What Your Jeweler Can Do For You

These days consumers and jewelers alike have become more creative.  The first to make the most of their jewelry on a tighter budget, the second to keep creating value for their clients.  This dynamic has created a great service that I hope will continue to be offered long into the future: Collection Review, which is usually followed by redesigning of underutilized or out of fashion pieces.

Everyone that loves jewelry has a collection, whether that is what they call it or not. Every collection does well with a bit of curating. Many jewelers will make an appointment and spend time with their clients to review all of the jewelry in the client’s collection.  With a keen eye for quality, fashion and knowledge of the client, the jeweler can recommend  pieces  that might make the collection more complete. For example, someone that attends charity luncheons should have a nice brooch or a strand of pearls, whereas a client that often attends  black tie affairs should think about dress earrings. Clients can create a “wish list”, trade-in and or redesign.

Many items in your jewelry box can be reused or scrapped and put towards a new design. Earrings or a necklace that never sat right or are just never worn might be perfect with a few tweaks, new findings or a bit of embellishment. The price of gold is also around its record high making it a good time to sell your old gold, but reusing it for a new design remains a great option.

Look for a jeweler that offers Computer Aided Design (CAD) for any custom pieces.  CAD will generate a design that will be specific to your stones; finger, neck or wrist measurements; and to your taste. The design can be easily manipulated during the creative process until the client is completely satisfied.  The system can also be used with a milling machine to produce a hard wax, castable model for preview and approval. This system has replaced the hand carved model, and has brought efficiency and limitless design options to custom jewelry.

So, make an appointment with your jeweler, and if they don’t offer this service ask them to consider doing so, and tell them who gave you the idea!

Cocktail (Rings) Anyone?

Big, chunky, colorful rings have always been a favorite of mine but more and more they are popping up on the pages of all of the top fashion magazines. Best of all, they are not just for evening any more. Many oversized rings have a very casual and playful appeal to them.

Perfect for day, oversized rings most often feature cabochon or fancy cut semi-precious stones alone or in a bold combination of colors, in gold mountings. Bulgari, whose signature look is easily recognized and often copied, popularized this look for day. Another great look for day is big cabochons of coral or turquoise; both work in simple or heavy gold mounting and are a stylish and economical way to incorporate color.

For evening, many of the rings we are seeing today recall the glamorous cocktail rings of the 1940s. Like the period example in the photograph, these rings often boldly feature a large emerald-cut, or square-cut center colored stone. Most often these are semi-precious stones such as a beautiful, golden tone citrine or an eye-catching pink tourmaline, grass green peridot or aquamarine. For evening these stones may be accented by diamonds or by diamonds together with another pop of color such as ruby. Don’t be afraid to wear these rings on your middle finger, which is where they often look best.

Add Some Victorian Style to Your Jewelry Box

Bangle bracelets were as popular with the Victorians as they are today! While everyone is wearing them, be the one to wear the one that no one else has! Victorian bracelets were often sold in pairs; today in the estate market it is more difficult to find the pairs still together. Predominately yellow gold, bracelets can be found with fabulous Etruscan revival style applied gold beading and wire twist work, a unique cameo or a micro mosaic depicting a Roman scene or simple black enamel accents. Wearing Victorian jewelry today is fun, and believe it or not…fashion forward.

For more Victorian inspired jewelry fashion check out “Town and Country” magazine September 2008 article “Snake Charmers” to see Victorian-style snake rings for Fall.