June 26, 2025 • 47 mins
In this inspiring episode, Shawna and LaLa explore the deeper meaning behind the question: Are you hauling rocks or building a cathedral? They reflect on how sunny summer days have boosted their mental health and share powerful life lessons they wish they knew in their 20s, like following your dreams and proving naysayers wrong.The episode also features an exclusive interview with Elisa Gilbert, founder of Vivienne Charles Jewelry. Elisa shares her family’s four-generation legacy in jewelry-making, revealing how the craft and industry have evolved over the years.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
From the heart of the city, where the beat meets
the rhythm of your day. It's Shauna and.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
You're listening to Shauna and Lalla. Check us out at
Shaunaanlala dot com on all social media platforms at Shauna
and La La. You could follow me on Instagram at
the Real Shawna May.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
And check me out at Bella Underscore La La one
two five.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
We finally got some nice weather. Uh Saturday, I believe
it down. No, Saturday was nice right.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Or Sunday it was a nice weekend. It was a
beautiful weekend. Sunday we had the thunderstorm for a little bit,
but then it was beautiful again.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Yeah, this weather has been insane. It finally feels like
summer for once.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
And it went from one extreme to the next. It
was like chilly and rainy to boom one hundred degrees
undred degrees.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Yeah, no in between, No, there was nothing in between,
no rain for like two days. So I'm like thanking
God over here.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
I know, and the temperatures are gonna cool down now,
but I'm good as long as we don't get rain
every day or on the weekend, at least, I'm happy.
I'll take the heat so many people are complaining right now,
Oh I know, Oh I want winter back. Oh this heat.
I'm like, shut your mouth, shut up, shut up. No,
I would take one hundred degree whether any day over
(01:33):
negative or icy or cold and dark and gloomy.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Me too, right, yeah, Like what is wrong with these people?
Speaker 1 (01:39):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (01:39):
Okay, it's hot. Is it uncomfortable sometimes? Yeah, but I'd
rather this than be freezing and shivering and bundling up
and slipping and being depressed without the sun.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
I was just gonna say that my mental health has
been so much better with it being sunny out and
being outside, and I'm sleeping better. Well not really, but
you never sleep.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
Better, so no, but yeah, the fresh air. You can
open your window. I mean now you can't because it's hot,
but I was able to open my windows all this
time and just be outside. That can heal you in itself,
That makes you, you know, the sun gives you endorphins
and booster vitamin D, which is energy and makes you
feel good and it's just an amazing thing. And I
(02:24):
don't know why anyone would want winter back when this
is just it's no, no winter, please.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
I can't wait to move, I know, I say, this
like every week on the show. I seriously cannot wait
to move. I will come back here for summers, but
I will be spending my winters in someplace.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
Warm, like somewhere down south.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Right, Yes, Florida, South Carolina I'm okay with, preferably Florida.
I don't know if South Carolina really gets as.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
Hot as Florida, but yeah, I and a lot of
people complain that when I tell them I want to
move to Florida, Like, but the heat, I was like, okay,
but the beach. But the pool, Yeah, the beautiful folly,
like the flowers and the green all year long, and
the sun all year long, and the people are so
nice down there. I love it. I love going down south.
(03:17):
I mean South Carolina does get hot too, and that's
on the table for me. Also because I will miss
my woods, you know me, I'm a big I like
to go hiking. I love my woods. I love I
spend every morning I go for a walk in the
woods with my dog. And I'm gonna miss that. So
South Carolina does offer that too, while giving me the
heat and giving me the beach.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
So it's but the beach isn't as nice.
Speaker 3 (03:41):
No, South Carolina beaches aren't as pretty or nice or
clean clear as a lot of the Florida beaches. So yeah,
we have to wait it out. It's it's hard, but hey,
either one I'll be happy, and I think either state.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
Just as long as we get away from this winter coldness.
Oh yeah, and New.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
York, New York. I'm done with New York and I'm
done with the winters. I just can't we have My
husband has two and a half more years ago on
the job and then he can retire. I mean, it's
crazy when I say I can't believe that he's going
to be forty five when he retires. That's young, you know.
But he's he wants out, and he wants an easier,
more a relaxing and warm lifestyle. You know, I can't
(04:23):
wait for it. Part of me is gonna miss. I
do love the area that we live in. The Hudson
Valley is gorgeous, it really is, you know, but it's
I'd rather be down south.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
Oh yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
I wish I was able to have enough money to
have a summer home up here. And then the rest
of it, well, I do like fall. We love fall,
spring and summer, so I wish I could do those
seasons here and then go to Florida for the winter.
You know, that would be great, That would be like perfect,
But yeah, not happening yet. My bank count's not building
on that much.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
And that's something that I wish I knew when I
was younger, was how much things cost. You know, when
you're young and you're a kid, you're like, oh, I
want this Barbie doll or I want this you know,
toy or whatever. Now as an adult, I'm like, Man,
if I saved all my money that I had for
(05:18):
like birthdays and Christmas and graduations, you know, I would
be like a millionaire if.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
You didn't buy all the silly crap that you buy
as a teenager. Yeah, yeah, no, I know. I know.
I had like a nice little account that my parents
built up for me, and then you know, I spent it. Yeah,
not on bad things, but still I'm like, oh, that
could have just kept building some interest there and money.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Exactly, we don't.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
Know, but that's part of growing up. I guess. You know,
you learn the hard way. You enjoy life without that.
I think that's the only time period in your life
when you're a kid to a teen where you're not stressing,
like about money or the future. You're just like, oh
I want this, I'm getting it right now, and it's
so care free. I think that it's a good thing
that we go through that, because the rest of our life,
(06:06):
you're never doing that again. You're never feeling that care
freness unless you're a billionaire wife that doesn't have to work,
you know, and you're just sitting there.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
Yeah, exactly like the people on TikTok, those rich wives
that oh, go shopping with me? Yeah, you know, like
in Dubai there's just one that I follow.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
Oh yes, I think I follow her. Her husband just
like gives her.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
An allowance, like a daily allowancesands.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
Of dollars a day, and she's yeah, so they probably
are care free.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
Well, we need to meet someone like that.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
Oh I do you do? And then you can give
me the extra money that you don't spend, you know, like,
how much can you spend a day? Seana? Not that much?
Speaker 2 (06:44):
Mike Michae will be like, where'd you get this from?
Speaker 3 (06:47):
Oh? What, I gonna call you my mistress Shauna, my
sugar mama Shauna. Yeah, I mean yeah, but again, I
think that we all have to go through that to
learn that, just to experience that carefuls of spending money,
enjoying it and then before the real world hits us.
And for me, there was like two things that if
I can go back into my twenties and like smack myself,
(07:10):
it would be boys and your goal, like a goal,
you know, as for boys, Like I wish I didn't
think that my first boyfriend or even my second boyfriend
was like gonna be my husband. You know, you kind
of get trapped in that, like this is the one
I'm in love even though you don't even know. Yeah,
and it's like you miss you miss out on so much.
I wish I didn't focus that time on on the
(07:33):
you know, a relationship you're I should have been having fun.
I should have been having some girls trips or just
enjoying my youth without worrying about being in a relationship,
you know, and then knowing when they're when they're jerks
to just don't cry over it. Yeah it's upsetting, but
like bye bye. You know, life is life is short,
and I'm gonna meet a lot of people in my
(07:54):
life and you're not the one. So I wish I
could go back and like get those years back that
I wasted on stupid men, you know, when you're in
your twenties.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
Yeah, those are good.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
That's a good time period in your life. And a
lot of us wasted on men.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
I wasted mine. Yeah, by not doing anything, not going anywhere.
I worked all the time. Well, I went to college,
I went to you know, I graduated high school, and
I worked and that is what I did. Mm hmm.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
But were you happy though? Did you you enjoyed.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
It or I enjoyed it? Yeah, so then it's.
Speaker 3 (08:26):
Not I mean, I get what you're saying, but you
did enjoy it, and that and the field that you
worked in was what you're doing now, right, podcast radio.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
And then I was also a admin assistant for many
years for a not for profit company, and that corporate
world was horrible, absolutely horrible. I couldn't wait to leave.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
So yeah, if you want to look at the positive
in that situation, as you knew, like, I don't want
to get into that world. It's not going to stay
in the radio world, you know. So it was a
little beneficial to you, but you did. Yeah, you probably
wasted a lot of time where you could have been
just carefree, having fun.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
You know, could have traveled, could it went out every
night exactly?
Speaker 3 (09:06):
And like that's something I also wish I focused on
was in school. Back then, they they preached college, they
preached like you know, a lawyer, doctor. It was never
what what do you enjoy doing? What do you love?
And looking back like I love as you know, I
love film, I love editing, I love acting.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
But they didn't have those kind of thing.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
But I should have realized, like I enjoy this so much,
Like I look back, I have home videos and I
have video after video of me creating movies, directing them,
producing them, like on my VCR with my with my
friends and filming them and telling them what to do.
And then I'd put it all together with a VCR
like he didn't have editing tools back then. I had
(09:49):
to stop record, play stop or wine, you know, and
I would make these these vhss of movies or little skits.
I enjoyed that. Why didn't I follow that dream and
build it? And I could have been what I want
to be an actress or directing and making movies, you know.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
And I think it's because you know, when you get
into high school, the guidance counselors they pull you in
and they ask you what you want to do. And
I always said I wanted to be a talk show host,
and they would laugh at me and they would be like,
pick a real job, exactly, pick a real job. Do
you want to be a teacher? Do you want to
be a doctor, a nurse? Do you want to do
(10:30):
like accounting? Do you want to like what do you
want to do? And I'm like, I want to be
a talk show host. I said, I want to be
like Oprah. I want to be like Ellen or you
know whoever at that point, and they were like, pick
a real job. So they don't help you in that situation.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
They didn't for me. That's what when I told my
guidance counselor, he was like, that's cool. That could be
a hobby. But what about a real job. What do
you want to go to college for? So I picked paralegal.
I went to college and I did a paralegal course
and it was dreadful. I was like this, I don't
want to do this for the rest of my life,
(11:09):
you know. And I didn't finish it.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
Did you learn shorthand? No?
Speaker 3 (11:13):
I don't think we even I got to that point.
I was so miserable. After the first year, I was like,
I can't do this, you know, I'm gonna sit here
and do all this work and research and writing like no.
So but yeah, I wish I followed and went to school.
My guidance counselor should have told me, you can go
to school to learn how to film and all that
there is. I know, ach has it, my brother did it.
(11:34):
So I'm kind of I wish that those are the
things that I regret, and I wish I could go
back and put myself on a different course in life,
and I probably would have been happier in my career choice,
you know.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
Yeah, And I think you know, they always push this
agenda on you. You know, you need a bachelor's degree.
You need a bachelor's degree. And I've said it from
the beginning. I don't need a piece of paper to
prove that I know something.
Speaker 4 (11:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
When I did work in that corporate feel I knew
more and did a better job than my coworkers that
had the degree. Yeah, so don't tell me I need
a piece of paper and four years of college to
say that I know how to do a job exactly.
Speaker 3 (12:16):
And these kids, and now they have debt up the butt,
you know, like because they can't find jobs, find jobs
in the random fields that they picked.
Speaker 4 (12:24):
You know.
Speaker 3 (12:26):
So I'm glad in a way that I did not.
I don't have that student loan hanging over my head.
