Kit Kuhn is a jeweler and an artisan

Jewelry store celebrates 20 years in Gig Harbor

Susan Schell

of the Gateway

Anyone who looks closely into the display cases at Kit Kuhn — A Jeweler Designed For You on Harborview Drive won’t just find the usual gold, silver and sparkling stones glinting back at them.

Although there’s plenty of that, an observer also will find intricately detailed pieces of art.

An even closer look reveals familiar scenes — Mount Rainier with the moon shining behind it, fir trees lining the shore, a fishing boat with water splashing across its bow as it slices through the water — all delicately carved into diminutive rings, lockets and brooches.

Kuhn, the store’s owner, has photographs of some of the pieces he has designed for clients enlarged to show the details. His work isn’t just jewelry — it’s often a conversation piece.

“This one woman wanted a scene of the entrance to the harbor,” Kuhn said. “Here’s the lighthouse, some of the buildings and the mouth of the harbor. And this is all on a ring about this big.”

Kuhn held his index finger and thumb up about a quarter of an inch apart to prove his point.

“People that come in here want very specific things,” he said. “It can take me about 65 hours to make a ring. That’s why we’re called ‘A Jeweler Designed for You.’

“We design exactly what people want. Other jewelers tell people what they want. We make about 75 percent of everything that’s in the store.”

Kuhn’s painstaking work shows in his creations, and he revels in the details. He studied the work of Carl Faberge’ and has books about the famed Russian jeweler on shelves lining the walls.

Before settling down in Gig Harbor, Kuhn moved for seven years — living in Oregon, California and Sweden — studying his craft.

“My goal was to learn from the best,” he said. “I may not become as good as them, but I could become a product of all of them put together.”

The reason he finds it so important is because jewelry is very personal to people, he said. Kuhn once spent nearly nine hours talking to a couple about their piece.

“I do like to talk,” he said. “That’s a benefit in this business, because a lot of creative people aren’t very sociable.”

Kuhn will bend over backward to make something sentimental for his clients, sometimes with peculiar results.

“One woman wanted cat hair in her locket,” he said. “Another wanted something fashioned from titanium screws she had removed from her hip. We’ll do anything to give people what they want. We’ve made things here that make people cry.”

One locket has a picture of a beloved pet — the animal’s ashes are actually encased the locket. A widow’s wedding ring was melted and merged with their husband’s to create a pendant.

“This was her memorial to her love for her husband,” Kuhn said.

The tools of the jeweler’s trade are located in a corner right inside the window to take advantage of the harbor foot traffic and to create an old-fashioned, windowfront feel.

“When I was very young, I lived in the mountains of Colorado and there was a glass blower in town,” Kuhn said. “I used to look in the window and watch him. I was intrigued by how he worked with the glass and shaped it. I want to have that same feel here and let people watch me work.

“People hate it when you take their jewelry into the back room.”

Kuhn participates in the monthly art walk for downtown Gig Harbor, a venue that allows people to visit local studios and watch artisans at work. He is a founding member of “Peninsula Hands-on Art,” an organization that helps promote the arts in elementary schools.

Kuhn installed the chalkboard at the Gig Harbor post office for children to draw on while they wait for their parents.

His jewelry store is celebrating 20 years in business, and Kuhn plans to stick around for a while.

“I love this area,” he said. “I like small towns. When I first saw Gig Harbor, I fell in love with it. It reminded me of Sausalito (Calif.) 25 years ago.”

Kuhn worked out of several locations before he settled into his current space on Harborview Drive just south of Spiro’s restaurant. He remembers the “old days,” when his store was located above Spiro’s and he lived in an apartment on the opposite side of the harbor. Kuhn often jumped in his kayak and paddled across the water, tied at the public dock, and walked up the street to work.

He married a local woman — a Wauna native. Kathy Kuhn designs jewelry alongside her husband, and artisan Jenny Thomas completes the trio who run the store.

“We are all artisans here,” Kuhn said. “When people ask who the jeweler is, I say, ‘All of us.’ ”

The business is thriving, and Kuhn has been around long enough to see second-generation clients.

“I have teenagers come in whose parents had their wedding rings made here,” he said. “My father told me I would never make it as a jeweler. I had to prove him wrong.”

Reach Lifestyles Coordinator and reporter Susan Schell at 253-853-9240 or by e-mail at susan.schell@gateline.com.