A jewel on the Peninsula finds a new home

Forging a Partnership

The two had worked together for nearly 25 years when they decided it was time to start a shop of their own.

“Colleen and I had taken a class together and our class project was to open a jewelry store,” Christensen said. “So we did.”

Nowadays there are 6 women on staff including Christensen and Rafferty, and among them they estimate there are nearly 150 years of jewelry experience packed into their cozy new space on Ellsworth Avenue.

Yes, the ladies of Christensen & Rafferty have moved to new digs, and after almost a quarter century as partners, and a half century as friends, they are preparing for another grand opening.

Treasure Hunting

Christensen jokes that finding their new location is like a treasure hunt.

Indeed, Google Maps can be a bit misleading in their directions, and if you are expecting to find them behind a big glass storefront just past the food court, you have the wrong idea.

Christensen & Rafferty is a jewelry salon. Shopping there is meant to be an intimate and casual experience. Each piece in the store is hand selected by the staff from the designers. Christensen and Rafferty are both on a perpetual treasure hunt themselves; attending shows, and meeting with designers to pick out pieces that they love and pieces that they think their customers will love.

“We’re not a real branded store, it’s like we’re writing our own book, and different designers are different chapters in our book,” Rafferty said. “So it sets us apart in that respect.”

“For a lot of designers we’re a launchpad,” Christensen added.

“These designers may not have a lot of exposure in the United States, or in California,” Rafferty continued. “So that’s’ something else we like to do – show designs that you won‘t find anywhere else and that helps the client stand apart when she’s wearing it.”

They invest time in getting to know their customers’ style and personalities so they always have them in mind.

“When you think of jewelry, you can think of it as art,” Christensen said. “But you can also think of it as a personal treasure. Sometimes, there can be some aspect of it that nobody has to know about but you. It’s not all about having the biggest and the best so you can show all your friends, sometimes it’s just wonderful to know it’s yours and it doesn’t have to be for anybody else.”

They stress this personal approach because they feel that a piece of jewelry should be something that you love to wear. A necklace or ring should be treated like a pair of Jimmy Choo shoes and a luxury handbag, or a fine suit. It should fit your style as well as your personality. It should be beautiful and versatile – something you reach for often and never looks out of place, not an afterthought that lives in the back of a drawer until you are walking out the door on your way to a formal affair.

To that end, Christensen & Rafferty will help you convert your neglected pieces into new creations that you do want to show off.

“You may come in and want us to recreate something in reference to the things you’re not wearing,” Rafferty said. “We like to do a lot of refabricating, so having a box full of jewelry that you’re no longer wearing, we want to turn it into brand new designs that you’re going to want to take out and wear all the time.”

The emphasis here is on timeless. Christensen and Rafferty want you to have jewelry that you will cherish and wear forever, even if that means a piece you inherited or bought years ago has to evolve with your fashion sense.

Beyond the Jewels

Suffice it to say that the ladies at Christensen & Rafferty want to get to know their customers as well as they know their friends, and they want that familiarity to go both ways.

Both Christensen and Rafferty are involved in philanthropic community organizations. They have been underwriters for the Mills-Peninsula Hospital Women’s Health Luncheon and Lecture since it’s inception, 17 years ago. They also support Gatepath, Peninsula Family Services, Samaritan House, and the S.P.C.A.

“For all of these wonderful groups we look to raise funds for their different needs by donating a lovely piece of jewelry,” Rafferty said. “Most often we create a fun and exclusive event in our shop that is auctioned off.”

Beyond their charitable ventures, they also host trunk show events so their favorite designers can display their full lines beyond the select pieces that are already in the shop and customers can meet and mingle with the artists behind their favorite pieces. They have many artists lined up in the coming months, including Jewels by Star (jbstar.com), Lika Behar (likabehar.com), Pascal Lacroix (pascallacroix.com), and the Henderson Collection (wlhlimited.com).

They also consider the walls of their new home to be a blank canvas of sorts. They are collaborating with local artists to populate the walls with an ever-changing array of art work.

“We are looking to build a purposeful relationship with artists in our community,” Rafferty said. “We thought, ‘let’s build a team of likeminded entrepreneurs.’ Our idea is to highlight a different artist every few months and expose their work to our clients. Our first artist to be introduced is Robin Schreiber, retired teacher also known as the ‘Warrior’s Dance Cam Mom.’”

With all of this to look forward to, and the holiday season around the corner, and their “new home” party coming up in October featuring a week of guest designers and other events, Christensen & Rafferty are offering plenty of reasons to stop in for a visit, but as Rafferty herself likes to say “No reason is a good reason.”