But I wish I did. I wish I did go
for what sparked my entrance film You shouldn't acting, And
you know, I wish I did something along those lines
instead of going, Eh, I guess I got to pick
a real job.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
You know.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
My niece went for to be an art teacher, and
I think she has like one year left and she
wants to switch her major because she can't find a job.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
No, you can't, you can't.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
It's so difficult.
Speaker 3 (12:54):
It's well, the jobs want experience, even if you have
a degree, and then you're like, well, how do I
get experience? And so yeah, it's hard out there.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
It's like a catch twenty two. You know, to be
a physical therapist, Now you used to have to go
to school for I don't know, four years, maybe six years.
Now you need a doctorate. So at that point, why
not just become a doctor?
Speaker 3 (13:15):
Mm hm exactly.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
So I think that is also why there's a shortage
of physical therapists, yes, occupational therapists, speech therapists. It is
because of the school and they need now.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
Oh yeah, yep. There's a shortage in a lot of
areas because they change regulations. And sometimes changing regulations is great,
but other times if right now you're hindering those physical therapists.
You've seen physical therapists since you were a baby, Yeah,
and they didn't have a doctor and they did just that.
They were amazing and they did their job and they
knew what to do. You know, if it was working,
(13:48):
then why change it, you know, why make it harder?
So now people aren't getting help, People aren't getting the
therapy because there's not enough people.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
To do it. Yeah, exactly. You know, there's a shortage
of nurses. It's a huge shortage of doctors. There's a
shortage of help in hospitals. And it all comes down
to they don't want to pay and schooling.
Speaker 3 (14:10):
Yes, yep, it's tough, it really is. And that's my
advice to younger listeners right now is if there's something
that you thoroughly enjoy doing, sometimes you don't need to
go to college for it, other times you do, but
have that in mind and go for it and go
after it, even if it's not a real job, as
(14:31):
they say, if it makes you happy, go for it
and do everything you can to get to that point.
And you don't again, like I tell my nieces and nephews,
you don't need that one hundred k, eighty k student
loan hanging over your head. If you don't know what
you want to do, don't go to college. Don't it's
you know, that's my opinion. Figure it out. There's blue collar,
there's trades like those things are paying a lot of
(14:52):
money right now, oh my god. And there's a shortage
of that too, So you know, it's not always about college.
Speaker 4 (15:00):
No.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
You know, electricians they make so much money.
Speaker 3 (15:04):
And I told my son, I said, what do you
want to be? You don't know? You know, we're not
sending you to college. If you don't know, you're gonna
pick a trade.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
You know.
Speaker 3 (15:13):
He's like, I want to be a football player. Okay,
well listen, what makes you happy? Football? I get it.
You know, he's tiny, so we're we're hoping he grows.
But you know, me and my husband are short, so
we're not going to crush his dreams. He could be
a football player, but He's like, I'm gonna be in
an NFL, all right, what else besides that would you
want to do?
Speaker 2 (15:30):
You know, Hey, you know Nate Robinson who I've met
several times. He's only five something. Yeah, and he was, Yeah,
he won like NBA Player of the Year or something
many years ago. He won a few like contests and
he was, he was an NBA player. He played for
the next Well, I guess there's hoping, there is hope.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
Let's hope. Let's hope he gets you know. So I'm
not crushing his dreams, but I'm like, I don't want
you to have a eighty thousand dollars student loan hanging
over your head. And you're like, oh, I don't know,
I don't I didn't really, I don't know what I
want to do. You know, Yeah, just pick something and
that you enjoy, not just don't just pick something. Pick
something that you thoroughly enjoy. That's gonna make you happy.
(16:13):
And yeah, that's the advice. What's crazy is that we
had the most amazing interview with this jeweler named Elisa Gilbert,
and it all ties into what we're talking about right now.
The more I was talking, I'm like This is what
we just spoke about with Elisa, you know, following your heart,
following your dreams, and making yourself happy versus just the
(16:34):
same old, same old, the nine to five prison, you
know of you're not happy there, but you're doing it. Hey,
I need to make money.
Speaker 4 (16:39):
You know what I mean?
Speaker 2 (16:40):
Because it's a paycheck that you could rely on.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
Yes, yes, and sometimes that's great, but other times it's like,
what's worth it? Your your happiness or you know money.
As long as you can have a roof over your head,
food in your mouth, you don't always have to put
yourself in misery just sticking by that job that you
don't want to be in, you know. So we drove
to Elisa's gorgeous house and she took us into her studio.
(17:05):
That was so pretty, right.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
It was gorgeous.
Speaker 3 (17:08):
It overlooked a lake. She built it, She built it,
and it was beautiful. It had all these windows around
it you saw the lake, and then behind it you
saw all the rocks that she uses for her jewelry.
But a little background information on her. So she was
a lawyer, right, a litigation lawyer, yes.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
And for many many many years.
Speaker 3 (17:26):
Many years successful, thirty years, oh, my god, really yeah,
super successful, and she just it wasn't just it wasn't right,
you know, she wasn't totally happy. And her father, her
grandfather's like it went back. I don't know how many generations.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
I think she said four generations.
Speaker 3 (17:46):
Four generations. They were all jewelers or watchmakers all you know,
creative individuals, but they focused on jewelry and she grew
up around it. She learned about it from them, especially
her father, and sad her father passed away and he
had all this leftover jewelry and molds and machinery and
(18:07):
rocks and stone, and she, you know, she came to
a crossroad, like she's gonna say, where's like do I
continue this? Do I continue their legacy? Or you know,
do I chuck all this in the garbage?
Speaker 4 (18:20):
You know?
Speaker 3 (18:21):
And it was just amazing listening to her, and you
guys are going to get to hear her story. But
every piece of jewelry that she makes has a story
behind it, and she gets that from her father, I believe,
because she was talking about her father's jewelry and there
was this one story about this little mouse that they
had these sugar packets because you use that to make
jewelry back then, the sugar and I guess there was
(18:42):
a mouse in it and it climbed up this chain
and he created this cute, the tiniest little mouse with that.
The attention to detail was just insane and it was
on this little chain. So that was the story behind that,
and she has continued that with her pieces. The stories
behind each piece was she It just showed that everything
(19:03):
that she does is not just I'm gonna make this today.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
It had a full story.
Speaker 3 (19:09):
Yeah, story has meaning, it's you know, and that's that's
tremendous because a lot of these other jewelers out there,
jewelry factories, i'm gonna call them, they just pump things
out like there's nothing really behind it. It's just like,
oh yeah, people might like this, people might like that.
But for Alisa, it was like creating something that meant
something to her and had a story and had the meaning.
(19:29):
So I love that she had this Mermaid piece, which
we're gonna share a photo of that. I wore it.
I absolutely love it. It was gorgeous. I was kind
of jealous that I couldn't just take it in my
pocket and take it home, you know, but beautiful beautiful, stunning,
goes around your neck, it holds a saran like when
you're on the beach, just beautiful, like who would think
(19:51):
of that?
Speaker 4 (19:52):
She?
Speaker 3 (19:53):
I was telling my husband, she's absolutely genius. Her mind
did the things that she creates and how she comes
up with this stuff is just genius to me. And
we love her way of thinking about life and about
the meaning of life and making yourself happy and the
advice she gave us. So I know you guys are
gonna love her. She doesn't have her jewelry and stores
(20:14):
right now, but it's in resorts and I'm hoping. I'm
hoping to see it in these big, big jewelry stores
because it's worth being there. And there's so many pieces
that are just just so stunning that you would never
see anything like that in a normal jewelry store.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
No, you wouldn't see anything any of her stuff in
a normal jewelry store.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
No.
Speaker 3 (20:34):
But she was incredibly nice. We loved her. She was
so welcoming. She got us chips and drinks and it
just felt like you were just chilling with a friend.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
Yeah, we love that.
Speaker 3 (20:42):
We love that. We got to see all her father's
equipment and all his molds and all the jewelry he
made and all the jewelries she made, and it just
felt like we knew so much about her and her
family just from that.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
We felt like family.
Speaker 3 (20:57):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
So.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
I like how she had all the original equipment. Yeah,
and then you know how she talked to us about like, well,
now they don't use you know, this and this and this,
they use you know, a computer to design it. Yep,
and it's just not the same.
Speaker 3 (21:13):
No, it was amazing to me. I was so intrigued
that we we got to learn in that short amount
of time the art, the old art of creating jewelry
from the lost art. I'm gonna call it the Lost
art of creating jewelry. And it is, guys. It's amazing
and no computer programming man made by yourself, creating these
(21:35):
molds by hand of a beautiful jewelry piece. It was
just so there's no words to describe it. And I'm
so glad that Sean and I got to witness this
and learn this, because not many people know that that's
how jewelry is made, and they're never gonna know it.
And I told her, like, you need to share this
with the world, like you need to teach people the
(21:56):
lost art of jewelry making. You know, maybe that's your legacy.
I truly believe it is, because it was. It was
amazing to learn all that and see all that and
how it was done. Like I never knew whoever thinks
of what goes into making a little piece of jewelry
or you know, a necklace, a ring, a bracelet. You
don't you never thought about it. I never thought about that. No,
(22:16):
So I won't say anymore because the interview will speak
for itself. But we're gonna be sharing videos and pictures
in the weeks to come, and if you.
Speaker 2 (22:24):
Want to check out her designs and purchase some of
her jewelry, you could go to Vivian Charles dot com
and that's v I v I E N N E
Charles dot com. She's also on Instagram at Vivian Charles Jewelry.
Speaker 3 (22:41):
But anyway, let's jump into the interview we had with
Alisa Gilbert from Vivian Charles Jewelry. So what changed your
mind on being a lawyer and got you to jump
fully into the jewelry world.
Speaker 1 (22:53):
Practicing lawge Verry Lucre worrying about somebody's problems that they
don't want to have, and them being associating you with
the worst time.
Speaker 4 (23:01):
Of their life.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
This is what I do.
Speaker 4 (23:03):
What I do for a living is I take care of.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
The worst time in people's lives all my life. All
I do every day is worry about the worst part
of your life.
Speaker 4 (23:10):
But it's very lucrative. You know, you can be making
you know you're gonna make a lot of money. You've
been doing it for years. Walking away from that is
to decide you're going to be more happy while you're
doing this.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
And the building the process is expensive and time consuming
and a lot of faith and a lot of real
marketing planning, and which is not jewelry making.
Speaker 4 (23:33):
Which is not nearly as much fun.
Speaker 5 (23:35):
It's like sitting around and you know, talking to like
coming up with a brand name, it's like a month
long process, and how did you come up with that name?
Speaker 4 (23:47):
I hired a branding company and I work shopped it,
workshopped it.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
And you talk about how you want people to feel
when they're buying your jewelry, and how you want them
to feel when they're wearing your jewelry. What's your image
of the shopping experience, what's your image of the person
who's wearing it, and you're like, it was literally I
felt like my brain was gonna slot out my air.
It was it like a twenty page book at the end,
and at the end of it, you're like, I don't care.
Speaker 4 (24:11):
If you just say use purple, purple would be the
brand name forever. And you're like, just give me a
brand name. At the end of I don't care anymore.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
Yeah, And so they're getting these names and they're like
contractions of your name and combinations of words that you
can't remember how to spell when they're done.
Speaker 4 (24:26):
And you're like, I don't think that's gonna work cause
I can't remember it.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
And then so I had this company working with me
and I get a phone call finally, like they've been
growing names up, you know.
Speaker 4 (24:38):
I get a phone call like eight in the morning.
The wife is really great.
Speaker 1 (24:42):
She was really it was a husband wife team and
uh she was really good and very uh under rated.
