The giddy exuberance that the holiday season inspires (lights! presents!) is captured brilliantly in Treat Yourself’s second annual holiday gift guide. Instagrammers Benjamin Guttery (@thirdcoastgems) and Hannah Becker (@diamondoodles) developed the whimsical, e-based guide last year, and the pair have teamed up once again with their fresh approach to selling jewels and their out-of-the-box way of grabbing the jewelry-and-social-media-loving world’s attention.
What’s new and improved? For starters, the guide now has a dedicated website at treatyourself.jewelry. That’s right—not a dot com or net! When the dot jewelry domain option recently debuted, the besties jumped at the chance to use it.
Also new: Shoppers can click to purchase right on the site, while the designers themselves fulfill the orders. Designer options have also been expanded. About 22 designers—including Becker, who makes cartoony-awesome enamel and base-metal doodle pins—are participating, versus last year’s 13.
“Returning are Jane Taylor, Erika Winters, and Marla Aaron, but new this year are Sethi Couture and Sara Weinstock,” says Guttery.
Designer bios are included on the site, and shoppers can browse by style category or price. Each piece for sale is exclusive to the guide, which is marketed on the duo’s social media feeds as well as through Instagram and Facebook ads. (Designers, too, are promoting the site on their own social accounts.) Retail prices start at $330 for a pair of Megan Thorne studs and climb as high as $39,500 for a one-of-a-kind Buried Treasure ring with a cabochon-cut sapphire by Jill Maurer. The site went live on Black Friday and thus far has had decent traffic, maintains Guttery. Analytics reveal not just traffic but confirm what’s selling.
“The goal is to market these designers and help sell their pieces so they can do their creative thing and continue to make new collections,” he adds. Also a possibility? Year-round sales—although that is a work in progress.
Maurer says she is happy to participate because of her relationship with Guttery. Both had a mutual friend in the late and legendary Cindy Edelstein of the Jeweler’s Resource Bureau. “The jewelry industry is just so small, but I love that we find ways to help each other,” she says of Guttery’s asking her to participate.
The items Maurer opted to sell are all favorites of Guttery.
“Ben loves the Buried Treasure ring—I was wearing it when I met him in Tucson last year!” says Maurer, who also wholesales her work to stores. “The Pivotal bracelet is also one of his faves.”
Maurer is taking something of a leap of faith with her decision to work with the Treat Yourself guide creators. “I know Ben and Hannah are great and know many people, but I really don’t know who their audience is,” she says. “However, I do know that it is growing and there’s potential.”
The architect and artist behind the site is Becker. Opting not to make custom doodles for each participating designer as she did last year, Becker instead streamlined this year’s creative by making a “ ’Tis the Season to Buy Jewelry” visual theme, complete with stars and bobblehead-like cutouts of the guide’s founders.
“I wanted a holiday theme that was festive but not Christmas-exclusive,” she says.
Perhaps the best aspect of the guide, though, may just be the momentum and excitement surrounding the idea. “People are really paying attention to other ways of shopping,” says Becker.
A doodle featuring Treat Yourself founders Benjamin Guttery and Hannah Becker
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