The Jewelry Studio closes in Plainview

For 40 years, The Jewelry Studio — and Rob Pepkin — have been fixtures in Plainview.

But at the end of December, Pepkin, whose career has included collaborating with legendary rock photographer Mick Rock, shuttered the business. The former art student now plans to return to his roots by opening an art studio, where he hopes to help artists who are struggling — much like he himself was in his 20s, before he turned to jewelry design.

“That’s where my passion was in the very beginning, and I definitely want to go back in that direction again,” said the Massapequa Park resident, who is 68. “If there’s an artist out there who wants to show his work and I can help him do it, or her do it, I will.”

The closure of the shop on Old Country Road saddened devoted clients like Michele Codoluto, 67, of Wantagh, who has had an array of jewelry made by Pepkin, including diamond studs, a wedding ring, a tennis bracelet and a new setting for her engagement ring.

“I fully admire his workmanship [and] am impressed by his craftsmanship, the attention he put into detail and the quality of the work,” she said.

JUGGLING JOBS

Pepkin recalls walking around with his portfolio for a year after graduating from Pratt Institute’s Phoenix School of Design, where he studied fine art and illustration, and getting rejected over and over until he landed a job as an illustrator first for Penthouse magazine and then for Reader’s Digest educational books.

One day, his mother was getting her hair cut at a beauty salon in Plainview when she noticed a help-wanted sign for Facets Jewelers, a kiosk within the salon, run by jeweler Marla Mencher. Knowing her son wasn’t making enough money at his illustrating jobs, she suggested he apply, Pepkin said.

“So, I went down there and I introduced myself and she hired me,” he said.

While working at the jewelry store, Pepkin said he continued illustrating, as well as painting scenery and building sets for Opera On The Sound, an opera company based in Commack run by Francis Ford Coppola’s grandfather, Carmine Coppola. It was a job, he said, that he cherished for the opportunity it gave him to collaborate with other artists.

“We would be painting all night and the people who owned the opera would come and sing to us while we were working, to keep us going,” said Pepkin, adding that they often ventured beyond operatic fare to include music by The Beatles and others.

Juggling so many jobs at once was exhausting and would prove untenable, forcing Pepkin to decide between the two careers.

“To tell you the truth, I probably went with the jewelry for the money,” he admitted.

Before long, Mencher asked Pepkin to be a partner in the business.

“But I had no money,” Pepkin recalled. “I had just gotten out of college.” So, he said, they came up with a plan in which he would buy in by sharing his salary.

Pepkin said he eventually bought Mencher out when she left the business to raise her family.

CREATING NEW FROM OLD

Early on at The Jewelry Studio, Pepkin said people would bring in their family heirlooms and ask him to create something more modern and to their tastes.

He and Mencher would melt the gold with a torch and then pour it into water, which would produce interesting abstract shapes.

“And then we would take those shapes and fuse them and maybe add stones or whatever and then we would sculpt them with dental tools,” he said. “And we would make all these abstract pieces for people. . . . We did hundreds of them.”

In recent years, Pepkin said he has done nearly all the design work for the shop, which has gradually become much more technical, requiring special equipment like digital microscopes for working with tiny stones.

Pepkin said he relied heavily on CAD — computer-aided design — often “printing” the 3D pieces in plastic first for clients’ approval and then making the final version in metal.

“We were a little ahead of our time for a long time, and now that things have gotten simpler for other people to use, more people are doing CAD,” Pepkin said. “The difference is they don’t know how to engineer a piece so that it will last.”

The key to good CAD jewelry, Pepkin said, is striking the right balance between heft and delicacy — something that took him lots of trial and error to perfect.

“You have to make it light enough so that it’s comfortable and strong enough so that it will last,” he said.

One example of his intricate work is a pair of 18-karat gold leaf earrings that were designed on a computer, printed in 3D, cast, engraved, coated with a protective layer and then set with diamonds.

Creating these unique pieces is an involved process, typically taking several people to complete, he said.

