I recently enjoyed visiting Hunt Country Jewelry Repair Mesa: a second-generation family-owned gem of a jewelry store in picturesque Purcellville, VA, and I can’t wait to tell you about it.
First things first: the setting. Purcellville is a beautiful little town in the center of Virginia wine country. Rolling hills, vast skies, friendly residents, wine everywhere. It’s worth visiting on its own.
Hunt Country Jewelry Repair Mesa is right in the center of the town, across from a distillery. It’s a bright, open, thoughtfully designed space that feels such as, for instance, a gallery without the standoffishness. Warm wooden display cases, bright-lit, dot the room, holding sets from large, custom showpieces to sterling silver earrings to loose gemstones awaiting their fates.
I met Logan and Carolyn of Hunt Country Jewelers at a GIA event some months ago. After chatting with Carolyn for some minutes, I complimented her glasses frames: they were gold-colored, with pretty little details. She responded, “Oh, thanks! My husband made them.” He then proceeded to tell me how she was fed up with needing to own bent glasses frames repaired, so her husband made her a set out of actual gold so he could fix them himself at his jeweler’s bench whenever necessary.
The ring above includes tanzanite that Logan and Carolyn brought back from their honeymoon (didn’t you visit gem mines on your honeymoon?) in a custom-made setting that shows a tiny wildlife scene: within the foreground, you can see a rose gold mama elephant with her baby, in front of the spreading branches of a stand of trees that hold the central tanzanite.
Every step of the method – from selecting and cutting the tanzanite to designing, Jewelry Repair Mesa creating, and perfecting the setting – was conceived and executed by way of a member of the Hunt Country Jewelers family. And when I say “family,” I do mean family: husband and wife Ed and Claire Cutshall were the ones who founded the business, and now their son Logan and his lovely wife Carolyn are involved as well.
That’s three lapidaries and two Gemologists: Ed even holds the patent to a gemstone cut, the Jubilant Crown, and his designs have taken home awards in the International Pearl Competition and the AGTA Spectrum Awards.
Following their father’s gemological footsteps, Logan has eveLogan n been dabbling in gem importing through his connections at certain African mines. He says he enjoys seeing all the rough that comes through, and – better still – he gets first to pick off the stones.
It only takes one look around the showroom to observe that Hunt Country Jewelers is run by those who love gemstones: bright green garnets, vibrant tourmalines, and rich tanzanites stand out among more often seen stones like Aquas, diamonds, sapphires, and amethyst. Hunt Country Jewelers’signature style is light and airy, often featuring swirling designs reminiscent of Celtic knots but more freeform. It’s beautiful and distinctive, providing an excellent foil for stones like the good tanzanite in the setting above.
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