I think I had this Sowden middle of the night
Vivian Charles, just because Vivian Charles.
Speaker 4 (24:57):
Vivian is my mother. Fu Charles was my father.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
It's great, it works, it's easy, it says everything, and
it's and it sounds I was gonna say rebel Queen
viv Yeah, King Charles, and I was like done.
Speaker 4 (25:12):
It was like the easy decision. We were doing like
Scottish things because my father's Scottish. We were trying to
pull in the Scottish heritage. We were trying to pull
in them.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
It's like and I all I know about Scotland is
that people are kind of tough, and they she rocks
for breakfast and they had thistles. Is their their their
favorite flowers at this well?
Speaker 4 (25:31):
And that makes sense.
Speaker 1 (25:32):
It's like if you met my grandfather, you'd be like done,
got it the thistle. And then we were trying to
go with the logo and.
Speaker 4 (25:41):
Actually we ended up trying to modify the thistle.
Speaker 1 (25:43):
So if you look at the logo, it's actually a
modified thistle, but it's a d C.
Speaker 4 (25:49):
There's a lot of work to start off business. It's
a tremendous amount of work to start the brand. It's
not so hard to start a business.
Speaker 1 (25:56):
Like when I just started, you know, selling, people come
by and they were like asking, you know what I did?
Speaker 4 (26:04):
You know, and they wanted a piece of jewelry. You know,
people get really enthusiastic.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
And I have to say, when you're doing it, I'd
be a terrible salesperson, like in a you know, a
show or a store. But if you're just asking me
about jewelry and had it and like and I can,
it's a journey. It's a fun thing. I want to
like show you everything and take you on the whole
trip with me as I was making it.
Speaker 4 (26:31):
Why I did that, and why I did this, and
what this is supposed to be, telling you how you're
supposed to feel about this, and.
Speaker 3 (26:36):
So growing up with jewelers, how has your family history
of you know, your father was a jeweler, your grandfathers
were jewelers, How has that shaped your jewelry journey.
Speaker 1 (26:47):
I couldn't do this if it was in three generations,
four generations in my family.
Speaker 4 (26:52):
It is so unfair to even suggest that, even though.
Speaker 1 (26:57):
I am new at this end, we are a brand,
and I have not been doing this for thirty years,
recently five years mostly, it would be such a it's
such a misrepresentation because if somebody came in and wanted
to start from scratch and had five years of learning,
they'd be nowhere near this.
Speaker 4 (27:14):
You know, And even though I didn't do it I have.
I'm walking on shoulders of people who spent hundreds of
years doing it.
Speaker 1 (27:22):
And it's kind of like if I didn't name it
after my parents, it would be a criminal act, you know,
because it's not like it's me entirely, And that's just
what it is. When you're coming back at it, like
if you can't say you're like standing on even though
they're not here to help you, which sometimes I think
I can talk to him, and like most of the
time I think he's laughing at me, and he's like
(27:45):
I was wondering how long you're gonna take to figure
that out. I actually opened up a machine the killing
that we used to burn out the wax inside.
Speaker 4 (27:52):
There was a note, a note in himself. He like
thanked the oven for him to the temperature. It's like,
you never thank me. I kicked out buttons all summer long,
for summers, on top of summers, on top of summers.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
I never gonna thank you. I didn't get along one
o my god. But he was definitely a character. He
loved his choice of your father. Well, everything does, and
that's it's impossible for it not to, you know, Like
look around it's like everything's very ashently.
Speaker 4 (28:22):
So much of it was just as he left it,
you know, in mid stream. You know, at the first year,
all I did was finish a bunch of stuff. He
did didn't that he didn't finish, you know, he had
gotten it.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
Cast it, didn't lost interest in do it. At least
a year and a half I spent sorting stones. And
those weren't those stones. They were like the little tiny
ones where you're like cause he never put them in,
like he didn't play but them.
Speaker 4 (28:47):
He knew what they were, and he wasn't worrying about me, and.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
They weren't in like size order or all of the
sapphires together. You'd find sapphires here, you'd find sapphires in
my pocket, you'd findaphires in another cabinet.
Speaker 4 (29:01):
You find sapphires in the index card holder. But you
knew where they were exactly exactly, And what's your business?
I know where it is, what's yours? What do you
need to know where my sallies are for?
Speaker 1 (29:14):
That's that's the crazy, that's the first That's why it
never became anything I did than him, And that's where
I learned from that.
Speaker 4 (29:27):
It has to be indexed. And it's a it's a treasure,
but it means it will live on. It won't be
Who is this Gilbert guy? How come this Gilbert? I
see Gilbert everywhere. You know, it's not Vivian Charles, but
it was Gilbert for the longest time until this year.
Everything we do, we just Gilbert. That's my family's name,
(29:50):
and that's the name of their jewelers.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
Jewelry shop was every variation on Gilbert jewelry, Vijurie, Gilbert.
It was never like a brand. It was just that's
where we Yeah, I used to land my name on it.
Speaker 4 (30:02):
Why not.
Speaker 1 (30:02):
My father got a little fancy every once in a
while he put a seed gee on things because it
was Charles Gilbert and that was and.
Speaker 4 (30:08):
My grandfather never bothered to do that. And my great
grandfather was a watchmaker.
Speaker 1 (30:13):
He did clocks and watches, and there was sculptors in
there too, and my mother was a passion illustrator.
Speaker 4 (30:20):
Jeez, that's absolutely amazing.
Speaker 3 (30:22):
The creativity, the talent, the art is just surging through
your bloodline surging. Did you work in their jewelry shop
as a young child, or did they teach you how
to make jewelry.
Speaker 1 (30:32):
I remember when I was in junior high school and
I was working in the studio. I was like, I
wasn't pulling waxes. I was doing something much more mundane.
I was cutting circles out of silver with a kick press.
And I was sitting in a chair and there's a
machine called the kickpress, and there's a little bucket and
I was taking a piece of silver and I was
going and then a piece of silver.
Speaker 4 (30:52):
Good, down, and piecea so we're good in the bucket.
Speaker 1 (30:55):
And I turned to my grandfather and I'm like, Grandpa,
am I really going to do this all summer? Can't
we train a monk?
Speaker 4 (31:00):
Can you do this? And he's like, this is what
you'll be doing all summer and talk during week.
Speaker 1 (31:10):
It is a little like in our view of the
way things are done today and how you can do
so much the idea of kicking out. And I still
have some I found some of the little circles I
did that summer when I was Yeah, really, but it's
an art.
Speaker 4 (31:27):
It's like everything's in art. It is the bottom line.
Pulling a wax is an art. Making the mold is
an art. Knowing how to make.
Speaker 3 (31:35):
A mold Wow, So would you say that the art
of making jewelry has changed them? You know, like, what's
the difference between when your father and your grandfathers were
making jewelry to nowadays?
Speaker 4 (31:47):
You know what has changed?
Speaker 1 (31:49):
So if you make if I do something from scratch
and I want to make a mold on it, I
cast it and then I take that piece of metal
and I in this is you put that metal into
a bunch of rubber and then you heat it and
pressurize it, and then you have to cut.
Speaker 4 (32:05):
It out and then you have them another mold. So
now you can make another one, or you can change it,
or you can do whoever you want with it. And
that's how the jewelry world works, or did work almost
exclusively for many years. Now that's probably just a big factory.
Speaker 1 (32:22):
Well no, even then it could have been. But you know,
you have to have a lot of people pulling waxes
and stuff.
Speaker 4 (32:28):
So what happens with that is.
Speaker 1 (32:29):
It there are people who are really good at pulling waxes, right,
There are people who are really good at making molds,
Like they know where to put the vents in there
so that it builds. Because everything can be a problem, right,
you have the mold. You think, okay, great, you got
a wax injector you got your mold.
Speaker 4 (32:43):
What's the issue. Just stick the wax in the machine
in the mold, and you got to know it has
to be the right temperature inside the rubber. Some mold
doesn't flow.
Speaker 1 (32:53):
It has to have the right pressure as it's coming
into the mold or uls. Some mold doesn't flow, the
wax doesn't flow. It has to have vents so air
gets out, it's a little cavity and goes somewhere else
when the wax comes in or else it doesn't flow.
Speaker 4 (33:03):
And then you got or it has to have the
right cuts so that when you take them mold out
it doesn't break. So how would they do that today?
Speaker 1 (33:11):
Then I take some pieces to Career Casting in New
York and I say, make a mold for me.
Speaker 4 (33:19):
They have said to me, and I quote, that's unmoldable.
And I say, nothing's unmultible. What are you talking about? Unmoldable.
That's lunacy. Everything can be molded.
Speaker 1 (33:30):
Yeah, but they are professional in these professional jewelry and
they do what is done today. And if it isn't
easy to do the way that they do things, it's
just not going to get done. And there's their place,
and there's not a lot of people who are focused
so intensely on doing it and getting it done that
(33:51):
they're going to find the way to make this work.
Speaker 4 (33:54):
And they know they can and it will, and so
people will come to that one person. They'll become like
the little like grew in.
Speaker 1 (34:01):
This area, but they only do the most bizarrely difficult
and complicated things and then they're all kind of like
unicorns now and they're all going away. Yeah, and so
now everybody, so they don't even use rubber anymore.
Speaker 4 (34:13):
Rubber is very hard to find. And then there's all
kinds of mold.
Speaker 1 (34:17):
Being material they have now where it's just put it
in a cup and put it in like a pressurized
thing and it cures by itself overnight.
Speaker 4 (34:27):
No heat and pressure.
Speaker 1 (34:30):
But yeah, so that now they there's so many different
ways of doing this that the old ways are the
ways that you.
Speaker 4 (34:38):
Need to know how to do it if you want
to do something you neique.
Speaker 1 (34:40):
But Julie's kind of going into a slightly more conformed methodology.
Things are not as refined, they're not as delicate because
you can't do delicate in Cat.
Speaker 4 (34:55):
You can't do etching in Cat. You can't do engraving.
Speaker 1 (35:01):
You can do engraving like a name or something, but
you can't engrave like and it's not the same as
if you pull a wax and it's what it is.
Speaker 4 (35:09):
You know it's gonna cast. You know you've got that thing.
Speaker 1 (35:13):
So that's becoming the standard, though, so you're trading off
some of the skills that were around for years for
convenience and lower labor. And then I see my father
and me, I'm like, I can cast it myself. I
don't need to pay eleven dollars a piece to cut
carrera for them to cast this for me on top
(35:35):
of the price of the metal.
Speaker 4 (35:37):
And then I think that's eleven of those pieces.
Speaker 2 (35:39):
And then.
Speaker 4 (35:42):
And then casting takes a long time. And then if
a cast fails, you're like, oh, it's always of the night.
Speaker 3 (35:46):
So I'm gonna ask you how long does casting a
piece take?
Speaker 1 (35:50):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (35:50):
But it does take a lot of time. And if
you've got limited time, you call it carrera and you're like, oh,
can I bring it in? Then the next day you
have it metal. Yeah, do you think that's easier? But
the heck, I'm a lot easier. That's what I'm doing.
But then you're losing.
Speaker 1 (36:08):
Yeah, use, but that's then you're paying casting labor and
you're paying for other types of labor, so you I mean,
it's still labor.
Speaker 4 (36:14):
But when you do it yourself, you're like, oh, but
I'm gonna live that day anyway.
Speaker 1 (36:18):
Right, So if I spend my time doing that, it's
not the same as spending it spending money on somebody
else to do it.