“Everybody has their specialty,” said Pepkin, who credited his success to his team of seven: a CAD 3-D designer, a caster, a jeweler, a polisher, a micro pavé artist (who sets tiny diamonds or other stones), a setter and a watchmaker, all of whom work in the Diamond District in Manhattan.

Despite the technical aspects of jewelry fabrication, Pepkin said he strives to make personal connections with his customers.

“Normally when I’m working with someone, I try to get to know them: how they dress, how they look, what they do... So I could design it in their lifestyle because they’re going to be wearing it every day. I want to make it part of them,” he said.

The store’s manager, Margie Trabulsi, has seen Pepkin’s attention to customers firsthand.

“He always has time, patience and integrity when interacting with his clients,” said Trabulsi, 73, of Hauppauge. “He always meets their expectations.”

ROCK AND ROLL

Several years ago, Pepkin collaborated on a project with photographer Mick Rock, whom he met through Dave Glicker, a mutual friend. Glicker had produced Art Expo at the 007 Club in Franklin Square in the late 1980s, where Rock, who’s been called “The Man Who Shot the Seventies,” exhibited his work.

About 30 years later, Pepkin said the three had dinner and decided to create “Mick’s Picks,” limited-edition pendants bearing the images of about a dozen rock luminaries, including David Bowie, Mick Jagger, Madonna and Lou Reed.

“They’re in the shape of a guitar pick, and it’s his photography that’s laser-etched on gold,” Pepkin said.

The pendants — some set with black diamonds, others with rose gold — took a couple of months to produce, from planning to printing to just figuring out how to perfect the technique.

“There were all these laser techniques that we were trying out until we figured out what to do, where we can actually do it in color,” Pepkin said.

The pendants, which are signed by both Pepkin and Rock, cost $3,200 with a diamond frame or $1,600 without.

Pepkin also put on a gallery show of Rock’s work at The Jewelry Studio in August 2018, and the photographer, who died in 2021, lectured for two days at a nearby yoga studio.

“He talked about all of the stories behind the photography, because back then the photographers would travel with the bands,” Pepkin said.

RETHINKING PRIORITIES

Pepkin’s life took a dramatic turn after he was diagnosed with lung cancer in March 2020.

“It was just a little mark on my lung, very small, the size of a pin. And one year it just changed,” he said. Pepkin underwent surgery, which involved removing half his lung, as well as chemotherapy, radiation and immunotherapy.

Having such a serious health scare made Pepkin rethink his life and vocation, leading him back to his first passion: art.

Inspired by his experience, he painted a watercolor titled “Brighter Days,” meant to invoke a picture of hope, which he said he donated to New York-Presbyterian Columbia University Irving Medical Center in Manhattan, where he’d received treatment.

“It definitely sparked something in me,” Pepkin said.

Stepping away from the business had been on his mind even before he got sick. Just before his diagnosis, Melissa Pepkin, his wife of 24 years, had retired as a digital media consultant and he realized that he’d like to spend more time with his family.

“This is a consuming kind of business,” Pepkin said. “It’s a very stressful business. It can be very pleasurable and it can be very interesting, but it sometimes can be overwhelming.”

At his new art studio, which will also be in Plainview, Pepkin said he plans to paint in watercolor, his preferred medium, and display his and other local artists’ work. He said he will also have a little shop in the back dedicated to jewelry design.

“We’re going to do more of a one-on-one thing with clients, by appointment only,” Pepkin said.

For him, painting is a more emotionally expressive experience than making jewelry, which he sees as a combination of craft and engineering.

“You can say more through paint than you can through jewelry,” Pepkin said. When he painted as a young man, he said, he’d often completely lose track of time, “just get lost in it and I miss that.”

At the same time, Pepkin said, he wants to keep his hand in jewelry design, particularly because he loves working with people.

“I love the fact that I’m going to hopefully be part of their family history,” Pepkin said. “That I was the guy who made this ring for grandma. … It’s a hard decision to stop.”