Joseph Reijnen enjoys having a business in downtown Huntsville.

“This is a unique town,” says the owner of Muskoka Jewellery Design, who has also been a member of the Downtown Huntsville Business Improvement Association since 1995.

Reijnen adds that he is glad to see a growing number of specialty shops on Main Street.

“We need even more of those to compete with the box stores,” he says. “Specialty businesses make the downtown viable. Tourists don’t come to Huntsville to go to Wal-Mart. They come to taste the downtown.”

Working out of a building which has housed jewellers since the turn of the last century, Reijnen adds his own flavour to the Main Street mix. His store sells the work of fifteen artists including himself as well as offering jewellery repairs and remodelling.  

“We like to do alternative forms of jewellery that are unique to the area,” he says, describing the Muskoka line he started developing last fall. “It’s landscape jewellery with trees and things. We slice drill cores of Muskoka granite as a backdrop.”

Reijnen feels fortunate to be located so close to the waterfront and hopes to take advantage of that proximity when River Mill Park is completed. He says, “I have a space out back and it could be a café or a shop overlooking the park.”

If he had his way, Reijnen says, Main Street would be closed off in the summer from Brunel Road to Centre Street to create a more relaxed, inviting atmosphere where visitors would be more tempted to spend time wandering.

“A pedestrian mall would be fantastic, with cafes on the sidewalk. I know a lot of people talk about the problems it would cause, like parking, but I think it would be great,” he says. “It would have a European flavour.”

Born in Holland, Reijnen always loved art as a child and originally attended art school to study sculpting. In his first year, he was introduced to a friend who was a silversmith and immediately became intrigued by the media and processes involved.  

“It’s still sculpting,” he says, “just smaller sculptures.”

After deciding this was the avenue he wanted to follow, Reijnen completed one apprenticeship in Holland and another in Germany, emerging from his training as a master silversmith.  

Then, in 1976, he decided to see more of the world and chose Canada. He moved to Oshawa, where an aunt and some friends lived. Not long after, he met his wife Karen and they had two sons, Michael and Matthew.

In 1988, the family made the move to a log home near Huntsville. “We loved the environment and felt this was a better place to raise young kids,” he explains.

For several years, Reijnen did various jobs to make ends meet. All that time, he spent his free time doing jewellery repairs for various businesses at home.

Finally, in 1997, he opened his own store in the Empire block on Main Street with Karen looking after the front of the store. When the current location at 68 Main Street East became available three years ago, he jumped at it. Reijnen says business is good, with the new Muskoka line selling well and many requests for custom commissions.

When asked about plans for the future, Reijnen says that he and his wife are already planning for retirement and hope that their eldest son Michael, who has been working with him for several years, will decide to pursue a retail location of his own.

Retiring will leave him with more time to do the things he loves: travelling, reading, canoeing and kayaking.

“And of course I will keep working on designs I want to do,” he says. “I couldn’t stop completely.”

Thanks to Christine Riviere-Anderson for suggesting that Joseph Reijnen be profiled. If there is there someone you’d like to see in this space, please call Paula at 789-5541 or e-mail  pboon@metrolandnorthmedia.com.