Allie DeSeelhorst Curates Copper Canary Into Meridian’s Style-Forward Jewelry Destination

Jewelry meant for every day, not just a velvet-box moment, was the point when Allie DeSeelhorst recast Copper Canary in Meridian, Idaho. The fifth-generation jeweler drew on a family line that began in Chicago in 1885, when Issac Cohen opened a small jewelry store, and later expanded into wholesale on Wabash Avenue in 1925. In Meridian, that inheritance took the form of a more curated, accessories-forward showroom with a dedicated boutique area and a clearer point of view.

DeSeelhorst entered the business full time in 2014, working alongside her father, Perry Coles, after GIA training in Carlsbad, California. Copper Canary followed in 2015, and the Meridian location opened in 2023 as a 7,300-square-foot destination with six employees. The store’s reach matched its floor plan: 37,100 Instagram followers, a 4.8-star Google rating and a first-place finish in INSTORE’s 2024 America’s Coolest Stores contest.

What changed on the selling floor was not just scale, but discipline. Copper Canary mixed vintage, antique, custom and contemporary jewelry with the kind of editing that makes a case read like a wardrobe, not a warehouse. The locket bar captures that approach. Customers choose the locket shape, the color of gold, the size and the gemstone inside, and the stones are natural rock crystal quartz. It is a personal sell, but also a highly visual one: every choice sharpens the silhouette and makes the finished piece feel selected rather than simply bought.

That same thinking extends beyond the showcases. Every quarter, marketing manager Emilee Nash visits neighboring jewelry stores with an updated phone tree and a gift of chocolate, a small ritual meant to build referrals rather than compete destructively. In Meridian, a city of 117,635 at the 2020 census and one of Idaho’s fastest-growing retail corridors near Boise, that local-first posture gives Copper Canary a sharper edge than a simple inventory count ever could. The store now reads as an argument for jewelry as part of daily self-expression, chosen and styled with the same intention as the rest of the outfit.