Jewelry with a New Purpose
Lee Krombholz uses his custom skills to aid a local charity
Every jeweler in America has probably donated a piece of jewelry or contributed money to a local worthy cause. Some, however, have taken an extra step: They’ve personalized your jewelry donations so that they demonstrate a larger commitment to a cause, while also illustrating their unique skills as a custom jeweler.
Below is one such story.
As the third-generation owner of Krombholz Jewelers in Cincinnati, Lee Krombholz has over the years built up a large foundation of friends, colleagues, and customers in his local area. One of those friends, Karen Williams, is the development director of a local St.Vincent de Paul charity that collects clothing and other items for the poor. Seven years ago, he was fascinated to learn about a fundraising project on which Williams was working. It involved asking local design and fashion students at the University of Cincinnati to use a $10 coupon to purchase used clothing from St. Vincent de Paul, and then repurpose the clothes to make current fashion statements. At an annual fashion show called Retrofittings, the students would model their creations and raise money through ticket sales and a boutique of clothes and accessories from St. Vincent de Paul’s stores.
"I thought to myself, I want to do that!" recalls Krombholz, who also operates a custom design studio, Just Like You Designs, as part of his retail operation. As he notes, custom jewelers often do exactly what the students were doing: Recycle vintage items to make something new.
He asked his friend if he could participate as a jeweler-contributor—the only jeweler in his area who would be doing so. Williams agreed, and now St.Vincent de Paul each year gathers old jewelry (mostly silver and costume) that has been donated to its thrift stores and gives it to Krombholz to create a new piece of jewelry.
"The first year it was a mostly costume creation, and my piece was used as a raffle prize during the show," says Krombholz. "But in subsequent years, we started making jewelry that was more representative of what we do at the store, with more and more precious elements added." When St. Vincent de Paul saw the increased price tags on the jewelry Krombholz was donating, it gave the charity the idea of having a live auction before the Retrofittings fashion show. The custom-made piece could be combined with other pricier donated items, such as furs or a vacation trips, to attract high bidders.
The jeweler has now made seven pieces for Retrofittings, and overall has raised over $10,000 for St. Vincent de Paul. Each year the experience has been slightly different. "One year, there wasn’t much that interested or inspired me in the bag of jewelry they brought me, so I went back to one of the thrift stores and bought garments that had interesting buttons," says Krombholz. "I made a bracelet using those [1]." Another year, he found in his stash some inexpensive framed mosaic jewelry from the 1940s and 1950s, which he loved. He decided to fashion a precious gold pendant [2] that used a mosaic as its central motif.
For his 2011 entry, the jeweler received a lot of silver jewelry [3], plus a pair of black sapphire stud earrings—and the stones were natural. He added three more sapphires to create a sterling silver bracelet fashioned after the gate motifs he had seen during a recent trip to Charleston, South Carolina [4]. Krombholz donated added gold and diamonds for accents and to increase the precious feel.
The resources the jeweler plows into the projects have garnered him a lot of increased publicity surrounding the Retrofittings event, which has in turn allowed him to decrease the need for paid media advertising, he says. "It cost between $1,500 and $2,000 to create the bracelet this year, once you factor in the added the precious elements and my labor, but that number compares very favorably to the cost of an ad in the newspaper or on TV," calculates Krombholz.
Some of his clients attend the show as well, which also reinforces his name. "The pieces have developed a bit of a reputation now, because St. Vincent de Paul also promotes anticipation for them via its newsletter," says Krombholz. This year, he was also interviewed for a local online magazine called Cincy Chic, during which he previewed what he was working on, showing the pile of donated silver jewelry and sapphires he was using as the basis for his work. That video is now on the online magazine’s YouTube channel, and Krombholz can direct clients and bidders to it.
Krombholz has also taken on other custom projects for charities. He designed a sterling silver charm for a benefit called Night in White, which the store also co-hosts. It raises scholarship funds for a local hospital’s nursing school. A family that had had a baby who lived for eight days and one hour wanted to do something to remember the child and thank the nurses who gave him such good care during his brief life. So they asked Krombholz to create a special charm with the baby’s footprint [5]. It is given to every one of nurses who gets a scholarship as a result of the benefit.
"We let our hearts lead us in choosing the charities we support," says Krombholz, "but we particularly like ones that have a direct custom jewelry connection."
Undoubtedly, the charities would say the same.
The current print issue of MJSA Custom Jeweler features one such jeweler, Tom McLaughlin of Lennon’s Jewelers in Clay, New York, who has created a line of bracelets, rings, and pendants that benefits local autism groups. To subscribe, click here—or join MJSA and receive a free subscription to MJSA Custom Jeweler.