Manoah Boutard credits the goldsmith skills he learned from his father and the fun, active atmosphere of downtown Bend for helping his business grow.

Boutard’s business, The Goldsmith jewelry store in downtown Bend, has grown despite the depressed economy, soaring gold and silver prices, and a resulting decline in sales of new jewelry.

Growth has not been easy for Boutard, 45.

Gold prices have more than tripled from their 20-year average, closing Monday at $1,509 per ounce.

Silver prices have also skyrocketed in recent years from around $5 an ounce to $46.33 on Monday, Boutard said.

And that is not all.

“The economy overall is soft,” Boutard added. “In my industry it is disposable income, and a soft economy is generally harder on those types of businesses.”

However, the high price of the metals has increased demand for local jewelers to help customers turn keepsake gold or silver jewelry into something new, Boutard said.

When one or more pieces of old jewelry are remade into a new piece, the new piece retains the sentimental value, he said.

“A lot of people come in with a design in their heads of something they want me to make with heirloom jewelry that has been sitting around in a jewelry box for years,” Boutard said.

Boutard and his wife, Elissha, operate The Goldsmith jewelry store with two employees, Boutard said.

Elissha Boutard, 27, began working for The Goldsmith 2 1/2 years ago and married Manoah a year later, she said.

“I’ve noticed people are a little bit more careful about how they spend their money,” Elissha said. “There is more interest in converting what they have into what they want.”

Manoah Boutard said he also offers a variety of solutions to help customers buy engagement or wedding rings that fit within their budgets.

For example, he might suggest a ring made of sterling silver, which does not hold up as well as solid gold or silver but is less expensive.

But once the sterling silver ring settings arrive in his shop, he can add a layer of white gold or platinum to strengthen areas where the wear is often greatest.

“Sterling is not as dense, so it has to be enhanced,” Boutard said.

Boutard’s training as a goldsmith began at age 12 and continued after high school. He worked with his father, Jean, who contracted jewelry repairs, resizing, stone-setting and custom orders for national chains such as Zales, Kay Jewelers, Harry Richie’s and JC Penney.

“For Zales, we actually did traveling shows where we’d set up in their stores, and do sizing and stone setting where the customers watched us work,” Manoah Boutard said. “Once you get used to an audience, it’s not a big deal.”

Boutard found Central Oregon in the 1990s while contracting goldsmith work with local chain stores. He immediately grew fond of the area, and in 1998 he opened The Goldsmith in downtown Redmond.

The business thrived in Redmond for nearly a decade until construction of the U.S. Highway 97 bypass and road projects in Redmond cut off so much business that it was no longer profitable, he said. So he opened a new The Goldsmith business along Wall Street in downtown Bend in November 2008, and he operated both stores until the end of 2009, when he closed the Redmond location.

The move coincided with the onset of the recession that hit the nation in December 2007 and continued across Central Oregon in 2008 and the first half of 2009, but his business has shown slow but steady growth each of the three years since he relocated to Bend, he said.

Q: What is it about downtown Bend that helped your business grow during tough economic times?

A: Downtown Bend is a fun, active place with parks, lots of restaurants and a good variety of businesses operated by people who are focused on providing good customer service.

Q: What happened to your store in Redmond?

A: With the bypass and downtown road construction going on all at the same time, my sales plummeted. We held on as long as we could, but the business didn’t come back after the road construction so we had to close the store.

Q: Was the road construction the only factor, or were there other changes that played into the declining sales and decision to close the Redmond store and move The Goldsmith business to Bend?

A: The opening of Walmart and Home Depot on the north end of Redmond changed the traffic patterns and affected the whole economy of the downtown area. All the small family businesses and their families suffered.

Q: Bend also has Walmart and Home Depot stores. Why has downtown Bend fared better than downtown Redmond in competing with those box stores?

A: I think when small businesses work together more to help each other, like they do in Bend, it creates a better business environment so you can compete with stuff coming in.

Q: Do you buy gold and silver, in addition to making new jewelry for customers out of old gold and silver jewelry?

A: Yes. We have a license to buy and sell gold and other precious metals.

Q: At $1,509 per ounce for gold as of Monday, is it still a good buy as an investment?

A: It’s hard to say what the market will be in the future. It depends to some degree on what happens with the economy. Some experts are predicting gold prices could go as high as $2,600 an ounce.