Jewelry and the holidays go hand in hand. Whether you’re imagining your loved one opening a dainty box holiding a beautiful pair of earrings next to the Christmas tree, or planning the perfect ring for when you finally pop the question this season, it’s a luxury that’s on everyone’s mind when it comes time to give gifts. 

But when you walk into a big-box jewelry store (you know, the kind that caters to the average budget), that tingling feeling of excitement is oftentimes replaced with a pushy salesperson and too many run-of-the-mill rings to choose from.

If you’ve faced this generic jewelry store predicament, or foresee it coming in the near future, you need to know about M. Flynn, the South End jewelry boutique that’s much more than meets the eye.

When you enter M. Flynn, tucked away on Waltham Street off of Tremont, you find a warm and brightly inviting jewelry store. What they offer ranges from their dainty signature earrings, one of the first items store owner Megan Flynn began selling, in a range of colors. These fun, fashion jewelry pieces are housed under the same roof as more luxurious items: antique pieces acquired from estate sales that can run up to $20,000.

Flynn, who runs the store with her sister, Moria, told BostInno that this approach to jewelry is puzzling to the traditional jewelers, but she has her reasoning behind it. 

“We want people to be able to build a collection here,” said Megan, who added that collections are often made of both high- and low-end pieces. “We want them to be comfortable when they walk in here.”

It’s hard not to feel comfortable when you walk into M. Flynn, considering the warm lighting, the floral arrangements, and the sparkly jewelry pieces winking at you from every angle. But it’s the back of the store where the real magic happens. 

Megan and Moria have both mastered computer-aided design (CAD) software, and now a big part of their business is enabling customers to craft custom jewelry. They use the CAD software to create a digitized visual, down to the smallest details, that provides a realistic image of the item before they send it out to be made.

While demonstrating the CAD system, the sisters explained why they feel so strongly about the software.

“You get a sense of what it’s going to look like,” Moria said. “Even in the working form, you can see what it’s going to look like.”

Megan added: “You can also talk people through. What we realized is that there’s a lot of fashion jewelry out there that’s not going to last.” This cheaply made jewelry often misleads customers’ expectations.

“We’re able to talk people through; like, we want to make sure the ring has enough metal to hold the diamonds, for instance,” said Megan. “The CAD helps us explain different reasons for constructing things the way we’re constructing it.”

The two said customers who want to design their jewelry are often looking for meaningful, sentimental pieces (“I like to think we’re creating heirlooms,” said Moria), but that custom isn’t always for everyone. They suggest that, if a customer has no idea what they want, they figure that out first. And if they end up purchasing a ring from a different retailer, so be it.

“If I don’t feel comfortable with what a final product is going to look like, I can’t do it,” said Moria. “There are people who think they know what they want, but I’m not going to put our name on a product that’s going to come out and be gross.” 

“Gross,” for instance, can result from combining the wrong stones: as in, you can’t mix diamonds with a semi-precious stone like rose quartz. But if you don’t know exactly what you want, Moria and Megan will help steer you in the right direction; customers just have to be willing to eventually focus in on a design, and trust that the Flynns won’t steer them wrong.

That’s why they encourage uncertain customers to browse other shops first. 

“It’s a worst-case scenario if we make a ring that no one likes,” said Megan.

It also makes sense, then, that when asked if a customer was ever unhappy with their finished product, only one woman came to mind: She was unsure about the statement ring she ended up with.

“But, she ended up loving it,” Moria assured.

To get a better idea of M. Flynn’s space and designs, scroll through the slideshow below. And if you plan on paying a visit to the South End shop, tonight’s a great night to do it. This evening from 4 to 9 p.m. is the South End Holiday Stroll, during which participating stores will be serving treats and refreshments, as well as seasonal discounts. 

M. Flynn can be found at 48 Waltham Street in the South End.

All images via M. Flynn and author