Internet Jewelry Pioneer Creates ‘Gems of Madagascar’ to Improve Lives of Children
May 4, 2016
Michelle Rahm is many things: an accomplished business owner, a seasoned gemologist, an Internet jewelry sales pioneer and an award-winning leader in the GIA Alumni Association.
But when Rahm visited Madagascar in 2014 to learn about its mineralogy and tour mining localities, she didn’t expect to also become an advocate for the nation’s children. “I never imagined that a business trip to Madagascar would change my life,” she says.
Rahm’s business began when she decided “on a whim” to put a few pieces of costume jewelry for sale online in 1997. “It was an experiment to earn a little extra money for Christmas while my other start-up business was in the works,” says the Colorado resident. “But the jewelry sold so well right away, I never went back to the other business.”
She tried wholesaling items like hot cocoa and coffee, but jewelry and watches always performed best, so she zeroed in and founded JewelryImpressions.com.
Michelle Rahm, president of the GIA Alumni Association’s Mile-High Chapter, used her expertise as a pioneer in online jewelry sales to help her alma mater develop an e-commerce curriculum. Courtesy of Michelle Rahm
As Rahm found success in online jewelry sales, though, so did others.
“The Internet was becoming more accepted as a means of commerce, and I wanted an edge over my competition by having real credentials in the trade,” she says. When Rahm found herself at the Jewelers 24 Karat Club golf tournament with Douglas Hucker, CEO of the American Gem Trade Association, she asked his opinion on whether she should pursue her Graduate Gemologist diploma.
“He strongly encouraged me to do so,” says Rahm, a graduate of the University of Wisconsin - Platteville. “Within six months I signed up for classes, and had finished the program a year later.”
Rahm soon noticed the effects of a GIA education on her business: as her knowledge increased, her sales evolved from costume jewelry to fine jewelry and loose stones – and she was able to communicate with customers in an entirely new way.
“My GIA education allowed me to speak intelligently about gems and diamonds to my clients,” she says. “There is a trust factor there that consumers don’t find with other retailers who do not have their GG. I feel like my diploma helps me stand out in the sea of jewelry retailers, especially those selling on the Internet. When I have the opportunity to speak to customers, they realize that I have the education to back what I say.”
Rahm continued to engage with customers, seizing an opportunity in 2009 when she recognized that many of them were buying loose stones to be set in engagement rings. She created OurCustomWeddingRings.com, which sells engagement rings set with colored stones.
Michelle Rahm’s June 2014 trip to Madagascar’s mining localities was inspirational for its continuing education opportunities and connection to her GIA studies. “The most exciting destination for me was the Ilakaka alluvial sapphire deposit (pictured here), because I saw a video about it in my GIA coursework,” she says. Photo by Jaroslav Hrysl/Courtesy of Michelle Rahm
She also threw herself into involvement with the GIA Alumni Association – she’s president of the Denver, Colorado-area Mile-High chapter – and into continuing education classes and workshops. It was her quest for ever-expanding knowledge that led Rahm to that life-changing trip to Madagascar, where she was thrilled to visit sites like the Ilakaka alluvial sapphire deposit she studied in her GIA coursework.
What impacted her the most, though, was a surprise. “It wasn’t the sparkling gems that caught my eye,” she says. “It was the children.”
Rahm felt an instant bond with the “beautiful” children she met with such “rich spirits,” but was overwhelmed by their lack of access to clean water, nutritious food and other fundamental necessities for survival. She returned to the United States with a resolve to learn about clean water projects and other basic needs of the Malagasy people.
The real “gems” of that nation, she says, are its children. She joined forces with partners in Madagascar and Colorado and founded GemsofMadagascar.org, a non-governmental organization with a “holistic approach” to humanitarian work. The nonprofit, which was officially created in 2015, will offer first aid and hygiene training, develop community gardens and clean water systems, and construct buildings, among other needs that will give local children a better chance of a bright future. The first two projects will launch this summer: a clean-water system that will supply eight villages, and a church and community building for another village. There are plans for more clean-water systems in the next year.
Rahm has traveled back to Madagascar several times in the last couple of years. In addition to her work with her own business and as a leader in the Alumni Association, Rahm is thrilled at the many opportunities and paths that have developed from a “whim” of a decision to sell some costume jewelry online.
“I absolutely love my career,” she says.
Jaime Kautsky, a contributing writer, is a GIA Diamonds Graduate and GIA AJP and was an associate editor of The Loupe magazine.
