Naim and Lorraine Tunca weren’t planning on going back into the fine jewelry business. Naim thought he’d left the international world of gems and precious metals behind him for good when he closed his exclusive design shop in Santa Monica, California, and moved his family up to Spokane. That was six years ago.

Serving the jewelry design wants of several celebrity clients, he had become successful enough to quietly and anonymously settle into a wholesale business here in the Inland Northwest. But, as he explains, “I couldn’t stay away from it; jewelry is a passion.” He sounds almost apologetic, his thick Turkish accent prompting him to speak slowly and carefully.

As the fifth generation jeweler in his family, Naim’s entire life has been steeped in the art of jewelry making. The sublime seduction of pearls and perfectly cut precious stones pulses through his blood.

“He started working when he was seven years old” says his wife, Lorraine.

“Child labor in Turkey”, explains Naim, smiling with a shrug of his shoulders. “Growing up in Istanbul, I’d get out of school at two and go to work.”

By the time he was 13, Naim was operating his own jewelry manufacturing company with three employees. Designing and crafting jewelry was all he ever wanted to do—it still is.

He moved to America in 1978, hoping to reach his entrepreneurial potential. He still travels back to Istanbul often and was there just two months ago, crafting unique handmade jewelry. He picks up an unusual dragonfly brooch. Encrusted with an array of precious gems, the entire ornate piece, from start to finish, is hand-made. “We are not a mass production jeweler; we have mainly one-of-a-kind pieces”, he says.

Because of his family’s professional history as jewelers, and their entrenchment in one of civilization’s oldest cities, Istanbul, Naim has access to some of the rarest cut gems and crafted pieces around the globe. And of course, he offers to his clientele his own skills as a fifth generation artisan.

“Fine Jewelry is not just about precious stones and diamonds, but offering to the clients the best craftsmanship available, so the finished product will speak for itself”, he explains.

“Like a piece of artwork”, adds Lorraine, her own northern Mexican accent as rich and careful as her husband’s. She motions to a showcase filled with exclusive, fine jewelry. “These become family heirlooms, investments. You pass them on to your children, and it’s something to last forever.”

For Naim, the love of jewelry is the challenge of “doing new things in the old way.” When a client comes in with an idea for a piece, he personally selects the gems and oversees the crafting.

As her husband walks into a backroom to retrieve several new designs he’s recently completed, Lorraine says in a hushed tone, “Naim is very proud of what he does and wants it always to be perfect.”

She’s right, of course. Whether it’s restoring or designing jewelry, or helping his clients design their own unique pieces, a passion for art and perfection has sustained him across oceans and countries.