Leah Ashley Jewelry Designs Creates Stunning Custom Jewelry

My first piece on my own was designed for a husband to give to his wife.  

They have 2 children with birthdays in April and June and he wanted a pendant similar to one he saw on my site

with the children’s birthstones–diamond and alexandrite.  Unfortunately for him, the design he’d seen had a 1.33ct diamond with an 8x6mm natural alexandrite and would cost around $14,000.  Fortunately for him, I’m just that good and could design a similar looking piece with smaller stones and a few other simplifications that could fit into any price range depending on stone sizes.

I was super excited to get to work and I designed a smaller pendant than he saw on my site but was still circle like the one he’d seen with 3 different options for stone position within the circle.  Taking out the stones around the circle saved on labor and stone costs and was a major part of simplifying the piece to meet a price.  

The smaller stones also helped keep the price down.  (Piece of advice—it is not always the diamonds that make a piece cost more—it is the labor to set them.  Sometimes the price to set one diamonds actually costs more than the diamond itself).

We settled on a design using a 4mm created alexandrite and a 4mm, 1/3carat diamond.  He actually upped his original budget in order to get larger stones.

I proceeded to get the casting done and get my jeweler to polish the piece

and set the stones.  I think the piece turned out great!  Let me know what you think!