Speaker 4 (36:23):
And you're like, yeah, every minute you spend it's something
you gotta think about how you want to spend it.
You know, it's your only you only have these many
days in your life.
Speaker 1 (36:31):
If you spend it like you know, sweeping the floor
or hauling rocks or building a cathedral.
Speaker 4 (36:37):
It's your choice, right, you choose.
Speaker 3 (36:40):
It's very true.
Speaker 4 (36:41):
It's it's all you have is your days. You don't
get the lousy days back. At the end, I'm like, oh, well,
this is a wasted day. I waste it out the credit.
But it's later, it'll be better when it's just one
day gone. It's gone like that.
Speaker 1 (36:56):
If well, you know, if the day you realize it
doesn't you start making some judicial decisions.
Speaker 4 (37:03):
How do you spend your time like otherwise you just
taken a long walk into a six foot all in
the ground. It's one way street and to a six
foot all in the ground.
Speaker 1 (37:10):
Like I really feel sorry for kids that are learning
it for the first time today and will never learn
how to be a bench your not that they should
have to be a bench.
Speaker 4 (37:19):
Yours to do it, but if you know how to
do it from hand, you know why to do.
Speaker 1 (37:24):
Certain things and why not to do other things, and
why some things will look better than others.
Speaker 4 (37:28):
And the balance of old and new, you know, like
makes it easier, it makes it brings it, brings it
into today.
Speaker 1 (37:37):
Yeah, you know, if it isn't today, otherwise I'm just
reliving my dad's life, right, and or my dad and
my grandfather and my great grandfather's life.
Speaker 4 (37:45):
And you have to move forward with these things, and.
Speaker 1 (37:48):
You know, without abandoning the parts that are good. Yeah,
there's always something good that you want to carry forward.
Speaker 4 (37:55):
And there's a lot of crap that you could you
could lose, just a lot of work to startup as them.
It's a tremendous amount of work to start a brand.
It's not so hard to start as.
Speaker 1 (38:05):
Like when I just started, you know, selling people would
come by and they were like asking, you know what
I did, you know, and they wanted a piece of jewelry.
You know, people get really enthusiastic, and I have to say,
when you're doing it, I'd be a terrible salesperson, like.
Speaker 4 (38:22):
In a s in a show or a store.
Speaker 1 (38:26):
Yeah, but if you're just asking me about jewelry and
had to and like and I can, it's a journey.
Speaker 4 (38:32):
It's a fun thing. I want to like show you
everything and take you on the whole trip with me
as I was making it. Why I did that, and
why I did this, and what this is supposed to be,
telling you how you're supposed to feel about this?
Speaker 2 (38:44):
And do you sell the jewelry in stores?
Speaker 1 (38:47):
What I've done now is I've I put them in
resorts there, resort mostly resorts. I don't have them in
any stores right now, but that's only because I haven't
had the time to market that way.
Speaker 3 (38:59):
Well, you should put them in stores because they're absolutely
gorgeous and I'm loving all of the elements that you
have in the designs, all the animals, all the little
creatures and the attention to detail. But yeah, you really
should look into putting them in stores. Besides that, is
there anything new and exciting coming up for Vivian Charles.
Speaker 4 (39:17):
So there's a competition and in Singapore.
Speaker 1 (39:22):
So the Singapore Show has several actual competitions of jewelers
designers who are submitting work and they'll get a free
booth in Venice if they win. And it's design is
based on the sixtieth anniversary of Singapore, so you have
(39:43):
to come up with a design that is that.
Speaker 4 (39:47):
Speaks to Italy and Singapore's alliance. So this one piece
has to be.
Speaker 1 (39:54):
Under thirty thousand Singapore dollars retail, native gold and diamond
or other precious metal stones speak to the Singapore Italy
alliance between the countries and trade and history and national
(40:15):
pride of both countries. And I think that might be
the limitations that it has. It has to be gold
and it doesn't have to have stones, but if it
has done so precious stones.
Speaker 3 (40:26):
Oh my god, Venice, that's insanely exciting. I know we
can't share the design you're making, but we saw it
and all I can say is it's absolutely gorgeous and
just I don't know how you came up with that.
Speaker 4 (40:41):
It's amazing. It's all I could say, and.
Speaker 3 (40:43):
That the other competitors that are beyond their game. I
know that your father would be so proud of you.
And that leads into my next question. Do you ever
feel your father guiding you through this jewelry journey or
kind of see him coming out through you or something
that he did coming out through you.
Speaker 1 (41:01):
My favorite is when I come across something and I
really and I see that I've done it exactly the
way he did it.
Speaker 4 (41:07):
I figured that I had the same problem. The whole
time I had the problem, I was like, I'm sure
Dad never had this problem. I'm sure he never read
this problem I wish I had.
Speaker 1 (41:16):
And then I figure out and I'm looking at it,
and I'm like, I'm looking at what he did, and
I'm like, he had the same problem.
Speaker 4 (41:21):
He couldn't do it either. You had to figure this
right there. He's like, now I get it.
Speaker 1 (41:25):
It's like, okay, I'm on the right track at least
if I'm having the same mistake, if I'm making the.
Speaker 4 (41:30):
Same mistakes he was making or having the same problems
he had, I feel like, all right, I'm all right.
He'd like something me. He died eighty one. He's seventy
years of experience of this on me. I'm like on
the right track. If something, I'm in the right direction.
Speaker 1 (41:44):
I have like a cheat sheet though, like I can
look at what he did sometimes and soil, like I
can figure out what I can't do.
Speaker 4 (41:50):
I can figure out how he dealt with it first.
So the question is, are you howling ross here? You
know the cathedral? Yeah, I got a little both.
Speaker 1 (41:59):
I'm like getting into my cathedral stage right now, but
I spent a lot of time hauling rocks.
Speaker 4 (42:06):
It's you know, it's all about how you look at life, right,
you know. It's true.
Speaker 1 (42:10):
I am now in my building a cathedral stage and
it's a little it's a lot more fun even than
when my dad was doing it. I think he was
more like somewhere in between that guy in the middle
who's like building a family and doing the right thing.
And he was doing what he liked to do, but
he was not doing He wasn't building a cathedral. He
wasn't making it his vision of something. He was making
(42:31):
a vision of something, you know, And they were beautiful
and that every you know, he was very well respected
in his field, but it was not like I'm going
to make this into its own thing.
Speaker 3 (42:43):
Yeah, it seems like he was just basically going with
the flow without an end goal in sight, piling up
those rocks while you want to build that cathedral and
create something that will live on in this very short
life while still remaining happy with what you do. I mean,
it's just it must feel absolutely amazing that to have
(43:04):
gotten away from the nine to five prison that most
people are stuck in right with their jobs and careers,
and it's I love that you were able to get
away from that and be happy in creating and continuing
your father and grandfather's legacy.
Speaker 1 (43:21):
That's when I was working in an office in a
queue in an office when I was in college, and
I'm like, this could be it a cube in an
office space in a corporate park, and then you die.
Speaker 4 (43:36):
It's not sure what it's so true. I'll be just
having this conversation.
Speaker 1 (43:40):
You know.
Speaker 4 (43:41):
It's like my husband said, is this what life is like? Work?
Speaker 3 (43:44):
Work, work, and then you retire when you're old and
you can't do anything, and it's like I don't like, I'm.
Speaker 1 (43:48):
Like, well, unfortunately, I mean, if it don't make your
life better, this is what it is.
Speaker 4 (43:55):
It's up to you. It doesn't have to be this.
It could be anything.
Speaker 3 (44:00):
Where do you see Vivian Charles going or growing.
Speaker 4 (44:04):
In the future.
Speaker 3 (44:05):
What is your hopes and dreams for Vivian Charles.
Speaker 4 (44:09):
The one thing I wanna do with this for real
is not have when I'm done with it, nothing but.
Speaker 1 (44:15):
A pile of rock.
Speaker 4 (44:16):
Yeah you know.
Speaker 1 (44:18):
There. This can't just end with me, So it has
to be organized and packaged and prepackaged and or and
reorganized and maybe not molds.
Speaker 4 (44:27):
Maybe, So I've been re scanning it.
Speaker 1 (44:31):
I wanna give this to a young person so that
it doesn't die when I die. I'm like sixty, I'm
starting on my I'm approaching sixty, and I'm beginning to
make this into something.
Speaker 3 (44:41):
Yeah, do you have kids?
Speaker 4 (44:43):
No? I I had a great dog.
Speaker 1 (44:47):
I saw little Kirpy as I, but he passed away
after sixteen years old.
Speaker 4 (44:50):
Oh my gosh, oh my lap.
Speaker 2 (44:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (44:52):
No, it's great. I had the best of everything, But
I don't have a kid.
Speaker 1 (44:56):
I wanna meet young people who really do care about
it and love it and wanna build, and I want
to turn it into something. If I don't just give
it to a young person to do it. I want
it to be an entity, a thing. It will continue.
It doesn't have to just be scrapped when I die,
like it would have with my dad.
Speaker 3 (45:13):
I just have to say, hearing your stories about your
father and your drive and just your beautiful mind and
way of thinking, I am so sure that in the
future everyone will say Elisa Gilbert lived her life the
way she wanted to live her life, and that is
amazing to say.
Speaker 4 (45:30):
You know what, that's what I say about my dad.
Speaker 1 (45:32):
It may not have been that he had to sing
all organized and packaged perfectly. And if it wasn't, if
I didn't, if I loved the law to such a
degree that I couldn't possibly part with it, it would
have gone into a big box. And he wouldn't care
because he wasn't here. You know, at this point it's
not his problem. But he did what he wanted to do,
when he wanted to do it, as he wanted to
(45:53):
do it, with what limit. Whatever he was willing to
do he did, and whatever he wasn't willing like, I mean, yeah,
that was his way. And so you cannot feel bad
for anybody who lives their life that way, right, But
you know, this is sort of where I want it
to be. Some people talk about their legacy. I don't
know what kind of legacy I'll have, but I don't.
Speaker 4 (46:12):
Want this to die. I want this to be. I
want this to evolve, and I want to evolve well
with a really good high level. Love doesn't ask. So
where do your hopes and where you see your this sculling?
Speaker 1 (46:26):
I would love that would be my That's my aspiration
for this is to have it stay in a fine
like a house of fine jewelry and even fun get better,
get more elegant, get more refined, getting you know, take
advantage of the three D stuff where it's appropriate to
do it, where it doesn't deteriorate the quality of your style.
(46:48):
Do there's no reason not to, But where it doesn't,
don't stop doing the other.
Speaker 4 (46:54):
Thing because it's not easy to do in cad or
it's not easy to do.
Speaker 1 (46:59):
And then do it the hard way, but do it well,
don't do it badly the easy way, and abandon any
attempt to and then develop it and keep.
Speaker 4 (47:09):
Going and turn it into something fantastic.
Speaker 1 (47:11):
Because it's you know, if we go backwards or we
just get lazy, have a vision of a beautiful thing
and it's hard to do it, and cad don't do
it and do it beautifully. And beauty is one thing
that I think everybody it's like binds humanity, like there's
pretty is one thing the beauty binds humanity.
Speaker 4 (47:31):
And that's what your child will know about you.
Speaker 2 (47:33):
Thank you so much, Alisa Gilbert for having us and
inviting us into your studio. We had an absolute great time. Everyone.
Check out Vivian Charles dot com and Vivian Charles Jewelry
on social media. That is our show for this week.
