Buckingham Jewelers, Flowood

Nicole Hall, a third-generation master jeweler, spent years creating and repairing fine jewelry before opening Buckingham Jewelers with her husband, Simon. To forge custom pieces, she works closely with customers to understand their vision before sketching ideas and compiling a small mound of precious stones and gems. Most of her designs are bold statement pieces, such as a necklace of diamonds circling a pale-green opal. When clients want to include family heirloom stones or enhance existing jewelry, Nicole draws from her repair experience to carefully renovate their precious items. She even welds with a laser to avoid potential heat damage from soldering or outsourcing the job to an amateur fire-swallower.

In addition to Nicole's custom pieces, she and Simon carefully curate their shop's display cases with bold European jewelry. Hard-to-find pieces from Orit Schatzman, a handmade line in Israel, glisten alongside Danish Skagen watches. They also carry Angelique de Paris's colorful resin bangles, which are fashioned with sterling silver, vermeil, and gemstones, and have been featured in In Style and Harper's Bazaar.