By Svea Conrad
It’s seemingly rare to find someone apprenticing in a trade in the 21st century. Learning within the ancient relationship of master and apprentice, however, rose by about 64% since 2010, according to Forbes. Flagstaff’s Jeff Karl is one of the first to tout the benefits of such a teaching apparatus, far from bygone in the modern era.
The master jeweler is proud of how long he’s been in the trade. 42 years to be exact. Count backward by that number and you’ll land in a year Jimmy Carter was president and the most popular engagement ring was about to be a large Ceylon Blue oval sapphire halo, thanks to Princess Diana.
Karl and his wife moved to Flagstaff from southern California in 1975 to attend Northern Arizona University. He was studying art and was set to graduate when a friend asked if he would be interested in apprenticing with a master jeweler at the shop he worked at. Karl said yes, trading sculpture and painting for soldering supplies, ring sizing mandrils and what would become a lifelong career in making wearable art.
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“At that point, I never looked back, I went ahead and became a jeweler,” Karl said. He still manufactures, designs and repairs everything from jewelry to watches in house, at his eponymous store. “That’s how we got the ball rolling. Then I raised my whole family here. Two kids, now grandkids.”
Karl worked for a jewelry store in downtown Flagstaff, spending more than a decade honing the craft, before opening his own business.
Jeff Karl Jewelers opened in 1995.
“It was a little scary to do that but after 16 years of making jewelry and designing jewelry in Flagstaff it was kind of a natural progression to open my own store,” Karl said. “My wife and I did open the store and we’ve been busy since the day we opened.”
The small shop is located discreetly between Run Flagstaff and Sea of Green Hydroponics on Historic Route 66 and includes a showroom and workshop where Karl and others make all varieties of eye-catching pieces. Though the shop specializes in wedding and engagement rings, it offers many other types of jewelry. In a world where masters of their craft are increasingly rare, Karl’s skills shine as bright as one of his rings.
Part and parcel to owning a jewelry store is staying with current trends. Karl and his team do so, in part with the help of their customers, who often come in with specific ideas in mind that the store then executes in the form of an engagement ring or wedding band–you name it, Jeff Karl can likely make it happen. Catalogs, computer-aided design, sketches and much more aid the store in its constant creating.
“People, young and old come in and they tell us what they’d like to see and we do try to make customers what they want, sometimes they will have seen it online or we can develop unique designs based on their ideas,” Karl said. “And keeping up with the latest trends, it’s just like anybody else, everybody is looking at online sources for images. We do a lot–everything from basic stone setting on engagement rings to dramatic custom designs. Then we manufacture those here.”
Typically if someone wants something made, say a wedding band or engagement ring, it takes about four weeks, Karl said. The store also has sets and pieces already in stock for those who might be on a tighter schedule.
The master jeweler prides himself on the shop being family-run and locally-owned. It’s a store that knows its customers.
“We do stay strong because of the local customer base, we do have that aspect and it is different than a big chain, we are local and family-owned and we cater to local clientele mostly,” he said. “We have a lot of great customers that have continued to do business with us over the years.”
Karl’s daughter Anna Gray is also a jeweler and has been working at the shop and with her dad for about 20 years. Her teacher during her apprenticeship? None other than her master jeweler father of course.
“[Anna’s] apprenticeship, well it was pretty easy,” Karl said with a laugh. “She had a knack for what jewelry should look like and she had great mechanical skills and great artistic sense and she was easy to train and apprentice. It’s really nice having family involved in the business.”
Jeff Karl Jewelers is located at 204 E. Route 66. For more information, visit www.jeffkarljewelers.net or call (928) 773-8914.
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