Alright, so I ended up at Shane Co. in Tukwila the other week. Wasn’t exactly planned, more like a last-ditch effort, you know?
The Great Sapphire Hunt for Mom
My mom’s anniversary was coming up, and I had this idea for a custom pendant. She’s always loved this weird little doodle she does, almost like a lopsided star. I thought, hey, what if I could get a sapphire cut in that shape? Super unique, right? My local jeweler, bless his heart, just kinda blinked at me. “That’s… ambitious,” was all he said. Basically, a polite “no way, dude.”
Someone mentioned Shane Co., said they had a ton of loose stones, maybe they could help. So, I figured, why not? Off to Tukwila I went. The drive itself, ugh. If you’ve ever been near Southcenter on a weekday, you know the pain. It’s a special kind of traffic hell. Finally parked and headed in.
First impression? It’s a big place. Real big. And shiny. Like, you could probably see it from space with all those lights hitting the diamonds. Cases and cases of sparkle. It felt a bit like walking into a very fancy bank, but for jewelry. Not exactly my usual scene, but I was on a mission for that lopsided star sapphire, not there to critique the decor.
A sales guy approached, seemed nice enough. Asked the usual, “Can I help you find something?” I pulled out my crumpled sketch of Mom’s doodle. Explained my grand plan. He listened, tilted his head a bit, then said, “Interesting. Let’s see what we have.” He led me over to the loose gemstones. And yeah, they had a lot. Blues, reds, greens, yellows – a whole rainbow.
- Tons of round ones, oval ones, square ones. You know, the regular stuff.
- Some looked pretty good, nice color and all.
- The price tags? Well, they were what you’d expect.
But my lopsided star? He rummaged through a bunch of trays. Even made a call to someone in the back, probably the head gem wizard or something. I give him credit, he seemed to genuinely try. I just stood there, trying not to look too out of place, pretending to be fascinated by a tray of emeralds. After a good twenty minutes, he came back, looking a bit apologetic.
“So, no exact match for your doodle, I’m afraid,” he said. “We could get something custom cut, but…” And then came the “but.” The but involved a lot more time and, crucially, a lot more money than my wallet was prepared to discuss. I kind of saw that coming. My budget was more “thoughtful and creative” than “commission a uniquely shaped gemstone from scratch.” I remember this one time I tried to be overly ambitious with a birthday cake for my nephew. Ended up looking like a collapsed blob. Some things are best left to professionals with big budgets.
So, yeah, the great sapphire hunt was a bust. Wasn’t entirely surprised, to be fair. It was always a bit of a wild idea. I thanked the guy. He was cool about it, no hard sell on anything else, which was a relief. You know how some salespeople are, they’d try to sell you a diamond ring even if you came in asking for directions to the bathroom.
I poked around for a few more minutes, mostly to justify the drive. They’ve got a massive selection of pretty much everything else. If you’re after a standard engagement ring or some nice earrings, they’d probably have you covered. But for my quirky, doodle-inspired quest? Not this trip.
In the end, I got Mom a really beautiful silk scarf with a pattern that kinda echoed her doodle. She absolutely loved it. Sometimes the simpler ideas are the winners, eh? And it saved me another trip through Tukwila traffic, which is a victory in itself. Still got that sketch, though. Maybe one day, when I win the lottery.