April 24, 2017

Meet Victor Canera of Downtown Los Angeles

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Victor Canera.

So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I grew up in the jewelry ‘biz. My grandfather was the first jeweler in the family and it was a very natural progression for me to continue in the footsteps of my grandfather and father before me. I started very young by doing menial jobs for my family working in the summers when I was off from school probably starting at about the age of 10. I was involved in the jewelry manufacturing business of my family and picked up so much knowledge in my teenage years from another craftsman. You really have to have curiosity and the thirst for knowledge to learn things from others. I would always ask other craftsman that I came across for tips and even why things were done a certain way because I wanted to learn and understand jewelry craftsmanship.

I have a pretty strong work ethic because of one uncle of mine especially who I very much respect and who brought out the work ethic in me. When I was a child, I used to come to an “agreement” with my uncle that if he paid me my full summer wages up front, I would give him a discount as opposed to getting paid weekly. I would use the money to get instant gratification and purchase the latest game console to play with at nights. My uncle would save on the wages but I think the real reason he would do it was to see if I kept my word and work through the whole summer. I always kept my word. My family really instilled the importance of working hard and persevering and even though I didn’t like having to work on the weekends when I was young, I’m very grateful now because it made me who I am as an adult.

I was heavily involved in my twenties and early thirties in the wholesale side of the ‘biz and would crisscross the country visiting independent jewelry stores which would resell my jewelry to the consumer. The struggle for me was always being able to communicate the value of hand fabricated jewelry which is becoming a lost art but that really results in the finest craftsmanship in jewelry. My passion for hand fabricated jewelry is and was so strong that the rejection I would get from 9 out of 10 jewelry stores didn’t deter me from my goal. I began to feel that the winds of change were upon us and that the internet was going to play a major role in my industry and decided to launch a small website on a shoe string budget. The internet allowed me to communicate my passion for hand forged jewelry directly to the consumer. The website immediately took off and people began to appreciate the value of the products that I was offering. I really felt vindicated at this point in my career.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
My career path was definitely not a smooth road. I spent close to a decade of my career as the “starving artist” in the B2B, wholesale side of the industry. It always felt like a struggle to communicate the quality of hand fabricated jewelry to retail jewelry store owners. These business owners would just compare my products to cheap imports from overseas even though there would be a distinct difference in craftsmanship and quality between my products and the imports. The response was typically something like “well, your items cost more”. I think this comes from the fact that many retail jewelry store owners don’t have practical bench work experience and couldn’t appreciate what it takes to hand fabricate jewelry. The jewelers that I dealt with that had previously worked on a bench immediately saw the value and were usually happy to carry my line of jewelry.

We’d love to hear more about your business.
Victor Canera is unique in that it is a commerce, jewelry company that specializes in hand fabricated jewelry and Ideal cut diamonds. What’s also very different about us is that we’re actually a manufacturing company as well. Our shop is where the jewelry is fabricated which is quite unique in the retail jewelry world. Additionally, up until we came along, it was very difficult for a consumer to have access to real hand fabricated jewelry as there are very few craftsmen in the world left that produce jewelry that is manufactured in this way. In fact, we take partial credit for re-introducing the term “hand forged jewelry” into the internet consumer’s consciousness. Today, everything is about mass production and making things as cheaply and quickly as possible. We’re the absolute antithesis to this philosophy. It’s not unusual for us to spend a whole week on a single ring for example. But, ultimately this time spent really results in the finest quality product.

We also offer three signature cut diamonds, two of which I designed; the Canera Antique Cushion and Canera European Round which are exclusive to us. We also offer a Round Brilliant diamond called the Canera Ideal Hearts – Super Ideal Hearts and Arrows diamond. All three diamonds can be termed the “best in class” in terms of having the highest level of craftsmanship within their categories. What sets us apart with our diamonds is also our involvement in the manufacturing of the stones. We’re involved in the procuring of the rough diamonds and the manufacturing of the stones. The diamonds are manufactured according to very strict guidelines that we set for each design. This gives us the ultimate control in terms of Cut quality for our diamonds. A small known fact is that the major diamond e-tailers are basically sophisticated “drop shippers” selling diamonds that they don’t physically own. The e-tailers typically list diamonds for sale that might be located in Asia. Us on the other hand source the diamonds from rough and have them manufactured just for us which is the only way you can really guarantee a fine quality diamond.

What were you like growing up?
I was very introverted as a child. I was the eldest son grandchild of a large family so I felt that a lot of things were expected of me. I remember as a child always wanting to make my grandfather and father proud of me. My grandfather passed away when I was about 16 so I felt like I lost an opportunity to do that with an important person in my life. In a way, I feel like I was spoiled by my family when I was growing up though and I’m keen not to do the same with my children. In my high school and college years, I had few but really close friends that I spent time with. My family was very important to me when I was growing up and this was not just my parents and siblings but my extended family as well.

Pricing: