A glimpse of Manoli, who is a master goldsmith, working on a customer’s ring at his jewelry bench at Manoli’s Jewelers in Springfield MO.
Manoli started making jewelry by hand in Rhodes Greece and then moved to Melbourne Australia where he made bangle bracelets for several years.
He worked briefly in New York, but left the jewelry world for the life of a professional wrestler, Mike Pappas, until he quit wrestling and went back to the jewelry business in Kansas City, MO in 1978.
He then moved to Springfield, MO in 1978/1979 where he and his wife bought a jewelry business that did the jewelry repairs and work for lots of jewelry stores. They did work for about 50 jewelry stores at their peak.
In 1985, Manoli and his wife, Valerie, bought an existing jewelry store from one of their customers and that is now 30 years ago. Hard to believe that 30 years have gone by.
Manoli has a great deal of jewelry repair experience. Which is very important. Sometimes people ask how much do we charge to do a repair, but it is also just as important to ask, how much experience does the jeweler have who is doing the work.