The summer after his sophomore year at O’Fallon Technical High School, Demetrius Ball literally stumbled upon jewelry design.
He had recently enjoyed success in baseball and acting, but his mother advised him to consider a field outside of sports and theater. So he started doing some reading.
“I even went into the garage looking for books, and I stumbled on a milk crate full of books on jewelry,” said Ball.
“I kept reading until I broke a sweat that dropped on the page, and I had to get out of there before I died of heat exhaustion.”
Fascinated by gold, diamonds and colored stones, Ball n who is now known as Demetrius the Jeweler n got a job at age 17 at Vincent Jewelers to add practical skills to the theory he had learned from books.
“I walked in with my diamond book and resumé, and they were more impressed that they saw a 17-year-old kid with a diamond book,” Demetrius the Jeweler recalls. “They couldn’t believe it.”
Within his first year at work, Demetrius the Jeweler secured Ozzie Smith’s business by designing the then-Cardinals shortstop a personal emblem that he presented to then-Cardinals third baseman Terry Pendleton and his wife Kathy.
“At the time, they were creating jewelry for the baseball and football Cardinals, and they were trying to get Ozzie Smith into the store, and I came up with the design,” Demetrius the Jewelry said. “Everybody knew, from that point, that I could be successful in the jewelry-design business.”
That success opened the door for Demetrius the Jeweler to work as an official jeweler at the store after passing a test.
The young jeweler honed his skills at a few other stores, but was determined to take the entrepreneurial path.
In 1984, Demetrius the Jeweler began trading with jewelry companies and pawnshops and became partner with The Gold Connection proprietor Lee Bradley that year.
Five years later, the self-taught jewelry designer opened his own store, Diamonds and Gold Jewelers, at 6815 W. Florissant.
He has, however, continued building his entrepreneurial venture by offering his services to other jewelry stores.
Last year, he began consulting with customers, customizing and repairing jewelry for Zales, a leader in retail diamond sales.
“He’s really good,” a customer said after picking up two rings and a pair of earrings from Demetrius the Jeweler recently at Zales in Jamestown Mall.
He also services Zales’ Mid Rivers Mall and Northwest Plaza stores.
Earlier this year, Demetrius the Jeweler unleashed his own line of luxury watches and jewelry.
The watch line, Aie Che, features scratch-resistant sapphire crystal and diamond bezels encrusted with one carrot worth of diamonds on the exterior. Water resistant, they can withstand up to 150 feet of pressure.
His tagline for the lines is: “it’s where jewelry and fashion meet.” Prices range from $235-$2,200, depending on the amount of diamonds.
Demetrius the Jeweler is another shining example that African-American entrepreneurship has developed far beyond mom and pop operations, barbecue stands, barbershops and corner candy stores, however valuable those traditional service providers may be.
Inner cities are a promising environment for black entrepreneurs, according to Rebuilding Communities Initiative, which studied new investments in five distressed urban neighborhoods (Boston, Denver, Detroit, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.) across the nation, starting in 1993.
“Formerly distressed urban neighborhoods are revitalizing and embracing entrepreneurship as core development strategy,” Erik Pages, policy director with the National Commission on Entrepreneurship wrote while reviewing RCI’s efforts.
While the average household income is lower in inner cities than in many other communities, inner cities possess more than $85 million in annual retail spending power, according to a 1998 Initiative for a Competitive Inner City report.
Given his line of work, Demetrius the Jeweler should find a lucrative market in his own community. Last year, according to Target Market News, African Americans spent about $22 million in apparel products and services (which includes jewelry).
While African-American men ages 25 to 35 are more likely to start businesses than any other men in that age range, according to a Fortune Small Business report in 2003, black women lead the way. A Target Market News Report revealed that businesses owned by black women are growing faster in number and expanding in employment and sales. As of 2004, an estimated 1.4 million privately held firms owned by black women employ nearly 1.3 million people and generate $147 billion in annual sales.
Remember: it was Demetrius the Jeweler’s mother who advised him to pursue a more practical field.
