Mardon Jewelers at the Mission Inn

A Classic Ceylon Moonstone

Light has a very special role of gems- in diamonds, it can dance and twinkle, in rubies, it can simmer with vivid passion, or in other gems, it can play tricks. In gemology, we refer to these special gems that magic the light as the phenomenal gems.

The soft bluish glow emanating from this beautiful moonstone, a birthstone for June, is known as adularescence or schiller, an optical phenomenon in which light is scattered by structures within the gemstone. Read the rest of this entry »

Art Deco Bracelet

We just completed an estate appraisal for a client which included this nice looking white gold bracelet. During the take-in process, we noticed a missing stone and a broken hinge. And, somehow the bracelet just didn’t look quite right.

When we turned the bracelet over, we immediately noticed some remnant parts that were out of place– see the photo below. We also noted a subtle difference in the metal color between the sections and in the workmanship of the added hinges and the attachment rings. Further examination and some thought led us to the conclusion that the bracelet was a “marriage” of two items- the center section appeared to be an Art Deco clasp, buckle or pair of clips, the outer two parts, a bracelet that had been added. Read the rest of this entry »

Double Akoya Strand

An article I noted in the current AGTA ePrism newsletter refers to the challenges facing the Japanese saltwater cultured pearl industry. Prior to my career with Mardon Jewelers, I worked  with John Latendresse, the creator of the American Freshwater Cultured Pearl, and learned firsthand just how difficult, labor intensive and risky the pearl culturing business really is. Sadly, today’s toxic economic environment is the final blow to many Japanese pearl farms.

A pearl farm anywhere is really like a roulette wheel. The pearl grower places enormous bets in hopes of generating a crop of pearls that will yield enough money to pay for his production costs and keep his farm afloat for next year’s production. To produce the pearls, he must pay for water rights, pearl rafts, tender boats, live molluscs, shell bead nucleii, operating tools and medicines for the nucleating process, and the labor to nucleate, tend and protect the mother shells and their precious cargo thru the long growing season. Then, he must sell his pearls.

In Japan, the risks are bad weather, disease, red tide, pirates, overcrowding, pollution, financing, falling markets and intense competition from pearl farms in China and elsewhere. Small wonder the children of the pearl farmers of Japan don’t want to live on the water anymore and are mostly choosing other occupations.

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Yesterday morning, we delivered this beautiful emerald and diamond ring to a delighted customer.  We really have to thank this couple for their patience– the entire design took almost four months to complete!

Our client, let’s call her Mrs. Green, had seen a platinum ring similar to this at a well known gallery in Santa Barbara. She asked the folks at that gallery if they would make their ring for her in yellow gold, with emeralds. To her disappointment, they declined.

Mr. Green, wanting a nice gift for his lovely wife, and not to be denied, had a jeweler  in the LA jewelry mart make the ring. Long story short, the new ring wasn’t great for several reasons– the jeweler set the center emerald in a “gypsy” style flush mounting, but he set the stone from the back in a non-traditional way, with prongs that just held the stone in position below the opening in the gold. The center emerald was never tight, and since it was buried in the mounting, just didn’t show very well. The quality of the small emeralds and diamonds and the way they were set was mediocre, so the small emeralds began falling out with regularity.

The original jeweler added small prongs around the small emeralds. The extra prongs made the ring rather unsightly and Mrs. Green found the ring to be very uncomfortable to wear — and the stones still kept getting loose and falling out. Mr. Green even tried epoxy, to no avail.

They came to Mardon and asked us to fix their problem. We told them there was no practical way to fix the ring- it just wasn’t made properly to begin with. The bottom line– we decided to make a brand new ring similar to the original design, but with some much needed modifications. Read the rest of this entry »

So where is that mine?

I was recently asked to appraise this topaz and a matching pair of 8 mm triangles. At first glance, the stones had a sort of attractive somewhat muted “teal” greenish blue color but something about the look of the stones was not quite right. A quick examination under our trusty gemological microscope revealed a surface coating on the stones. You can see the “scummy” look on the facet surfaces in the following photos.

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We recently completed a fun project for Riverside Poly High School’s championship women’s water polo team. One of the mother’s in the booster club showed us a printed foil logo and wanted large pendant/charms made for each of the team members. The award ceremony was to be held about a month away.

Foil Logo from Stationery

Our client wanted the items to have a gold logo on a silver background, enameled in the school colors of orange and green with the bear and frame sculpted out into three-dimensions. She also wanted the word “Riverside” changed to “Water Polo.” Since she was representing the booster club, she was very anxious for the item to be a hit with the girls and to be affordable for the parents. Here is her sketch—

Client's Sketch

As the initial design consultation progressed, it became clear that her design, while possible with all the features she had in mind, would cost much more than her budget allowed. Our immediate task as designers was to show her what was feasible and desirable within her dollar and time constraints. Read the rest of this entry »

I always look forward to mid spring—my favorite flower, the Matilija Poppy unfolds its annual show. An indigenous Southern California wildflower, Romneya coulteri, the Matilija is just spectacular. Borne on head-high stems of beautiful silvery-green leaves, these six inch blooms of purest white parchment-like petals with a puff center of intense golden yellow are intensely fragrant when found in the wild, a heady natural perfume that seems to me somewhere between Opium and Obsession.

Inspired by its beautiful form, we created our Matilija Collection of jewels to celebrate the exuberance of nature and our Old California heritage.  We love the effect of two tones, rich 18K yellow gold, yellow diamonds or sapphires combined with platinum or white gold.

Matilija Flower with Diamonds, Pendant

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The pure grass green color of the Emerald has long been symbolic of serenity and virtue and is the primary reason why emeralds have been treasured and sought after for so many centuries.  The qualities of beautiful color, rarity, and durability (see my blog on restoring damaged Emeralds) have traditionally earned the emerald the reputation of being “precious”, a designation for the upper echelon of gems based on their high value.  While some people still label gems as “precious” and “semi-precious”, this distinction has become obsolete because so many of our new gems are very rare and valuable—witness the enormous sums paid for fine collector stones, like this $100,000 plus Paraiba tourmaline.

Museum Quality 10 ct Paraiba Tourmaline

Today, with extensive gem prospecting world wide yielding exciting new finds, we have wonderful gemstones that rival the beauty of the emerald, are equally rare and are similar in their physical durability, but are much more affordable than Emeralds.
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May 12–Sotheby’s achieved a hammer price of $10,498,000 swiss francs (~ 9.5 million US) for the fabulous 7.03 ct Fancy Vivid Blue Internally Flawless Cullinan Blue Diamond. Sotheby’s original presale estimate was 5.8 to 8.5 million US.

“This is already a new world record price for a fancy vivid blue diamond and a new world record per carat for any gemstone (at auction),” chief auctioneer David Bennett told reporters.”It is fantastic in this market and shows that these rare things are very much in demand,” he said.

The final price includes a commission paid by the buyer to the auction house. The stone sets a record price per carat for any gemstone sold at auction of $1,349,752, Sotheby’s said.

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The classic emerald is a beautiful gemstone with a reputation for fragility. When you understand the rigors that emeralds undergo during their formation, you’ll see that this reputation is mostly undeserved. Colombian emeralds, for example, form when ocean sediments are compressed under tectonic plates and then are metamorphosed and uplifted to the top of the Andes Mountains.  When you think about the tremendous heat and pressure they are subjected to, it’s easy to see why  emeralds typically have the internal inclusions and fissures known as “jardin”.

The results of several emerald re-cuts and repairs done by Mardon experts demonstrate that emeralds can truly take a lot of punishment, and that with the right skills, a damaged gem can be restored to it’s full beauty.

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