The Family Jewels

Wendy Naylor owned her first spoon ring when she was 14 years old. She loved jewelry and the beauty and shape of the repurposed spoon on her finger. But, she gave the ring to a friend and then missed it. Several years later, she came across another one and immediately purchased it. “I was always asked about it," she says. "Everyone wanted this, so why wouldn’t I try to make it happen?" She started making her own spoon rings, eventually becoming known in the Edmonton area as 'the Spoon Lady.' The next step was opening her own business, The Family Jewels.

In the beginning, when Wendy was making a few rings out of her home for family and friends, the problem was finding enough source material. She scrounged through craft fairs and antique stores until one day she hit the mother lode. “I was browsing in an antique store looking for spoons when I met a lady. She was about 80 [years old]," says Wendy. “She asked why I wanted spoons and I showed her my rings. She said, ‘I’ll sell you those, and I have a whole bunch more.’” The lady had boxes and boxes of spoons she had collected her whole life — equalling about 3,500 spoons. That lucky break made all the difference for Wendy. “When you have a passion,  the luck runs in your favour,” says Wendy. “I credit the business to being at the right place, at the right time, with the right passion and the right person.”