Thank you so much for tuning in. You're listening to
(47:53):
Shawna and La La. Check us out at Shauna and
Lala dot com on all social media platforms at Shauna
and Laala. You could follow me on Instagram at the
Real Shawnam and check me.
Speaker 3 (48:07):
Out at Bella Underscore Laala one two five.
Speaker 2 (48:10):
We will see you next week.
From the heart of the city, where the beat meets
the rhythm of your day. It's Shauna and.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
You're listening to Shauna and Lalla. Check us out at
Shaunaanlala dot com on all social media platforms at Shauna
and La La. You could follow me on Instagram at
the Real Shawna May.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
And check me out at Bella Underscore La La one
two five.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
We finally got some nice weather. Uh Saturday, I believe
it down. No, Saturday was nice right.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Or Sunday it was a nice weekend. It was a
beautiful weekend. Sunday we had the thunderstorm for a little bit,
but then it was beautiful again.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Yeah, this weather has been insane. It finally feels like
summer for once.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
And it went from one extreme to the next. It
was like chilly and rainy to boom one hundred degrees
undred degrees.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Yeah, no in between, No, there was nothing in between,
no rain for like two days. So I'm like thanking
God over here.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
I know, and the temperatures are gonna cool down now,
but I'm good as long as we don't get rain
every day or on the weekend, at least, I'm happy.
I'll take the heat so many people are complaining right now,
Oh I know, Oh I want winter back. Oh this heat.
I'm like, shut your mouth, shut up, shut up. No,
I would take one hundred degree whether any day over
(01:33):
negative or icy or cold and dark and gloomy.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Me too, right, yeah, Like what is wrong with these people?
Speaker 1 (01:39):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (01:39):
Okay, it's hot. Is it uncomfortable sometimes? Yeah, but I'd
rather this than be freezing and shivering and bundling up
and slipping and being depressed without the sun.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
I was just gonna say that my mental health has
been so much better with it being sunny out and
being outside, and I'm sleeping better. Well not really, but
you never sleep.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
Better, so no, but yeah, the fresh air. You can
open your window. I mean now you can't because it's hot,
but I was able to open my windows all this
time and just be outside. That can heal you in itself,
That makes you, you know, the sun gives you endorphins
and booster vitamin D, which is energy and makes you
feel good and it's just an amazing thing. And I
(02:24):
don't know why anyone would want winter back when this
is just it's no, no winter, please.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
I can't wait to move, I know, I say, this
like every week on the show. I seriously cannot wait
to move. I will come back here for summers, but
I will be spending my winters in someplace.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
Warm, like somewhere down south.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Right, Yes, Florida, South Carolina I'm okay with, preferably Florida.
I don't know if South Carolina really gets as.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
Hot as Florida, but yeah, I and a lot of
people complain that when I tell them I want to
move to Florida, Like, but the heat, I was like, okay,
but the beach. But the pool, Yeah, the beautiful folly,
like the flowers and the green all year long, and
the sun all year long, and the people are so
nice down there. I love it. I love going down south.
(03:17):
I mean South Carolina does get hot too, and that's
on the table for me. Also because I will miss
my woods, you know me, I'm a big I like
to go hiking. I love my woods. I love I
spend every morning I go for a walk in the
woods with my dog. And I'm gonna miss that. So
South Carolina does offer that too, while giving me the
heat and giving me the beach.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
So it's but the beach isn't as nice.
Speaker 3 (03:41):
No, South Carolina beaches aren't as pretty or nice or
clean clear as a lot of the Florida beaches. So yeah,
we have to wait it out. It's it's hard, but hey,
either one I'll be happy, and I think either state.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
Just as long as we get away from this winter coldness.
Oh yeah, and New.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
York, New York. I'm done with New York and I'm
done with the winters. I just can't we have My
husband has two and a half more years ago on
the job and then he can retire. I mean, it's
crazy when I say I can't believe that he's going
to be forty five when he retires. That's young, you know.
But he's he wants out, and he wants an easier,
more a relaxing and warm lifestyle. You know, I can't
(04:23):
wait for it. Part of me is gonna miss. I
do love the area that we live in. The Hudson
Valley is gorgeous, it really is, you know, but it's
I'd rather be down south.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
Oh yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
I wish I was able to have enough money to
have a summer home up here. And then the rest
of it, well, I do like fall. We love fall,
spring and summer, so I wish I could do those
seasons here and then go to Florida for the winter.
You know, that would be great, That would be like perfect,
But yeah, not happening yet. My bank count's not building
on that much.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
And that's something that I wish I knew when I
was younger, was how much things cost. You know, when
you're young and you're a kid, you're like, oh, I
want this Barbie doll or I want this you know,
toy or whatever. Now as an adult, I'm like, Man,
if I saved all my money that I had for
(05:18):
like birthdays and Christmas and graduations, you know, I would
be like a millionaire if.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
You didn't buy all the silly crap that you buy
as a teenager. Yeah, yeah, no, I know. I know.
I had like a nice little account that my parents
built up for me, and then you know, I spent it. Yeah,
not on bad things, but still I'm like, oh, that
could have just kept building some interest there and money.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Exactly, we don't.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
Know, but that's part of growing up. I guess. You know,
you learn the hard way. You enjoy life without that.
I think that's the only time period in your life
when you're a kid to a teen where you're not stressing,
like about money or the future. You're just like, oh
I want this, I'm getting it right now, and it's
so care free. I think that it's a good thing
that we go through that, because the rest of our life,
(06:06):
you're never doing that again. You're never feeling that care
freness unless you're a billionaire wife that doesn't have to work,
you know, and you're just sitting there.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
Yeah, exactly like the people on TikTok, those rich wives
that oh, go shopping with me? Yeah, you know, like
in Dubai there's just one that I follow.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
Oh yes, I think I follow her. Her husband just
like gives her.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
An allowance, like a daily allowancesands.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
Of dollars a day, and she's yeah, so they probably
are care free.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
Well, we need to meet someone like that.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
Oh I do you do? And then you can give
me the extra money that you don't spend, you know, like,
how much can you spend a day? Seana? Not that much?
Speaker 2 (06:44):
Mike Michae will be like, where'd you get this from?
Speaker 3 (06:47):
Oh? What, I gonna call you my mistress Shauna, my
sugar mama Shauna. Yeah, I mean yeah, but again, I
think that we all have to go through that to
learn that, just to experience that carefuls of spending money,
enjoying it and then before the real world hits us.
And for me, there was like two things that if
I can go back into my twenties and like smack myself,
(07:10):
it would be boys and your goal, like a goal,
you know, as for boys, Like I wish I didn't
think that my first boyfriend or even my second boyfriend
was like gonna be my husband. You know, you kind
of get trapped in that, like this is the one
I'm in love even though you don't even know. Yeah,
and it's like you miss you miss out on so much.
I wish I didn't focus that time on on the
(07:33):
you know, a relationship you're I should have been having fun.
I should have been having some girls trips or just
enjoying my youth without worrying about being in a relationship,
you know, and then knowing when they're when they're jerks
to just don't cry over it. Yeah it's upsetting, but
like bye bye. You know, life is life is short,
and I'm gonna meet a lot of people in my
(07:54):
life and you're not the one. So I wish I
could go back and like get those years back that
I wasted on stupid men, you know, when you're in
your twenties.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
Yeah, those are good.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
That's a good time period in your life. And a
lot of us wasted on men.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
I wasted mine. Yeah, by not doing anything, not going anywhere.
I worked all the time. Well, I went to college,
I went to you know, I graduated high school, and
I worked and that is what I did. Mm hmm.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
But were you happy though? Did you you enjoyed.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
It or I enjoyed it? Yeah, so then it's.
Speaker 3 (08:26):
Not I mean, I get what you're saying, but you
did enjoy it, and that and the field that you
worked in was what you're doing now, right, podcast radio.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
And then I was also a admin assistant for many
years for a not for profit company, and that corporate
world was horrible, absolutely horrible. I couldn't wait to leave.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
So yeah, if you want to look at the positive
in that situation, as you knew, like, I don't want
to get into that world. It's not going to stay
in the radio world, you know. So it was a
little beneficial to you, but you did. Yeah, you probably
wasted a lot of time where you could have been
just carefree, having fun.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
You know, could have traveled, could it went out every
night exactly?
Speaker 3 (09:06):
And like that's something I also wish I focused on
was in school. Back then, they they preached college, they
preached like you know, a lawyer, doctor. It was never
what what do you enjoy doing? What do you love?
And looking back like I love as you know, I
love film, I love editing, I love acting.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
But they didn't have those kind of thing.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
But I should have realized, like I enjoy this so much,
Like I look back, I have home videos and I
have video after video of me creating movies, directing them,
producing them, like on my VCR with my with my
friends and filming them and telling them what to do.
And then I'd put it all together with a VCR
like he didn't have editing tools back then. I had
(09:49):
to stop record, play stop or wine, you know, and
I would make these these vhss of movies or little skits.
I enjoyed that. Why didn't I follow that dream and
build it? And I could have been what I want
to be an actress or directing and making movies, you know.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
And I think it's because you know, when you get
into high school, the guidance counselors they pull you in
and they ask you what you want to do. And
I always said I wanted to be a talk show host,
and they would laugh at me and they would be like,
pick a real job, exactly, pick a real job. Do
you want to be a teacher? Do you want to
be a doctor, a nurse? Do you want to do
(10:30):
like accounting? Do you want to like what do you
want to do? And I'm like, I want to be
a talk show host. I said, I want to be
like Oprah. I want to be like Ellen or you
know whoever at that point, and they were like, pick
a real job. So they don't help you in that situation.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
They didn't for me. That's what when I told my
guidance counselor, he was like, that's cool. That could be
a hobby. But what about a real job. What do
you want to go to college for? So I picked paralegal.
I went to college and I did a paralegal course
and it was dreadful. I was like this, I don't
want to do this for the rest of my life,
(11:09):
you know. And I didn't finish it.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
Did you learn shorthand? No?
Speaker 3 (11:13):
I don't think we even I got to that point.
I was so miserable. After the first year, I was like,
I can't do this, you know, I'm gonna sit here
and do all this work and research and writing like no.
So but yeah, I wish I followed and went to school.
My guidance counselor should have told me, you can go
to school to learn how to film and all that
there is. I know, ach has it, my brother did it.
(11:34):
So I'm kind of I wish that those are the
things that I regret, and I wish I could go
back and put myself on a different course in life,
and I probably would have been happier in my career choice,
you know.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
Yeah, And I think you know, they always push this
agenda on you. You know, you need a bachelor's degree.
You need a bachelor's degree. And I've said it from
the beginning. I don't need a piece of paper to
prove that I know something.
Speaker 4 (11:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
When I did work in that corporate feel I knew
more and did a better job than my coworkers that
had the degree. Yeah, so don't tell me I need
a piece of paper and four years of college to
say that I know how to do a job exactly.
Speaker 3 (12:16):
And these kids, and now they have debt up the butt,
you know, like because they can't find jobs, find jobs
in the random fields that they picked.
Speaker 4 (12:24):
You know.
Speaker 3 (12:26):
So I'm glad in a way that I did not.
I don't have that student loan hanging over my head.
But I wish I did. I wish I did go
for what sparked my entrance film You shouldn't acting, And
you know, I wish I did something along those lines
instead of going, Eh, I guess I got to pick
a real job.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
You know.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
My niece went for to be an art teacher, and
I think she has like one year left and she
wants to switch her major because she can't find a job.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
No, you can't, you can't.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
It's so difficult.
