Arriaga's jewelry opens up oysters in HarborWalk

DESTIN, FL - Imagine HarborWalk Village is a giant oyster, and right inside is Arriaga's Pearls Gone Wild.

The boutique brings Destin mollusk-made treasures that have been through a transformation at the hands of local jewelry designer, sculptor and painter Richard Arriaga.
   
Now his wife, Shelly, is passing the creations along to bejeweled connoisseurs with her dream of opening a business on the harbor.
   
"It was more of an emotional decision," Arriaga said. "The harbor meant a lot to me personally."
   
Growing up in Destin and fishing around the docks as a child with her father, Capt. Walley Waldrop, Arriaga became attached to the harbor and yearned to move back after living many years of her married life with Richard in Texas.
   
Arriaga had been eyeing HarborWalk since its construction and finally decided the time was right to expand Arriaga's Originals, their Seacrest Beach retail gallery, to a second location in Destin.
   
Shelly said her husband began making jewelry at art shows in 1983 and has since turned into a self-taught jewelry maker with his own special techniques.
   
Shelly said they travel the world to find unique gemstones, then Richard takes each one to create a one-of-a-kind piece. He embeds the stones in 18 karat gold or pure silver, often taking up to a week to create one piece.
   
Simpler to make are the pieces made with leather and pearl, an unlikely, yet popular combination for Pearls Gone Wild.
   
Shelly said their business has thrived on Richard's inspiration drawn from things around him that remind him of the sky and the ocean. He uses many stones, but they've found their niche.
   
"We're addicted to pearls now."