Our Town: Ahead of the Curve

Although Mike Ponthieux has been creating custom jewelry for the past thirty years, he doesn’t call himself a designer. “I always try to let the customer be the designer,” Mike says, “and I’m just the one who makes it happen.” When Mike and Wanda Ponthieux moved to Greenville nine years ago, the husband and wife design team decided to open their own store on Augusta Road.

Today, Ponthieux Jewelry Design Studio stands out for its originality. Mike and Wanda found their niche—reinterpreting a customer’s original piece into a new, custom creation. A recent customer brought her engagement ring and her grandmother’s ring into the studio, and the Ponthieuxs will create a design that ties the sentiment of both rings together.

The couple uses CAD, cutting-edge drafting software that distinguishes their work and allows for greater precision. After gathering a client’s vision for the piece, Wanda creates 2-D images for the client. In the final step, Mike builds the piece in 3-D images, and a machine then carves the design into wax, making a mold for the jewelry.

Before, Mike would have spent hours at the bench, hand-carving the wax. “I spend as many hours on the computer as I would at the bench,” he explains, but the software gives him freedom to design without limitations.

“We’re not business people. It just happened,” Mike admits, recognizing how lucky they are to be doing what they love. Ponthieux Jewelry Design Studio is not your traditional jewelry store—their concept is as unique as their jewelry. But, really, it still comes down to the way jewelry has been crafted for years—by hand.