A new jewelry store in town is featuring hand-crafted artisan jewelry, much of it featuring Maine tourmaline. Gabriel Adams, who had a shop in Augusta for four years, recently opened Gabriel's Jewelry Studio in Boothbay Harbor.

On Friday, July 18 Adams was working on getting his new hand-built cabinets finished in the space at 49 Commercial Street, across the street from Kaler’s.

“I specialize in handmade jewelry,” Adams said. “I do have a solid amount of tourmalines, but I can get about anything on planet Earth.”

He recently purchased a large amount of raw (unpolished) tourmalines that came from a mine in Newry. Discovered in 1972, the tourmaline mine on Plumbago Mountain was the biggest tourmaline discovery in the state's history. “It's what put the Maine tourmaline on the map,” Adams said.

A tray of the unpolished gems showed what looked like pretty pink and green stones with a white powdery exterior. Each stone takes around three hours to polish, and he polishes them one at a time.

According to Adams, there were a lot of big “watermelon” crystals discovered at the Newry mine. “When people think of Maine tourmaline those are the colors they think of — the pretty pastel pinks and greens.”

Unfortunately tourmalines in those colors are becoming rare, if not gone entirely.

“That color combination hasn't been found in a long time. You can find tourmaline all over the globe,” Adams said. “But the tourmaline from Maine is well known for its bright pastels, and they're not finding it. There is none. I can't stress that enough.”

All of Adams' hand wrought jewelry is one-of a-kind. At present Adams is working on a line of jewelry he calls “Twisted.” He shows a bi-color 12 karat tourmaline of blues and greens, with gold and silver curlicues twisted around the stone. “The design will keep changing, but what I've done here is completely envelop the stone in metal without using any prongs.”

Adams is originally from Prospect and has been a goldsmith since he was 17. He got his start in a jewelry store in East Orland.

His wife will be helping out, and his two daughters will be around some, too. “The two girls are hilarious,” Adams said.

Recently his three year-old daughter, Evonne, tried to jump-start her father's business.

“When we got business cards, Evonne became infatuated with them.”

Adams gave her a handful. She approached him with a fistful of them. “Daddy, I have to give these cards to the people. It will make them so happy,” she said to Adams.

She took them outside the shop and held them out to passers-by, saying, “Would you like a card? Do you want to come in my daddy's store?”

“If I tried to make her do that — not in a million years,” Adams said.

The work space at the rear of the store will be open for customers to see his work in progress, and there will be a case in the front window that will feature a TV screen. He'll mount a GoPro camera in his work area. “So while I'm making jewelry people walking by will be able to see me torching jewelry together in real time.”

Adams said he will be moving away from making classic jewelry. “I still like being commissioned to do custom work like engagement rings, but I want to keep the jewelry fun. I want to have jewelry that's out of the ordinary.”

Five years ago he helped run a shop down the street, Harbor Stones, and said that he missed the harbor while he was in Augusta. “The locals here are really fun, and the people from away are all here for the same reason — because it's beautiful, and they want to have good times and some good food and drinks and shop. And I want to sell them pretty things.”

Adams plans to stay open through Christmas to see how it goes. “I don't know if the town needs me to be here year-round, but I'll certainly entertain the idea.”