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A Childhood Hobby
The beauty and expert craftsmanship of the jewelry created by the Gannaway brothers, Tim and Jim, has evolved over many years. It all began in their formative years with their fascination with beautiful stones. The rocks they collected as young boys were obtained by chiseling agates out of the pavement of their St. Paul neighborhood alleyways, sometimes getting them into trouble for wrecking their dad’s screwdrivers and chisels. As they grew older, their focus evolved from collecting rocks to beautifying them. As teenagers, they polished agates and glued them into inexpensive mountings, their first attempts at jewelry making. These creations were sold to family and their friends at school. Little did they know where this hobby would lead.
Peddling a New Passion
In 1971, while studying chemistry and math at Bemidji State College in Minnesota, Tim took his first jewelry class to satisfy a liberal arts requirement. His primary motivation for choosing a jewelry class was curiosity. He wondered how those jewelry mountings like the ones he had once ordered out of hobby catalogues were made. After attending his first class, he knew he had made the right decision. What began as a curiosity soon developed into a passion. He decided to drop every course except his jewelry class to concentrate on making jewelry. He spent his days in the college jewelry lab, even though he was berated by fellow art students and professors, who couldn’t understand how a science nerd ended up in their department. One professor, Mr. Malmquist, became Tim’s mentor, encouraging his curiosity in the craft.
While Tim was gaining more experience with the crafting of jewelry, Jim, then living in Minneapolis began to sell the creations to the bead and sandal crowds at the university and at local art fairs. Their agate silver jewelry was popular and the first year sales provided them with enough money to buy their own tools. These tools were primitive and limited the type of jewelry that could be made. Without casting equipment, they resorted to using charcoal casting where a design was carved into the surface of a charcoal block and molten silver poured into the carvings. Jim’s continuing sales, though limited at this stage, was enough to keep them interested. During this period, one of their biggest “sales” was made when their entire jewelry display that was on consignment at the university bookstore was stolen. The bookstore reimbursed them for the stolen goods.
Business Begins
In 1972, Jim and Tim met Dick Smith, an opal dealer, who encouraged them to incorporate opals into their silver jewelry. They also began to hand fabricate more of their jewelry and did less of the charcoal casting. They became acquainted with the owner of Kym of Australia, a Minneapolis gift store who agreed to carry their jewelry and whose sales representative agreed to market their wares nationally at the wholesale level.
Because of this added commitment to marketing their jewelry, it became necessary to set up an efficient shop, which first was in the house and later took over the garage of Tim’s first house. When they partnered with Larry Perleberg, another student at the college, JTL Handcraft Jewelry was founded. Up until 1978, when they became Gannaway Bros. Jewelry, every piece of jewelry was stamped inside with the JTL trademark.
Selling wholesale nationally required the creation of a catalogue. Due to money constraints, it was hand-drawn by one of the jewelers at JTL. Once the catalogue was distributed, orders started pouring in and other jewelry students were enlisted to help fill the orders. At times, it was not uncommon for complaints to surface from customers who wondered why these pieces were not more uniform. They didn’t realize the difficulty of producing uniformity when all of the components of the piece of jewelry were cut out, bent, formed, and sodered by hand. Because of these complaints and their desire to exactly replicate their designs, they were forced to pay close attention to details and exercise extreme discipline. This high standard helped them hone their skills in metal work.
Starving Artists, Stolen Art
As with many emerging new businesses, capital to build their new enterprise was sparse. Though the Gannaways’ wholesale business was inundated with orders, any funds received for goods soon went to buy supplies to fill future orders. At that point they were collectively living on $113 a month. In order to survive, they gathered wild rice and gleaned potatoes from local fields. They were also subsidized by their wives’ creative efforts at thrift: pooling waitress tips, renting rooms to college students, and taking advantage of college assets while still a student (ie. jewelry dept. tools, library etc.) Though money was short, youthful energy and creative ambition was plentiful.
In 1973, they scraped together enough money to buy some gold with which they would make a number of gold pieces for submission to the Goldsmith ’74 exhibit sponsored by the Renwick Gallery of The Smithsonian. Only 40 of the 1200 entries would be accepted to go on a national tour. One of the Gannaways’ pieces, “Ring for a King”, was accepted into the exhibit. Unfortunately, it was stolen while on display in a museum. The Gannaways’ ring was the only item stolen in that incident. Ironically, the silver prototype of the “Ring for a King”, later sold in Astoria, was also stolen.
In 1973, the oil embargo hit the US hard. Lines at gas stations became commonplace. This was a problem for the Gannaways, because their sales rep depended on jet travel to meet with customers. Many of his flights were being canceled due to the oil shortage. Frustrated by his immobility, the sales rep quit. Tim and Jim could not absorb the financial shock of this abrupt decision. They owed $12,500 to their suppliers and had no way to pay them back. To put perspective on how much money that was, a nice four bedroom house could be bought for the amount of money that we owed at the time. They did not want to file for bankruptcy, so they tried to find jobs in order to pay back what they owed. While Tim failed to find a job, Jim and Larry found jobs on farms. Jim told Tim to use the tools and the supplies he had left in any way he could to survive the recession.
