An article on 60 Minutes about Alice Waters of ChezPanisse fame reminded me of my early days of making jewelry. Watching the piece on Alice and the Slow Food movement, I had an epiphany and realized that for most of my career, I’ve been making “Slow Jewelry”.
Bug Ring 1 1973
Sterling silver ring, set with “Beggar Bead” agate cabochon from India
Today we have 35 new samples from Jim, Jenny, and Kaye in the new custom designs section. Most of these we’ve made in the past 6 months or so, but a few are older pieces that clients brought in for an appraisal update. We’re always happy to see that people are still enjoying the jewelry that we’ve made for them!
We really enjoy designing custom rings for our clients but our initial efforts aren’t always successful. The key is always patience and communication—this Mother’s ring is an example of how a jeweler must really listen carefully to hear what his client really wants in order to make that ring that “sings”.
Our clients, let’s call them Mr. and Mrs. Heart, came to us via referral for a Mother’s ring. Mother’s rings are often difficult to design because the family birthstones don’t always complement each other. Fortunately, Mrs. Heart had some specific design ideas that gave us an opportunity to create something beautiful and unique.
The Frog Boatman
Ever so often in this business, we see something that makes us truly humble and amazed at the accomplishments of our fellow artisans. The Frog Boatman tells it all when you realize that this panel is less than an inch high. We recently had the privilege of working with this wonderful Japanese bracelet– we think Meiji period or a little later. We’ve seen this level of metal work on old Samurai swords, etc, but never on jewelry.
My friend and gem dealer, Jack P., and I go way back, so he knows exactly how to push my buttons. He knows we really love emeralds– How could I not, being married to a red headed Taurus and the father of another red-headed Taurus gal. In fact, we at Mardon pride ourselves in being emerald specialists.
I just had to buy it. In this difficult economy, the rule of thumb for retail businesses is to carefully match inventory with demand. Haven’t had any specific calls for extra fine 2 carat emeralds lately and cash is hard to come by, so everyone cringed when I told Jack “You got me!” But I learned early on in the gem business that when you see a stone that is truly outstanding and a great value, you only get one opportunity to buy– if you hesitate, you won’t see it again.
This wonderful natural Colombian emerald weighs 1.73 cts. but faces up like 2 cts because of the excellent cut. The color is bright and vivid, not quite medium dark — I gave it a color grade of 8 extra fine. The clarity is slightly included with typical three-phase inclusions that prove Colombian origin. The stone has slight traces of oil/resin enhancement that you expect to see in Colombian stones. The excellent transparency of the crystal is immediately apparent. All in all, a perfect ring stone, great size, pleasing cut, crisp vivid color, and outstanding brightness.
Right now, it’s in my private collection, but look for it soon in our Gallery of Gems!
Getting your jewelry insured begins by establishing a description and value for the jewelry to be insured. You are entering into a contractual agreement with whomever you choose as your insurer, so you and the company must agree on what it is being insured and for how much. A current retail replacement value appraisal from a qualified jewelry appraiser works best to provide both parties in the contract with the same specific and detailed information.
from Rapaport
The recent buzz about the 7.03 carat Cullinan Blue diamond to be offered at the upcoming Sotheby’s auction in Geneva has generated a lot of interest in colored diamonds. Because there is a lot of misinformation about these ultra-rare gems, we thought it would be helpful to our readers to describe and discuss some of the characteristics of Fancy Blue diamonds.
A Super Stone is sure to be the talk-of-the-town at the May 12 Sotheby’s auction in Geneva, Switzerland. Cut from a 26.58 ct. crystal mined at the famed Cullinan Mine in South Africa, the 7.03 ct cushion shaped diamond has been graded Fancy Vivid Blue and Internally Flawless by the Gemological Institute of America (GIA). Sotheby’s presale estimate is $5.8 million and $8.5 million—that’s around $1,000,000 per carat!
from Pantone
The annual Pantone color palette for fall 2009 can be downloaded at this link
http://www.pantone.com/downloads/articles/pdfs/PANTONE_FCR_FALL09.pdf
The colors are muted and sophisticated with subtle contrasts. Time to think about your wardrobe and pick out that special colored gemstone to accent and sparkle things up! Orange sunstones and Spessartine garnets, purple-red Rhodolite garnets, padparadscha sapphires and pink tourmalines, blue spinels and iolites, dark blue lapis and azurite, soft green peridots and chrome tourmalines, opals and topazes as well as yellow and brown diamonds will accent the new palette — see some great gemstone choices for a custom piece in our Gallery of Gems.
Check out the wonderful colored stone items in our inventory– just enter or copy and paste the name of your favorite stone into any of the “Search Mardon” boxes you’ll find on the pages of our website.
From Luxist
Musician Prince reinvents himself one more time with this latest “artPod”, an iPod Touch entitled “Prince Opus Number One” that features extremely rare purple diamonds. See the full article at http://www.luxist.com/2009/04/14/prince-piece-includes-rare-purple-diamonds/
Watch this Blog for coming info about colored diamonds. It’s easy—sign up for the RSS feed by clicking the “Subscribe” button on this page and you’ll be automatically notified of our postings.