Surfer/Jeweler Has One of Oldest Shops in The Village—But Fresh with Creativity

The sign in the window said "Closed," but Terry Whyte's store couldn't have been more open.

It was Monday of Christmas week, and as the rain poured outside, phone calls and visitors poured into Golden Artistry, Whyte's longtime jewelry shop in The Village.

Each time the phone rang or a visitor came to the door, Whyte popped up to answer the call or open the lock.  Appointments were made. Customers—greeted by first name—picked up purchases.

It was December outside, but more like July inside.

Whyte, a master goldsmith, was wearing his customary Hawaiian shirt and sandals. ("It's a state of mind, right?" he asked.) A surfboard hung on one wall, soft music played in the background and his little 8-month-old Pekingese, Jade—a store regular—was sprawled on her back, just waiting for one more visitor to rub her belly.

During one of the busiest times of the year—as Whyte worked to finish making jewelry that would be unwrapped this Christmas morning—he appeared unfazed by the winter weather or holiday crush.

Focused, yes. Frenzied, no.

"My focus is getting [Christmas orders] done," he was saying. "Get them done. Make sure I get everybody's things done. … I'm getting there."

It's why he'd come in on his day off, when he can usually work in peace, as he also had the day before. But "closed" wasn't happening. If you're open to people, if you're open to creating things and if you're open to living life the way you want to live it, as Whyte is, the door is always open.

"Terry never closes," says longtime customer Susan Bunting. "He's such as special guy. Such a good soul."

Long time in La Mesa

Whyte, 57, grew up in La Mesa and has one of the longest-tenured shops on La Mesa Boulevard in the heart of downtown. He's been in the same location for 24 years, and was just across the street for a year before that. Overall, he's been making and selling jewelry for about 37 years.

He's seen a lot of changes downtown and seen businesses come and go.

"I'm one of the longest," he says. "Homeland Florist and the drugstore are about the only ones I can think of that have been here longer than me. But you know, it's no miracle. It's just hard work and probably good luck, too. And I have wonderful people working for me."

Christmas, of course, is a busy time, but he says he's blessed to be busy year round.

"I don't really have a slow season," he tells a customer. "I'm grateful for that."

The key to making his business work—and work for him—has been to focus on the creative process, the very spark that started his career.

The jewelry in his shop is designed and made by him. Most of his work comes from his own inspiration. Other pieces are created after talking with customers who commission items: rings, pendants, necklaces, bracelets and earrings. He works in gold, white gold and silver. He works with diamonds and gems. He works with anything that ignites his passion for creating jewelry.

By focusing on the creative side, he's made things people want and kept his mind happily obsessed with finding new themes and new ways to look at the world.

He's always thinking.

"I typically do most of my creative work at home," he says. "I'll sit at my computer and Google images if I've got something I've got to come up with for a theme. That's for a commission.

"But if I'm going to design something just for me, then I'll be sitting on my surfboard or I'll be walking through my tropical jungle and things that you see or feel just come up and get translated into form. … You've got to relax [to let your mind work.]"

So to that end, the business has fit his lifestyle and the lifestyle has fueled his jewelry making.

Whyte—who lives in Spring Valley with his wife, Nancy—surfs, is a photographer, has grown and landscaped a tropical "jungle" in his back yard, raises dogs (he has six Pekingese), mentors five local high school students, runs an annual jewelry design competition (in which finalists do internships at Golden Artistry) and is active in his church.

"I love it," he says of his life. "I wouldn't trade it for anybody else's. Everybody has a good life potentially. It's just what do you focus on, you know?"

Sometimes it's his surfboard that carries him into inspirational waters, often at the break of dawn.

"Doing that has influenced my jewelry tremendously in the use of colors," he says. "Because you get out there in the water and it's glassy and the sun starts to light up clouds over the mountains and you're seeing orange reflections in the indigo water and then there are grays also… it's just really cool color combinations.

"So I started putting those together in jewelry and people love it. They don't know why.  I think it's intuitive in all of us. We've all seen these color combinations in the world but just don't pay attention to them.

"It's important to stop and smell the plumerias, right?"

Islands on his mind

Hawaii and the ocean are recurring themes in Whyte's life and work.

He lived in the islands for several years during his first marriage, and his eyes light up as he talks about the surfing, diving and even the special aromas in Hawaii. His backyard "jungle" in Spring Valley includes banana trees, papayas, plumerias and ginger.

"You step into my back yard and you think you're in the islands," he says.

It was in Hawaii, too, that he learned to be a true professional craftsman.

He took a job as an apprentice goldsmith, learning and training for about five years under a goldsmith from England. Often, the pieces he worked on would get sent back to him for further work.

"There was polishing compound somewhere, or there was a pit in the solder. Just something was wrong," he says. "It finally dawned on me that, you know, there's not going to be somebody looking over your shoulder your whole life, it's got to come from within. And I realized that I have to have the drive to make it perfect, all by myself. When I had that realization, from that day on, my work never came back. … It was inner resolve."

The apprenticeship in Hawaii had been serendipity. A few years earlier, while taking a crafts class at Grossmont College, he had watched his teacher give a demonstration about working with silver. Whyte was instantly smitten.

He went home and experimented with pieces of his own. By the end of the semester, he was selling jewelry to friends. And, when a store at Parkway Plaza in El Cajon needed someone to repair jewelry, it hired him—despite his lack of experience. From there, through his apprenticeship in Hawaii and then back in La Mesa—where he worked at Grossmont Center before opening his own store in La Mesa—Whyte's career path was clearly defined.

"Outside the box"

Susan and Dick Bunting have been buying jewelry from Whyte for close to 30 years, since their 20th wedding anniversary in 1983.

They keep coming back for more, commissioning new pieces. They tell him what they're interested in, then give him free rein and wait to see what happens.

"He's never disappointed us," Susan says. "He listens. He really figures out what you're saying and pays attention to what you have in mind."

She says Whyte thinks "outside the box" and never repeats himself. She and Whyte both talk about a piece he made for the Buntings' 25th wedding anniversary that was especially different and beautiful, using "positive and negative space" to include the Roman numerals XXV on what Whyte describes as a "geometric butterfly."

Listening, Whyte says, is as valuable to his success as the precious metals he works with. When customers talk with him about a piece they want him to create, he has to truly listen to what they're saying so he can interpret it in gold or silver.

"I ask a lot of questions and then I can start to see the piece in my head," he says. "Then I can make it. And I get people pretty dialed in. I could take them to a furniture store and tell them what they like and don't like."

He smiles as he relates a test he once used.

On the wall of the store were two similar pictures. One was set higher than the other. He would often point them out and ask customers if they would arrange the pictures that same way in their own homes.

"About one out of 10 people would say, 'Oh, they've got to be straight across from each other,' " he  says. "And those are the ones that you've got to handle carefully. Because there's no room for not being symmetrical. They're rigid in their outlook. They're OK to work with, but you just have to make sure that it mirrors. That it looks the same on both sides. …

"You want every person to rave about you to their friends. If you've got to jump through more hoops than you anticipated, then that's just part of the deal. But when they do rave about you to their friends, then you get more people in."

Twenty-five years after Whyte first opened his doors for business, in fact, people are still walking in the door.

Even when the sign says "Closed."