Eye on Small Business: Chakarr Jewelery, Rye

Inspired by ancient artisan jewelry design, Chakarr Jewelry delivers, in its own words, “authentic statement pieces for today’s modern woman.” That in itself may not be newsworthy – what aspiring artisan jeweler wouldn’t make the same claim? – but what sets Chakarr apart is its highly successful mother-and-daughter jewelry collaboration, one the creative, the other the sales maven.

Mother is jewelry designer Ferzan Cakar, a Turkish fine arts graduate from Istanbul, who flirted with painting and sculpture before eventually finding her niche in jewelry design a little more than 25 years ago. As a designer, she sets out, she said, to create “wearable art,” constructed completely by hand around specific gemstones or meaningful charms, making each of her pieces one-of-a-kind.

Chakarr Jewelry USA, with a transliterated spelling of the family name, was founded by Ferzan’s daughter, Benan Cakar, in New York City in 2009, after she graduated Binghampton University, with the vision of giving her mother’s jewelry collection a wider audience. With a deceptively relaxed but impressively robust approach to selling, the company’s remaining brick-and-mortar store – a fixture on Purchase Street in Rye for 15 years – is also a showcase for a remarkably sophisticated online sales business, turning over in excess of $300,000 annually. (Chakarr also had a location in Larchmont.)

The entire collection is handcrafted in a small workshop in Istanbul by local artisans under Ferzan Cakar’s design direction.

While the website is prone to somewhat grandiose claims, one of which is that the jewelry “reflects the inner magnificence of today’s women,” what is certainly true is that Chakarr designs are aesthetically arresting. Crafted in silver and gold using both precious and semiprecious stones, the pieces are reasonably priced, coming in, in many cases, at well under $100.

In addition to earrings, necklaces, bracelets and rings, Chakarr also offers ikat clutches and pouches, customized totes and a small apparel collection, including skirts, crop-tops and kaftans.

In the store itself, an inviting, airy space where Benan herself is usually present, the sales technique, such as it is, is generally “soft sell,” since the pieces speak for themselves.

On my recent visit to choose a special thank-you gift for a colleague, the chic Italian saleswoman saw me pondering a pair of gold “paperclip” earrings. “Ah, those,” she said, “they’re beautiful. And I just came back from my vacation in Venice, where everyone was wearing them.”

Salesmanship raised to an art form. Needless to say, I immediately bought them.