About >
About me and Kirov Jewellery Studio I started Kirov JS in 1993 by fitting my small workshop at home and resigning from my job as a goldsmith just when I was marked for pay raise. My customers were mainly from the trade with some occasional private. In 1996 I started my long partnership with Concordia regarding ancient coin jewellery and together we went to two jewellery trade shows – one in Los Angeles and another in New York. I still manufacture limited number of high quality coin and cross pendants for customer in US. In 1999 I opened my first (and last) shop in Canal Walk Shopping centre, just to realize that successful retailing of jewellery has little to do with the quality of merchandise and service but is rather based on location and marketing skills. We were 27 jewellers in one shopping centre! I had to find a niche where I can fully utilize my designing and manufacturing knowledge and a way to broadcast my concept to as big as possible audience. I decided to go for customized pieces and choose the internet as marketing media in order to leave out the debilitating effects of huge overhead and provide my customers with really competitive prices.
This web site is preceded by my first all encompassing affiliate site Jewelgateway, my Palladium Only web store Palladium Diamond Rings and a highly informative Jewellery Blog aimed to give the jewellery enthusiast independent insider`s advice. The beauty of designing and quoting customized jewellery is that one can afford to be totally honest in ones advice to the customer without losing profit The lack of stock to clear, adds up to any deal being equally good.
About myself
I was born in Dobrich – Bulgaria, where I spent the first 30 years of my life. My formal musical education as a violinist did not give me technical background, but placed me on a foundation with solid aesthetic values. Classical music still helps me to concentrate when I work on my designs. Discovering that playing violin is not where my heart is, left me on a crossroad with too many options, most of which required radical redirection.
In 1985 I entered the world of metal craft in the shape of apprentice knife maker position in the Ethnographic Complex “The Old Dobrich”. I took this job by chance, mostly because my brother, Rado Kirov, was already working in the next door workshop as a coppersmith, and knew the position was open. Although I started as an apprentice, there was not master to teach me so I had to master myself into a knife maker. I did this pretty fast.
Working in a team with my brother I have accomplished numerous commissioned artistic metal works in Bulgaria between 1985 and 1990 apart from over 400 knifes handcrafted for this period. I was usually responsible for the art works and steel part of any project while my brother was doing the copper and brass part. The handles of my exclusive knives I shaped mainly from bone and buffalo horn and from the off cuts, as a byproduct, I started making jewellery. Small rings with mother of pearl and silver inlay, elaborate chandelier earrings and neck pieces. Silver was very scarce, and used only for inlay while the main metal was dental wire. I started selling these byproducts of my knife making in the nearby Black sea resort “Albena” and in 1989 resigned the knife making and fitted a small workshop in the basement. Dealing with tourists proved to be fairly lucrative and for two consecutive years I manage to save some money for my trip.
In 1991 I moved to South Africa. Here was my first glance at the fine jewellery and diamond trade. At the age of thirty I decided to do a second radical career redirection and move to jewellery making. With my already substantial knowledge in metal works and a bit of luck I found job as a goldsmith in the exclusive studio of Kohler Master Goldsmith in the centre of Cape Town. I was in position for which I was not fully qualified since my experience with gold and precious stones was zero, and in order to stay there I had to meet the expectations of my employers fast.
In 1993 I resigned, fitted my own small workshop and started Kirov Jewellery Studio.
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