Archive for April, 2011

New Shangri-La Jewelry Shines at Mardon

Saturday, April 30th, 2011

These gorgeous  perfectly matched solid black opal earrings illustrate the global reach of the gem trade. We acquired the stones a few years back from an Aussie opal cutter in Lightning Ridge, Australia, then sent them to Nepal last year. Each leg of their journey was about 8,000 miles, so these opals have traveled the […]

Milk and Honey from the Land of Shangri-La

Saturday, April 23rd, 2011

This beautiful 18K gold ring we had made in the high Himalaya Mountains of Nepal shows the true magic of the Cat's Eye gem. Cat's Eye is an optical phenomenon seen in many different gems, including emerald, aquamarine, and tourmaline, to name a few, but the classic Cat's Eye effect is best exhibited in the […]

The Problems in Making Jewelry from Old Gold

Saturday, April 16th, 2011

Earlier this week, we delivered this nice 14K rose gold custom gent’s wedding band to a very happy client. It was made as a replacement for the original wedding ring belonging to her husband, to be presented at their upcoming anniversary. From what our client told us, two uncles had combined their gold jewelry, one […]

Man’s Custom Ring, 100,000 mile checkup

Saturday, April 9th, 2011

We made this grand gent’s ring about 20 years ago, of platinum set with a stunning oval Tanzanite weighing 5.36 cts. It was interesting to see just how the platinum mounting and the Tanzanite were holding up– Our client Bill is a race-car driver by avocation, so we’re sure the piece got plenty of banging […]

Restoring Antique Jewelry

Tuesday, April 5th, 2011

When we buy estate jewelry, some pieces need repair or restoration. The keys to a successful jewelry restoration are to use similar materials for replacements, to keep the original finish and patina intact, and to retain as much of the original design as possible We just finished putting this lovely late Victorian “Swag” necklace back […]

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