A Little Corner Shop Turns Forty!

Article reprinted with permission, St. Croix This Week.

Hough Family Photograph

"We wanted to live on a beautiful island," says Sonya Hough, whose shop, Sonya ltd, celebrates its 40th anniversary this year. Sonya and her husband David found what they were looking for when they moved their family of five children from San Diego to St. Croix in 1964. David Hough was a talented painter who began teaching, while Sonya opened her small shop to make ends meet, then called The Corner Shop, at No. 1 Company Street in downtown Christiansted. Sonya and the children made by hand most of the items the store carried. "We sold pictures, postcards, bowls, belts and plant hangers and anything else that was handmade on the island."

Now the oldest established jeweler on St. Croix, Sonya actually had no formal training in jewelry-making. "For the most part it was trial and error," she says, though various individuals, including a trial judge and a watchmaker's daughter, helped develop her skills.

"Elephant hair" bracelets were popular in the 1960's, and Sonya took the tailored wrapped look further, experimenting with fine jewelry made from silver and gold, starting in 1966. "I just did it," Sonya says of the clasp design that became known as the "hook bracelet." "It was the time and place and mostly it was sheer luck. Just like life."

The hook bracelet caught on and even attracted its own folklore. "Wear the hook up or down depending on your luck or love," was the saying at Sonya's, meaning that the wearer should sport a bracelet with the hook up if he or she was taken, or down to indicate being single and open to a new love. Hook-wearers began to be spotted all over the world, and customers come in to Sonya's shop to report sightings. Even babies and toddlers were fitted with tiny hooks.

Photo by Jake France

With the popularity of her most famous product assured, Sonya and her husband designed more styles, eventually creating over 30 bracelets, each with a unique clasp. David Hough created a reminder of one of the worst hurricanes ever to hit St. Croix (in 1989) by designing the Hurricane Hugo Bracelet, one shaped with an "H." He also designed a Sugar Mill jewelry line that is still carried on by Sonya, who was widowed in 1995.

Daughter Diana Hough continued the family tradition designed the Hurricane Isabel and "Wrong Way Lenny" bracelets, commemorating more recent (and fortunately less devastating) storms.

Today, the business is still a family affair, with daughters Pam and Diana joining Sonya in its day to day operations. Sonya has no plans to retire, and finds time to travel and support various island causes such as the St. Croix Animal Welfare Center. The little corner shop continues to lure passers-by in to consider the hand-crafted items designed by family members.
Sonya Hough looks back fondly on her early times getting started on St. Croix. "Those were the fun days," she says. Her business philosophy, as always, is that "the customers are our gold."

To view Sonya's website and get your own island hook braclet, click here.