How I Got Here: Kate Price Grew Her Jewelry Business By Listening Well

By Karen Dybis | September 15, 2026

Kate Price has one jewelry philosophy: Jewelry should be worn, not stored—and that is how she created her boutique brand that specializes in heirloom design.

“A ring in the safe deposit box isn’t an heirloom; it’s an asset. An heirloom is something you put on,” says Price, the founder of Kate Rose Fine Jewelry.

Her custom work is deeply personal and artistic, Price says, as most of her clients are coming to her with inherited jewelry—something that is likely to grow exponentially with the so-called “wealth transfer” imminent.

Price works from her Santa Monica, Calif., studio but is available worldwide by appointment. The former psychology teacher founded her business after uniting four generations of her family’s diamonds into a single necklace. That experience taught her that the new luxury isn’t about diamond or gemstone size; it’s about story.

Kate Rose diamond necklace — *The first heirloom redesign Kate Price worked on was one for herself, using four generations of jewelry to create a new piece she loves to wear.*

Price grew up in one of metro Detroit’s toniest cities, Birmingham. Her parents divorced when she was 4 years old, and Price’s mother remarried about a year later. Her mom, who was a social worker, became a full-time parent and food-pantry volunteer while her new father was an OB-GYN.

Her first jewelry influence was her grandmother, who made beaded jewelry and whose family-famous necklace displayed a charm for every grandchild. Her jewelry was meaningful, Price says, but she allowed her grandchildren to play with it. After Seaholm High School, Price graduated from the University of Michigan in 2006 where she studied political science and secondary education.

Price says her first job was working a golf-cart shuttle in Glen Arbor in northern Michigan. That gig included checking membership identification as well as scrubbing toilets. Not very glamorous, she says, but she it helped her gain essential talents.

“The real skill I took away was an interpersonal one. Each shift, strangers would get into my golf cart for a few minutes at a time, and I became very comfortable asking people questions and actually listening to the answers. I’ve never stopped doing that. It’s most of my job now,” Price says.

Her real job after college became teaching. She started at Seaholm, but moved from Michigan to Chicago after the local economy tanked in the national financial crisis. She met her husband in the Windy City, and they moved to Los Angeles, where she taught high-school psychology and AP psychology for 11 years.

Kate Rose before after — *Kate Price says she advertises her redesign services through before-and-after photos like this one, showing clients how she can transform their heirlooms into everyday wearable jewelry.*

“The lesson is the same one in all three places, and it’s the real reason I can do what I do now. People need to know you care about them,” Price says. “If a student knows I care they’ll trust me and buy into what I’m teaching. If a parent believes I care about their child, they’ll forgive just about anything that goes sideways.

“And if a client knows I care about their life, their experience, and what they bring to the process, I’ve found that they not only trust me with their precious jewelry, but also with the vision we create together. Ultimately, demonstrating care and empathy is not a technique. It’s my whole job,” she says.

In her last year of teaching, Price started making jewelry with that first heirloom piece. From there, her business has grown because of her client relationships, she says.

“When a client brings me their mother’s jewelry, my job isn’t to preserve the setting, it’s to preserve the feeling and build something that fits the life and style of the current owner. Those are two different jobs, and most of the industry only does the first one. This means I listen before I design,” Price says.

“The work starts with the story, not a sketch. Clients tell me about the person the jewelry came from. We look at what’s there, at the current owner’s life and I design from all of it,” Price says. “Some pieces stay close to what they were, and some become something entirely new, and sometimes a client isn’t ready yet. And the right answer is to wait. That’s allowed, too.”

Top: Kate Price founded her own jewelry brand in 2018 after working for decades as a teacher. (Photos courtesy of Kate Rose Fine Jewelry)