My Biz: Philip’s Diamond Shop fixes, creates jewelry

MARION — Becky Mayes met her husband-to-be, Phil High, while working in his father's jewelry store in the old Lindale Plaza.

'It was my first job, at age 16, and I met Phil on my very first day of work there,' she recalled.

They eventually married and did wholesale jewelry work in their early business venture, in the Marion Square Plaza, until opening their first retail store in 1983.

'It was only two (display) cases' in that first retail store, Becky said, 'and we still have them here in our new building.'

Today, their customer base has grown, and they frequently service large jewelry manufacturing suppliers who need custom work, Becky said.

The store employs 11 who can work from initial computer-aided-design drawings to creation of a wax replica to rough casting to clean casting and finally to completion of a finished piece — all done in the labs Phil's set up when they built and moved into their new building on Seventh Avenue three years ago.

'We were running out of space in our old building site,' Becky said.

Today, a row of glassed-in lab rooms where designers work looks out onto the display showroom.

The couple had been hunting for a new site to expand their business but hadn't been finding anything they liked.

Phil is 'a dreamer and a visionary, and he just came home one night and said he wanted to build this building,' she laughed. 'There was this empty car lot here and Phil just went for it.'

These days her husband's focus is on managing the day-to-day administrative functions of their business, as well as the maintenance needs for their tenants who occupy their new three-story building with their store.

'Phil still does all the appraisals for the shop, but he no longer works at the bench on a regular basis,' added Molly Lurth, the store manager.

Another artistic service at Philip's Diamond Shop is engraving by hand, a process that takes years of training and is done completely with hand tools. Many items, from jewelry to knives to guns — even iPods and cellphones — can be hand engraved, Lurth said.

Lurth said the store competed five of their original design pieces at the Iowa Jeweler's Conference in 2016.

'We took four first places, one third place, the People's Choice as well as Best in Show,' she added.

While the store's busiest season is in December, its custom-design business is a constant.

'We're relatively consistent with that throughout the year,' Becky said.

AT A GLANCE

Owners: Phil and Becky High

Store manager: Molly Lurth

Business: Philip's Diamond Shop

Address: 1317 Seventh Avenue, Marion

Phone: (319) 377-1899

Website: http://philipsdiamonds.com

l Know a Corridor business in operation for more than a year that would make a good 'My Biz' feature? Contact michaelchevy.castranova@thegazette.com