The person (the lovely and brilliant Karen) who keeps me on track with my social media campaign started a "sweepstakes" where we give away a ring every week with that months birthstone. Being April, the featured stone is a diamond...and so I made 4 rings, each set with a small diamond. The very 1st winner of this sweepstake contest was a very nice person, Susan, who sent me this great letter that reminds me of my notion that there are no coincidences between people in this world.
"Hello Hugo,
It is wonderful to hear from you. I can't tell you how
excited I am to have won this ring, and especially on what would have been my
mother's birthday. I really do feel like this is a sign from her, and I
will treasure the ring that much more as a result. I'm a size 4.5 --
thank you so much for offering to size it for me.
I have loved your work since my jeweler, Chris Little, first
introduced me to it several years ago. We were designing a ring for a
loose diamond my husband had purchased for me, and I was drawn over and over to
the Chris' "estate" case. There was nothing in the case at that
time that "spoke" to me, but I fell in love with the vintage look and
knew that was what I had to have. That's when Chris brought out a small
catalog he had of your work. We settled on a filigree setting that was
meant for a stone much larger than mine, but Chris was able to add an enhancer
behind my diamond and it worked beautifully. He set 18 additional small
diamonds throughout the filigree work and the ring is just beautiful. I
get so many compliments on it. I later had Chris set an 8 x 10 amethyst
into another of your settings and it, too, is beautiful. I'm excited to
add this new ring to my collection of your work, and I've added one of your
bracelets to my "wish list" for Christmas!
It's been wonderful to read your blog and view some of your
videos on your website and Facebook page. I knew that you worked from
original hubs and dies from the 1800s, but learning about how passionate you
are about your work and the beauty of vintage jewelry just makes me value my
pieces that much more.
Thank you again. I have told all of my friends about your
Facebook page and I know several of them have entered the drawing for this
week's ring. Your fan-base is certainly growing and hopefully they will
turn into lifelong customers as well.
Best,
Susan
This sweepstake is sort of
self serving in that it's part of a campaign to build a customer base as I
change my model from strictly B to B to also go B to C. Yet, with no
planning or design I managed to get this very gracious person a lovely keepsake
that is symbolically important to her. I'm not quit certain who got the
most enjoyment out of this, her or me?! How cool is that??? Very!
~ This sweepstake has concluded ~
