KEITH CHAPMAN JEWELER
Court Street Forges the Beginning of Forever
BY RYAN MAXIN PHOTOS BY SYDNEY BRITTON
“If everybody you know has gotten a new gray car, you're going to think those are great. But you want a red car when you really get down to it”
- CHAPMAN
On any given day, the diamonds and gemstones in the window at 8 S. Court St. glimmer as the sunlight washes over them. Inside the glass are assortments of gold and silver, twisted and contorted into the shapes of necklaces, earrings, bracelets, and rings. These are the custom creations of Keith Chapman.
Chapman has operated his eponymous jewelry business out of his studio for nearly 30 years. He studied gemology, the study of gemstones, in California before working for a number of years designing and manufacturing for other stores. From there, he traveled the world—from New York to Europe and beyond—on networking and purchasing trips. In the late ’90s, he officially opened his studio at the location where it is today.
In the time since, Chapman has maintained a thriving jewelry business. He has found success by taking inspiration from his own experiences, which has resonated with his clients.
“I'm influenced by what I see,” Chapman says as he sits behind a display case in his studio. “By what I see people wearing, buying, showing, but also by what I see in other parts of my life. And then if it works, it works.”
Chapman does not always rely only on his own aesthetic preferences, though. When it comes to engagement rings, he is influenced more by the human connection he establishes with the couple for whom he’s designing.
Over the course of a couple initial meetings, he said, he encourages couples to move past any preconceived ideas they have about how their rings should look—either based on what their friends are wearing or what they see in popular culture—and really start thinking about what they want, not what others have.
“If everybody you know has gotten a new gray car, you're going to think those are great. But you want a red car when you really get down to it,” he said.
In recent years, Chapman said he has noticed a shift in his consultations with prospective buyers. The meetings used to be with only one person who was looking to buy on the spot with some influence from their partner. Today, more couples are coming in together to talk about custom rings, he said.
After his introduction to a couple’s ideas, his timeline for designing and creating an engagement ring can span anywhere from one to six months. He enjoys diving into ideas and crafting rings soon after getting them approved by the couple he is working with. Actually making the ring is sometimes the quickest part, he said.
Because of that, some of his most difficult projects are those that do not need done right away. If someone hires him to design an engagement ring that they plan to use two years later, he said he will make it as soon as he can and advise the customer to hold on to it until they plan to propose.
Occasionally, Chapman said, Ohio University students will approach him about buying an engagement ring. Usually, those potential customers are either graduate students or Ohio U alumni who want to incorporate a part of Athens into their wedding.
“I’ll get an email or a text or a phone call from Chicago or wherever and they’ll say, ‘We met on campus and it was fun. It was a great part of our lives … and we’d love to have a ring from Athens,’” he said.
Despite his intermittent involvement with Ohio U grads who have moved away from Athens, Chapman said he has never been invited to a wedding of a couple he has worked with. However, he had a closing message for any future clientele.
“If someone is getting married in Hawaii, put a plug in,” he said. “Or I know there are a lot of Scandinavian countries. If somebody’s getting married there, I haven’t been to that area, so I’d like that.”
