Jewelry Making Still Going Strong At Former Bachman St. Cloud Location

(KNSI) – The former Bachman Jewelers site in downtown St. Cloud is under new ownership but delivering the same high-quality craftsmanship.

Carla DeFrance-Crosby has been a goldsmith for decades and worked in the backroom at Bachman at one point. She says one of the perks of ownership is to have more customer interaction, which has been a small part of her job description in previous roles.

“I love making people happy. As a goldsmith, I didn’t always get to see that. I could hear how happy they were when they got their jewelry, either repaired or a new piece.”

Defrance-Crosby talked with KNSI about what has changed and how technology, like her new laser welder, is altering jewelry making. “It helps so much. With rings now — ladies’ rings, the little prongs, the pieces of metal that hold the stones, have gotten so small. So, it’s absolutely essential to have a welder now because using a torch, you can’t use a solder that small to fix those.”

DeFrance-Crosby says Bachman’s owner, John Bestgen, has been invaluable as she has transitioned to running her own place. She continues to pick his brain as Carla’s Jewelry enters its second month as a standalone store.

DeFrance-Crosby says her mom pushed her to get into jewelry, and she has come to love it, although certain stones were more difficult for her to learn to work with. She says emeralds and other softer rocks pose challenges that hard stones like diamonds do not.

The business is running a special through Christmas that includes 35% off their entire inventory and 10% off any needed repairs.

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