Building a Business with Purpose – an interview with Jared from Damadeo

Very few people in this series have the distinction of being person-I-have-known-the-longest in the Bay Area jewelry community. In 2005, I moved to San Francisco to attend the Revere Academy to study metalsmithing and met Jared of Damadeo in that class

How did you start doing what you are doing?

The luminous crystals sprouting from the walls of the recreated Pala Mine tourmaline pocket at the Natural History Museum, not far from where we lived in NYC, beckoned from an early age. Were it not for the glass separating them from sticky-faced kids like me, I would certainly have climbed inside. My paternal great-grandfather was a mining engineer and my maternal grandfather was a geologist and paleontologist, so I am likely wired for rocks. 

My real rock education began at the Tucson Gem show 16 years ago, when I shadowed my cousin and fab goldsmith Deb Durant. Less than a year later, I was sitting next to Sharon (editors note: That’s me!) in a goldsmithing class in San Francisco. I went through the graduate program at Revere Academy but didn’t much put that training to use, instead continuing my career in journalism. My love of jewelry, rocks, and fire never diminished, however, and I co-founded my former business Perpetuum Jewels in 2012 which surrounded me with gems full time.

Much of the focus for the last 8 years was on diamonds, almost exclusively antique, vintage and or post-consumer recycled, but my love of color stones has me expanding in that direction with my company D’Amadeo, especially as there are more opportunities to work directly with miners and mining communities. 

Diamonds and color stones are used to memorialize, to celebrate, are held as physical manifestations of ritual and joy– they should at the very least cause the least minimum amount of environmental harm possible, no human harm, and it should ideally be a competition among gems for which has produced the most amount of global good in its journey. 

Feeling okay with deriving income from gems for me means reconciling the sometimes not superb realities of the jewelry and gem supply chain with my interest in the environment, transparency, human rights, and equity issues. Diamonds and color stones are used to memorialize, to celebrate, are held as physical manifestations of ritual and joy– they should at the very least cause the least minimum amount of environmental harm possible, no human harm, and it should ideally be a competition among gems for which has produced the most amount of global good in its journey. 

 Behave as a vendor as you’d like to be treated as a customer. 

What is the best advice you have received about business?

Received in preschool & relevant always: Embrace the Golden Rule. Be kind. Behave as a vendor as you’d like to be treated as a customer. 

Advice received from across various careers:

• From a boss in publishing: Budget twice the time and twice the money you think you’ll need for any ambitious project. Also holds true for home renovation, etc.

• From my father, an art dealer and scholar: “Buy love, not like– you can always sell what you love.” Unless you’re a natural salesperson who can sell air to the wind (does not describe me.) 

• Also from my father: “The definition of a good deal is when everyone wins.” As a wholesaler, this means “leaving enough meat on the bone” for everyone. Everyone means for my customers– but what about the people in a stone’s journey before me? Better understanding the current division of equity in jewelry materials– from the miner and their community on down, and considering alternate models, is of great personal interest. 

 Lessons learned the hard way/Lessons I’m still learning: 

• If you want professional-level work, hire professionals. 

• It’s quite okay to say no

• Being nice doesn’t mean you can’t ask hard questions. 

What is exciting you right now?

Ironically, what excites me most now is that the jewelry industry supply chain scores a C- at best. This low grade reflects just how much room there is for improvement. Jewelry can be a force for good and positive change in the world. We are tasked with making that statement true, particularly for the most vulnerable people and parts of the planet where our materials are extracted and processed.