Latest / The Jeff Crilley Show / Avi & Nika Dubey, AviNika Jewelry | The Jeff Crilley Show
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- Coming up next on the Jeff Crilley Show, you're gonna meet an amazing young couple. They they have a designer jewelry company, and they're on a mission to bring meaning back to jewelry. Their incredible journey just ahead. Many are predicting that the worst is yet to come, which is unfortunate, said one person here. Until now, they've enjoyed the reputation of being the nation's icebox. Watched a burglar in his home this morning by webcam. As a journalist of over twenty five years, stories are what make my world turn. Reporting live from The Dallas Newsroom tonight, Jeff Crilley, Fox four news. But in 2008, I took the jump from my familiar life and started a PR firm from my home. We're talking about anyone with a camcorder like the one I'm using becomes a television network. We started slowly growing the company, and we now have over a 100 clients. And we've branched into the world of live digital broadcasting. I now own eight different TV studios and have a huge team. And the stories that I now get to share are sometimes the most important of my life. Life has a funny way of coming around full circle. This is The Jeff Crilley Show. Alright. We're in Dallas, which means there's a jewelry store on every street corner here. But if you're if you're looking for a truly meaningful piece, a custom designed piece, you're gonna wanna visit my next couple. Avi and Nika Dubey are in the studio. They're with they're with Avi Dubey Jewelry. Thanks for coming on the show, guys. Thank you for having us. Yeah. Thank you so much, Jeff. It's a pleasure. It's an honor. I want I want you to start at the beginning. How did this jewelry company start? Who wants to begin? I'll begin. So, it started with a personal quest where Nika was looking for a wedding ring for me and we just couldn't find something that resonated with us, something that resonated with me and we were going to all these big name stores and ended up just seeing the same plain wedding bands everywhere else. So she decided to custom create my wedding ring and when I wore that wedding ring on my finger for the first time, I I loved the experience, I loved the feeling of having something so personal that I'm gonna wear for the rest of my life and I realized that most men don't get to have that have that at all because you know, men are having the most rare watch, they're having the best scar, but really they don't have a statement piece that they can carry on to generations and that's what really inspired the brand of Nika Jewelry. Absolutely. And Nika, I know you have a personal story related to this, your father and your grandfather. Right, my dad back in Ukraine, he's making jewelry right now for his family and friends, and his dad also has been making metal art for family and friends' birthdays, anniversaries over forty years ago and seeing that run through my blood, am really inspired to carry that on to give people something extremely meaningful and personal and symbolic made specially for them. It's very special. So powerful. We're gonna pull up your your website and if we scroll down the website, like every piece tells a story, doesn't it, Avi? Yes, it does. Tell us about, know, how you approach your customers. Do they come to you with an idea and then you help bring it to life? Yes. So, basically, a lot of our customers, they have an idea but some of them, they don't have an idea. For example, one of the recent commissions we had, this person, he came to us and he had a very special ruby and he was looking for a very beautiful setting for it but he just couldn't find something that was worthy of that rare ruby. But he came across our work, our scroll work, our hand engraving designs and he was absolutely in love with it. And he wanted to customize one of our scroll work design with Flor D'Lee's symbol as a symbolism of his daughter being born this year and he wanted us to incorporate that symbol in our scrollwork. So that's the kind of people that come to us who have some kind of symbolism that they're trying to mark in this in the piece that they could transfer on to generations. Absolutely. And Nika, you're really passionate about being creative. What is Right. It like when you're working with your customer to create this perfect piece? Yes. So, I think I'm extremely detail oriented, so it's a real pleasure for me to get down and really perfect the vision and to make sure that it is something that can be in a museum. Mhmm. And that's what we aspire to be. We are not looking to make inventory something that everyone might like. We are looking to make personal pieces that are made from highest quality materials, something that, you know, craftsmanship that can be admired. And when I'm looking at a design and I'm hearing a person's story, like for example, one person yesterday, he reached out to us and he's opening his own boutique store in Austin and he wants to commemorate that with a ring made out of 22 carat gold and he wants to have some orange stones and natural diamonds they've set into it. So then I'm going and taking that vision and the vision behind his brand and what inspired that piece, I'm drawing that into the sketch, how that translates into his ring that he'll wear on his pinky. That's so beautiful. Very meaningful and marking a milestone. Well, I think like, you know, you look at some high end jewelry stores like Tiffany's Yeah. But you could go to a gala and see another woman wearing the same ring. Same ring. Every one of yours is personal. Every every Yep. We don't remake any of the pieces that we make once. Each of them is a collectible piece made individually for yourself. Okay. We're gonna show some video and this was a ring that you designed a while ago but I want you to describe that Avi, like what went into that? So, I think that it's about the passion, something, a design that tells a story of love and that's why we chose a rare vivid red diamond which is extremely rare in the nature and we chose to incorporate that with a scrollwork design, scrollwork which came from inspired by Palace Of Versalis. As a meaning of something that is meant to endure last, something that could be legacy. So, that's kind of the meaning behind it. Yes. So, love that endured