Master Jeweler and Gemologist Terry Rieger's 35 year career had an unusual beginning.

As a traditional artist in her early 20's Terry's culinary hobby provided an additional outlet for display of her artistic talent. She delighted in designing confectionary masterpieces. If she wasn't creating exquisitely decorated wedding cakes for friends and family, she was sculpting whimsical, mouth-watering candies, or designing sugar Easter eggs with complete 3-D panoramas inside. The occupants of those windowed eggs were meticulously detailed, right down to microscopic whiskers on the tiny Easter bunnies.

One of those Easter eggs, a gift to a family friend, is responsible for launching her lifelong career in jewelry.

The family friend was a jeweler, and so taken with her artistry was he, that he insisted her designs must be produced in gold.

Her mentor, refusing to take no for an answer, arranged for a full compliment of jewelers tools to be delivered, and arranged for her to be the first and only student even tutored by noted Russian jeweler Constance Osmanski.

Terry found herself commuting back and forth to Europe for the next twelve years, studying and perfecting her craft in London's famed diamond quarter, Hatton Garden. Hatton Garden is home to DeBeer's Central Selling Organisation, and is regarded as one of the great jewelry areas of Europe.

Terry's interest in restoration of fine estate jewelry spans better than twenty of her 35 years in this profession, and that interest has also led her to become an avid collector of period gems and jewelry components. Over the years she has built a well catalogued component collection as an in-house resource for accurate restoration of antique and estate jewelry.

A missing gem or pearl, or a damaged section of gold or platinum in a fine piece of antique jewelry should only be replaced with components whcih exactly match the color, cut, size, shape, age and patina of the original, she explains. Terry says that over the years she has amassed a small mountain of vintage seed pearls, garnets, rose cut diamonds and the like. The store even has the uniquely coloed Persian turquoise in it collection.

Terry is also particularly adept at restoring exquisite French enamel pieces.

A frequent lecturer on gemology, Terry is a well known expert in the history of jewelry. Over the years she made it her habit to do in-depth research not only on the jewels of particular periods, but the reasons and influences behind their use in related jewelry designs. Let a member of the audience at one of her lectures mention that an acquaintance has offered to sell her a white gold antique ring dating from the late 1800's, and Terry's face will light up with a mischevious grin. You might want to have me do a verbal appraisal on that before you buy it, she'll suggest, because white gold wasn't discovered until 1912.

Terry's passion remains custom jewelry; however, and her exquisite designs range from the extraordinarily graceful to the wonderfully whimisical.

"If you can dream it", she'll tell you with a smile, "we can make it for you."