Speaker 3 (12:54):
It's well, the jobs want experience, even if you have
a degree, and then you're like, well, how do I
get experience? And so yeah, it's hard out there.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
It's like a catch twenty two. You know, to be
a physical therapist, Now you used to have to go
to school for I don't know, four years, maybe six years.
Now you need a doctorate. So at that point, why
not just become a doctor?
Speaker 3 (13:15):
Mm hm exactly.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
So I think that is also why there's a shortage
of physical therapists, yes, occupational therapists, speech therapists. It is
because of the school and they need now.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
Oh yeah, yep. There's a shortage in a lot of
areas because they change regulations. And sometimes changing regulations is great,
but other times if right now you're hindering those physical therapists.
You've seen physical therapists since you were a baby, Yeah,
and they didn't have a doctor and they did just that.
They were amazing and they did their job and they
knew what to do. You know, if it was working,
(13:48):
then why change it, you know, why make it harder?
So now people aren't getting help, People aren't getting the
therapy because there's not enough people.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
To do it. Yeah, exactly. You know, there's a shortage
of nurses. It's a huge shortage of doctors. There's a
shortage of help in hospitals. And it all comes down
to they don't want to pay and schooling.
Speaker 3 (14:10):
Yes, yep, it's tough, it really is. And that's my
advice to younger listeners right now is if there's something
that you thoroughly enjoy doing, sometimes you don't need to
go to college for it, other times you do, but
have that in mind and go for it and go
after it, even if it's not a real job, as
(14:31):
they say, if it makes you happy, go for it
and do everything you can to get to that point.
And you don't again, like I tell my nieces and nephews,
you don't need that one hundred k, eighty k student
loan hanging over your head. If you don't know what
you want to do, don't go to college. Don't it's
you know, that's my opinion. Figure it out. There's blue collar,
there's trades like those things are paying a lot of
(14:52):
money right now, oh my god. And there's a shortage
of that too, So you know, it's not always about college.
Speaker 4 (15:00):
No.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
You know, electricians they make so much money.
Speaker 3 (15:04):
And I told my son, I said, what do you
want to be? You don't know? You know, we're not
sending you to college. If you don't know, you're gonna
pick a trade.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
You know.
Speaker 3 (15:13):
He's like, I want to be a football player. Okay,
well listen, what makes you happy? Football? I get it.
You know, he's tiny, so we're we're hoping he grows.
But you know, me and my husband are short, so
we're not going to crush his dreams. He could be
a football player, but He's like, I'm gonna be in
an NFL, all right, what else besides that would you
want to do?
Speaker 2 (15:30):
You know, Hey, you know Nate Robinson who I've met
several times. He's only five something. Yeah, and he was, Yeah,
he won like NBA Player of the Year or something
many years ago. He won a few like contests and
he was, he was an NBA player. He played for
the next Well, I guess there's hoping, there is hope.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
Let's hope. Let's hope he gets you know. So I'm
not crushing his dreams, but I'm like, I don't want
you to have a eighty thousand dollars student loan hanging
over your head. And you're like, oh, I don't know,
I don't I didn't really, I don't know what I
want to do. You know, Yeah, just pick something and
that you enjoy, not just don't just pick something. Pick
something that you thoroughly enjoy. That's gonna make you happy.
(16:13):
And yeah, that's the advice. What's crazy is that we
had the most amazing interview with this jeweler named Elisa Gilbert,
and it all ties into what we're talking about right now.
The more I was talking, I'm like This is what
we just spoke about with Elisa, you know, following your heart,
following your dreams, and making yourself happy versus just the
(16:34):
same old, same old, the nine to five prison, you
know of you're not happy there, but you're doing it. Hey,
I need to make money.
Speaker 4 (16:39):
You know what I mean?
Speaker 2 (16:40):
Because it's a paycheck that you could rely on.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
Yes, yes, and sometimes that's great, but other times it's like,
what's worth it? Your your happiness or you know money.
As long as you can have a roof over your head,
food in your mouth, you don't always have to put
yourself in misery just sticking by that job that you
don't want to be in, you know. So we drove
to Elisa's gorgeous house and she took us into her studio.
(17:05):
That was so pretty, right.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
It was gorgeous.
Speaker 3 (17:08):
It overlooked a lake. She built it, She built it,
and it was beautiful. It had all these windows around
it you saw the lake, and then behind it you
saw all the rocks that she uses for her jewelry.
But a little background information on her. So she was
a lawyer, right, a litigation lawyer, yes.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
And for many many many years.
Speaker 3 (17:26):
Many years successful, thirty years, oh, my god, really yeah,
super successful, and she just it wasn't just it wasn't right,
you know, she wasn't totally happy. And her father, her
grandfather's like it went back. I don't know how many generations.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
I think she said four generations.
Speaker 3 (17:46):
Four generations. They were all jewelers or watchmakers all you know,
creative individuals, but they focused on jewelry and she grew
up around it. She learned about it from them, especially
her father, and sad her father passed away and he
had all this leftover jewelry and molds and machinery and
(18:07):
rocks and stone, and she, you know, she came to
a crossroad, like she's gonna say, where's like do I
continue this? Do I continue their legacy? Or you know,
do I chuck all this in the garbage?
Speaker 4 (18:20):
You know?
Speaker 3 (18:21):
And it was just amazing listening to her, and you
guys are going to get to hear her story. But
every piece of jewelry that she makes has a story
behind it, and she gets that from her father, I believe,
because she was talking about her father's jewelry and there
was this one story about this little mouse that they
had these sugar packets because you use that to make
jewelry back then, the sugar and I guess there was
(18:42):
a mouse in it and it climbed up this chain
and he created this cute, the tiniest little mouse with that.
The attention to detail was just insane and it was
on this little chain. So that was the story behind that,
and she has continued that with her pieces. The stories
behind each piece was she It just showed that everything
(19:03):
that she does is not just I'm gonna make this today.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
It had a full story.
Speaker 3 (19:09):
Yeah, story has meaning, it's you know, and that's that's
tremendous because a lot of these other jewelers out there,
jewelry factories, i'm gonna call them, they just pump things
out like there's nothing really behind it. It's just like,
oh yeah, people might like this, people might like that.
But for Alisa, it was like creating something that meant
something to her and had a story and had the meaning.
(19:29):
So I love that she had this Mermaid piece, which
we're gonna share a photo of that. I wore it.
I absolutely love it. It was gorgeous. I was kind
of jealous that I couldn't just take it in my
pocket and take it home, you know, but beautiful beautiful, stunning,
goes around your neck, it holds a saran like when
you're on the beach, just beautiful, like who would think
(19:51):
of that?
Speaker 4 (19:52):
She?
Speaker 3 (19:53):
I was telling my husband, she's absolutely genius. Her mind
did the things that she creates and how she comes
up with this stuff is just genius to me. And
we love her way of thinking about life and about
the meaning of life and making yourself happy and the
advice she gave us. So I know you guys are
gonna love her. She doesn't have her jewelry and stores
(20:14):
right now, but it's in resorts and I'm hoping. I'm
hoping to see it in these big, big jewelry stores
because it's worth being there. And there's so many pieces
that are just just so stunning that you would never
see anything like that in a normal jewelry store.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
No, you wouldn't see anything any of her stuff in
a normal jewelry store.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
No.
Speaker 3 (20:34):
But she was incredibly nice. We loved her. She was
so welcoming. She got us chips and drinks and it
just felt like you were just chilling with a friend.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
Yeah, we love that.
Speaker 3 (20:42):
We love that. We got to see all her father's
equipment and all his molds and all the jewelry he
made and all the jewelries she made, and it just
felt like we knew so much about her and her
family just from that.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
We felt like family.
Speaker 3 (20:57):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
So.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
I like how she had all the original equipment. Yeah,
and then you know how she talked to us about like, well,
now they don't use you know, this and this and this,
they use you know, a computer to design it. Yep,
and it's just not the same.
Speaker 3 (21:13):
No, it was amazing to me. I was so intrigued
that we we got to learn in that short amount
of time the art, the old art of creating jewelry
from the lost art. I'm gonna call it the Lost
art of creating jewelry. And it is, guys. It's amazing
and no computer programming man made by yourself, creating these
(21:35):
molds by hand of a beautiful jewelry piece. It was
just so there's no words to describe it. And I'm
so glad that Sean and I got to witness this
and learn this, because not many people know that that's
how jewelry is made, and they're never gonna know it.
And I told her, like, you need to share this
with the world, like you need to teach people the
(21:56):
lost art of jewelry making. You know, maybe that's your legacy.
I truly believe it is, because it was. It was
amazing to learn all that and see all that and
how it was done. Like I never knew whoever thinks
of what goes into making a little piece of jewelry
or you know, a necklace, a ring, a bracelet. You
don't you never thought about it. I never thought about that. No,
(22:16):
So I won't say anymore because the interview will speak
for itself. But we're gonna be sharing videos and pictures
in the weeks to come, and if you.
Speaker 2 (22:24):
Want to check out her designs and purchase some of
her jewelry, you could go to Vivian Charles dot com
and that's v I v I E N N E
Charles dot com. She's also on Instagram at Vivian Charles Jewelry.
Speaker 3 (22:41):
But anyway, let's jump into the interview we had with
Alisa Gilbert from Vivian Charles Jewelry. So what changed your
mind on being a lawyer and got you to jump
fully into the jewelry world.
Speaker 1 (22:53):
Practicing lawge Verry Lucre worrying about somebody's problems that they
don't want to have, and them being associating you with
the worst time.
Speaker 4 (23:01):
Of their life.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
This is what I do.
Speaker 4 (23:03):
What I do for a living is I take care of.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
The worst time in people's lives all my life. All
I do every day is worry about the worst part
of your life.
Speaker 4 (23:10):
But it's very lucrative. You know, you can be making
you know you're gonna make a lot of money. You've
been doing it for years. Walking away from that is
to decide you're going to be more happy while you're
doing this.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
And the building the process is expensive and time consuming
and a lot of faith and a lot of real
marketing planning, and which is not jewelry making.
Speaker 4 (23:33):
Which is not nearly as much fun.
Speaker 5 (23:35):
It's like sitting around and you know, talking to like
coming up with a brand name, it's like a month
long process, and how did you come up with that name?
Speaker 4 (23:47):
I hired a branding company and I work shopped it,
workshopped it.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
And you talk about how you want people to feel
when they're buying your jewelry, and how you want them
to feel when they're wearing your jewelry. What's your image
of the shopping experience, what's your image of the person
who's wearing it, and you're like, it was literally I
felt like my brain was gonna slot out my air.
It was it like a twenty page book at the end,
and at the end of it, you're like, I don't care.
Speaker 4 (24:11):
If you just say use purple, purple would be the
brand name forever. And you're like, just give me a
brand name. At the end of I don't care anymore.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
Yeah, And so they're getting these names and they're like
contractions of your name and combinations of words that you
can't remember how to spell when they're done.
Speaker 4 (24:26):
And you're like, I don't think that's gonna work cause
I can't remember it.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
And then so I had this company working with me
and I get a phone call finally, like they've been
growing names up, you know.
Speaker 4 (24:38):
I get a phone call like eight in the morning.
The wife is really great.
Speaker 1 (24:42):
She was really it was a husband wife team and
uh she was really good and very uh under rated.
I think I had this Sowden middle of the night
Vivian Charles, just because Vivian Charles.
Speaker 4 (24:57):
Vivian is my mother. Fu Charles was my father.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
It's great, it works, it's easy, it says everything, and
it's and it sounds I was gonna say rebel Queen
viv Yeah, King Charles, and I was like done.
