The first thing you’ll notice about our new custom jeweler Heather Jo Raiter is their magnificent head of curly hair! They didn’t always embrace their curls, and tell us that they hated them so much as a child that they wore their head shaved from about the third to the eighth grade. With a flair for the dramatic, it’s no surprise that Heather Jo’s undergrad is actually in theatre. They continue to work in theatre in their spare time, and just wrapped Haunted Basement, where they work hard to imagineer things that scare people for fun.
Before busing to work each day, Heather Jo likes oatmeal for breakfast, unless their partner Phil is cooking, in which case they get bacon and eggs. Did I mention, they’ve never owned a car? Heather Jo hates driving! They love Hawaii where their parents live, and they travel there each year for a few weeks to visit them.
Heather Jo started making custom jewelry when they were about ten years old, doing freeform bead weaving. They worked at the Bead Monkey for years while in college, and after college found the jewelry manufacturing program at MCTC and fell in love.
Heather Jo’s most precious thing they’ve made as a custom jeweler is their own belt buckle, which features a piece of copper plate from a lithograph made by a dear friend, and the words, “kiss me” in Spanish. When Heather Jo attended Spanish immersion school as a child, they remember getting into trouble for using the school dictionary to look up swear words in Spanish.
Heather loves garnets, especially spessartine garnets and color change varieties. They’re fascinated with the inclusions inside gems, and love exploring with the microscope. They were attracted to New Gild Jewelers because of the camaraderie, the sunlight from our floor to ceiling windows, and the chance to get back on the bench. After a number of years working as a jewelry designer, they’re honing their bench skills and stone setting and has fallen in love with custom jewelry all over again.
Come by and meet Heather Jo, or anyone here soon, in our custom jewelry studio in the Linden Hills neighborhood of Minneapolis. We promise you’ll feel the New Gild difference–it’s not business, it’s personal.
