1993 Press Photo Steve Gerk, jewelry maker, owns shop in downtown Sheboygan

The shop is closed to the public. But the man within, who sites working at a small table, has cared enough to decorate the storefront's window, offering the public a view of more than just another empty store in Sheboygan's troubled downtown. The window display features panning equipment, rough stones gathered from Lake Michigan beaches and elsewhere, and jewelry that Steve Gerk spent long hours designing and producing in the little storefront adjacent to Sheboygan Memorial Mall. The quiet hobbyist, bonding strands of wire, fashioning then into a setting for a beautifully polished stone is a Vietnam veteran who receives a service pension and earns a small income from selling his jewelry and small leather goods to department stores.

Photo measures 5.75 x 10.25 inches. Photo is dated 04-18-1993.

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