Custom jewelry business to mark 15th anniversary
Sherrins’ store started after a family tragedy
Charlotte Observer, NC
MARTY MINCHIN
Anthony’s Custom Jewelry provides all of the perks of a family-run jewelry business.
Mark Sherrin, who started the business with wife Paula 15 years ago, designs, makes and repairs jewelry on site.
The Sherrins make plenty of time to talk to customers about what they want. A number of shoppers have become loyal customers.
“We have grown to love our customers,” Paula Sherrin said. “We’ve had prayer around the building here with customers from our store. We are here for our customers, and we tell them that.”
Mark Sherrin, 44, began his career as a jeweler working in jewelry stores around the area. He started as a jewelry polisher and later had a good job in a large jewelry store, Paula said.
The Sherrins’ lives were changed forever, however, when their son Nicholas, 7, was killed in a car accident.
Paula, 43, said she needed to be with her husband to weather the grief. They decided to start a jewelry business of their own.
“Physically, emotionally, I had to be with him,” Paula said. “For him to quit (his job) for me, it was pretty awesome.”
Their first store was a 400-square-foot space in Matthews, using Mark’s middle name, Anthony, in its name. Eight years ago the Sherrins moved to Indian Trail into a store three times that size.
“For the first two or three years it was like starting all over again,” Paula said. Customers from Matthews followed them to Indian Trail, and they’ve added many customers, mostly through word-of-mouth advertising.
Paula handles the business end of Anthony’s Custom Jewelry, and Mark does all of the designing and working with jewelry.
I asked Paula how it’s been working with her husband for 15 years.
“We get along great,” Paula said. “I can’t imagine never working without him. There are some times we don’t even speak to each other because he’s busy doing his thing and I’m doing mine.”
Paula said her husband had no experience in jewelry when he took his first job in the business, and he taught himself to design and make jewelry.
One of Mark’s specialties is sitting down with customers and working with them to design jewelry.
He also can melt and reshape gold and set stones into new pieces of jewelry. Paula said Mark mostly makes rings, earrings and pendants, and he also can craft bracelets.
When Anthony’s Custom Jewelry was in Matthews, Paula said she often took Mark’s original jewelry designs door-to-door to show people what her husband had made that day.
“They were just in awe that he did it,” Paula said.
One of Paula’s favorite pieces of jewelry is a gold nugget ring that Mark made her. The ring has hers, Mark’s and Nicholas’ teeth prints set into it.
“It’s very special and precious to me,” she said.
Mark and Paula hope to one day pass the business they’ve built onto someone in their family.
Their daughter, Kalin, 13, already spends a lot of time in the store.
“She’s a big help, and customers love her,” Paula said. “She gets the buzzer to let someone in. She helps write up orders and talks to her daddy about certain pieces.
“We’re hoping that someday she’ll take over our business, and it breaks our hearts to think about closing it. It’s something we talk to her about.”
The Sherrins’ niece and nephew, Jonathan McClellan, 14, and Ashley McClellan, 11, also have taken an interest in the business.
“(Jonathan) absolutely is amazed with his Uncle Mark and what he can do,” Paula said. “Ashley wants to be just like me someday.”
And while the next generation continues to learn the business, the Sherrins plan to keep serving their customers.
“We’re not all about selling (jewelry),” Paula Sherrin said. “We need to sell, but we’re just blessed. The Lord has taken care of us so much in the past 15 years.”
More Information
Anthony’s Custom Jewelry, owned by Mark and Paula Sherrin, will celebrate its 15th anniversary Oct. 23-28 with a sale and other events. The store, at 596 Indian Trail Road S. in Indian Trail, is open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday, 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Friday and 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday.
Marty
Minchin
