Mrs. Varathip Arounsakoun, a leading Laotian American entrepreneur, is known in the Asian community for her exclusive and unique jewelry shop.
Mrs. Varathip, a refugee from Laos, resides in San Diego, California for almost two decades. She has been doing many different kinds of business until she has a firm grip on this jewelry business. Most her clients are about 70% from Asian American Community and about 30% from other American community.
She named her jewelry shop a Thai Export Jewelry due to many of her gems are imported
from Thailand in early years of the establishment of her business. Currently, many of the popular gems are from Laos including Blue Sapphire of Baw Keo, amethyst of Parse and onyx of Houi Say.
Mrs. Varathip talked to VOA about her business…”I’ve been doing jewelry business for over twelve years in United States. I do travel quite a bit every three months or so to purchase gems and other raw materials from Laos. Lately, Laos has improved its gem industry a great deal. Lao’s gems such as blue sapphire, amethyst and onyx are in high quality, I get most of my ruby from Burma.”
She added… “The gold wedding sets are imported directly from Luang Prabang, because their quality and workmanship are unique.”
Listen to our audio file for more details.