Woodmere jewelry boutique is all about finding unique items that help create personal style – with few rules

By Amanda Koehn

Inside a sunny, home-like yet expansive space across the street from Eton Chagrin Boulevard, LINGG – a jewelry, accessory and fashion boutique – has been a fixture for almost 20 years.

And while trends come and go, owner Heidi Lingg and buyer/manager Beth Finley say LINGG’s emphasis has always been on selling and designing unique jewelry items that help customers show their personal style through new and old pieces, often worn together. 

Lingg says their customers view their jewelry and everything that goes with it like a individual fingerprint – a collection of personal aesthetic pieces that all contribute to a point of view through style.  

“We like to have things you don’t see everywhere, that you can’t find everywhere,” Lingg says, adding they offer a wide price range.      

Lingg and Finley, both Northeast Ohio natives, have worked together for over 30 years – first as buyers at another shop. When Lingg founded LINGG in Woodmere in 2004, Finley came along. This far into it, they have customers who are “like family,” Lingg says. Some have shopped at LINGG as their children were born and as they grew up. Now, the younger generation shops at LINGG, too. 

The boutique also helps create custom items, for example, a piece from a family heirloom one may not often wear in its current form, but they would if made into a new piece of jewelry that better matches their personal style. Essentially, anything can become anything else. 

“You can take those components, and rebuild something new so the love is still there,” Lingg says.

Ahead of the permanent jewelry trend, LINGG has offered “everlast” bracelets for some time. A jeweler custom fits a bracelet and welds it around the wrist, fitting perfectly with no clasp. The designs can be used to signify a bond between those wearing them together, Lingg and Finley say. Mothers and daughters or bridal parties will have them made together to show a connection that’s “permanent, but not this surgical commitment,” like a tattoo, Lingg says.

Also popular this season are statement rings, bright colors – especially green – and texture. Woven bags, quirky items and pieces with a hint of fun are popular, Lingg says.  

LINGG also hosts piercing gatherings, as it sells many post and dangling earrings – both in pairs and separately. It adds to that style “fingerprint,” where customers can create personalized designs for their ears.

“Everything is something jewelry,” Finley says, showing her cuff bracelet made from her mother’s baby bracelet. “We can turn anything into a pendant or make it a ring.”

Layering jewelry is another trend. And for the record, mixing and matching metals is perfectly fine, they say. It’s all about personal style. 

“You have so many things you love, if you only wear one thing at a time, your other stuff is just all lonely in the jewelry box,” Lingg says. “So this way, you can wear a lot of it all at once, and it looks really cool.”

Finley adds, “More is more. You don’t have to take anything off.”