Speaker 4 (25:12):
It was like the easy decision. We were doing like
Scottish things because my father's Scottish. We were trying to
pull in the Scottish heritage. We were trying to pull
in them.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
It's like and I all I know about Scotland is
that people are kind of tough, and they she rocks
for breakfast and they had thistles. Is their their their
favorite flowers at this well?
Speaker 4 (25:31):
And that makes sense.
Speaker 1 (25:32):
It's like if you met my grandfather, you'd be like done,
got it the thistle. And then we were trying to
go with the logo and.
Speaker 4 (25:41):
Actually we ended up trying to modify the thistle.
Speaker 1 (25:43):
So if you look at the logo, it's actually a
modified thistle, but it's a d C.
Speaker 4 (25:49):
There's a lot of work to start off business. It's
a tremendous amount of work to start the brand. It's
not so hard to start a business.
Speaker 1 (25:56):
Like when I just started, you know, selling, people come
by and they were like asking, you know what I did?
Speaker 4 (26:04):
You know, and they wanted a piece of jewelry. You know,
people get really enthusiastic.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
And I have to say, when you're doing it, I'd
be a terrible salesperson, like in a you know, a
show or a store. But if you're just asking me
about jewelry and had it and like and I can,
it's a journey. It's a fun thing. I want to
like show you everything and take you on the whole
trip with me as I was making it.
Speaker 4 (26:31):
Why I did that, and why I did this, and
what this is supposed to be, telling you how you're
supposed to feel about this, and.
Speaker 3 (26:36):
So growing up with jewelers, how has your family history
of you know, your father was a jeweler, your grandfathers
were jewelers, How has that shaped your jewelry journey.
Speaker 1 (26:47):
I couldn't do this if it was in three generations,
four generations in my family.
Speaker 4 (26:52):
It is so unfair to even suggest that, even though.
Speaker 1 (26:57):
I am new at this end, we are a brand,
and I have not been doing this for thirty years,
recently five years mostly, it would be such a it's
such a misrepresentation because if somebody came in and wanted
to start from scratch and had five years of learning,
they'd be nowhere near this.
Speaker 4 (27:14):
You know, And even though I didn't do it I have.
I'm walking on shoulders of people who spent hundreds of
years doing it.
Speaker 1 (27:22):
And it's kind of like if I didn't name it
after my parents, it would be a criminal act, you know,
because it's not like it's me entirely, And that's just
what it is. When you're coming back at it, like
if you can't say you're like standing on even though
they're not here to help you, which sometimes I think
I can talk to him, and like most of the
time I think he's laughing at me, and he's like
(27:45):
I was wondering how long you're gonna take to figure
that out. I actually opened up a machine the killing
that we used to burn out the wax inside.
Speaker 4 (27:52):
There was a note, a note in himself. He like
thanked the oven for him to the temperature. It's like,
you never thank me. I kicked out buttons all summer long,
for summers, on top of summers, on top of summers.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
I never gonna thank you. I didn't get along one
o my god. But he was definitely a character. He
loved his choice of your father. Well, everything does, and
that's it's impossible for it not to, you know, Like
look around it's like everything's very ashently.
Speaker 4 (28:22):
So much of it was just as he left it,
you know, in mid stream. You know, at the first year,
all I did was finish a bunch of stuff. He
did didn't that he didn't finish, you know, he had
gotten it.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
Cast it, didn't lost interest in do it. At least
a year and a half I spent sorting stones. And
those weren't those stones. They were like the little tiny
ones where you're like cause he never put them in,
like he didn't play but them.
Speaker 4 (28:47):
He knew what they were, and he wasn't worrying about me, and.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
They weren't in like size order or all of the
sapphires together. You'd find sapphires here, you'd find sapphires in
my pocket, you'd findaphires in another cabinet.
Speaker 4 (29:01):
You find sapphires in the index card holder. But you
knew where they were exactly exactly, And what's your business?
I know where it is, what's yours? What do you
need to know where my sallies are for?
Speaker 1 (29:14):
That's that's the crazy, that's the first That's why it
never became anything I did than him, And that's where
I learned from that.
Speaker 4 (29:27):
It has to be indexed. And it's a it's a treasure,
but it means it will live on. It won't be
Who is this Gilbert guy? How come this Gilbert? I
see Gilbert everywhere. You know, it's not Vivian Charles, but
it was Gilbert for the longest time until this year.
Everything we do, we just Gilbert. That's my family's name,
(29:50):
and that's the name of their jewelers.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
Jewelry shop was every variation on Gilbert jewelry, Vijurie, Gilbert.
It was never like a brand. It was just that's
where we Yeah, I used to land my name on it.
Speaker 4 (30:02):
Why not.
Speaker 1 (30:02):
My father got a little fancy every once in a
while he put a seed gee on things because it
was Charles Gilbert and that was and.
Speaker 4 (30:08):
My grandfather never bothered to do that. And my great
grandfather was a watchmaker.
Speaker 1 (30:13):
He did clocks and watches, and there was sculptors in
there too, and my mother was a passion illustrator.
Speaker 4 (30:20):
Jeez, that's absolutely amazing.
Speaker 3 (30:22):
The creativity, the talent, the art is just surging through
your bloodline surging. Did you work in their jewelry shop
as a young child, or did they teach you how
to make jewelry.
Speaker 1 (30:32):
I remember when I was in junior high school and
I was working in the studio. I was like, I
wasn't pulling waxes. I was doing something much more mundane.
I was cutting circles out of silver with a kick press.
And I was sitting in a chair and there's a
machine called the kickpress, and there's a little bucket and
I was taking a piece of silver and I was
going and then a piece of silver.
Speaker 4 (30:52):
Good, down, and piecea so we're good in the bucket.
Speaker 1 (30:55):
And I turned to my grandfather and I'm like, Grandpa,
am I really going to do this all summer? Can't
we train a monk?
Speaker 4 (31:00):
Can you do this? And he's like, this is what
you'll be doing all summer and talk during week.
Speaker 1 (31:10):
It is a little like in our view of the
way things are done today and how you can do
so much the idea of kicking out. And I still
have some I found some of the little circles I
did that summer when I was Yeah, really, but it's
an art.
Speaker 4 (31:27):
It's like everything's in art. It is the bottom line.
Pulling a wax is an art. Making the mold is
an art. Knowing how to make.
Speaker 3 (31:35):
A mold Wow, So would you say that the art
of making jewelry has changed them? You know, like, what's
the difference between when your father and your grandfathers were
making jewelry to nowadays?
Speaker 4 (31:47):
You know what has changed?
Speaker 1 (31:49):
So if you make if I do something from scratch
and I want to make a mold on it, I
cast it and then I take that piece of metal
and I in this is you put that metal into
a bunch of rubber and then you heat it and
pressurize it, and then you have to cut.
Speaker 4 (32:05):
It out and then you have them another mold. So
now you can make another one, or you can change it,
or you can do whoever you want with it. And
that's how the jewelry world works, or did work almost
exclusively for many years. Now that's probably just a big factory.
Speaker 1 (32:22):
Well no, even then it could have been. But you know,
you have to have a lot of people pulling waxes
and stuff.
Speaker 4 (32:28):
So what happens with that is.
Speaker 1 (32:29):
It there are people who are really good at pulling waxes, right,
There are people who are really good at making molds,
Like they know where to put the vents in there
so that it builds. Because everything can be a problem, right,
you have the mold. You think, okay, great, you got
a wax injector you got your mold.
Speaker 4 (32:43):
What's the issue. Just stick the wax in the machine
in the mold, and you got to know it has
to be the right temperature inside the rubber. Some mold
doesn't flow.
Speaker 1 (32:53):
It has to have the right pressure as it's coming
into the mold or uls. Some mold doesn't flow, the
wax doesn't flow. It has to have vents so air
gets out, it's a little cavity and goes somewhere else
when the wax comes in or else it doesn't flow.
Speaker 4 (33:03):
And then you got or it has to have the
right cuts so that when you take them mold out
it doesn't break. So how would they do that today?
Speaker 1 (33:11):
Then I take some pieces to Career Casting in New
York and I say, make a mold for me.
Speaker 4 (33:19):
They have said to me, and I quote, that's unmoldable.
And I say, nothing's unmultible. What are you talking about? Unmoldable.
That's lunacy. Everything can be molded.
Speaker 1 (33:30):
Yeah, but they are professional in these professional jewelry and
they do what is done today. And if it isn't
easy to do the way that they do things, it's
just not going to get done. And there's their place,
and there's not a lot of people who are focused
so intensely on doing it and getting it done that
(33:51):
they're going to find the way to make this work.
Speaker 4 (33:54):
And they know they can and it will, and so
people will come to that one person. They'll become like
the little like grew in.
Speaker 1 (34:01):
This area, but they only do the most bizarrely difficult
and complicated things and then they're all kind of like
unicorns now and they're all going away. Yeah, and so
now everybody, so they don't even use rubber anymore.
Speaker 4 (34:13):
Rubber is very hard to find. And then there's all
kinds of mold.
Speaker 1 (34:17):
Being material they have now where it's just put it
in a cup and put it in like a pressurized
thing and it cures by itself overnight.
Speaker 4 (34:27):
No heat and pressure.
Speaker 1 (34:30):
But yeah, so that now they there's so many different
ways of doing this that the old ways are the
ways that you.
Speaker 4 (34:38):
Need to know how to do it if you want
to do something you neique.
Speaker 1 (34:40):
But Julie's kind of going into a slightly more conformed methodology.
Things are not as refined, they're not as delicate because
you can't do delicate in Cat.
Speaker 4 (34:55):
You can't do etching in Cat. You can't do engraving.
Speaker 1 (35:01):
You can do engraving like a name or something, but
you can't engrave like and it's not the same as
if you pull a wax and it's what it is.
Speaker 4 (35:09):
You know it's gonna cast. You know you've got that thing.
Speaker 1 (35:13):
So that's becoming the standard, though, so you're trading off
some of the skills that were around for years for
convenience and lower labor. And then I see my father
and me, I'm like, I can cast it myself. I
don't need to pay eleven dollars a piece to cut
carrera for them to cast this for me on top
(35:35):
of the price of the metal.
Speaker 4 (35:37):
And then I think that's eleven of those pieces.
Speaker 2 (35:39):
And then.
Speaker 4 (35:42):
And then casting takes a long time. And then if
a cast fails, you're like, oh, it's always of the night.
Speaker 3 (35:46):
So I'm gonna ask you how long does casting a
piece take?
Speaker 1 (35:50):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (35:50):
But it does take a lot of time. And if
you've got limited time, you call it carrera and you're like, oh,
can I bring it in? Then the next day you
have it metal. Yeah, do you think that's easier? But
the heck, I'm a lot easier. That's what I'm doing.
But then you're losing.
Speaker 1 (36:08):
Yeah, use, but that's then you're paying casting labor and
you're paying for other types of labor, so you I mean,
it's still labor.
Speaker 4 (36:14):
But when you do it yourself, you're like, oh, but
I'm gonna live that day anyway.
Speaker 1 (36:18):
Right, So if I spend my time doing that, it's
not the same as spending it spending money on somebody
else to do it.
Speaker 4 (36:23):
And you're like, yeah, every minute you spend it's something
you gotta think about how you want to spend it.
You know, it's your only you only have these many
days in your life.
Speaker 1 (36:31):
If you spend it like you know, sweeping the floor
or hauling rocks or building a cathedral.
