Conversations with Benny Hayoun

My company is Benny and the Gems. I am a concierge jewelry designer. I moved to Los Angeles after serving three years in the Israeli Army. I was supposed to be in Los Angeles for two years to learn about the jewelry industry on my own. My father was in the business in Israel since the early 1960s. He wanted me to learn our industry without his connections and guidance. My two years turned into me staying in Los Angeles permanently.

My father’s expertise was in cutting diamonds and distributing them to wholesale dealers around the world. He had a diamond-cutting factory and was a member of the well-respected and elite group, The Bursa (diamond exchange) in Israel. Once I started working on my own, I found my passion – designing and creating one-of-a-kind pieces. I love working with clients and helping them get their dream piece. It’s an exciting and rewarding process.

I wish I could say my entire journey was smooth. As you said, we all face challenges and these challenges are not pleasant to deal with. I am constantly trying to increase my diamond inventory and have the right inventory that will keep up with trends. As we all know, it’s important to have pieces in inventory that are in demand.

But looking on the bright side, challenges give us an opportunity to grow. By being on the search for the right diamonds, I find myself exploring different avenues in the business like incorporating gems and diamonds in the same piece of jewelry. This has allowed me to create unlimited design ideas.

I have two aspects to my business – I sell loose diamonds and jewelry to dealers and stores and I create one-of-a-kind pieces that I sell to individuals and retail stores. As previously mentioned, my passion is designing and creating pieces. It’s the process of starting with a sketch, getting feedback from the client, possibly tweaking the design, creating the setting, the stones being set in the piece, and culminating by delivering the final piece to the client that I love.

The jewelry industry is generally an old school business. The process of making jewelry by hand is still used today. In the last few years with the introduction of Computer-Aided Design (CAD) and 3-D printing, the process is changing and getting more simple. In the next few years, clients will be able to design a piece of jewelry on their own computer. I see the addition of new materials that will help create new kinds of jewelry. But I always say, “classic and traditional will never go out of style”.