Cornerstone Jewelry is a “jewelry gallery”—half the pieces are designed by Gillian Finch-Inskeep, one of the owners, and the other half is hand-picked at trade shows. But that doesn’t mean everything is expensive—neck chains are $10, freshwater pearl necklaces and bracelets start at $25 and a unique necklace Finch-Inskeep created with crystals and assorted beads sells for $120.
Finch-Inskeep and co-owner Richard Graver, a retired United Airlines pilot, bought Cornerstone from founder John Zarembski and re-opened it in March because they wanted a shop in an established location. The pair has been selling rare and unusual stones to jewelry manufacturers and collectors for decades. Finch-Inskeep also has been designing one-of-a-kind pieces in her Sonoma studio for 35 years, calling her work Gilliana.
She became interested in gems in the late 1970s, when she discovered that a ruby her father, an officer in the British Navy, had bought her in Sri Lanka was synthetic. Enrolling at the Gemological Institute of America, then in Santa Monica, she took courses to become a gemologist. She is now a licensed master appraiser.
Among the rare pieces at Cornerstone are a bracelet made of gold and red spinels, which are crystals, which was made for Burmese royalty, and a necklace of blue-gray Tahitian pearls. Finch-Inskeep says that all pieces are acquired from legitimate sources and that all diamonds the shop sells are “non-conflict.”
Cornerstone Jewelers
416 First St. E.
Sonoma
707.996.6635
Open daily, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., until 8 p.m. Dec. 14-15 and 21-23.
