After decades as Derek Simpson Goldsmith, the Chapel Street storefront in the Yale Center for British Art building is now home to Water Street Jewelers. We spoke with owner Daniela Balzano, her daughter Luna McCulloch and longtime downtown retailer Alison Tosi about taking over the space, working with family and the beautiful objects coming in and out of the store.
DAILY NUTMEG: Daniela, let’s start at the beginning. Where did you grow up?
DANIELA: My family moved here from Italy around 1981, and we lived at Madison Towers. My father worked at St. Raphael’s. I moved around a lot growing up, but New Haven was always part of my life.
Luna went to Worthington Hooker and Leila Day, and I went to Leila Day when I was young too.
DN: How did jewelry enter the picture?
DANIELA: I started making jewelry in high school—mostly silversmithing and beadwork—and doing craft shows on weekends. When I was 17, I moved to New Mexico and got a job doing repairs at a jewelry store.
Later I worked for Kabana, a jewelry manufacturer in New Mexico known for inlay, where natural stones are cut incredibly precisely and set into jewelry. Eventually I became a sales rep and spent about 12 years traveling the East Coast, working with hundreds of jewelry stores.
DN: When did you decide to open a store of your own?
DANIELA: I opened my first little store in Guilford in 2018. During COVID, a space opened on the Guilford Green, and we moved there and took the space next door for offices and our workshop.
That was a huge shift because we could start doing almost everything in-house. We have jewelers there, and I oversee the workshop, custom jobs, parts and quality control.
Then in 2020 my friend and mentor Paul Lirot, who had owned a jewelry store in Madison for 40 years, called me and said, “Hey, kid, I’m retiring.”
I said, “Are you trying to tell me I need to open in Madison?”
He said, “I think it’d be a good idea.”
So we did. Luna helped open that store too. She was vacuuming, setting things up—everything.
DN: How did the New Haven location come about?
DANIELA: I made an engagement ring for somebody who worked at Yale, and they suggested I look at Derek Simpson’s space. I reached out to Derek, who is so lovely, and he was getting ready to retire.
We basically drank iced tea and figured out when he would transition out and when I would transition in.
It made a lot of sense because we offer the same kinds of services he did. We’re not just retail. We do repairs, custom design and fabrication, so those services didn’t have to disappear from downtown when he retired.
DN: If someone walks in wanting something custom, what happens?
DANIELA: They make an appointment, sit down with me and we talk about what they want, their intentions and their budget. I’ll draw something out, and usually within four or five days I can give them a 3D CAD design and pricing.
We do a lot of bridal, but custom work is really all over the place, which is wonderful because I never get bored.
DN: This is pretty [pointing to a necklace]... about how much?
DANIELA: In this store we have things from about $18 to $7,800, and I’m working on a $90,000 engagement ring right now.
That was really the goal. I never wanted a jewelry store where people felt intimidated or afraid to ask the price. You can touch things. You can try them on. You can come in with $68 and leave with a beautiful gift, or you can depend on us to make a very high-end custom piece.
There’s no difference in our approach to that person.
DN: Your sign outside mentions “dog diamonds.” Are we really doing that now?
DANIELA: [Laughs] No, no! A percentage of our diamond sales goes to the Dan Cosgrove Animal Shelter. We gave about $10,000 last year. I’m very passionate about dogs without homes.
DN: That's a relief! Luna, how did you end up working in the business?
LUNA: I studied film and photography and moved to Albuquerque after college. I lived there for about two years, but eventually I wanted to be closer to family. We had another store opening, and I figured all hands on deck would probably be helpful.
DN: What’s it like working with your mom?
LUNA: Overall, it’s wonderful. I’ve learned so much from her—the way I speak to customers, the way I treat people.
We joke that sometimes she’s more form and I’m more function. She has the deep artistry and is incredibly strong visually. I’m very systems-oriented. I put procedures in place, train staff and figure out how to make the computer system work for everybody.
Having different strengths is actually really helpful to the business.
DANIELA: Thank God I did not have a child exactly like me.
She’s an artist too, just in a different way. And because she came from film and photography, she does our videos and photography. As long as I can have her here, it’s a gift.
But sometimes we’ll go out to dinner and I’ll catch myself saying, “Oh, this customer came in today…” and I have to stop and say, “Let’s be, like, mom and daughter. Let’s talk about something else.”
DN: Alison, how did you come to work here?
ALISON: I started many years ago with Peter Indorf, who was a jeweler here in New Haven. I also worked at Urban Objects in Sherman’s Alley and at other stores downtown.
Jewelry is really my thing. It’s my love language.
When Peter retired, I moved around to different retail jobs, but I always wanted to get back into jewelry. When I heard Water Street was coming here and started speaking with Daniela, I thought, “This is really what I love. I need to be back in jewelry again.”
My husband’s not happy. I have a lot of things on my wish list now.
DN: What’s it been like opening downtown during the summer?
ALISON: The end of June through July can be tricky, and even into August it slows down. Then you notice the grad students arriving, and once the students are back, the streets fill up again.
Then Yale Rep starts and people stop into the shops before or after a matinee. There’s just more energy.
DN: Now that you’ve been here for a little while, are you noticing anything special about New Haven customers?
DANIELA: It’s much more abstract and unusual here. We’re repairing a ring right now that has elephant hair in it. We’re getting metals like tantalum that people aren’t bringing us in the other locations.
It feels very worldly.
ALISON: We’ve said that at the other stores, they come in for diamonds and pearls. Here, they come in for colored stones.
They like alexandrite. They like the Navajo pieces. Estate jewelry does well. People are looking for something different and unique.
DN: Speaking of Navajo, where do these Southwestern pieces come from?
DANIELA: We work with a woman named Diane whose company is Sandia East. She has spent decades working directly with artists and tribes in the Southwest, particularly around the Four Corners, and acts as a broker between them and jewelry stores.
There are some Zuni pieces and mostly Navajo pieces. I like supporting her because she has longstanding relationships with the artists and makes sure they’re fairly compensated.
I try to do as much U.S. manufacturing and sourcing as possible. We work with good people. That matters to me.
DN: What part of this work has surprised you?
DANIELA: The relationships. Jewelry surrounds love and loss. One person comes in because they’re getting engaged, and the next person may have just lost somebody they love.
One of my closest friends actually started as a client. She’s 102 years old now, and I visit her during the week. Those relationships have ended up being one of the most important parts of the job.
LUNA: Just today, a woman came in with earrings that had belonged to her mother. She had lost one and was really upset. Now we can recreate it in the exact image of the other earring and restore the pair.
People sometimes think working in jewelry is just selling fancy things. But we see people on some of their best days and some of their worst.
ALISON: You have to be a little bit of everything. You’re a salesperson, a jeweler and sometimes a therapist.
I even have customers coming in here now who were my clients when I worked at Ann Taylor. I used to find clothes for them. Now I find jewelry for them.
DN: What else should Daily Nutmeg's readers know about you?
DANIELA: We want to be here for a long time. We want to be a local resource and part of the community.
Being a small-business owner can be the loneliest place to be. You work all day, then you’re ordering parts and answering emails and texts at night, and you wake up and start doing it again.
But the community is what makes you feel full. The community becomes your joy. Serving people becomes your joy.
