Who Doesn’t Have a Little Pile of Recyclable Gold?

What About That Pile of Broken, Dated and Old Gold?

Have you ever wondered if you could re-use your old gold and re-cast it into something new?

A client asked me, her Goleta Jeweler, last week if I could make one of my more intricate rings using the gold she had from three old earrings and two old rings. I had to tell her it wouldn’t be a good idea.There are two main reasons that this is a bad idea. Continue reading →

Aquamarine Ring in Yellow Gold

That Big Aquamarine Just Wasn’t Working as a Ring

First of all Tamar didn’t wear yellow gold and second of all when she tried wearing it, besides being gigantic, it wouldn’t stay upright.

When a top heavy ring is on your hand, even if you normally can wear rings comfortably, the top heavy ring will try to spin.

There are many reasons to turn a ring into a pendant, but a big one is if your ring is too big for you to wear comfortably.

I’ll share a number of inspiring ring to pendant conversions in this post. Continue reading →

A Wedding Ring Like This With Delicate Filigree on it Won’t Stand the Test of Time With Hard Daily Wear.

No One Told Her to be Careful or Choose Another Ring

After selling her retail shop in downtown Santa Barbara, Mona realized her childhood dream when she and her husband, Jake, bought a ranch in the Santa Ynez Valley.

I am a horse loving jeweler. Happily one of my horseback-riding friends in Santa Ynez was a client and gave her my number.

This Delicate Looking Ring is Actually Designed Strong for Daily Wear

When we met for the first time, Mona had been raising and training horses there for the past six years. And her wedding jewelry wasn’t working.

She had quite wearing her ring six months ago. Two side diamonds were missing and the filigree detail on the sides was bent and broken. Continue reading →

I am thrilled to share some news with you. Over the last year and a half I have been working on a new book titled Design Your Dream Wedding Rings: From Engagement to Eternity. If truth be told, the idea came to me ten years ago, so it’s been a long gestation period!

Continue reading →

An examples of some sketches Calla did for a client.

Custom Jewelry Design: You Deserve Your Dream Ring

In this article I’ll share with you the most read blog posts I’ve written to help people design their dream ring.

Don’t let this admittedly long round-up of custom jewelry design blog posts freak you out. When I called this post ‘homework’ I didn’t mean you had to do it all.

I’ve been asked at various steps of the jewelry design process to point my client to blog posts to explain certain aspects of their custom design. Everyone is different in their desire for knowledge.

From Drawing to Finished Ring

This ‘homework’ blog is more of a collection in one place, following a step by step path, toward successfully designing and receiving your dream ring.

I’ve broken it down into categories so you can focus on what you want to focus on.  For your first step I recommend reading “The Sixteen Steps to Your Custom Jewelry Design.” By reading the sixteen steps first, you’ll get a sense of what you might like help with. Continue reading →