A happy customer of Nettleton's

I don't have much jewelry and what I have is generally not worth much except to me. I tend to wear the same pieces over and over again. But over the past year, three of my favorites broke. The clasps came off. For months I kept the necklaces in a plastic bag as I wondered what to do about them.

Given that I'm not crafts-oriented, the idea of my going to a beads store and fixing them myself gave me spiritual hives. I asked at one jewelry store if they might repair them and they said, no, they only deal with silver or gold. I tried a watch repair place, but they declined.

But then my friend Mary told me to try Nettleton's Jewellery.

"I've never gone wrong in buying something from Nettleton's," she said. "Their service is really personal. They take their time with you. No job is too small. And they have a nice line of stuff at a moderate price."

So I went in one day a couple of months ago with my three necklaces with broken clasps. One of the two Nettleton brothers, I can't remember which one----this is Cameron Nettleton in the photo---took a look and said one of them might have to be restrung which could be expensive, but he would try to avoid that if possible.

A few days later, I got a call, the necklaces were fixed; no restringing necessary and the price was lower than I anticipated. So now I am happy, happy, happy with Nettleton's.

The day I picked up my necklaces, I wanted to take a picture or two and post on my blog, but I forgot to take my camera with me. It took several weeks, but I was in the neighborhood today and went in. Cameron Nettleton probably doesn't even remember me. But I said I would do this and better late than never!

I also like the fact that this is business that's been run by the same family for three generations---starting with a shop on Bank St. that opened 90 years ago.

Here are my necklaces, which have much more sentimental than monetary value. The green beads were sent to my mother from one of her aunts or cousins who live in Russia and she passed them on to me; the necklace in the middle was made by my sister-in-law who has all my missing genes when it comes to creativity in the crafts department; and the necklace of chestnuts I bought to go with the red jacket that you might see in the various glamour shots Chris Humphrey took in 2006 when my novel The Defilers was published. It goes with many things I have and I wear it a lot.

Nettleton's is located in the Westgate Mall on Carling Avenue, just a bit west of the Ottawa Hospital Civic Campus.