Dietje Hagedoorn
Dietje Hagedoorn is a jewelry designer in Canmore and time permitting, I thought we might visit her shop and so downloaded her address off the Internet.
She was quite hard to find. We drove back and forth down the street where she had her shop and it wasn't there. Turns out the address I had was an old one. The phone book yielded her new address and so we tried again. Still not an easy shop to find but eventually, there it was. It certainly didn't look like much of a shop but the sign on her door said she was open. The furious barking of a large dog came flying through the door as Alethea opened it. I stayed in the car! An odd way to sell your jewellery, I thought.
An attractive, petite woman followed the puppy down the stairs. "How did you find me?" she asked with a big smile. Hmm. Most people don't make their shops this hard to find, nor ask you how you finally got there.
"Well it wasn't easy," I said. "Some months ago a woman came into my office in and I couldn't take my eyes off her ring. She said you made it."
As she led us upstairs, she explained this was her working studio and she no longer had a retail shop. She now sells her designs exclusively in galleries though she does accept custom work. Despite the fact that we interrupted her dinner and she wasn't selling her jewellery to us, she was extremely gracious. She cleaned our rings as we browsed through her photos, fingered her loose gems and admired the few pieces she had lying around, including a stunning gold ring topped with a clear topaz shaped like a cone. It was a half hour well spent.
She was quite hard to find. We drove back and forth down the street where she had her shop and it wasn't there. Turns out the address I had was an old one. The phone book yielded her new address and so we tried again. Still not an easy shop to find but eventually, there it was. It certainly didn't look like much of a shop but the sign on her door said she was open. The furious barking of a large dog came flying through the door as Alethea opened it. I stayed in the car! An odd way to sell your jewellery, I thought.
An attractive, petite woman followed the puppy down the stairs. "How did you find me?" she asked with a big smile. Hmm. Most people don't make their shops this hard to find, nor ask you how you finally got there.
"Well it wasn't easy," I said. "Some months ago a woman came into my office in and I couldn't take my eyes off her ring. She said you made it."
As she led us upstairs, she explained this was her working studio and she no longer had a retail shop. She now sells her designs exclusively in galleries though she does accept custom work. Despite the fact that we interrupted her dinner and she wasn't selling her jewellery to us, she was extremely gracious. She cleaned our rings as we browsed through her photos, fingered her loose gems and admired the few pieces she had lying around, including a stunning gold ring topped with a clear topaz shaped like a cone. It was a half hour well spent.
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