‘Bringing the service back to the community’

Ben’s Jewelry Repair opened its doors Dec. 3 in Creston.

The store is owned by Darlene Riley — owner of The Wishing Well and Hazel Maries in Creston —and operated by Creston jeweler Ben Lundy.

“This location was originally the Wishing Well before they moved up on Adams,” said Lundy. “But this store has been in the process for quite a while.”

Lundy had worked at Wolfe’s Jewelry and Gifts since he was 17, working as a janitor and gaining an interest in the profession.

“I started working at Wolfe’s Jewelry in 1998 when I was a high school freshman,” said Lundy. “I then apprenticed later on under Mike Wolfe from 1999 until 2003 when I went to Gem City College in Quincy, Illinois, where I went to school for nine months and became a certified jeweler. I stayed in Quincy after college and worked at Arthur Lee Jewelers under Joe Johnson.”

Lundy provides various services to restore and refurbish old or damaged jewelry, including ring resizing, stone resetting, jewelry and minor watch repair.

“A customer brought in a ring to repair and I plan on doing a half shank to fix it,” said Lundy. “A half shank means I’m going to cut off the old, worn down bottom half of the ring and replace it with a new bottom shank and form it to the original piece.”

Lundy also offers detail work to bring back the original appearance of jewelry.

“I want to bring back the original detail of what it looked like when it was first made,” said Lundy.

Customers can also purchase Hazel Maries jewelry at the store with plans to expand the selection in time.

“We currently have just a small display of jewelry that Darlene has selected through Hazel Maries,” said Lundy. “We will have more as time goes on. This is just the starting display case. We plan to expand but we just started.”

Lundy said locals have been encouraging throughout the process.

“The support has been great,” said Lundy. “Chris Doster, from (Crossfit) Transcend Your Limits, shot a video in the store to post to Facebook and I have gotten a lot of positive responses from that.”

With the opening of the store, Lundy hopes to make jewelry repair more accessible to the people of Creston.

“I’m happy to bring this service back to our community,” said Lundy. “We’ve had jewelry repair and watch repair before but they’ve been gone for a while.”

Ben’s Jewelry Repair is planning on holding a grand opening event after the new year.

“We want a grand opening, but it isn’t planned to a date at this point,” said Lundy. “We just want to get through the holidays at this time.”

The store, located at 206 N. Maple St., is open 3:30 to 6:30 p.m. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday, and from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday. Lundy says if a potential customer has any questions or is unable to make those hours to call 641-202-1510.