This Big Diamond is All About Carats! Lots of Them!

In case you haven’t heard of the four “C’s”, guys, they are: Carat weight; Color; Clarity; and Cut. These are the four major points that need you need to be aware of when choosing an engagement diamond for your sweetheart. In this post I’m going to talk about the weightiest of the C’s: Diamond Carats.

Learning About Diamonds, One C at a Time

Most people when looking for a diamond start with carat which is the weight of the diamond. “I’d like the look at a one carat,” is commonly heard. And one carat is a nice size and a nice easy size. However there are things to know when you look for a diamond and weight is your first step. Read on. Continue reading →

In the thirty six years I’ve been a jeweler, I’ve been asked, “what is in the alloy mix, (metals mixed into gold for strength and ease of jewelry making,) for white gold and yellow gold?” People have also asked how do the alloys react to skin? The light bulb just went off in my head that I need to blog about this.

Have You Ever Wanted to Know What Makes Yellow Gold White? Or Rose?

Only yellow gold is a naturally occurring gold color. To get other colored golds, such as white gold and rose gold, metals are alloyed (mixed in) with pure gold to create the color the designer desires. I’ll give you formulas for the creation of colored gold.

Continue reading →

Ear Lobe Droop, It’s Like an Epidemic!

The other day my phone rang and Danita said one of her earrings looked funny. I went to see her and yup, she had ear lobe droop. It comes up a lot!

Do some of your earrings end up pointing toward the pavement? If so, it’s time to read this post and fight back against this silent Jewelry Enjoyment Killer!

What Is Ear Lobe Droop?

This problem stems from too large and heavy an earring being worn on too thin or too bendable an ear lobe. Or an ordinary size and weight earring being worn on an ear hole that is ripped, enlarged or just bigger than normal. Your earring just points toward the pavement.

It sags, it doesn’t sing. It looks the opposite of pert.

What Causes the Dreaded Ear Lobe Droop? Continue reading →

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 →