If you’ve ever found yourself on our humble website [and--would you look at that--here you are], then perhaps we have more than a few things in common. Apparently you’ve got a soft spot for the preservation of slick mid-mods, or maybe you simply harbor a staunch appreciation for antlers. Surely, you have an affinity for locals-in-the-know or smart architecture? Whatever your grounds for popping in, perhaps it’s time we addressed your taste for the finer things. Whether that includes a delicious Ed Dreier or some damn fine Jack Rabbit Gin, we COLLECTIVELY aim to bring all good things [period] to the super folks of Salt Lake City. We are decidedly down with deft design and passionate people, and--usually--you like what we like. Get ready to add one more thing to the list of likes: meet Sara Peterson.

Sara is a longtime friend and client of the COLLECTIVE, and she has more than a few qualities that we’re keen on--but the frontrunner is this: she absolutely, unequivocally loves her job. She’s taken that whole Confucius “love what you do” thing and run a mile with it [in heels, no less]. Sara is in diamonds--that is to say, she’s in the jewelry business, and business is good. “These diamonds,” says Sara, “the earth has been making them for billions and billions of years. We’re sculpting them to bring out that beauty.” Sara is currently running the show at the Park City locale of OC Tanner Jewelers [a gig that happens to be her actual dream job]. She’s downright dizzy with love for her work, and we brought her [and her scrumptious Louis Vuitton trunk of jewels] into our COLLECTIVE HQ to give us the dish on the company that’s got her positively sparkling.

One day in 2010, Sara happened upon a copy of InStore magazine, wherein OC Tanner had landed “Coolest Jewelry Store in the Country”. OC Tanner Jewelers was the brainchild of one Obert Clark Tanner. For Obert, it was a simple hop, skip, ‘n’ a jump from teaching philosophy at the U to crafting class rings and other gifts for achievement. Story goes, ‘twas the jeweler’s dream to scour the globe in search of the most beautiful things that our natural environment had to offer, and present them to the fine folks of Salt Lake City. And if it’s not too bold, we feel a bit kindred to ol’ OC in that regard. It’s an old Tanner adage that “beauty is not a luxury, but a birthright”--and we happen to wholeheartedly agree. And so, the clever girl that she is, Sara decided to manifest working there.

“My good friend Samantha asked me, ‘If money was no object, and fear was no object, what would you want to do?’” says Sara. “And I said, ‘I would want to be a jewelry designer.’” And, with two uncles and a handful of cousins in the industry, one could say that Sara was born with diamonds in her blood. “We always knew, my sister and I, that there would be that little jewelry box under the tree.” Once a staunch gem girl, Sara was quickly wooed by the magic of timekeeping at OC Tanner. “Jewelry is very emotional. Timepieces are cerebral. You see that ticking, that movement?” she asks, holding up a particularly handsome Patek Philippe in her gloved hands. “That’s called the heartbeat of the watch. It’s the timekeeping mechanism.” These pieces, systematically stunning as they are, are investments. “It’s sort of like a tattoo,” explains Sara. “It’s a way of commemorating a certain point in time or a certain accomplishment, that you can--unlike a tattoo--pass on for generations.” In regards to the Patek Philippe in question, says Sara, “You could purchase it, and your great grandson could wear it one day--and if you service it, it will last that long.”

Quoth Obert: “People who buy jewelry are unlike people in any other store. They are dreamers; they have stars in their eyes.” And after watching Sara speak a spell on just what it is that she does up in Park City, it seems that the same could be said for those that work for OC Tanner. And helping guide people through one of the most overwhelming moments in their lives? We get it. So what does this dreamer so fancy about cityhomeCOLLECTIVE? “Not only are you selling beauty in your real estate and bringing beauty into people’s lives, but you’re also accepting the beauty in each and every one of your own people--just what each person brings to the COLLECTIVE--and appreciating that.”