History
CHRONOLOGY
11 August 1974 Lilly Fitzgerald and Jack Lalor begin selling the jewelry they've been making in the living room and polishing on the back porch in Uxbridge, MA. From 1975 to 1979 we average about 50 shows a year.
June 1976 We exhibit at the Northeast Craft Fair at Rhinebeck, NY for the first time. At this time we are operating from Barre, MA. During this year we employ Arthur Hall and Steve Caranci. Steve is killed a few years later in an automobile accident.
Winter 1977 We move to West Sutton, MA . George Zecco works for us for about a year.
Spring 1978 Dave Turano and Jack Lalor operate Small Axe Productions, a gallery at the Fantastic Umbrella Factory in Charleston, RI. Dave still has a presence there. He is a highly evolved individual whose reggae inspired, wood fired pottery is in a class by itself. Ellen Israel comes to work for us at about this time.
1980 We move to Camden ,ME to open Camden Jewelry Company at 1 Mechanic Street.
1981 Lisa Swedburg is hired. . Ellen Israel, who moved to Maine when we did, goes back to Worcester, Massachusetts to start her own business. She continues to work on our silver line as a subcontractor until it is discontinued.
1983 Lilly and Jack get divorced, Lilly moves to Massachusetts.
1984 Polly Ryel joins us.
1985 Patty Bolz starts working for us.
1986 We move to new oceanfront quarters at 8 Sharp's Wharf.
1987 Aleksandra Shiarella, a remarkable person on her way from Poland to Hawaii, comes to work for us. Also this year Catherine Kimball starts working for us. Kim McKay also starts this year. She winds up staying to build our line through thick and thin for ten years. John Henkel starts working for us. He doesn't stay too long because he needs to start his own casting business.
1988 Helga Manning joins us. She will continue until she retires in 2017. John Henkel goes south to Freeport to open J A Henkel Co.
1989 Aleksandra Shiarella leaves; in a few years, she'll be in Hawaii, the place she's been aimed at since she skipped out of communist controlled Poland. Lisa Svedburg leaves to have her own business. Catherine Kimball leaves and opens a store in New Hampshire which she closes a few years later to move to South Africa. Dave Zekman, a master goldsmith from Colorado, starts working for us. Roxanne Pizzutto comes to us from Maine College of Art She has the same teacher as Jack, Lisa, and Patty, Tim McCreight.
1990 Patty Bolz leaves and joins Lisa Svedburg to open pbLAS Goldsmiths in Camden. Roxanne Pizzuto leaves later in the year.
1991 Dave Zekman leaves to go back to Colorado. Polly Ryel and Jack Lalor marry.
1993 We move again, to our present address at 4 Bayview Street.
1996 Kim McKay leaves after ten years of service. Last time we checked, Kim was doing some jewelry work and some gardening and landscaping services in Camden.
1998 We get this website. Around this time we all but stop selling our jewelry to other stores and swear off craft shows.
1999 Avril Martin from Dublin, and Jenny Tsu from RISD are interns, building our jewelry and selling it in the store. Jenny for the summer, then back to school, and Avril for about a year, then travel and back to Ireland.
2016 Emmett Lalor, Polly and Jack's older son, joins the fray. He is learning to be a goldsmith and has become an accomplished laser welding technician and jewelry repair hand.
2017 Helga Manning retires after 29 years.