AGTA Member Profile - Betty Sue King, King's Ransom Pearls
Betty Sue King, self-titled Pearl Goddess and owner of King's Ransom specializing in extraordinary and unique cultured pearls.
Betty Sue King,
King's Ransom
Pearls have an enduring legacy in our jewelry tradition, and yet they so often go overlooked. Gemology can treat pearls as an afterthought; they are briefly covered in course work and included alongside coral and ivory in the “organics” section of a gemstone anthology, but rarely given the focus and attention of gemstones. Just like the intricate details of refractive index, pleochroism, and the diversity of inclusions that define and impact gems, there are a number of factors that impact the formation and variety of a pearl before even judging the qualities of luster, shape, and size that remark on the quality of an individual pearl.
It should come as no surprise then that pearl dealers need to take on the role of educator alongside sales in perhaps a more detailed manner than dealers trading in the more understood materials. Betty Sue King, of King’s Ransom, assumes this role effortlessly. Her energy is palpable the instant you meet her and when talking about pearls, it becomes even more vibrant.
top: Betty Sue's purple Edison pearl ring. bottom: The back side of three dessert-plate sized pearl bearing oyster shells, each with their own unique colors and textures.
In 2017, Betty Sue won the Women’s Jewelry Association Award for Excellence for a Manufacturer, Dealer, Supplier. I was sitting at the AGTA table when she won, and experiencing the communal joy from those around me made me realize that Betty Sue was someone exceptional. I had still never officially met Betty Sue before I set up the interview for this member profile, so as I crossed the foggy Golden Gate Bridge and made my way through sunny Sausalito to her office, I was intrigued to see what meeting the self-described “Pearl Goddess” would be like. Betty Sue met me at the door to her building wearing a gauzy royal purple tunic, a strand of Tahitian pearls, a gorgeous purple Edison pearl and diamond ring, and her fuchsia lipstick matched her nail polish. As we walked into her office, my eyes were drawn to the assortment of iridescent shells of varying sizes that laid nestled among plants and a variety of significant knick-knacks.
The shells that surround her desk are not merely decorative, they are utilitarian, as I would later find out after hearing about her transition from teacher to gem dealer. After working as a teacher in San Francisco for thirteen years, a tax referendum in 1978 led to budget cuts and impacted public funding for education and Betty Sue’s career. During this tumultuous period, Betty Sue got an offer she couldn’t refuse and began wholesaling diamonds , calling clients between teaching classes and knocking on retailers’ doors after school. The budget cuts eventually cut her teaching career off at fourteen years, but at that point Betty Sue was already immersed in the world of gemstones. She was confident approaching retailers having grown up in the grocery store her parents owned. Betty Sue was motivated and eagerly continued on this path, leaving her first business partner behind when he threw her out of the office for asking for a larger sales territory.
A strand of Tahitian pearls matched with a Tahitian pearl shell.
Matching the shells and strands helps build an appreciation for the cultivation of pearls and the diversity of materials, but it’s Betty Sue’s other technique that helps build an individual’s personal connection to the pearls and helps seal a sale. Though my eye was drawn to certain hues of pearls, I would find after they had been draped around my neck or over my hand that the color fell flat on my skin. This process of draping and observing felt foreign to me. Of course I’m used to putting a gemstone on my hand to see if the shape and size are well-proportioned for a ring, but rarely do I stop to consider how each color plays against my skin. There’s something to be said for the intimate interaction pearls have with their wearer. Unlike faceted stones, pearls don’t have to be mounted and set away from the body, but most often rest directly on the skin.
By no means is Betty Sue’s intent with this process to limit her clients’ choices, but instead to increase their visual acuity. In fact, Betty Sue believes when it comes to pearls there’s something for everyone – preference, lifestyle, budget – if you just look. She asks them to take in and consider the subtlety of each pearl’s color, how certain varieties can pull out a sallow tone from skin and other hues can elicit a glow from the wearer. Since childhood Betty Sue has been fascinated by color, fashion, and design; she used to make her own paper dolls as a child and paints now as an adult. Betty Sue believes, “Color is life”. She can still be astonished by the magic created in the delicate colors of a sunrise and color’s ability to create an emotional impact.
I was fascinated by how Betty Sue’s experience as a teacher impacts her approach to sales, knowing from my own experience that much of sales involves educating your buyer enough that they realize what you’re selling is the logical solution to their needs. As I asked my question, Betty Sue stood up from her chair and began pulling shells from shelves and grabbing strands of pearls from trays in the safe. She presented me with a game: match the strand of pearls to the shell they came from. Not one to shy away from a challenge, I began to look at the nacre – the iridescent layer of material that coats the inside of the mollusks’ shell and the outside layer of a pearl – inside the shells and hold the strands of pearls alongside them comparing the colors and textures to find their match. This quiz reminded me of the activities I loved in school, hands on learning and deductive reasoning. While the task would have easily entertained children, experiencing the variety of shells and the pearls they produce made me question my previous approach to pearls and to consider how the lack of nuance when I initially learned about pearls led me to see them as one-note. The task laid out with the shells and the strands perfectly encapsulates Betty Sue’s philosophy on teaching and sales. She thinks that learning should be palatable and experiential, hands on, yet still with guidance.
Three strands of round pearls of slightly different hues draped over my hand to find which color pops against my skin.
A strand of mixed golden and white South Sea pearls nestled into a South Sea shell displaying white and golden nacre tones.
The care and individual attention that come so instinctively to Betty Sue as she shows off her pearls is a clear demonstration of her commitment to community building. With each interaction she shares her passion for pearls along while inviting you into her world. In her own words, “It’s not just the product we love and adore, it’s the people.”
When she began exhibiting at AGTA in Tucson in the early 1980s, her friends would comment that she had a wholesale salon, not the typical booth, because was exhibiting work to support lapidary artists like Tom McPhee and Clay Zava. Her passion for pearls was crystalized when her friend and AGTA Member Laurie Watt said to her one day, “Why don’t you specialize in pearls?”. This passion got her a bank loan to go buy pearls in Japan with her house as collateral. It took her to Japantown in San Francisco to look through Japanese business directories for pearl dealers and got her on a plane. She returned from Japan stocked with pearls for an upcoming show, but at her first private appointment back from Japan she sold almost all of her stock. The confluence of her passion and dedication to community let Betty Sue to serve on the AGTA Board of Directors for over 10 years and to view the organization as a powerhouse, “a place where we care about product, quality, and the way we do business.”
Closeup on purple and green dyed Biwa pearls strands
This AGTA Member Profile is part of an ongoing collaboration between AGTA and Diamondoodles. What is overwhelmingly apparent from my time attending AGTA events is that the community of AGTA Members is what gives AGTA its unique flavor and diversity in the jewelry industry. By exploring the culture and philosophies of the diverse AGTA members and their businesses through in-depth on-site interviews, I hope to provide new insight into the world of colored gemstones and the global jewelry community.