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Gary Abrams
781.986.6663
Excerpt from the Randolph Herald May 12,2006:
"For jeweler,business has nice ring to it" by Dennis Mayer,MPG Newspapers
Gary Abrams estimates he's re-sized"tens of thousands"of rings in his career as a goldsmith and jeweler.
At his workbench at his store,A Jewelers Workshop on Main Street in Randolph,he makes it seem like a simple process with a mans size 12 ring that needs to shrink to size 11and a half.
After demonstrating the use of a ring measuring tool he hasn't needed to use in years,he removes a small section of the ring's circumference,eyeballing his cuts with a small coping saw.After filing away his cut,Abrams pinches the seperated sections of the ring together with a small piece of gold solder between them-a bit of work with a blowtorch and the sections are rejoined.Once he polishes the ring,Abrams says,the work will be unnoticable.
He slips the ring onto his under-used measuring tool-it's a perfect size 11 and a half."Not that I was worried,"he said.
Abrams knows jewelry.The Brighton native,who has operated his store on Main Street in Randolph since 1999,started working in the jewelry industry in 1974,when he was just 14 years old,making minor watch repairs and performing other duties around the store at Henry's Jewelry Co. on School Street in Boston.He worked there for 5 years,through high school and his first year of college at Northeastern University.
After that year,when he decided against returning to school("I didnt really care for college"Abrams said),he went to work for another jeweler on Washington Street for seven years,performing jewelry repairs like sizings,repairs,diamond setting,custom fabrication and wax carving.
Doing so gave him a great start on mastering jewelry repair,though Abrams admitted he had to learn a fair amount of the trade by himself."A lot of things I had to learn for myself,after,and I'm sure that I still have a lot of things to learn,"he said.
Abrams ran his own wholesale jewelry trade shop in Boston for 13 years before moving to the location in Randolph.
Abrams calls his shop a "Mom and Pop store,"slated somewhere
between bargain jewelry outlets like BJ's Wholesale,Wal-Mart and
other such places and high-end jewelers like Shreve,Crump and
Lowe."Everyone sells jewelry,"he said.Not everyone does repair
work like he does,however.Between 60 and 65% of Abrams business
comes from alterations like the ring re-sizing,both form his own
customers and from other jewelers that contract work out to him.
Almost all of his work is done in-shop,he said,differentiating him
from both shops that don't offer work at all and shops that ship out
all work to 3rd party repair shops.
Often time,Abrams said,he is asked to fix a piece of jewelry
purchased somewhere else.He's usually happy to help,though he said
that sometimes the pieces are so"chintzy"that they aren't worth
resizing or fixing.
The rest of his business comes from sales of jewelry that he says
is high-quality,but not name-brand.Abrams ideal customer,he said,
is a middle-class shopper who wants to but a piece of value but
can't afford top dollar for designer prices."The only designer pieces
I sell are designed by me,"he said.
Abrams often builds up business by sizing or fixing pieces that
customers have bought from other places.While in the store,he
said,customers that have work done often wind up buying something
-and once they do,they become repeat customers.
"I do find that when I find a customer that buys from me,they are
loyal and come back and tell their friends about me"he said.
But while he continues to try and build up business,Abrams said that
it was dificult to compete in the over-saturated jewelry market,
especially considering places that are willing to sell lower quality
pieces at a deeply discounted price.
"Sadly,the mom and pop stores like me might be a thing of the
past,"he said.
For now,though,Abrams said he's looking to keep his business in
Randolph as long as possible."I'm try to build up my business,"he
said."I'm definitely in it for the long haul."