But I am definitely trying to get our social media game strong. Parker: My grandpa said, “If you treat everyone right and honest, you don’t have to advertise.” And it’s definitely worked in our favor for 77 years. I’ll never forget it because we’re like, “Wow, we haven’t done that before.” So there’s always something new and it could be the simplest plainest ring or it could be something very well detailed.Įven though you’ve been in business since 1945, Kubes doesn’t do much advertising or marketing, right? And she had DNA strands going down one side of a ring. And with the custom, we’ve done a ring that a girl, she was a scientist, I guess. It’s so across the board, honestly, we get so many different types of people and what they want. And so it’s definitely after a celebrity gets engaged or something, there’s a little spike of popularity with that and we’ll do a couple. With Prince Harry and Megan Markle, for example, we didn’t do a ton, but we did probably two or three that were pretty much just like that.Īnd Princess Diana, we still make rings like that even after all this time. You definitely do see a spike as soon as the celebrity gets engaged. We have not ventured into the TikTok world yet. Parker: Instagram and TikTok I think is the main driver. What sets the trends in the jewelry world? I tried to do that myself today and wear layering necklaces and that’s real popular, but all the gold, yellow gold has come back totally. Then all gold jewelry, all that minimalist, everything, just simple gold chains and gold earrings and a stacking. So I’m interested to see if that gets to be a bigger trend or not. So it’s interesting that it, like everything, comes back around. And interestingly, in the last, I don’t know, few weeks, we’ve had a lot of marquee diamonds that are popular, which – that’s the elongated ones that has the points on either end – which is a lot of what my mom had. We usually have loose stones we can show if you walk in off the street and want to look, and that’s the one we can’t keep in the shop, we got to always be getting them. Pretty much the majority of our rings lately have been that, and they’re hard to keep on site. Parker: In diamonds, the ovals, oval diamonds are really popular. What’s the hot trend right now in jewelry? I have a cousin that does all the pearl restringing that she learned from my aunt and grandpa. And then he’ll set the diamonds there in house. So we’ll have the ring made or manufactured. We’ve got the two jewelers on site that are all family and my dad, Paul Marshal, he sets all the engagement ring diamonds. If it’s plain gold stuff or diamonds or high end gemstones, we can pretty much find whatever anyone needs in that regard and then do full jewelry repair. We have a lot of contacts in New York and different things for different places, for all different types of jewelry. We can make pretty much anything anyone needs. Like I said, we do guys’ jewelry, too, and pretty much all the above. So that can entail obviously bridal, too, but then anniversary rings, any type of gift. And then we do a lot of custom design as well. I just tried it out and they’re like, “We’ll give you 90 days and see how you like it.” And then now I’ve been there almost nine years. Parker: And so I just knew in the back of my head, I guess, after all of our different work things, that maybe I’d end up here. You’re fourth generation, how did you get involved in the business? And then my dad’s been our bench jeweler for probably 35 years now. We have six total in our family now that are all gemologists, that all went to school, followed him. Now we have, let’s see one, two, three, four, five, six. And he was probably one of nine in Texas at the time. He taught himself how to pretty much do everything and then went to school and got his gemology degree. And then just kept learning, taught himself jewelry repair, and how to make jewelry, and taught himself how to restring pearls. My grandfather was a Marine, and he learned how to do watch repair while he was stationed in the Philippines. Parker: My great grandparents, Joseph and Rita Kubes, started the store in 1945. This is part of our Made in Tarrant series which focuses on local businesses. The Fort Worth Report interviewed Brittany Parker, great-granddaughter of founders Joseph and Rita Kubes. What: Kubes Jewelers: The four generation family firm includes three GIA Graduate Gemologists and two GIA Diamond Graduates and provides diamonds, gemstones, rings, bracelets, necklaces, brooches, or watches. Editor’s note: Made in Tarrant is an occasional Q&A series on small businesses started in Tarrant County.
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