Photo by: Justin Edmonds
High above Evans Street in the Driscoll Bridge Jo Anne Jablonski, ‘the jewelry lady’ sits amongst over 1000 rings and various other pieces of jewelry at the Golden BCB$r II table and jewelry shop. She has been coming to the University of Denver since the late eighties offering a friendly face, a plethora of stories and, of course, hand-selected silver pieces.
Jablonski exudes an enthusiasm for her work that is contagious. Each ring is the result of a long search, usually picked out after being imported from dealers all over the world. It really is a lifestyle for Jablonski who feels her job was a true calling. She says there is something for her “in making the piece go to its final owner. The person that the piece is seemingly meant for.”
Despite her joy in the work she now does, Jablonski never intended to go into sales. She graduated from the University of Colorado in Boulder with a degree in mathematics. Her original plan was to become a math teacher.
“I was going to save the world by teaching everyone to do math,” she says. The idea for the Golden BCB$r II originated while she was still in college.
“I thought this would be a great thing for my mom to do while I was in Boulder. It never occurred to me, when I was coming up for ideas for my mom, that I was actually coming up with my own future,” says Jablonski.
She was a reclusive not-yet graduate when she started helping her mother sell. Her shy nature made talking to people unlikely and selling to them absurd. Sales has brought the best however, “I’ve found the bigger a risk I take the better I get at doing it,” says Jablonski.
Over the years, Jablonski has found new ways of improving the world, even if it isn’t through math. “Even if we can’t all get along, we all love jewelry,” she says.
With this new philosophy, she came to a spiritual love of her livelihood. Jablonski even traveled to both Thailand and India to see the places her silver comes from, and to show her gratitude to the people.
“I want [each piece] to be something that enables a person in some portion of their life.”
Whether it be a color promoting love, a stone with healing properties, or something as simple as a piece perfectly suited to the buyer, she is certain to make sure each piece gets to the right person. “It’s weird; I can just see it. I’ll be polishing a piece and just know who it’s for,” she says.
These beliefs in the abilities of her silver lead her to start the stone soup project, for which she donated prayer stones to terminally ill patients in hospice. Amazingly many of the receivers had immediate remissions.
Jablonski plans to continue her sales atop Driscoll Bridge.
“I’ve just got the most beautiful location. The natural lighting makes my jewelry look so beautiful,” she says. Visits the bridge several times a quarter (be sure to ask for a copy of her schedule), and is constantly getting in new stock. “I only get to see early Christmas shoppers, because students go on break. So be sure to stop by,” she reminds customers. For more information email Jo Anne Jablonski goldenmoon@earthlink.net, or visit her on the bridge Nov. 1,7,8,13,14,19,and 20.
