The idea for this business was born in Hawaii in 1971 and quickly moved to the Cascade Mountains on Lake Chelan Washington’s south shore the same year. Lake Chelan is very unusual in that no roads follow the shoreline or any of its length except the lower 22 miles which is near the town of Chelan. The lake, 55 miles long 1600 feet deep and about a mile wide meandering it’s way into the heart of the Cascade mountains, is the backdrop for what was to become Goldsmith Lucerne, a jewelry business.
Forty five miles up the lake is the abandoned mining town of Lucerne. I moved into the old one room school house there, with dental lab books and gold casting equipment while my business partners went about the task of finding designs and markets on the outside, for what I was to produce.
It soon became apparent that we were going to have to make our own original designs to be successful and we set aside a month in early 1972 for Jimmy and April to teach themselves how to make the wax models that begins the process. They produced 30 designs from the middle of January to the middle of February all unique, really unique and the buyers loved them. Art shows, craft fairs and street fairs were the market place. Life was good!
1973, Jimmy goes his own way and opens a store in Carmel, California. It’s still there on Dolores Street off Ocean Avenue. ”Giles of Carmel" 1976 We (April and Gene) open a store on Chelan’s main street. We call it The Wild Flower” This lasts until 1977 when we rename the business Goldsmith Lucerne.
A word about April the designer. She taught herself to create three dimensional sculpture, which is a ring. Her method is different from others in that she builds up rather than carving away or removing material. You can see and feel the difference. She builds the rings on her fingers instead of a mandrel so the “feel” is natural, a sense of belonging. People say “This feels so good on” ... It does!