My Creative Background

My love for gemstones, metals, and jewellery started before I can remember. My father’s role in our family’s well-known jewellery store downtown opened the doorway to my fascination with quality creation, gemstones, diamonds, and all things related.

My love these days is built on the personal experiences I gained as a child and now includes the education and skills I earned by pursuing my academic success. I completed my Graduate Gemologist certification at the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) in New York, worked for three years in fine gemstones and jewellery in Thailand, took courses in jewellery making and design in Italy, and spent time in California completing my computer assisted design (CAD) course at GIA in Carlsbad. After all of these adventures, I settled back here—in Montreal—to bring my expertise to you.

I use where I have been and the knowledge I have gained as inspiration. Each of these amazing places, and others that I have been, have given me a unique appreciation for art and for colour and for the people who live and create there. I graduated from GIA in New York with my G.G. credentials. I’ll detail more about this education in a future blog post, but this intensive course gave me the skills to identify gemstones, grade colored stones and diamonds, and appraise jewellery of all kinds. New York opened the door to all my future ventures.

In 2013 I left for Thailand; words fail at describing the beauty and colour of the country and I often say I left my heart there. I met phenomenal people as I worked to sort, select and purchase stones for high-end designers. I spent three years learning the production side of this incredible industry and my work further developed my eye and love for the art of fine gemstones and jewellery. Because of this real-world education, I now have an edge as I choose stones for my designs and for my client’s custom creations.

My next stop was Italy, a place like none other, home to masterpieces of the Renaissance, fascinating architecture, and views that can take your breath away. Here I pursued my education learning what goes in to making a piece of jewellery, what it takes to set a single stone, and what a high-quality piece should look like. I learned to make them myself and realized how much I can tell about the quality of a piece simply by holding it in my hand and taking a closer look. I use this eye for value, quality and detail every day ensuring I deliver these principals to my work.

In California I learned the skills it takes to take an idea, a want, a dream, and build it, through software, into reality. This is at the core of my process. Every piece starts as an idea—whether it is mine, the wish of a bride to be, or a personal gift imagined—each piece starts at the same point. They’re words shared and then applied in the software. Ideas take shape as I measure, build, print, cast, set, and finally deliver the completed piece.

The culmination of my experience is what I bring to Maison Goldberg. I love what I do and love knowing that I am bringing the highest levels of quality, value, and educated decision making to our industry, to Montreal, and to you.

– Keely