an undergraduate degree in design, and a GIA degree from the Gemological Institute of America, Rebekah worked as an apprentice for several jewelers before founding her own jewelry business in 1998 out of her small loft apartment In Brooklyn.
From a young age, Rebekah said, she loved jewelry. Coming from a family of artists – her parents are sculptors and other family members are fashion designers; Rebekah sees designing jewelry as a family tradition.
After years of selling jewelry to boutiques around the world, the company evolved when Rebekah and her family moved to Western Massachusetts, where she opened her first store in Thornes Marketplace. In 2020, the Northampton store expanded and moved across the street to a space large enough for both retail space and a studio.
Rebekah’s passion for designing jewelry goes beyond simply creating an individual piece. “Jewelry binds all cultures because it’s the oldest currency, we have,” she said. She wants people to know about the traditions of jewelry, the longevity of the investment, and how for future generations, it will always have value.
Rebekah points out that while most material things such as cars will not last into the future, jewelry will. “It’s much more valuable than what you have in the bank,” she said.
She empowers clients by educating them about the meaning and value of jewelry.
“If we can’t keep this trade alive and pass it down, we’re in trouble,” Rebekah said, noting that it can’t be learned in college. It is for this reason she teaches this age-old craft of making jewelry to young people, bringing in apprentices to learn the trade in her studio.
“Hopefully they will keep passing it down,” she added.
Rebekah Brooks
147 Main Street, Northampton
413-584-0905
www.rebekahbrooks.com
“Jewelry binds all cultures because it’s the oldest currency, we have.” Rebekah Brooks, Owner & Proprietor