Precious platinum.

• Author: Gerhart, Clifford
• Position: Platinum Jewelry - Company Profile

A vacation to Alaska led an adventurous German tourist and a local jeweler to start a unique business.

Chalk up another first for Anchorage. Alaska's largest city now boasts the presence of Platinum Jewelry, which offers a 95 percent inventory of all-platinum jewelry, platinum with 18-carat gold and platinum with Alaska gold nuggets.

Partners Heinrich (Henry) Schoenke and Mark Williams have long pedigrees in the jewelry business and in platinum. Schoenke started working with the silvery metal 30 years ago, and is a founding member of the Platinum Guild International.

Schoenke entered the jewelry business at age 15 as part of his education in Germany's apprenticeship program. "A teacher told me, 'You have a talent for art and crafts. You should get into glass or jewelry.' I was excited about doing that."

He persevered in jewelry and was drawn to platinum, which is catching on with high-end customers. Schoenke says that until the last few years, platinum was used mainly as a setting for precious stones. The Platinum Guild, founded in 1975 in Germany, wanted to bring a whole new style to platinum jewelry.

"I can tell it's really catching on," says Williams. "In Germany and Japan, 25 percent to 30 percent of the jewelry sold, excluding silver or costume jewelry, is platinum."

The Japanese seem to be especially fond of platinum. Over 200 manufacturers have set up shop in Japan, and 50 percent of Japanese customers prefer platinum to gold.

The Platinum Guild has since expanded to other countries. Three years ago, it opened an office in Newport Beach, Calif. However, Platinum Jewelry in Anchorage is still the only store in the United States devoted to platinum.

Platinum Jewelry features two collections: the European collection, pieces with a contemporary flair; and the Alaska collection, jewelry with natural Alaska gold nuggets. Eighty percent of the studio's pieces are custom-made, and the rest is a mix of stock pieces made in the studio and jewelry from other designers.

Schoenke says platinum possesses some unique properties that make it good to work with and easy to wear. "It's hypo-allergenic and won't tarnish,"...