In Search of Something Different
Any golfer will tell you that a good partner is worth his weight in gold. For me and my husband, Jim, his golf buddy, Kyle Niemeier, turned out to be exactly that.
As an advertising rep, Kyle was very interested when Jim mentioned we were opening a fine jewelry store. When Tracy Zeller Jewelry opened in 2004, Kyle added us to his regular sales route which brought him by every other week. After months of Kyle trying to sell me advertising, I simply asked one day, “What can I sell you today?”
Kyle had worn a white gold cross necklace and chain for years. He was ready for something different; however, he still wanted to represent his faith. I knew he had graduated from a local Catholic high school, so I started by showing him some alternative cross pendants and saint’s medallions. Nothing seemed quite right.
Divine Inspiration
Fast forward a couple months. Kyle came barreling in the store and said “Quick, give me a piece of paper and a pencil!”
He drew a symbol and kept pointing at it asking if I could read it.
I said, “I’m not sure what you want me to see.”
“Come on,” he insisted. “Can’t you see it?”
I said, “Well, I see a G. I can make out a G…”
So he traced over the G. Then he traced the O. Then the D.
And I said…”Oh goodness, it reads God!”
And he said, “Exactly!”
From Sketch to Pendant
I asked where he had seen this beautiful symbol. I was surprised to learn he had doodled it 10 years earlier in high school only to have it pop in his mind that very morning. He hadn’t thought about it in years but knew it was what he wanted to wear as a pendant.
He asked if I could engrave the G.O.D. symbol on the back of a saint’s medallion. I could; however, I wasn’t excited about simply engraving it … that seemed too ordinary. I lost three nights sleep thinking about the beautiful symbol.
I was envisioning a dimensional piece of fine religious jewelry. Shortly after, we hand-cut the very first pendant out of a piece of solid gold. It was an Aha! revelation.
I was so excited for Kyle to see the pendant. When he arrived at the showroom, I presented the first 14k yellow gold hand-cut Great One Divine™ pendant on the showcase.
His reaction… “Oh, it’s my God!”
And I said, “Exactly.”
Since then, the Lord has blessed us as stewards of the Great One Divine™ Collection. Just as God rejoices in blessing us, we rejoice in sharing with others our faith, passion and the magnificent, custom Great One Divine™ Jewelry Collection.
