In 1971, Chuck Wolfmueller, a student at the University of Texas working on a master's degree in business, was hired to help grow the business. Avery's jewelry became very popular in camps in the Texas Hill Country and still is today. By 1965, the jewelry store was incorporated into James Avery Craftsman, Inc., and soon after in 1967, Avery bought 20 acres (81,000 m 2) of land where the corporate headquarters would soon stand.īy the 1970s the company employed 35 people and generated $400,000 in sales. The business continued to spread throughout the state of Texas with items being sold in clothing boutiques and church gift shops.

Also that year he hired his first employee, Fred Garcia. By 1957, Avery created his first catalog consisting of 16 pages and 39 items for sale. He eventually moved his business to a studio he built in his house close by. In the first year of business, Avery sold $5,500 worth of jewelry, and $7,500 the following year. The James Avery jewelry collection carries 1,100 designs and 14,000 pieces made in sterling silver, 14-, 18-karat yellow and white gold, and gemstones. The company has five manufacturing plants – one each in Corpus Christi, Hondo, and Kerrville, and two in Comfort, Texas. The business has grown to more than 100 of its own stores in Georgia, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas. In 1954, James Avery built a workbench and fashioned a sign to hang on the garage it read 'James Avery Craftsman' and featured a candelabra logo. The founder, James Avery, started the business in 1954 in Kerrville, Texas out of his (then) mother-in-law's two-car garage with about $250 in capital. James Avery Artisan Jewelry is a private company that designs, manufactures, and sells jewelry, primarily Christian themed.

James avery sapphire