to last. And I know Father's Day will be here very quickly. Do both men's and women's jewelry but you're passionate about creating that perfect masterpiece for the man. So talk about Father's Day. Who wants to start? Right. Well, I mean, this story of our brand starts with me and Avi, but really with my father and my grandfather having been artisans themselves and still doing it and now we're doing it. I think celebrating Father's Day is probably the most special holiday for us and so we wanted to really honor that by making sure that men and women can celebrate their fathers and their lives. And so they can create peace that is most personal to them, incorporating maybe their personal story, milestone or to commemorate some chapter in their lives. So that is what we're doing right now. It's coming up on June 21 and since the time that it takes to create some of our pieces can be two to three months Mhmm. We want to let people know now that they should start looking into their design and think how will they celebrate their fathers this year. And you guys take this so personally because you know that this is gonna be perhaps even a family heirloom. So, it's not like you just quickly come up with something. Yeah. Can it take hours and hours to come up with a design? It it totally does. Sometimes, it it takes up to, you know, a week. We are just working with one client, me and Nika, you know, one of our what's something that sets us apart is that as owners of the brand, we give so much time with the customer to really get all the perfect details right because it's extremely important that we achieve the most beautiful piece that we can make We're out gonna put your website up in a in a second but I want you guys to describe the how the client engagement begins. So, they contact you through the website, Nika, and then they say, hey, I wanna give a gift to my dad and how does the conversation go? Do they already have some ideas on what they want or are you starting from scratch? Sometimes they come to us and they just say, I have never seen anything so beautiful like your designs and I would love to have something like this either for me, a lot of men buy them for themselves or for my father and they say, I would love to incorporate it, I'm looking at your designs. I absolutely love the scroll work, but I think I actually want to add some diamonds here as accents or maybe I want to incorporate a certain symbol like Fleurs de Lis commissioning for his daughter who's French. That's kind of how it begins and then when we present the design sketches to them and the three d model, then we perfect it to really be something that they're excited to wear for the rest of their lives. Mhmm. It's a very meticulous process. So some people really, as Nika said, some people know what they want and they exactly are like, well, this is what we are looking for. We saw your designs, amazing craftsmanship, nobody in the industry is producing this kind of work. So, we want you to make it this. Or mostly, are just like, oh, we just bounced upon one of your designs and although we I'm not a jewelry person but my God, would love to wear your piece. Can they they bring a stone to you? Like, maybe this was something that was important to their family and say, I want you to build something around this gem? Yeah. I mean, absolutely. That's what one of our recent clients, he bought the ruby, as I told you Mhmm. To us and he was looking for most beautiful setting. So, that's definitely something we specialize in as well. Outstanding. We have about two minutes left, so I'm going to give you both a chance to give final words. Why don't we begin with you Avi and we'll end with Nika. Final words. Final words is that an industry that's been unserved for so long, men have always been at the very secondary in the jewelry industry. Women's have always been the one who have been prioritized or anybody else and there's so many brands out there for women creating beautiful pieces yet there's nobody really thinking about men's jewelry. If you really look at Vogue top 20 men's jewelry brands you will see every brand out there is producing the same design, same pieces for men but we chose to do something exceptional and produce something that would last them through generations and that's what we do at Abeneca Jewelry and we are very proud of that. Outstanding. Nika, you get the last word. Oh, thank you so much, Jeff. So, this has been a really special journey for us, making jewelry that is one of a kind And like Avi said, this is not something that men have had the pleasure to have in the past. I mean, look at the most famous brands and you're seeing designs that are copy of a copy of a copy. And what we are doing is making designs that are most personal Yes. And carry on a meeting of you and your family or you know, you might be well traveled and love art and you wanna wear that. You have a wanna have a wearable monument that is one of one. So that's what we're bringing back is arts, art and craftsmanship. We're having that for men. It used to be that men would have a ring that made just for them as their stamp, as their personal signature Mhmm. That would be then destroyed after their death. And that's because how meaningful and personal that was. And nowadays, every man's jewelry piece is just a copy. So we're happy to be doing something exceptionally different and beautiful. Well, and before I let you go, I I remember that you said you got a high honor. You're you're featured in the DuPont registry. Explain that, Avi. Yes. We were recently recognized in the editorial as the Valentine's Day gift guide, which is very special to us because that's when me and Nika met on Valentine's Day. Chosen to be one among the top luxury brands among Cartier, Patek Philippe, Dior, Bvlgari, Ferrari to be chosen as one of the top luxury brands and I'm very honored to be featured over there as it tells everybody the the level of craftsmanship that Avi Dubey upholds themselves to. Outstanding. You've been an amazing guest. Congrats on your success. Thank you, sir. And I see nothing but sun on your face and the wind at your back going forward. We're gonna end with the website which is avinikajewelry.com. Thank you so much for coming on the show, guys. Thank you so much, Thank you so much, Jeff. That's it for now. We'll see you next time.