New and Old

Nothing for months and then two posts in one day.  Shame on me.

Platinum and emerald cut diamond ring

I had an old piece I custom made for a customer quite a few years ago come in for a cleaning and we got a snap shot of it.  It's not really like anything I normally make so I thought it might be interesting for you to see the full range of designing I can do when I put my mind to it.  I have to say that this was put together working with the customer on the design and I was incredibly concerned that the stone wouldn't stay in the setting however I have never had to even tighten it up a bit (it was bought at least 15 years ago).  I think it helps both that it is in platinum and that the customer has taken good care of it.  This is not a design you should be rock climbing in!

That's the old. Now for the new.

22k and 18k gold earrings with 5.30 ct. t.w. aquamarines and diamond accents

My relatively new German supplier was coming in to see me recently so I figured it was time to get out some more of the pieces that she had sold me the last time she was in town.  I had gotten a pair of aquamarines at the time that I had actually bought thinking my wife would like me to put in something for her.   However when I showed them to her she had less than a stellar reaction so I just put them aside for awhile.  So I finally made up the earrings above with them.  As soon as Kathy saw the actual earrings, she suddenly was in love with them.  Unfortunately for her (and fortunately for my bank account), they sold within a week of my putting them out in the case (before any occasion came along she could claim them for).  The customer left a deposit on them and I left them in the cases and within another week another customer came in, saw the design and placed an order for them with some large round tanzanites.  I know that sooner or later I'm going to have to make up another pair for Kathy..........................

My customers have a sense of humor too! And on a musical note.....

I always like it when people buy their own gifts.  It saves a lot of angst by their significant other over what to buy.  It also makes a statement that you are strong enough in your relationship that not everything needs an approval by your partner.  One of my favorite customers came in the other day and spotted a ring she fell in love with.  Her birthday was coming up so she figured she would just buy it and then give it to her husband to give to her on the actual day.  When the day came a week later he gave her the box and this is what she found inside of it:

Needless to say this isn't exactly the ring I made up! He did hand over the real one immediately afterwards. 

18k yellow gold pendant with diamonds

I had another customer in recently who came in for an interesting custom job.  He wanted a measure from Mozart's Cosi Fan Tutte on a pendant.  I know it had great significance to the couple although honestly I didn't ask what that was.  I thought that simply engraving the measure on the piece wasn't really going to be interesting enough so I suggested a more interesting bail. The tiny diamonds were the customer's idea as well.  Apparently his wife cried when she realized what the measure was from. Got a favorite musical measure?  Let me know and I'll see what I can do for you!    

Neanderthal Jewelry.

Fancy cut orange sapphire in a platinum ring

I'm not sure I've ever posted a link to an article on something on my blog but I'm going to now.  If I ever have a need to feel like I work in an ancient and venerable craft this is what I would look at:

http://news.yahoo.com/neanderthals-shape-globes-first-jewellers-061126449.html


It's pretty amazing to think that even Neanderthals had their local jewelers.

What Do I Buy When I'm Traveling

Mokume gane earrings with emeralds

A customer of mine passed away recently.  He was a great musician, at one point a local merchant and a very sweet guy.  He was also, as it happens, my prime example for one particular question I get asked on a regular basis.  It's something I have been meaning to write about anyway so I figure it's as good a time as any and to, in some bizarre way, honor him.

The question I get asked always goes something like this:  I'm about to go overseas.  What gemstones should I buy while I'm over there?

The answer I always give goes something like this:  If it costs $100 or less buy whatever you want.  If it costs more than that, whatever you do, don't buy it. I know this sounds like a broad generalization but let me relate to you what happened to my customer (as well as a few others).

He was traveling to Thailand which has been a large gem cutting capital of the world for a number of years.  He did come in to see me before he went and asked me what he should buy.  I told him the same thing I tell everyone.  Don't try to buy anything. Needless to say that's not how the story ended.   While in Thailand he was (in what appeared to be a random fashion) approached by three different people/couples, none of them from Thailand, who all told him about a government sponsored store that he should go check out because he could get great deals on gemstones there. So he went and they proceeded to sell him $5000 worth of large sapphires, which they swore to him he could bring back to the States and resell for four or five times the amount of money he was paying for them.  When he came back to my store to show me the stones and ask if I had any interest in buying them, I had to give him the bad news that not only weren't they a good enough quality for me to buy but that no one in the States was going to pay him much, if anything, for them because of how bad the quality was. He made some attempts to sell them to other jewelers but was unable to find anyone willing to buy even one of them from him.

