The Re-Invention of Silverhorn

Readers – customers and window shoppers alike – will be sad to learn that Mike and Carole Ridding‘s iconic one-of-a-kind jewelry emporium at 1155 Coast Village Road is closing. Their lease isn’t up until mid-February but, beginning Thursday, November 16, at 10 am, there will be what the Riddings are calling a “multimillion-dollar Going Out Of Business Sale.” 

The Canadian couple have been fixtures at 1155 Coast Village Road since 1986 (Carole believes Silverhorn “may be the oldest business” on the strip). Their creations are admired and purchased internationally, and Mike has been known to answer a midnight phone call about some spectacular find on the other side of the world and to jump out of bed, book a flight, and swoop down in order to be first to inspect the precious cargo. Sometimes, the geodes, raw stones, jewels, and gems he brings back go directly into the archives of Santa Barbara and Montecito collectors, but more often, they are handed over to the Riddings’ talented jewelers to create some of the finest jewelry made in the U.S. and which end up on display and are eventually sold at the shop.

When Silverhorn first began, it was a much smaller enterprise than the one that now inhabits the entire building at 1155 Coast Village Road. “We had maybe twelve-hundred square feet, and that included our workshop,” Carole tells me during a short conversation in her upstairs office. Those 1,200 sq. ft. were in the back of the handsome Mediterranean-style building they now fully occupy. Back then, Ports O’Call was the complex’s main retailer; Silverhorn was between Espresso Roma and Peterson Catering. Later, the first two floors were the home of couturier Luis Estevez. Silverhorn has occupied the entire space since 2001.

“Our business was growing every year,” Carole says, explaining why they took over the building. “We were ambitious and we thought, ‘If we can do this tucked away in a corner, let’s try going on the street.'”

That worked out very well for them, and through good times and bad, the Riddings prospered and, regardless of the economic situation, never stopped donating items to nonprofits for fundraisers. MOXI and the Santa Barbara Public Library are their most recent recipients, but the list of donations is very long.

As for the future: “I’m not really retiring,” Carole says. “We’re in a sense re-inventing ourselves, reinventing Silverhorn.” They will, for example, continue to operate their elegant little shop at the Four Seasons Biltmore, which the couple expanded only a few years ago. “And next year,” she hints, “we will have a design studio location on Coast Village Road. Retail is changing,” she says, “and we want to do something fresh and exciting.”

When asked where that studio may be, she said that she didn’t want to reveal anything more yet, but that “it’s going to be an exciting story” when it happens. “We will still have a presence on Coast Village Road,” she promises, adding that her entire staff will stay on.

They haven’t announced an official closing date yet, but they’ll “be evaluating that weekly,” depending upon how the sale goes; their lease runs out in February 2018.

As for the big “Going Out Of Business Sale,” Carole promises that “it is a real, genuine sale,” noting that Silverhorn “has never held a sale of any kind, ever,” but after 35 years (longer actually; their original shop was in Canada), “It’s time to lighten up.”

Prices on the sale items will go from $800 to more than a million. “We’ll have lots of security,” she says quickly. “It’ll be fun. People should, as they say, shop early and often.”

As for what will be on sale: “So many of our pieces are individually made,” she notes. “The gold weight is heaver, the stones are all of fine quality; these kinds of pieces many jewelers don’t have and [the public] will be able to purchase them at a reduced price. We’re very strong in colored stones. We have a whole showcase full of ruby, sapphire, and emerald in finished jewelry. Aquamarine, Tourmaline, orange and green garnet, unusual and special stones from a fine ruby to a diamond ring… yes, we will have diamond jewelry, of course. Down to unusual quartz pieces with strange inclusions, some classic more traditional pieces, as well as some of our more modern and unusual pieces. And lots of gold, hundreds of pairs of gold earrings, some watches and timepieces, loose diamonds too. They’ll all be certified stones, so there’ll be good deals on diamonds. People should find it exciting.”

No doubt they will.

The sale to the public begins Thursday, November 16, at 10 am, and valet parking will be available. Carole says she expects there will be a line, so you may want to get there a little early. The sale will run through the end of November; store hours are from 10 am to 6 Monday through Friday, Saturday from 10 am to 5 pm, and will be closed Sunday.