FARMINGTON — When owner of Mainestone Jewelry Ron Gelinas was growing up in Massachusetts, his favorite activity was to visit the Harvard Museum.

“I didn’t play baseball, I would go jump on the bus and go to Harvard Square and go to the museum,” Gelinas said. “I was there quite a bit.” 

Gelinas would frequent the mineral exhibit where several professors befriended him and would sent him off with new specimens to study.

Gelinas made carpentry his profession, but maintained stones and minerals as a hobby, teaching himself stonecutting and selling custom cuts of tourmaline to jewelers. It wasn’t until Gelinas broke his back that he considered making jewelry a profession.

“Actually, breaking my back was the best thing that ever happened to me, it sort of forced me into thinking about doing something else,” Gelinas said.

To learn the different techniques of making jewelry, Gelinas apprenticed with renowned jeweler Addison Saunders before establishing his own business from home.

After a couple of years working from home in Industry, Gelinas and his wife Cindy Gelinas opened Mainestone Jewelry in Farmington. They’ve been at 179 Broadway Street for the past 20 years and now they’re looking for a change.

“It’s time to start slowing down a bit, but I’m not ready to retire all of the way,” Gelinas said, who is now 70-years-old. “I just love what I do, and I don’t want to stop doing it. I’d like to slow down a little, but not stop.”

By February, Gelinas plans to open a new storefront in downtown Wilton at 346 Main Street that will focus more on repair work and will offer gallery space to local artists.

“It’s going to be a smaller store so it’s not going to have as many rocks and minerals,” he said. “It’s going to be more just jewelry, and we want to have a gallery with other people’s things there too.  I think it will be great for downtown Wilton too.” 

Gelinas can still be found at his Farmington location until the end of November where he is often engaged in lively conversations with long-time customers and kids fascinated by meteorites and dinosaur bones in glass cases.

Over the years, Gelinas has made an effort to educate younger customers about rocks and minerals, following the example of his early mentors.

“It’s worth putting a little bit of time into a kid if they’re excited about something to promote it,” Gelinas said, who used to take young mentees out rockhounding.

Two of those mentees are now geologists that travel internationally for work.

When Gelinas is not talking rocks, he can be seen working meticulously with his face half covered with a shield and magnifying glasses. Repair work consumes most of Gelinas’ time now as he is purposefully taking less and less custom orders.

Although Gelinas has fond memories of bizarre and challenging customer requests.

“Years ago, I had a woman, she had a badly broken leg and I had to make jewelry out of her titanium pins and stuff that she had in her bones after they removed them. That was probably my strangest one,” he said.

More recently, Gelinas has found inspiration to design jewelry again after a long hiatus. During three months of business closure due to the coronavirus, Gelinas found himself alone in the store with the desire to sculpt Maine minerals and create Maine pendant jewelry.

“I just came into work everyday, the doors were locked and I just made things. I made more jewelry during those times than I have for years; I cut more stones than I have for years,” Gelinas said.

These new pieces are currently on display and Gelinas plans on showcasing his rock sculptures alongside other artists’ work at the Wilton location.

“Farmington has been fantastic to us for years and years,” Gelinas said. “I love the people, I love doing work for them. I don’t want to stop; I hope they’ll come to Wilton and bring repair work there. I hope we keep some of the same customer base, which I think we will.”

 

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