Story Photos
 Photo by Brenda Blevins McCorkle / The Daily News
Longview gemologist Mary Lou Quoidbach stands with one of her many diplomas that hang on the wall of R&R Jewelers on Commerce Avenue.
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She's on the cutting edge
Saturday, April 19, 2008 2:41 PM PDT
By Brenda Blevins McCorkle
Printable version
E-mail this articleMary Lou Quoidbach has polished her gemologist skills until they sparkle like the finest diamonds.
With decades of learning behind her, Quoidbach continues to hone her technique and share it with others by working three days a week at R&R Jewelers on Commerce Avenue in Longview.
Not too shabby for a Wyoming-born girl whose rockhounding hobby led her into the jewelry business.
Mary Lou, who came to the local area in 1950 and married Val Quoidbach in 1957, said she hunted for rocks for 25 years before becoming a gemologist.
"I used to go out and dig my own rocks up at Green Mountain and out on the beaches in Oregon and Washington," she said during an interview at the jewelry store. "There are a lot of interesting things to find."
She opened The Tradewinds jewelry store in 1977 and ran it on Ocean Beach Highway for one year before moving it to downtown Longview, in the location where Guse's now occupies. She kept the business there until 1989.
Mary Lou's training in the intricacies of precious stones came from the Gemological Institute of America in Santa Barbara, Calif.
"That's why I have all the diplomas on the wall," she said. "I've taken everything."
In addition to being certified to appraise gems, string pearls and perform other gemologist work, Mary Lou also designs jewelry. Many of her pieces are for sale at R&R Jewelers.
In one case, a pair of dangling earrings with a cascade of rubies nestles near its brother, a ruby encrusted Maltese cross ring.
"I do a little sketch, then I talk to Bob or whoever is going to make (the piece)," she said. Bob is Robert Ege, goldsmith and owner of R&R.
Her inspiration, Mary Lou said, comes completely from the type of gem she is working with.
"I have to like the stone," she said.
One of her most prized creations was a brooch she called her "grapes of wrath."
"It was about 3 inches long and probably had 22 or 24 pieces of perfectly matched oval amethysts with diamond pave around the edges," she said, adding the piece caught the eye of a jewelry enthusiast and has been sold.
When she's not designing jewelry, Mary Lou is working in the gem lab at the shop. Customers often bring in stones to identify.
Using the tools of the gemologist's trade - a refractometer and a polariscope - she studies each stone carefully to identify it.
"We have to be able to tell the quality of all the gemstones, whether the cuts are good or not, put a value on it and make it stick," Mary Lou said.
Over the years, she has seen the economy rise and fall. But the market for jewelry remains strong, she said.
Mary Lou might be past the traditional retirement age, but the "jewelry in here is my hobby," she said.
"That's why everything is priced at wholesale," she said. "We don't have to make money; we just have to have fun with it."
She works at the shop from 10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
Mary Lou said she has no plans to retire. As long as the work remains interesting, she'll stick with it, she said.
So far, so good. She said she's seen so many things change on the jewelry scene over the years - from the volatile gold market to skyrocketing gemstone and mineral prices.
An example, she said, is tanzanite, a mineral that comes from the foot of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, Africa. Tiffany & Co. discovered the mineral in 1968.
"It's already becoming exhausted, and there's only a five-mile area in Tanzania where it is available," Mary Lou said.
That's what is so fascinating to her - these tiny finite gifts from the Earth.
"All I can tell you is I am intrigued with the forces of nature that provide these things," Mary Lou said. "And a good faceted gem is indeed a work of art."
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