Broke but not Broken
In 1974, Jim and Tim’s parents, Bob and Jan Gannaway were living in Portland, Oregon. They sent their sons a newspaper classified ad which detailed a watch salesman in Astoria, Oregon looking for a jeweler to partner with in business. Tim decided to go to Astoria arriving with little more than his tools and the shirt on his back. He had little money, no car, and no home. His wife, Linnea joined him a week later, arriving with two suitcases and a kennel containing their pets, a lab and two cats. They had enough money to spend one night in the Bayview Motel. The next day they collected cans for the 5 cent recycling money and made enough to buy a bag of apples. Tim checked withthe local welfare office and found he was not eligible for any programs. They suggested he go to the Seventh Day Adventists, which was across town, if he needed food or shelter. He had no way to get there with the four heavy boxes containing his tools, so he was stranded. While he was sitting on the post office lawn considering his options, a local man, Duane Jeremiah, approached him and asked him what he was doing there. Tim told Duane his story. Duane happened to own some apartments in Astoria. Tim told Duane that if he would bring him to an apartment where he could lock up his tools, he would go door to door selling leftover jewelry from his wholesale business in order to pay the rent. Duane agreed and drove him to the Blue Ridge apartments in east Astoria. Tim sold enough jewelry the first day to pay the rent.
In Business with a Bum
Tim soon met the man who had advertised for a jeweler with which to partner. Tim agreed to partner with him, but only if a 90-day opt-out probationary clause was included in the contract. The partner reluctantly agreed to the contract and they soon opened up shop on 12 th street near the Liberty Theater in downtown Astoria. It wasn’t long before Tim began to regret his decision to go into business with this man who had a poor work ethic and little integrity. He was always available to pick up money for sales made, but left the day to day business responsibilities and risks to Tim. His moral standards were also lacking. He once sold an incomplete watch set to a ninety-year-old blind lady.
Towards the end of the three months, Tim’s frustration level with the man’s lack of commitment to the partnership led him to the decision to end the arrangement. A few days before the 90-day probationary clause expired, Tim hauled the counters, which he had built, to his apartment along with his jewelry and tools. The next day, his deadbeat partner was shocked to see a store with four bare walls, a box of his watches, and a contract with the 90-day clause underlined. Tim decided to rent the space next door, which had recently become available. Fortunately, it had the exact same floor plan as the store for which the counters were built.
A New Beginning
In 1974, Jim, his wife and new son moved to Astoria from Wisconsin to help Tim with the new store. When they went broke in ’73, Tim used his employees’ withholding tax to fly to Astoria. Since they still owed the IRS $350, they were at risk of losing their new business. They decided to name the store “Uncle Sam’s Handcraft Jewelry”. After all, Uncle Sam owned it until the tax was paid. Eventually, an IRS agent came to Astoria to collect back taxes. He had every right to auction off the store within 10 days. They told the agent that Uncle Sam already had his name on the store. The collector found it humorous and decided to give them more time to pay their taxes.
Not only were unpaid taxes a concern, but they also had no idea how they would be able to pay the large amount of money they still owed to their wholesale business suppliers. With the financial burdens of the business and growing families, one of them would have to get a second job while the other would look after the jewelry store. Tim decided to go down to the mooring basin and look for a job on fishing boats.
Fishing for Funds
Tim’s search for a second job on a fishing boat began when he approached George Moskovita. George was on his boat the Kathy Jo, a WWII minesweeper converted to a fishing boat. He was working on the boat when Tim hollered to him that he was looking for work. The captain asked if he had any experience, to which Tim replied, “No.” The captain sent him on his way saying, “I don’t need no greenhorns on my boat.” Tim went to the next boat and saw the captain welding. He asked the captain if he needed anybody to work for him. The captain said, “No. I have a full crew.” Tim persisted saying, “You don’t want someone who will work for free?” The captain lifted up his welding mask and looked at Tim for awhile. A little puzzled he replied, “You’ll work for free? Then come aboard.” He pointed to some cables and said, “Coil these up and put them on these pins.” Tim did as he was instructed. After finishing his first task, he decided to clean up the deck which was a mess. The captain was impressed. He proceeded to give Tim a five-gallon bucket and a putty knife. He told him to go down into the bilge and fill up the bucket with sludge. This smelly rotten job tested Tim’s patience, but he did as he was told. Impressed by Tim’s work ethic, the captain decided to take him out on a five-day fishing trip, which was the most trying experience Tim had ever endured. It was cold and the seas were very rough, typical conditions for winter fishing. Worst of all, he was working for free. The next trip, Irving Tourmala, the captain of a new steel hulled shrimp boat named The Eagle, offered Tim a half share for his work. He continued to work on fishing boats for three summers. While he was working at sea, Jim tended to the business. Eventually they were able to pay their debts.
An Uphill Battle
The 70s were not easy for the Gannaway Brothers. In their first full year of business, their gross sales were a mere $20,000. Twelve to sixteen hour work days were the norm since each piece was hand fabricated one at a time. Their ability to grow depended on Tim’s fishing trips, which brought in $10,000 to $15,000 each summer. With that money, they were able to buy casting equipment, gold, and precious gemstones allowing them to create fine jewelry with far less effort. Tim also learned some new skills when he went to Edwardsville, Illinois with Dwight Irish and worked on a life-size bronze statue of James Madison that would later be installed in the Madison County Courthouse. Consequently, a few bronze sculptures were sold out of the Astoria store in the late 1970s. The fishing money enabled them to buy gold and gemstones towards the end of the decade. In order to project a more professional image, they officially changed their name to “Gannaway Bros. Jewelry” in 1979.
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