Rock Solid

For years, Mark Loren resisted entreaties from jewelry distributors who urged him to expand his gallery and take on more inventory.

“I didn't want it to become a numbers game for me,” says Loren, a well-established Fort Myers jeweler who does business as Mark Loren Designs. “That's not why I got into the business.”

Instead, Loren preferred to make custom jewelry, and repair older pieces that people hold dear. He tells the tale of making a piece from a coat button that an Auschwitz survivor says was the only memento from her mother before she went to the gas chambers.