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Nicky Shopland : Jewellery Award Finalist Sparkles

August 2008

Carol Anne is incredibly proud to have been praised by the National Jewellery awards this year and for Nicky to have been selected as finalist for the ‘Star of The year’ Category

Last year was an exceptional year for Carol Anne Jewellery; celebrating our 25th Birthday, opening our third store in Exeter Princesshay, launching a new collection of our own hallmarked diamonds and now for Nicky Shopland the Sales Director, to have been shortlisted for ‘Star’ of the year really is the icing on the cake

The Jewellery awards launched a decade ago recognise and reward the very best in the jewellery industry including major multiples, designers and product collections, bringing together the entire industry for a night of celebration when the winners will be announced.

Last year Nicky completed the intensive GEM-A (diamond training) and went on to source a breathtaking collection of diamonds for Carol Anne. Andy Gubb, Director comments “Driven not just by this technical skill and knowledge of jewellery, it was her innate talent loaded with integrity that enabled her to lead the development of this – our own hallmarked collection of diamond jewellery and wedding rings”. This intensive course is by no means easy, included on the course were individuals from stores all over the world and many failed to reach the required standard.

Carol Anne’s product collections are ever changing and this continued desire to showcase distinctive, beautiful jewellery created by the worlds leading designers is now recognised by the industry. Despite having 3 stores now, Carol Anne are determined however, to maintain their philosophy of individuality thus ensuring each store stocks different collections. Today Carol Anne stock product from some of the hottest, including Rachel Galley and Paul Spurgeon as well as many lesser know local designers and makers and this their own new collection has enabled them to continue to offer top quality products at reasonable prices. Nicky Comments “Unfortunately today, lots of Jewellers offer a bespoke design service, but without the knowledge of Diamonds the customer can quite often get persuaded to buy diamonds that just aren’t up to scratch. She continues “Size isn’t everything when it comes to diamonds! It is more important to get the cut and clarity of a diamond right and quite often we will reject 95% of the diamonds we first see from suppliers – quality is everything.”
Nicky isn’t the only one to have excelled at training this year most of the staff in all 3 stores have worked hard to accomplish their JET 1 & JET 2 with top marks – the recognised Jewellery training standard.

Having recently been featured in the jewellery section of the Guardian Shopping Directory as one of the South West’s leading retailers of designer silver and now to be recognised nationally by the jewellery industry – it is reassuring to know you don’t have to make that trip up to London to find the best jewellery designs from around the world, just pop into Carol Anne.

If you would like your own individual diamond commission, Nicky is available for consultantion pop into store to find out more.