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Our Vision

Your custom jewelry starts with a vision, an inspiration, a story you want to tell. Visit us in person, call, or reach out via email to start the process. Simple or elaborate, big or small, any idea you have for jewelry that is personal, unique, and meaningful will start to take shape in this step.

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Our Design Process

A dedicated designer will help you shape your ideas through personal consultations and precise sketches, listening to your ideas and opinions carefully. Through this interactive process, you have creative freedom to make revisions and explore possibilities in the design until it is exactly how you imagine it should be.

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Precious Materials

Your personal designer will help you choose the best materials for your vision. We offer an unparalleled and beautiful selection of ethically-sourced diamonds and gemstones, or if you wish to incorporate heirloom jewelry into your design, we are honored to work with your family stones in the creation of your one-of-a-kind jewelry.

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Creation

Each piece of jewelry we make is hand-crafted in our local workshop, allowing us to create exactly what you envisioned with no limitations. Our master jeweler individually creates each custom piece to the highest standards of quality and workmanship. Every piece of jewelry we create is made to last for generations.

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Realization

The culmination of careful collaboration in the design, limitless options in gemstones and precious metals, and mastery of the art of jewelry making,efforts and skills among client, gemologist, designer, and craftsman, each piece from Secrète’s workshop is a dream actualized, a vision become real.

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Your Dreams Expressed

After every detail is meticulously reviewed, your finished custom jewelry leaves the workshop and is yours to love forever, a chapter of your story set in stone. To have a unique and precious wearable work of art made just for you is a luxury to last a lifetime.

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Secrète Customer Stories

“My fiancé and I got our wedding bands here and they are BEAUTIFUL. My fiancé also got my engagement ring here as well which is absolutely stunning so thank you to the employees of Secrète jewelry who helped to guide my fiancé with his selection !!”
~ Sloan M.

“Incredibly attentive and empathetic jewellers. They take their time to listen to your needs and requirements to understand what you’re really looking for, and make great suggestions based off their expertise.”
~ Alexander S.

“I inherited a diamond ring from my mother which wasn’t my style. I worked Elyah to use the diamonds in a style I was more comfortable with. It came out beautifully, just as I’d hoped. I can’t stop looking at my hand!”
~ Deborah C.

Secrète's Values

At Secrète Fine Jewelry we provide a bespoke high-end jewelry experience from beginning to end. We work closely with our clients to understand every one of your needs and desires resulting in a hand-crafted one of a kind piece at an unparalleled value every single time.

  • Locally made jewelry with master craftsmanship
  • Unique and timeless pieces
  • Impeccable reputation since the 1990s
  • Ethically sources diamonds and gemstones
  • Supporting small family-operated mines
  • Commitment to our community

Meet our team of experts

Elyahu, The Designer

Before Secrète Fine Jewelry opened its doors in Bethesda in 1990, owner and designer Elyahu Araki travelled the world, gathering inspiration and appreciation for art and beauty. His explorations began in Jerusalem, his home, and led him through the Near East, India, Central America, Europe, and North America, giving him a rich and complex understanding of beauty, form, and culture. His expertise in diamonds and fine gems was acquired during his years as a diamond dealer in Toronto. When he moved with his family to the Washington, DC, area, he found master jeweler Duk Soo and started building Secrète Fine Jewelry.

Elyahu brings respect for the natural beauty of precious gems to every piece he creates. He says of his designs, “My work picks up where nature leaves off.” His philosophy of jewelry prioritizes quality above all else, recognizing that, while design is subjective, quality is objective and eternal.

Mr. Soo, The Master

Mr. Soo was born in Korea and has over 50 years of experience as a jewelry maker, including years of work crafting fine jewelry in Japan. Secrète has drawn on Mr. Soo’s mastery in the art and science of making jewelry since we opened our doors. Mr. Soo’s quiet dedication to the quality of his craft speaks volumes. His understanding of Old World jewelry making techniques is unparalleled, as many contemporary jewelers rely solely on technology and lack training in classic, time-honored skills.

The best testimony to Mr. Soo’s work are the thousands of unique pieces of jewelry he has hand-made over the years, many demanding an understanding of the art and skill that very few others can offer. Each enduring piece speaks to his professionalism, artistry, and mastery of creating fine jewelry.

Kadya Araki

Kadya Araki shares her father’s love of beautiful things and passion for color and form. She complements the critical thinking and business skills honed for her University of Maryland Bachelor’s degree with a certificate in diamonds from the premier Gemological Institute of America. She studied diamonds at the DeBeers Institute and is a CPAA Certified Pearl Expert. Her training provides the firm foundation for realizing the flights of fancy she offers her clients. She draws on the visual kaleidoscope of her years in D.C., Tel Aviv, and Hong Kong, to design pieces from the most dainty to the most bold, all to match the client’s personality and dreams.

Kadya brings a fresh sensitivity and understanding of newer ways of doing business to Secrète’s proud 30-year history.

Mari Casey Zabel

Mari Casey Zabel has been a lifelong lover of the arts. She studied art history in Italy. She holds an MFA from West Virginia University and is a published poet. She studied diamonds at the DeBeers Institute and is a CPAA Certified Pearl Expert. She also is an amateur horologist with an insatiable appetite for learning about fine timepieces and their mechanics.

Mari easily identifies “love” as her favorite part of her work. Whether she’s helping a couple design a custom engagement ring, colluding with spouses for special surprise gifts, or simply listening to a couple’s story about how they met, she’s a hopeless romantic. She considers it an honor to help her couples tell their love stories through unique, handmade jewelry.

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