Tahitian jeweler Jacques Amo has brought a touch of Tahiti to Kapa’a town. Amo, who is Tahitian-French, and his wife, Maureen, have remodeled a shop once known as Joe the Barber’s in the Kawamura Store building on Kuhio Highway. Jacques
Tahitian jeweler Jacques Amo has brought a touch of Tahiti to Kapa’a town.
Amo, who is Tahitian-French, and his wife, Maureen, have remodeled a shop once known as Joe the Barber’s in the Kawamura Store building on Kuhio Highway.
Jacques Amo Fine Jewelry is adjacent to Hula Girl The Vintage Collection shop.
Black pearl necklaces, custom rings with geometric Tahitian designs, one-of-a-kind gold figurines, and other unique pieces of jewelry with a Tahitian touch grace the window of the shop.
Inside the shop, Tahitian music serves as a backdrop to a shop decorated with fixtures custom-made of bamboo, lauhala and other natural materials, all created by Amo.
Some of the jeweler’s unique pieces encompass Tahitian designs. His showcases also have a Tahitian flavor, with black-pearl jewelry from Tahiti a specialty. He stamps all his work with a unique seal.
Amo said the Papeete of his childhood and teen years was what he’d imagine Kaua’i to have been like in the 1920s and 1930s. “There was no TV,” he recalls, and life was much simpler.
His father drove a taxi in Papeete, and showed movies on a sheet in the open air, just as movies were shown on Kaua’i in the 1910s. The family made profits through concession sales.
The couple met in Honolulu in 1986 when both were on vacation. He had flown up from Papeete, and she had flown in from her home in Southern California. They fell in love and were married, despite a language barrier which they gradually overcame.
Today they live in Kapa’a and have two children, Tiana, 13, and Jacques Jr., or J.J., who is 11.
Amo said Tahitians like to come to Hawai’i for shopping vacations, and because they feel comfortable traveling to another Polynesian island group.
“They come not because they need a vacation, but for shopping,” he said. “In Tahiti everything is very expensive.”
Amo’s interest in jewelry was sparked by his brother, who was a jeweler in Papeete, Amo’s home town. He began by polishing pieces of jewelry.
Amo’s career as a jeweler dates back about 20 years to his home town of Papeete, on the main island of French Polynesia. There he worked for Jean Claude Bijouterie, a manufacturing jeweler.
After a moving to California following his marriage, Amo worked for J. Grahl Design in Newport Beach, Calif. There he worked on unique 24-inch-high Faberge-like eggs that featured gold figurines, intricate machine work, and other exacting details.
The Amos later moved to Palm Desert, and Amo worked for the Roberge Corp., an exclusive jewelry-maker, where he did stone-setting and goldsmithing, plus work on fabricating unique clasps.
They moved on to Hollywood in the late 1990s, where Amo worked on props and made his own custom jewelry for clients. Upon moving to Kaua’i, he worked for Jim Saylor Jewelers up Kuhio Highway in Kapa’a, prior to opening his own business.
As a jeweler, Amo has worked in creating wax carvings for custom designs, casting, hand-fabrication, finishing, stone-setting, inlaying, enameling and engraving. He works in 14-, 18- and 24-carat gold, in white gold and platinum, and has worked with pearls, coral, shell, bone and ebony.
Amo said he offers a wide range of design work, from affordable pieces to custom individual designs. His clientele includes local residents as well as visitors. He also does jewelry repair, and guarantees all his work.
The shop is open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. For more information, please call 822-9977.
