MANSFIELD – Attached to a small, unassuming house right off the interstate near Mansfield, the nation’s finest jewelers are being trained. Yet, most local residents aren’t even aware of it.
That’s because Drouhard National Jewelers School receives so much attention within the jeweler world across the country, they see no need for local advertising. Instead the school has quietly existed for the past 15 years in the Mansfield area.
Founder Tim Drouhard first began the school with his wife, Jill, in 1996 — after first owning a trade shop and then a jewelry store.
“My customer base in the trade shop was starting to get to retirement age, and I was going to have to build a new customer base or do something different,” Drouhard said. “I decided I really liked the school I attended, and there wasn’t anything like that in this area, so I went ahead and started this.”
Drouhard first began the jeweler school in the Columbus area while still residing in Richland County. He commuted back and forth for five years before permanently moving the school to Mansfield. At that time, the school had such a reputation that no students were lost in the move.
“We’ve probably trained over a thousand people over the years,” Drouhard said. “It doesn’t seem like that much, but it is. We probably see 70 students per year, and usually we have people who come from quite a distance.”
According to Drouhard, his jeweler school is the only jewelry trade school in Ohio, and licensed by the state. Some jewelry schools offer repair programs that only cover soldering skills but not setting. Others will take the basic skills of advanced stone setting and add some minute variations to make it two programs.
At Drouhard’s school, more than twice the scheduled training sessions are offered in a much smaller environment. The maximum class size for each session is six students. Drouhard explained he offers three separate one-week courses – jewelry repair and diamond setting, advanced diamond setting, and design, casting and production.
“We have a repair program, a stone-setting program and a casting program,” Drouhard said. “Program one, for example, you learn ring sizing and chain repair. About 80 percent of everything a jeweler does is learned in the first program.”
With a $999 course fee, most of Drouhard’s students are seeking advanced education for their own profit either as a jewelry designer or store owner. However, it’s not always the case; recently, Drouhard hosted a student who was a retired dentist and wanting to learn a new hobby.
“It’s always been that way,” he said. “We usually get two-thirds from jewelry stores, and one-third is just people who want to learn how to do this.”
Whether professionally or personally, the satisfaction of Drouhard’s students is evident based on many testimonials – not to mention the look of wonder upon completion of a stone setting or a ring sizing. Even for the teacher himself, the magic has not worn off.
“I like the fact that it’s new people every time and they come from all over, a lot of different nationalities, so you learn a lot about different cultures,” Drouhard said. “I enjoy the excitement when the students learn.”
For more information about Drouhard National Jewelers School, visit their website at www.drouhardjewelerschool.com.
