CHARLES ALBERT, 45
Charles Albert Inc. Jewelry / Pompano Beach
[Photo:Shamayim] |
Neither as a child collecting stones behind his grandmother's Pennsylvania home nor as a soldier did Charles Albert figure he'd eventually become one of the most innovative and successful jewelry designers in the country. "I graduated from Army boot camp before I graduated from high school," he says, "because I wanted to make money to pay for college. I got a degree in business management, but I had no idea what I was going to do with it."
After bouncing from a job at a security system company to a gig selling cashmere scarves, he decided he needed something more permanent. Albert bought five dozen pairs of earrings for $60, and sold them for $120. He then bought more earrings and flipped those for $240. And so it went. Then he traveled to Mexico with $1,200 to buy silver. He continued to buy and then sell at a profit — until it got boring. "I decided to start doing my own designs and setting stones," he says. "It allowed me to explore my artistic side and make a profit at the same time, and it was much more interesting than just buying and selling." As his financial resources increased, he says, "I got crazier with my designs and started doing things no one else was doing."
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Today, Albert has a workshop in Pompano Beach with a dozen employees as well as 40 people working for him in Mexico. His necklaces, rings, cuffs and earrings are showpieces comprising massive chunks of semi-precious stones and crystals such as quartz, agate, citrine, turquoise and amethyst, which he collects during trips to locales as near as Tucson and as far away as India. They're set in sterling silver because, Albert says, "It's a step up from costume jewelry, but people are price-conscious." In August, he launched a new line, Alchemia, made with materials Albert calls "zero-karat" gold. "It has the warmth and feel of 18k gold, but there's no precious metal in it, so my wholesale costs come in at half of what silver costs, but there's the same quality of work in it. And we use a special lacquering system on it to ensure it won't tarnish. The color is dead on."
• Prices: $29 to $3,000
• Star quality: Pop stars Cee Lo Green and Ke$ha have been photographed wearing Charles Albert jewelry.