Speaker 4 (36:37):
It's your choice, right, you choose.
Speaker 3 (36:40):
It's very true.
Speaker 4 (36:41):
It's it's all you have is your days. You don't
get the lousy days back. At the end, I'm like, oh, well,
this is a wasted day. I waste it out the credit.
But it's later, it'll be better when it's just one
day gone. It's gone like that.
Speaker 1 (36:56):
If well, you know, if the day you realize it
doesn't you start making some judicial decisions.
Speaker 4 (37:03):
How do you spend your time like otherwise you just
taken a long walk into a six foot all in
the ground. It's one way street and to a six
foot all in the ground.
Speaker 1 (37:10):
Like I really feel sorry for kids that are learning
it for the first time today and will never learn
how to be a bench your not that they should
have to be a bench.
Speaker 4 (37:19):
Yours to do it, but if you know how to
do it from hand, you know why to do.
Speaker 1 (37:24):
Certain things and why not to do other things, and
why some things will look better than others.
Speaker 4 (37:28):
And the balance of old and new, you know, like
makes it easier, it makes it brings it, brings it
into today.
Speaker 1 (37:37):
Yeah, you know, if it isn't today, otherwise I'm just
reliving my dad's life, right, and or my dad and
my grandfather and my great grandfather's life.
Speaker 4 (37:45):
And you have to move forward with these things, and.
Speaker 1 (37:48):
You know, without abandoning the parts that are good. Yeah,
there's always something good that you want to carry forward.
Speaker 4 (37:55):
And there's a lot of crap that you could you
could lose, just a lot of work to startup as them.
It's a tremendous amount of work to start a brand.
It's not so hard to start as.
Speaker 1 (38:05):
Like when I just started, you know, selling people would
come by and they were like asking, you know what
I did, you know, and they wanted a piece of jewelry.
You know, people get really enthusiastic, and I have to say,
when you're doing it, I'd be a terrible salesperson, like.
Speaker 4 (38:22):
In a s in a show or a store.
Speaker 1 (38:26):
Yeah, but if you're just asking me about jewelry and
had to and like and I can, it's a journey.
Speaker 4 (38:32):
It's a fun thing. I want to like show you
everything and take you on the whole trip with me
as I was making it. Why I did that, and
why I did this, and what this is supposed to be,
telling you how you're supposed to feel about this?
Speaker 2 (38:44):
And do you sell the jewelry in stores?
Speaker 1 (38:47):
What I've done now is I've I put them in
resorts there, resort mostly resorts. I don't have them in
any stores right now, but that's only because I haven't
had the time to market that way.
Speaker 3 (38:59):
Well, you should put them in stores because they're absolutely
gorgeous and I'm loving all of the elements that you
have in the designs, all the animals, all the little
creatures and the attention to detail. But yeah, you really
should look into putting them in stores. Besides that, is
there anything new and exciting coming up for Vivian Charles.
Speaker 4 (39:17):
So there's a competition and in Singapore.
Speaker 1 (39:22):
So the Singapore Show has several actual competitions of jewelers
designers who are submitting work and they'll get a free
booth in Venice if they win. And it's design is
based on the sixtieth anniversary of Singapore, so you have
(39:43):
to come up with a design that is that.
Speaker 4 (39:47):
Speaks to Italy and Singapore's alliance. So this one piece
has to be.
Speaker 1 (39:54):
Under thirty thousand Singapore dollars retail, native gold and diamond
or other precious metal stones speak to the Singapore Italy
alliance between the countries and trade and history and national
(40:15):
pride of both countries. And I think that might be
the limitations that it has. It has to be gold
and it doesn't have to have stones, but if it
has done so precious stones.
Speaker 3 (40:26):
Oh my god, Venice, that's insanely exciting. I know we
can't share the design you're making, but we saw it
and all I can say is it's absolutely gorgeous and
just I don't know how you came up with that.
Speaker 4 (40:41):
It's amazing. It's all I could say, and.
Speaker 3 (40:43):
That the other competitors that are beyond their game. I
know that your father would be so proud of you.
And that leads into my next question. Do you ever
feel your father guiding you through this jewelry journey or
kind of see him coming out through you or something
that he did coming out through you.
Speaker 1 (41:01):
My favorite is when I come across something and I
really and I see that I've done it exactly the
way he did it.
Speaker 4 (41:07):
I figured that I had the same problem. The whole
time I had the problem, I was like, I'm sure
Dad never had this problem. I'm sure he never read
this problem I wish I had.
Speaker 1 (41:16):
And then I figure out and I'm looking at it,
and I'm like, I'm looking at what he did, and
I'm like, he had the same problem.
Speaker 4 (41:21):
He couldn't do it either. You had to figure this
right there. He's like, now I get it.
Speaker 1 (41:25):
It's like, okay, I'm on the right track at least
if I'm having the same mistake, if I'm making the.
Speaker 4 (41:30):
Same mistakes he was making or having the same problems
he had, I feel like, all right, I'm all right.
He'd like something me. He died eighty one. He's seventy
years of experience of this on me. I'm like on
the right track. If something, I'm in the right direction.
Speaker 1 (41:44):
I have like a cheat sheet though, like I can
look at what he did sometimes and soil, like I
can figure out what I can't do.
Speaker 4 (41:50):
I can figure out how he dealt with it first.
So the question is, are you howling ross here? You
know the cathedral? Yeah, I got a little both.
Speaker 1 (41:59):
I'm like getting into my cathedral stage right now, but
I spent a lot of time hauling rocks.
Speaker 4 (42:06):
It's you know, it's all about how you look at life, right,
you know. It's true.
Speaker 1 (42:10):
I am now in my building a cathedral stage and
it's a little it's a lot more fun even than
when my dad was doing it. I think he was
more like somewhere in between that guy in the middle
who's like building a family and doing the right thing.
And he was doing what he liked to do, but
he was not doing He wasn't building a cathedral. He
wasn't making it his vision of something. He was making
(42:31):
a vision of something, you know, And they were beautiful
and that every you know, he was very well respected
in his field, but it was not like I'm going
to make this into its own thing.
Speaker 3 (42:43):
Yeah, it seems like he was just basically going with
the flow without an end goal in sight, piling up
those rocks while you want to build that cathedral and
create something that will live on in this very short
life while still remaining happy with what you do. I mean,
it's just it must feel absolutely amazing that to have
(43:04):
gotten away from the nine to five prison that most
people are stuck in right with their jobs and careers,
and it's I love that you were able to get
away from that and be happy in creating and continuing
your father and grandfather's legacy.
Speaker 1 (43:21):
That's when I was working in an office in a
queue in an office when I was in college, and
I'm like, this could be it a cube in an
office space in a corporate park, and then you die.
Speaker 4 (43:36):
It's not sure what it's so true. I'll be just
having this conversation.
Speaker 1 (43:40):
You know.
Speaker 4 (43:41):
It's like my husband said, is this what life is like? Work?
Speaker 3 (43:44):
Work, work, and then you retire when you're old and
you can't do anything, and it's like I don't like, I'm.
Speaker 1 (43:48):
Like, well, unfortunately, I mean, if it don't make your
life better, this is what it is.
Speaker 4 (43:55):
It's up to you. It doesn't have to be this.
It could be anything.
Speaker 3 (44:00):
Where do you see Vivian Charles going or growing.
Speaker 4 (44:04):
In the future.
Speaker 3 (44:05):
What is your hopes and dreams for Vivian Charles.
Speaker 4 (44:09):
The one thing I wanna do with this for real
is not have when I'm done with it, nothing but.
Speaker 1 (44:15):
A pile of rock.
Speaker 4 (44:16):
Yeah you know.
Speaker 1 (44:18):
There. This can't just end with me, So it has
to be organized and packaged and prepackaged and or and
reorganized and maybe not molds.
Speaker 4 (44:27):
Maybe, So I've been re scanning it.
Speaker 1 (44:31):
I wanna give this to a young person so that
it doesn't die when I die. I'm like sixty, I'm
starting on my I'm approaching sixty, and I'm beginning to
make this into something.
Speaker 3 (44:41):
Yeah, do you have kids?
Speaker 4 (44:43):
No? I I had a great dog.
Speaker 1 (44:47):
I saw little Kirpy as I, but he passed away
after sixteen years old.
Speaker 4 (44:50):
Oh my gosh, oh my lap.
Speaker 2 (44:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (44:52):
No, it's great. I had the best of everything, But
I don't have a kid.
Speaker 1 (44:56):
I wanna meet young people who really do care about
it and love it and wanna build, and I want
to turn it into something. If I don't just give
it to a young person to do it. I want
it to be an entity, a thing. It will continue.
It doesn't have to just be scrapped when I die,
like it would have with my dad.
Speaker 3 (45:13):
I just have to say, hearing your stories about your
father and your drive and just your beautiful mind and
way of thinking, I am so sure that in the
future everyone will say Elisa Gilbert lived her life the
way she wanted to live her life, and that is
amazing to say.
Speaker 4 (45:30):
You know what, that's what I say about my dad.
Speaker 1 (45:32):
It may not have been that he had to sing
all organized and packaged perfectly. And if it wasn't, if
I didn't, if I loved the law to such a
degree that I couldn't possibly part with it, it would
have gone into a big box. And he wouldn't care
because he wasn't here. You know, at this point it's
not his problem. But he did what he wanted to do,
when he wanted to do it, as he wanted to
(45:53):
do it, with what limit. Whatever he was willing to
do he did, and whatever he wasn't willing like, I mean, yeah,
that was his way. And so you cannot feel bad
for anybody who lives their life that way, right, But
you know, this is sort of where I want it
to be. Some people talk about their legacy. I don't
know what kind of legacy I'll have, but I don't.
Speaker 4 (46:12):
Want this to die. I want this to be. I
want this to evolve, and I want to evolve well
with a really good high level. Love doesn't ask. So
where do your hopes and where you see your this sculling?
Speaker 1 (46:26):
I would love that would be my That's my aspiration
for this is to have it stay in a fine
like a house of fine jewelry and even fun get better,
get more elegant, get more refined, getting you know, take
advantage of the three D stuff where it's appropriate to
do it, where it doesn't deteriorate the quality of your style.
(46:48):
Do there's no reason not to, But where it doesn't,
don't stop doing the other.
Speaker 4 (46:54):
Thing because it's not easy to do in cad or
it's not easy to do.
Speaker 1 (46:59):
And then do it the hard way, but do it well,
don't do it badly the easy way, and abandon any
attempt to and then develop it and keep.
Speaker 4 (47:09):
Going and turn it into something fantastic.
Speaker 1 (47:11):
Because it's you know, if we go backwards or we
just get lazy, have a vision of a beautiful thing
and it's hard to do it, and cad don't do
it and do it beautifully. And beauty is one thing
that I think everybody it's like binds humanity, like there's
pretty is one thing the beauty binds humanity.
Speaker 4 (47:31):
And that's what your child will know about you.
Speaker 2 (47:33):
Thank you so much, Alisa Gilbert for having us and
inviting us into your studio. We had an absolute great time. Everyone.
Check out Vivian Charles dot com and Vivian Charles Jewelry
on social media. That is our show for this week.
Thank you so much for tuning in. You're listening to
(47:53):
Shawna and La La. Check us out at Shauna and
Lala dot com on all social media platforms at Shauna
and Laala. You could follow me on Instagram at the
Real Shawnam and check me.
Speaker 3 (48:07):
Out at Bella Underscore Laala one two five.
Speaker 2 (48:10):
We will see you next week.
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