The road that led her to the Blacy's Jewelers she now runs at 51 University Ave. was a long one, but it was also fairly direct. In fact, Blacy began working in the jewelry industry right after graduating from Los Gatos High School.

Her career began in 1975 at the Manzini's Fine Jewelers her mother managed in Cupertino's Vallco Mall. A year later, Blacy enrolled in the Gemological Institute of America (GIA), as she wanted to become a certified gemologist.

"I tried doing it as a correspondence course, but it didn't work," she says, chuckling at the years she spent juggling work and schooling. "It was the old-fashioned way of doing a correspondence course—going back and forth in the mail—and it just took too long."

Eventually, she moved to New York to attend the GIA School of Business in person. Not content to be simply a gemologist, she took the additional courses required for the title of graduate gemologist. She then applied to join, and was accepted by, the American Gem Society, which she says will not accept members without at least a GIA "undergraduate" degree.

By 1981, Blacy was back at Manzini's, mainly appraising diamonds and colored gemstones. One of her main inspirations to become an appraiser came from a conversation she once overheard at work, she says, in which a colored-stone vendor was complaining that the aquamarines he thought he'd gotten a good buy on were actually lesser-valued blue topazes.

"That was the start of my path. I wanted to be able to do that!" she says, smiling. And now she does.

"I love helping people go through family treasures, telling them what's valuable and what's not, or what's real and what's not," she says, adding that one of her biggest surprises was in appraising an old stickpin with an unassuming garnet on it—or so its owners thought. "It was actually a $10,000 ruby!" she exclaims.

"A good gemologist will always use more than one method. There are physical tests, like weight and shape, and optical tests, like how it reflects or refracts light," adds Blacy, who uses her jeweler's microscope—nearly 30 years old but as good as ever, she says—as frequently as she uses her eyes.

Before setting up shop in Los Gatos, Blacy used that microscope in several other stores, including Carter's Jewelers, also in Vallco, and a Zales Jewelers in Los Altos that she renamed Premiere Fine Jewelers. After that came Maxi's Fine Jewelers, an endeavor she ran with her now ex-husband, and finally Blacy's, which had its first incarnation in the Great Mall of the Bay Area in Milpitas.

She says she's happiest working in Los Gatos, not only because it's her hometown but because the clientele is generally friendlier and classier than what she's found in mall-based stores.

"The thing I enjoy the most is helping people find that perfect piece of jewelry that they want or need. Jewelry can be a need at times, like engagement rings," the twice-married mother of three says with a knowing smile. "Buying jewelry is typically a very joyful event, and it's fun to be a part of that."

Along with traditional white diamonds and pearls—which are among their best sellers—Blacy's also stocks diamonds in other colors, such as pink, and a spectrum of freshwater and South Sea pearls in uncommon colors, ranging from pink to apricot to silvery-black. Emeralds, amethysts, sapphires, rubies, Tanzanite and other gemstones can also be seen sparkling from within earring, ring, bracelet and pendant settings.