Our Story

Mark Mitchener’s family history runs deep in the jewelry industry.

Mark’s great-grandfather was an incredibly talented watchmaker. He was asked to move to Russia to open a factory and teach young Russians the watch making trade, and was given a large house and a full-service staff. He fell in love with a local Russian girl and married her.

During political unrest in the late 1800’s, Mark’s great-grandfather secretly gathered his family and quickly left Russia. Ultimately settling in Kansas City, the Mitchener family opened five jewelry stores in the area and prospered until the Great Depression forced the stores to close.

Mark’s grandfather, Herb, was a diamond salesman for a New York diamond distributor. He travelled extensively selling diamonds of all shapes and sizes to independent jewelry stores. He never had a negative thing to say about anyone and Mark looked up to him greatly.

By the time Mark was 14, he knew he wanted to do what his grandfather did. Herb instilled a passion in Mark about diamonds and how to cut them to unleash their maximum SPARKLE. In 1980, after getting certified as a bench jeweler in Paris, Texas, Mark joined with Dave Farrand to open their own trade-shop in the basement of a building at 50th Street and May Avenue in Oklahoma City.

Mark and Dave started creating unique custom jewelry for their customers, and were so successful they quickly outgrew the basement. In 1987, Mitchener-Farrand moved up to street level and opened shop at North May & Grand Boulevard. For 18 years, “The Jewelry Guys on May” built a loyal, fast-growing customer base. In 2005, Mitchener-Farrand renovated and moved into the old Trust House jewelry store where they can still be found today.

Mark believed he could unleash far more brilliance and sparkle in every diamond he purchased, so he worked relentlessly to create an 81-facet diamond (instead of the typical 57) and patented it as Mitchener-Farrand’s exclusive ForeverAfter diamond. Mark has since patented the ForeverAfter Diamond oval, cushion and pear cut, and he and his jewelers create one-of-a-kind custom jewelry pieces every day for Mitchener-Farrand customers across the country.