NOT JUST JEWELRY
Painting passion used for wearable art
Jewelry is an art form. Just ask Antoine Abeddy, whose Sudbury jewelry store, Date
& Time, is an overt nod to his creative roots.
“My background is fine arts,” Abeddy told the Track. “But I came to find out that with fine arts, as an artist, you’ll only make money when you’re dead. Luckily, there’s a lot of common ground between fine arts and jewelry.”
“I mean, it’s all art,” he added.
Over the past 20 years or so, Abeddy has managed to channel his passion for painting into the world of wearable masterpieces. He said he first gravitated toward the luxury jewelry industry because of his fascination with timepieces, with him soon discovering the beauty of gems, diamonds and design.
But aesthetics are only a piece of the high-end jewelry puzzle. Along the way, Abeddy said he, like many others in his profession, has needed to undergo training so he could also tackle the technical aspect of the trade.
“We do go through a lot,” he said. “There’s a lot on the technical side of this industry that you have to be up to speed with. It’s the metal. It’s the stones that we use — the cut, the color, the clarity. It’s how it’s casted, it’s if the polish is good, if the setting is good.”
“With all of these technical things, you could have two different rings that look the same, but on the inside, one is really poor quality and one is really good quality,” he continued. “You have to understand exactly how the production side works so that when you acquire jewelry, you can look at it, inspect it and make sure that it’s done to your standards.”
And that’s just for static pieces of bling. The business owner pointed out that when it comes to watches, the tech is even more complex.
“On the timepieces side, it doesn’t get more mechanical than that,” Abeddy said. “A lot of engineering goes into producing these timepieces, and it’s amazing the engine that they create. It could run for like 20 years or 30 years nonstop without any electronics.”
“Think about it: It’s a bunch of gears put together to create a machine that sits on your wrist and runs for years and years,” he said.
With the baubled nuts and bolts covered, Abeddy is attempting to tap into his artistic flair and incorporate it into the jewelry-buying experience. After decades of working in the business, he opened Date & Time last year and has tried to make it a haven of inspiration.
With that in mind, the space is set up almost like a gallery, featuring paintings, sculptures and accent pieces. Even the jewelry cases are embedded into the walls or put up on pedestals, making them look more like parts of an exhibit than a sterile store display. And to add to the ambience, Abeddy said the store hosts guest artists at featured events and welcomes musicians for live performances at its piano.
“This is why you look at the store and see that it embodies jewelry and timepieces, but also art,” Abeddy said. “It has a feeling of being a museum more than a jewelry store. We tried to create an environment that’s comfortable luxury, where people can come in, sit down and spend time.”