Welcome to Fire Mountain Gems and Beads
Welcome to Fire Mountain Gems and Beads! We are a 100% direct-mail and e-commerce company and have no sales showroom. Since our building is closed to the public, we’d love to take you on a virtual tour.
Fire Mountain Gems and Beads Background
Stuart Freedman began to cut turquoise in his garage as a hobby. When his garage operation started to boom, his neighbors suggested he get a storefront. In Studio City, California Stuart set up shop. He quickly outgrew this, however, and moved with his wife Chris to Cave Junction, Oregon in 1986, where they revamped a grocery store for their new bead mail-order business.
As Chris says, "Stuart's hobby ran amuck," and sure enough the grocery store was outgrown. In 2000, a building in Grants Pass, Oregon was acquired. Originally, Stuart thought the building would be too big. As it turns out, Fire Mountain Gems and Beads had to build a whole new building behind the facility, dubbed The Bead Bunker, in 2005-2008 to house the growing stock. This Bead Bunker was built to be energy efficient with skylights and motion-sensor lights that turn off when personnel are not present, air intakes during the night to cool the during the day as well as double-insulated walls.
Stuart Freedman, co-founder of Fire Mountain Gems and Beads passed in 2022. Stuart’s legacy lives on at Fire Mountain Gems and Beads and throughout our industry.
Administration Foyer
The front offices are for the company owner Chris Freedman, executives, etc., as well as the executive assistants. Original cover art, done by a past employee, hangs in the hallway. Each painting displays a volcano, beads and a Rhodesian Ridgeback named PC (Potato Cakes). This dog, and another named Turbo, used to be an integral part of the hiring process. A memorial to PC and Turbo hangs here as well. Display cases also reside here, housing beautiful gemstones, carvings and other interesting pieces.
Web Development
Programmers research, create and maintain our resource-filled website. Most of the programs and website features are written in-house by these tech-savvy employees, along with an industry leading web platform.
Search Marketing, Web Analytics and Web Support
Constant research happens to make sure our resource content is easy to find on the internet. These individuals also look for jewelry supplies people are searching for online to make sure we have a ready supply. Managing our social media presence on sites such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Pinterest is no small task, either.
Marketing Analytics
These folks figure out which products are "making the grade." They get to select products for catalogs, web specials and other media outlets. Marketing strategies are analyzed to see what is attracting, or not attracting, our customers.
Human Resources
This department is always busy keeping track of full benefits packages, including 401(k), medical and dental provided for employees and their families. They organize monthly Employee Appreciation Days and attend job fairs as well.
Throughout the company's hallways are the Fire Mountain Gems and Beads' Vision and Mission Statements, along with back cover ads from beading and craft industry magazines.
- Vision Statement: We are an evolving community of passionate individuals, each of us, dedicated to creating magical experiences for our customers, employees and suppliers.
- Mission Statement: To be the industry leader in providing beading and jewelry-making supplies to merchants, designers and artists in support of their creative and business endeavors.
General Meeting Room
The corner of this large room houses Fire Mountain Gems and Beads' bears. For many years, every summer local artists in Southern Oregon decorated fiberglass bears that are displayed in downtown Grants Pass, Oregon and are auctioned off to raise money for various charities. Fire Mountain Gems and Beads beaded two bears in 2005, using a total of 9 million beads. Both bears were bought by Chris and Stuart.
Multimedia - Catalog
All catalogs are created in-house (minus the actual printing, which is still done in the USA). The models in each catalog are employees who have their makeup and hair done by a local stylist. This department creates many different catalogs each year, including 11 mailed catalogs and 9 small (12-24 pages) catalogs that are placed in orders.
Web Designers
The Fire Mountain Gems and Beads homepage is updated in order to keep you informed about new products and features. These designers create a good customer experience by pulling together the most sought-after product lines and bringing them all together on hub/landing pages.
Photography Studio
A group of full-time photographers shoot thousands of images annually for the most accurate portrayal of products. Catalog covers, magazine advertisements and the back cover ads on craft-related publications are all digitally shot and created.
