WALKS WITH JASPER: Coeur d’Alene Fine Jewelers
Jasper and I were meandering down Sherman on a mission of sorts. The dappled doxie was on a treat hunt while I sought to get a watch band changed without the scratches that ensue when I do that job. We were a bit surprised to come across a new jewelry store and compelled to enter.
A friendly gentleman emerged from the back, introduced himself as Gary and after shaking hands, bent over to give Jasper pats. Meanwhile I enjoyed what has become for me the increasingly rare experience of liking somebody immediately. Though there were no treats for Jasper, the watch band was replaced while Gary and I had a delightful chat.
Gary Bower is the owner of Coeur d’Alene Fine Jewelers at 406 E. Sherman Ave. downtown (www.cdafinejewelers.com). In Anchorage, Alaska, Gary’s father was in the jewelry industry. When Gary was 16, he got a job with Mitchell Baumstein, a jeweler in Eagle River, outside of Anchorage. Gary emphasized that with Mitchell he was “fortunate enough to learn from somebody with such vast experience.” They worked together about three years and part of that entailed doing all the repair work for the Alaskan Zales stores.
Gary soon broadened his experience, taking jobs at various Anchorage jewelers.
“I worked in manufacturing in the jewelry end of it and honed my skills in stone setting,” he told Jasper and me.
He was then employed 14 years at a store called Jewelry Cache, gaining experience with jewelers from locales ranging from California to France.
“We learned a lot from each other and ended up being able to do practically anything,” he said.
Finally, after 40 years, Gary and his wife Suzanne “just got tired of Alaskan winters.” The couple moved to Bellingham, Wash., where he was employed seven years for a jeweler doing custom and repair work.
The next move was no accident. Gary has roots in Coeur d’Alene: “My parents were from this area and my grandmother lived here many many years... Mom and Dad married in CDA and I really wanted to move here whenever I visited my grandma.”
In 2007, Gary and Suzanne settled in Hayden when an opportunity opened up at Austin’s Fine Jewelry in Spokane. He worked at Austin’s for 10 years.
“The economy wasn’t good enough to open a shop in 2007 and Coeur d’Alene had Clarks and Eversons jewelry stores,” Gary noted. But in June 2017, encouraged by the uptick in the economy and glad to give up the daily commute to Spokane, Gary opened the shop on Sherman.
I happen to be a long-time proponent of custom jewelry. Usually for just slightly more than chain store costs, you can work directly with the jeweler to fashion a unique piece. On that score we are especially lucky having access to Gary’s talents. In April 2000 he became only the 61st Certified Master Jeweler in the country, a title bestowed by Jewelers of America. Per his own admission, he “probably has more experience at the bench than nearly anybody in the Northwest.” His passion is to create something that nobody else has, often using a client’s stones and gold to “repurpose or make something different, nice and all about quality.”
Gary’s business is evolving along with our community. He is currently at work on the time-consuming process of creating an exclusive line of shop designs.
“There are a lot of jewelry stores here for a small community and I want a niche,” Gary explained. “I want to be able to sell items that are local, like star garnets panned out of St. Mary’s, which will get pieces in the hands of people that they won’t be able to get at home.”
Gary Bower is genuine, likable and a Coeur d’Alene artistic resource. On top of that, since he and Suzanne are “dog people,” the no-treat situation has been remedied, earning Jasper’s seal of approval.
Stephen Garger and his four-legged sidekick, Jasper, love to explore the small-business scene in and around Coeur d’Alene. They’re regular contributors to North Idaho Business Journal.
