MAKE A STATEMENT

One foot in a heel and the other in a muck boot—and a century of craftsmanship in between.

At just 10 years old, Jacquie Anderson was handed a pencil by her mother and asked to design a piece of jewelry.

“I remember the thrill of drawing something that existed only in my imagination,” the CEO, GG-certified gemologist, and fourth-generation jeweler of Sheffner & Anderson says. “I didn’t know then that I was continuing a family story long before me.”

In 1915, Anderson’s great-grandparents, Walter and Maude Sheffner, opened a small watchmaker’s workshop in Chicago’s Beverly neighborhood—restoring intricate European timepieces set with rubies, sapphires, and diamonds. The pair spent their lives crafting and caring for pieces that outlasted their owners. More than a century later, she continues the business, creating jewelry worth passing down.

You can see that legacy in Anderson’s work today. Take one client, who brought in her late mother’s five-carat marquise diamond ring.

“The stone was perfect,” she says, “but the ring simply wasn’t her.”

What happened next felt like magic.

“We reimagined it in yellow gold with a bold, asymmetrical sweep of marquise diamonds, and when she slipped it on, her eyes filled,” Anderson recalls. “That is what I define as a statement piece: not just a remarkable stone, but a design that says something only one could feel.”

That’s the magic she creates: seeing the woman in the stone before anyone else does. It’s an instinct she sharpens far from her desk. Those who know Anderson best say she lives with one foot in a heel and the other in a muck boot. By day, she’s at the design table—sketching and selecting stones. By evening, she’s at the barn with Star—a beautiful Fjord mare. Those two worlds may seem different, but are more alike than they seem.

“Horses teach patience,” she says. “They teach you to read what someone feels before they can put it into words, and that trust is earned slowly and kept carefully.”

It’s a lesson she carries from the barn to the design bench.

“I listen first, design with care, and create pieces meant to be worn for a lifetime—and of course, passed to the next generation,” she says.

Somewhere between the stable and the studio, Anderson found a secret her two worlds share. “When I ride Star, I feel free,” she says. “When I design, I feel that same freedom.”

Wherever she is, she lets her imagination run wide, and every piece she creates is a chance to help someone make a statement that lasts.

Sheffner & Anderson is located at 273 Market Square, Suite 16, in Lake Forest, 708-321-0224, sheffneranderson.com.