Image Specialists
These talented individuals use Photoshop to crop, color correct, add text, resize--do everything needed to ready images for use anywhere in the company or marketing advertisements.
Video Studio
We produce our own jewelry-making videos and ads for online use. These include instructional videos, product videos and tutorials to help people learn how to make jewelry.
Stylist
Assisting the jewelry designers and the photography/video studio is no small task, constantly keeping track of product and helping with photography and video sets.
Jewelry Designers
Full-time jewelry designers get to spend their working days playing with beads. Collectively, they create hundreds of original jewelry pieces a year to be used as inspiration for our customers.
Content Administration
Design inspirations, articles, trends and other informative resources are put on the Fire Mountain Gems and Beads website in this department, related to campaigns and sales. New content is coordinated to be used throughout other departments. Multiple proofreaders keep these resources and product descriptions up to company standards. This group oversees the organization of our yearly jewelry-making contest. They also keep track of community events Fire Mountain Gems and Beads is involved with, such as The Boys and Girls Club, Rogue Winterfest and Rotary Student of the Year.
Marketing Graphic Designers
This group's goal is providing special email that keeps you updated on offers, sales, new products and last-chance deals. They also work on emails the Fire Mountain Gems and Beads website sends out, such as order and shipping confirmations and electronic gift certificates. Branding, logo and special packaging projects are a constant at Fire Mountain Gems and Beads, where we sell many unique products.
Jewelry-Making Experts
All your customer feedback is read and distributed by our resident experts. They answer ''Ask the Experts'' questions on the website to provide futher helpful features for jewlery makers.
Copywriters
With over 100,000 products online, that's a whole lot of copy. Fire Mountain Gems and Beads copywriters provide numerous descriptions to keep information accurate and available. These hard-working employees also compose many resources for catalog and email teams, articles, press releases, wedding projects and more.
Information Technology
The website is supported by two internet providers to ensure our site is always available. Aside from supporting servers, networks and databases, many applications used throughout the company and business reports are written in this department.
Product Management
One of our resident gemologists is always sampling product for accuracy. Approximately 12 languages are spoken in this room, and many members of this team get to travel to translate on buying trips. They get to make purchasing decisions with vendors nationally and internationally.
Returns
Proud of our small room next to customer service, the Returns department upholds the Return Policy./customer-service/returns.html
Customer Service
Our friendly customer service representatives are available to answer your questions and assist with placing orders during our business hours. They answer emails, phone calls and are available in live chat too.
Accounting
By paying local, national and international bills, this department "keeps Fire Mountain Gems and Beads’ promises."
Receiving
These employees get the product off trucks and out of giant shipping containers. They are responsible for all mail and special deliveries and work closely with Product Management to ensure accuracy and quality of incoming purchases.
Quality Control
Also housed in the Bead Bunker is a group of employees who specialize in improving product information for accuracy. All customer questions and concerns are researched, and product is measured, compared and inspected to ensure quality.
Production
Bulk packaging is broken down in to a variety of more manageable resale packages and assortments.
Special Buys
This department was created as a special program to buy large closeouts of new products for the website and flyers. This type of bulk buy helps closing companies get rid of product and make back some money in the process.
Fulfillment
Uniquely built machines called "carousels" hold product picked by operators to fill customer orders. Always evolving, this department continues to use improved technology to efficiently and accurately fill your orders.
We have now reached the end of this virtual tour. On behalf of everyone at Fire Mountain Gems and Beads, we thank you for taking the time to learn more about our unique and diverse company. Feel free to ask us any questions since we are always excited to talk with, and help, our customers. Have a good rest of your day and we hope to see you again soon!
Have a question regarding this article? Email Customer Service.
Copyright Permissions
All works of authorship (articles, videos, tutorials and other creative works) are from the Fire Mountain Gems and Beads® Collection, and permission to copy is granted for non-commercial educational purposes only. All other reproduction requires written permission. For more information, please email copyrightpermission@firemtn.com.