Meet Becky Booker!

A little bit from Becky:

I’m a Texan by birth – born in Dallas, but I spent most of my childhood and all of my school years in Uncertain, Texas, in the far northeast corner of the state on Caddo Lake.

I remember being curious about many things in the natural world – roaming the East Texas woods, collecting leaves, bugs and especially rocks. My Grandpa Marwitz had a farm with an interesting outcropping of rock that was sprinkled with quartz. When we would go for a visit, he would load us up on the tractor for a ride down to the fields. When the sun hit that quartz at the right time of the day, it would just light up! Sparkle everywhere!! So I guess I can trace my love of natural sparkly things back to that time.

I eventually began working for a jewelry supply house in San Antonio. We provided gems, findings, metals, equipment and tools to jewelers. From there I began to work for a small diamond trader and I just ‘got the bug’. I wanted to know all I could learn about gems. That’s when I began to explore the idea of gemology school, so I contacted an enrollment counselor at Gemological Institute of America. At that time their campus was in Santa Monica. My idea was to continue working and take the classes by correspondence, but after considering all of my options, I decided to take the plunge, move to California, and become a full time gemology student. The Monday-Friday schedule kept me in the classroom for 6 months. I had lots of hands-on experience – learning how to grade diamonds, identifying over 2000 unique gemstone specimens, getting the latest info on different treatments and innovations in the world of gemology. I enjoyed every moment and was thrilled to earn my Graduate Gemologist diploma.

After my 6-month stint as a student, I was encouraged to apply for the position of Diamond Grading instructor. Much to my surprise and delight, I was hired! I became part of the staff and spent almost two years teaching others to identify and grade cut diamonds. To this day, it was one of the most thrilling experiences of my life.

Next stop – Chicago! I worked for several places on Wabash Avenue, officially known as Jewelers’ Row. My experience here included working for a diamond importer, a boutique retailer that produced many custom pieces and a unique full service retail shop/loan bank that specialized in new, vintage and made to order jewelry.

Eventually I moved back to Texas, but was disappointed that there was no distinct ‘jewelry district’ in central Texas. So I followed another life-long dream and began to work at a small radio station. I began with ad sales and eventually became an on-air host with a daily show. KRXT-FM 98.5 in Rockdale, Texas, is still ‘spinning country gold’! While working there, I began to look for other possible voice-over gigs and quite accidentally came a cross a listing for Shop LC (then Liquidation Channel). I did a short stint as a free-lance host and then returned in August 2012 as a full-time host.

Shop LC is a fun, unique place to work! We are a fun, diverse, dedicated, global family focused on one thing - bringing the best values in unique and beautiful jewelry, textiles, fashion items, skin care and beauty products to our audience 24/7/365. Behind the fun though, is an incredible passion, drive and relentless and dedication to improving our craft every day and to always stay true to our goal – Delivering Joy!