Maine Jewelry Store Keeps Things All in the Family
When your 8-year-old is making earrings, it’s a good sign he’s on his way into the jewelry bizRyan Cole started handcrafting fine jewelry before he was tall enough to ride a roller-coaster. His parents, Dean and Denise, founded Portland, Maine, fine jewelry store D. Cole Jewelers in 1981. And Dean, a bench jeweler, often could be found working in his basement studio when Ryan and his little sister, Emily, came home from school.“I built a little area for him in my studio so he could hammer away every afternoon,” Dean recalls. At 8 years old, Ryan made a pair of earrings that his parents ultimately featured in an ad in a local paper. “People would come into the store asking to see the earrings made by the 8-year-old!” says Dean. Twenty-one years later, Ryan heads up the digital design duties at D. Cole while his wife, Lindsey, handles all marketing efforts. Emily joined the b
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