A Short Night with Pearls in Osaka

Hello. This is Flower Jem.

Recently, the weather has been difficult to understand. It rains, then it becomes warm, and then suddenly it gets cold again.

Tonight, I went out into Osaka city because a traveler from overseas wanted to see Flower Jem pearl jewelry.

She first contacted me through the Flower Jem website earlier this year.

She was hoping for a pair of dangling pearl earrings and kindly sent me several reference images.

I made several different designs of dangling earrings and showed them to her a few times online. Tonight, I brought those earrings with me to meet her.

In the end, she purchased one pair.

As for the other earrings, I had the impression that they were slightly different from what she truly wanted.

There was also one design she had been particularly interested in — earrings made with four small pearls connected together. However, I did not even bring that pair with me tonight.

When I had shown that design earlier, she said that the chain might be a little too long. I had felt the same way, so I eventually abandoned making that design.

At that time, I also had very limited time because of tax filing work and shipping tasks.

In short, I should have asked her more detailed questions about the specifications of the earrings.

She kindly made time during her precious trip to Japan, and I feel there were still things I could have done better.

At the same time, my business is mainly online, so I am genuinely happy whenever I have the opportunity to physically meet a customer.

In particular, I learn a lot by observing customers’ eyes and expressions when they look at pearls.

Seeing which pearls attract their attention and how they react to them is extremely valuable for me.

Sometimes people react to small pearls with strong luster. Other times they react to larger pearls even if the luster is weaker.

Even though I run a very small shop, I am still a pearl dealer.

Pearl dealers often forget how end users actually enjoy pearl jewelry.

Things that pearl dealers consider important are sometimes not important to customers. And sometimes the opposite is also true.

You can only understand this by watching how customers look at pearls and how they touch them.

I know a little about Akoya pearls, but when it comes to jewelry and accessories themselves, I am still very much a beginner.

That is why observing how end users interact with pearls is incredibly valuable for me.

However, my English conversation ability is still quite limited, and once again tonight I was only able to say less than half of what I wanted to say.

It feels as if something is stuck inside a faucet.

The words are already in my throat, but they never reach my mouth.

Sometimes I feel a little embarrassed trying to speak English even though I am not good at it.

Looking at myself objectively, I may not be a very good salesperson for a pearl shop.

Even so, if someone gives me the chance to meet them, I want to meet them without hesitation.

Even if I cannot communicate well, I am simply happy that someone wants to look at the pearls.

It may be similar to how people who have dogs want others to appreciate their dogs.

I am very satisfied that I was able to show my pearls tonight.

And I am also very happy that someone was willing to meet such a small pearl shop.

Not asking enough detailed questions about what the customer wanted is something I must improve in the future.

Lack of time was also part of the reason.

In the end, we decided that I will make a pair of earrings that better matches her wishes and send them to her home later.

Recently, I have been preparing my Osaka apartment so that I can also work with pearls there.

Lately I have been telling customers that I am busy, and because of that some customers kindly say, “Any time is fine.”

However, I have a feeling that if I rely on that kindness too much, customers may eventually drift away.

My shop is already very small, and I do not have many customers.

Because I run everything alone, I used to believe that I could take good care of each customer individually. But recently I feel that I have not been doing that well.

Of course, this does not mean I should stay awake without sleeping to make jewelry.

But if I can create an environment where I can work with pearls both in Osaka and Kobe, I believe things will gradually improve.

After leaving the luxurious hotel in Osaka where I met the customer, I walked about twenty minutes to the place where I had parked my motorcycle.

While walking, I found myself thinking about many things.

“I had a wonderful experience tonight, but there are also many things I should reflect on.”

I walked while looking up and then looking down, thinking about these things.

Even after getting on my motorcycle, I did not immediately enter the highway.

Instead, I slowly rode through the city streets of Osaka.

Perhaps I wanted to savor the afterglow of that short meeting with the customer.

A talented salesperson can sell anything, regardless of the product.

Thinking about that, I often feel that I rely too much on pearls.

Even when meeting customers, I think, “It will be fine because the pearls are beautiful.”

When thinking about design, I also tend to think, “These pearls are good enough.”

Perhaps that tendency will continue.

But if pearls could speak, they might say to me:

“Hey, that’s not fair. You should work harder too.”

Designs that make beautiful pearls even more beautiful.

Words that can properly explain beautiful pearls.

While thinking about these things, I rode my motorcycle home through the still cold night.

My weekday job continues until Saturday this week.

Lately I feel like I am fighting sleep twenty-four hours a day.

Tonight I had a chance to sleep early, yet here I am writing this article.

What a troublesome habit.

But as I said before, the reason I stay awake like this is probably because my heart is still excited that someone became interested in a small shop where I simply sell pearls that I personally love.

Even when I worked for a pearl company, I liked pearls.

But I never felt emotions this strong.