Evan Marceau has opened a new showroom on Fitzmaurice Street, he's part of a long tradition of Wagga jewellers

Evan Marceau has been in that trade for 20 years and he recently achieved his dream of opening his own shop.

The artisan jeweller opened his new showroom on Fitzmaurice Street among the thriving clothes outlets and trendy cafes.

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And he's not the only independent jeweller in town, but instead part of a robust community in Wagga which dates back to the 1970s.

Mr Marceau was interested in art and design as a young man and while searching for a way to turn an artistic life into a career, he found jewellery.

"It was my mother who suggested 'what about jewellery?'," he said.

"I got in touch with Michael Nugent ... for work experience for two weeks and I loved it right away."

That led him to study it as a degree at Charles Sturt University, where Mr Nugent, a local classically-trained jeweller, was his lecturer.

And up until recently he worked alongside Mr Nugent, silversmith Chris Mullins and jeweller Lisa Littlewood in a shared workspace in the city.

Mr Nugent said Wagga potentially has more jewellers than any town in NSW, outside Sydney, with up to 25 independent, trained practitioners.

He got into the industry in the 80s when a high school art teacher introduced jewellery making into the syllabus at St Michael's (now Kildare Catholic College) and that, alongside the CSU course, spawned Wagga's jewellery scene.

"It was taken up with gusto by the students ... I think you could point to half of us in Wagga at the moment who can put their heritage to St Michael's at the arts program," he said.

Mr Mullins started the course at CSU, but when he came to Wagga in the 70s there weren't any manufacturing jewellers in town and the industry thrived here partly due to economics, he said.

"The art course at CSU took off in the 70s because the government was putting a lot of money into the arts," he said. "There were 14 jewellery-based courses in the country, now there's about four."

Mr Marceau's move has been in the making for the past five years and is evidence of how well the local industry is faring. He hopes to continue to thrive in the creative trade he loves.

"That's where the word artisan comes in," he said.

"You consider yourself in between a trade, where you follow direction, and an artist, where you can express yourself.

"And I still love it 20 years later, I'm very lucky."

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