I have a friend whose father in law was a trader all of his life and had bought and sold diamonds on and off (along with just about anything else) and had made good money at it.  He took a trip to Brazil and ended up buying a number of colored stones, which I believe, he hoped to turn around and sell up here.  What did he come back with?  Some synthetics and a bunch of extremely poor quality examples of tourmalines and topaz. 

There have been plenty of other customers who have rolled through with gems and jewelry they bought overseas only to return to find out that what they thought they had was not at all what they actually had.

Here are the problems with buying something overseas today.  First of all, in today's gem market there are so many known treatments, synthetics mixed in with natural stones, and new treatments only just reaching the marketplace that it is hard for gemologists and gem dealers to be assured that what they are buying is what it is purported to be.  How could a layman possibly be expected to know when they are being sold a false bill of goods? Secondly, due to a lack of education and gemological knowledge, even honest overseas miners and dealers often are selling gemstones as one thing that is really another and they don't even realize it.  

But most importantly once you leave the country with your purchase in hand, you have absolutely no recourse.  If you buy something from a jeweler down the block from you and it turns out to be fake, you can go right back to his store and confront him.  If you live in Boston and buy something from a store in Thailand, you simply aren't going to be able to do that.

There are a few countries where you could feel fairly safe in buying some of their gem materials.  Australia is a great place to buy opals but don't expect to get any deals there.  Depending on the relationship of the Australian dollar and the American dollar, the opals may be as or more expensive than what you would find here and they also know the exact value of their product.  But you will have a wider selection there than anywhere else in the world.  Germany does a great deal of gem cutting and I would feel fairly safe buying something there in a legitimate jewelry store.  The Scandinavian countries, England, France and some of the other European countries are also a safe bet.  But these countries (except for Australia) are not the countries where the mining is done (or near where it's done) so there aren't going to be any "bargains" for the most part in them. Unfortunately the "bargains" in the other countries may often turn out not to be a bargain at all.

So, once again, if you are traveling overseas and it's $100 or less, go for it!   But if you're looking to buy a quality gemstone, stick a little closer to home.
 

Back in the Saddle Again

View in Big Sur

We got back from California two weeks ago and boy am I sorry I left!  The snow and cold has descended upon us with a fury and I was much happier in the 60-70 degree weather we had while away.  And speaking of snow, now that we have multiple feet on the ground and more on the way, parking in Cambridge has gotten even worse than it usually is.  So I wanted to remind you that we do have one parking space available most of the time we are open.  You just need to call ahead of time and I can tell you where it is and whether or not it is available.

Our trip however was quite wonderful.  We had perfect weather and for the first time in years it was actually green when we got out there thanks to a couple of large rainstorms they had.  Unfortunately California has had so many years of drought that they really need a lot more rain, but it was even more beautiful this year thanks to what they did get.  My younger son is living in California now and my older one came out to San Francisco for a friend's art opening so we had the entire family together for the first time in two years for a few days while we were there.

As always the Big Sur scenery is amazing (the picture above is one I took when I walked up the mountain road behind our inn) and one customer in particular is benefiting from my trip as he had ordered one of my Big Sur rings just before I left and I re-sketched some of my favorite mountains while I was out there and used one of the sketches for his ring. I once again would like to recommend that any of you who are looking to travel in the Big Sur area check out the inn we stay at: Ventana.  If you're more into camping, Ventana has a beautiful campground as well. Besides the wonderful accommodations and surrounding views the staff is always quite wonderful and helpful. 

In the meanwhile, I am back at my bench.  Valentine's Day is coming and I'm starting to work on one of my Valentine's Day pins (an almost annual tradition here).  The pendant below is a custom piece I made up this past Christmas that had a wonderful piece of jadeite in it.  I don't often get requests for jade and the reality is that very small pieces of fine jade can be hugely expensive (perhaps one of the reasons I don't get more requests).  This piece that I found for the customer had a wonderful luminous quality to it that was quite exceptional. 

Jade Pendant in 18k Yellow Gold

If you're new to my blog please make sure you check out my blog directory that you can find a link to on the right of the page here.  I believe my next article is going to be about tourmalines, one of my favorite gemstones.