Our
History

Rick and high school sweetheart, Patty Terry, married August 9th, 1980.

Rick worked at Suzuki by Terry motorcycle shop

Paternal Grandfather Joe Terry Sr. passed away.

During the trip to the funeral a visit with the Moseley family occurred and Buck Moseley offered Rick the opportunity to come down and see if he would like to learn the jewelry business.

On September 18th 1981 Rick left for Louisiana on a borrowed motorcycle. Patty moved in with her parents and remained at her work in Tennessee.

Over the following weeks Rick discovered his love for the jewelry business and moved Patty down to Louisiana over that Thanksgiving weekend.

Both Rick and Patty worked for the Moseley family for the next 6 years.

During those years the opportunity for growth and exposure to so many aspects of the jewelry industry had proven to be invaluable. The Moseley business grew to four retail locations. They were salesmen carrying a line of products made in-house, learning to refine gold back to 24 karat pure gold. The passion to learn and perfect the craft was passed down and has driven Rick to keep up with the latest technology and processes to create beautiful, timeless pieces of jewelry.

Rick and Patty had their first son Blake in 1986.

During Christmas of 1986 Rick and Patty made the decision to move back home to Tennessee, evening signing a lease during their trip back.

In January Patty and their newborn, Blake, moved home while Rick remained in Louisiana for another month to train his replacement in the Moseley business.

When he returned to Tennessee, Rick went into business with his parent’s in the Franklin Square shopping center on Kingston Pike.

Rick and Patty’s second son, Matt, was born in 1991.

During this time Rick also sought out “trade-shop” work for other local jewelry stores to supplement the start-up of their new business, The Goldmaster. He did work for people and businesses such as: Mr. Diftler, Barbara Pennington, Proffits, JCPenny’s and others.

The Terry Family business grew to 3 locations.

10 years later, Joe and Bonnie reached retirement age. The family business began to burn out and Rick wanted to “Get Small”. Soon a simple conversation with a customer at a local restaurant sparked a vision for his next endeavor in the industry for Rick. During the conversation the woman had introduced Rick as “her jeweler” to her sister and this opened up a new door for Rick.

Rick then rented a space at 11320 Kingston Pike and opened “Rick Terry Jewelry Designs” in March of 1997.

Both Blake and Matt have grown up and worked in the store after school hours during the summer for their entire lives.

Blake graduated from KCHS and chose to attend the Gemological Institute of America, better known as GIA, in California.

Rick then opened a store in Lenoir City after Blake became a graduate gemologist and received his certification. Blake then proceeded to join the family business full time.

Matt graduated high school and joined the family business full time.

Shortly after, Blake moved to Chicago and began selling loose diamonds for a vendor. He lived in Chicago for about two and a half years before returning to Knoxville.

When Blake returned to Knoxville the Terry family decided to open a third location in Downtown Knoxville, on Gay Street. Blake decided to move downtown as well and manage that location.

After multiple generations of family and over 30 years in the industry the Terry family have decided to “Get Small” again and have gone back to their roots by consolidating down to solely their Kingston Pike location in Farragut, Tennessee where Rick, Patty and their sons run their state of the art custom jewelry store.