A Remembrance: Ellie Thompson

Ellie Thompson
Chicago Jewelry Designer and Gemologist
October 18, 1966 – July 30, 2026

I first met Ellie Thompson in Santa Monica, California, just after she had graduated from the Gemological Institute of America. She wandered into the GIA Alumni Association office, where I was Executive Director. Like most students, Ellie was looking for advice as to where she should start her gemological career. She was considering New York City. Ellie had grown up in Connecticut, not too far from New York, so it was only natural that this might be her next destination. After considering all of the pros and cons of starting a new career in New York, I suggested that she consider a more modest beginning in Chicago.

Through alumni connections, I had met Richard Drucker, president of Gemworld International and the Chicago GIA Alumni Chapter, and thought he would be a great contact to help her get started. She took my advice to heart, called Richard, and was off on a winding path that would lead her to a family, a career, and a home in Chicago.

Ellie’s first job in Chicago was working for Richard at Gemworld. After two years, and with Drucker’s encouragement, she opened her own independent appraisal company, The Chicago Gem Lab. That led to what would become a decades-long relationship with Leslie Hindman Auctioneers. Through her work there, Ellie met clients and had the opportunity to examine the many period jewels that came through the auction house. Both would become sources of inspiration as her own interest in jewelry design began to take hold.

Award-Winning Jewelry Designer

Ellie loved Chicago. And she loved designing jewelry there. She became an award-winning jewelry designer. Two of her jewels now reside in the permanent collection of Chicago’s Field Museum in the Grainger Hall of Gems. (seen below)

I remember her very first collection, City Rhythms, inspired by the architecture and environment of Chicago. It was full of circles (think of the iconic twin towers of Marina City), with bezel-set gems with gold and platinum spokes. Upon entering her very first jewelry design competition, Ellie won a Platinum Guild design award. Not long after that came an AGTA Spectrum Award. And then another.

Those bezels and spokes became a signature of her work, repeated in many of her collections throughout her career.

It did not take her long to realize that jewelry design was the path she had been working so hard for. She sold The Chicago Gem Lab and founded Ellie Thompson & Co. to focus on designing and manufacturing jewelry.

Inspiration

Ellie always had an independent spirit. She traveled to Europe and throughout the Western United States, finding inspiration wherever she went and in the places she made her home: flowing ironwork in Paris, big silver cowboy belt buckles in Wyoming, flowers in Chicago’s Millennium Park.

Thankfully, Ellie catalogued it all: her experiences, her inspirations, and the jewelry she created.

With the help of her daughter Lindsay, this collection of her work eventually became a beautifully crafted book, Designing American Jewelry, published in 2024. It is a marvelous representation of Ellie, an expression of the person she was, both inside and out. We loved it so much that we recommended it for summer reading earlier this year.

In our personal copy of Designing American Jewelry is confirmation that perhaps I didn’t steer her wrong about Chicago. She wrote:

“…with gratitude for the best advice at a most pivotal time in my life! Here I am! Still in Chicago! All my best, Ellie T.”

Designing American Jewelry is a proud legacy she leaves behind for her family, her clients, and her jewelry design colleagues.

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It is with a very heavy heart that we say goodbye to Ellie Thompson. As her family and friends celebrate her life and mourn her absence, we too are struggling to comprehend the loss. – gr