Wayland Gemologist Opens Jewelry Store in Town

Michelle Meltzer isn’t new to the jewelry business, but she is new to operating a jewelry store in Wayland.

On Aug. 1, Meltzer opened Michelle’s Jewelry Boutique across from . She and her husband, Alan Meltzer, purchased the shop fixtures and “everything attached to the store” from the proprietor of , which opened a location in the space in early December 2010.

The fixtures and cases might be articles from a past store’s life, but the merchandise is entirely new.

For 15 years, Meltzer owned and operated Max & the Goldsmith, an “eclectic” fine jewelry store in Newton Centre that established itself among more than 400 customers.

But seven years ago, it was time for a change, and Meltzer and her family left the store and moved to Wayland.

Meltzer, a certified GIA (Geological Institute of America) gemologist, and her husband, the master goldsmith behind several popular designs for the Pandora jewelry line, continued to do custom work for some private customers after they moved to Wayland. Then, when Michelle Meltzer noticed Gregorio’s “going out of business” sign, she decided maybe it was time to try full-time jewelry retail again.

Her kids were older, Wayland promised to be less intense than Newton and “I just wanted to do something fun.”

So far, she’s had a blast.

“It’s phenomenal,” she said, adding that she’s already seen a variety of customers and, more importantly, heard a variety of stories.

The stories, Meltzer said, are the best part of the job.

During less than a month open in Wayland, Meltzer has sold a pair of diamond earrings to a mother who wanted to give them to her daughter who survived a brain tumor; she’s created his and her signet rings memorializing a beloved dog; and she’s melted down thousands of dollars worth of gold that a husband traded in to purchase his wife a new diamond after hers was stolen.

“I love my customers and the stories they give me about a piece,” Meltzer said. “I have great stories with the pieces – the sentimental value.”

Since opening, Meltzer said she’s done mainly repair and custom work, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t stock plenty of fine jewelry and high-quality costume pieces.

“When I started just a couple weeks ago, I didn’t know my customer,” Meltzer said. “So I just bought what I liked and what I knew was popular in Newton.”

In Newton, Meltzer said she carried only fine jewelry, but the rise in popularity of well-done costume pieces led her to incorporate those elements into the Wayland store.

Even so, “Diamonds are still the No. 1 desire.”

She said that New England costumer is “very conservative,” tending to like traditional, tried-and-true settings and features.

“[Education is] the most important part of my job,” Meltzer said, adding that men tend to be more particular than women when it comes to the details of buying a diamond. “The customer has to understand what they’re buying.”

In the end, however, she said she tells customers to pick the piece that “talks to you.”

“All the degrees of diamond, all the color charts, sometimes it doesn’t even matter,” she said. “Jewelry is a very funny thing – it’s about show or sentiment.”

Meltzer said she has been enormously pleased with her experience in Wayland so far. She hopes to begin building her bridal and gem business, but for now is pleased to be back in the business she loves without the pressure and stress of a large store staffed by numerous employees, like she had in Newton.

That calmer atmosphere, she hopes, will allow her to become involved in the community, hosting events such as donating a portion of sales on a given day to a local organization.

Michelle’s Jewelry Boutique is located at 310 Boston Post Road. The shop is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. and on Monday by appointment.