RUMFORD — After 28 years in business, and many more as a gemstone enthusiast, Tim Swan is selling his inventory at Au Jewelers on Friday.

The store and a gemstone museum in the same Route 2 building owned by Swan, were closed because of health issues for both Tim, and his brother, Gary, co-owner of the business.

Tim Swan has cut gemstones since he was 12 years old, with the first ones coming from a Newry mine.

“I love getting up and going to work. Every piece of jewelry is different,” said Swan, 50.

His love of the gemstones’ rainbow of colors may very well have come from his parents and grandparents, who both worked in gemstones. His mom was also an artist, he said.

The museum closed about six months ago. Through the years, thousands of people have from all over the world have signed the guest book.

Au Jewelers closed last weekend. It will reopen Friday, March 25, when Swan and his wife, Evelyn, will sell everything, Swan said, including the display cases and some of the jewelry equipment.

He’s hoping to make a connection with another gemologist who will take over the thousands of gems in his museum and put them on display. Among them is a 700-pound geode with thousands of amethysts from Brazil he acquired years ago in Arizona.

His favorite gem comes from Maine, the tourmaline.

“It’s so versatile,” he said. “It comes in 2,300 shades.”

Swan’s wife has worked alongside her husband all 28 years they’ve been in business.

“It is sad,” she said of the business closure. “I’ll miss all the wonderful people.”

Swan said he has mixed feelings about ending the venture.

“I’ve been collecting since I was a kid,” he said.

The 92- by 36-foot building, constructed just over a decade ago when Swan moved the business from Congress Street, sits on two acres of Androscoggin River frontage and includes a four-bedroom apartment in the basement.

eadams@sunjournal.com

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