Leah Ashley Jewelry Designs Creates Stunning Custom Jewelry » alexandrite

Jewelry is only as good as the Jeweler-Revisited!

Leah Ashley — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 18:44:34 +0000

When I first started making jewelry the only problem I had was finding a good jeweler that had reasonable prices, did good work, and was easy to work with. The first jeweler I tried was terrible and I’ve paid dearly for the mistake by having to have my current jeweler fix the mistakes made originally.

When buying jewelry you should also know the difference between good work done by a jeweler, and bad work done by a jeweler. This can affect you as a consumer when you have a stone set, when you have a repair done, or even when you just have a ring sized or a chain added.

Take a look at the difference in this piece before it was fixed.

Notice how the bezel around the colored stone (which happens to be an Alexandrite) is uneven. Also, the channel set diamonds are not all sitting at the same angle in the channel and some of them look dirty because the jeweler did not clean the piece completely. Also notice how the channel has grooves in it where the jeweler nicked the metal and did not fix it.

Now look at the same piece after it has been fixed by a jeweler who does very good work.

Look at how the bezel around the Alexandite is smooth and the diamonds are evenly spaced, clean, and all at the same angle. Also, the channel around the diamond is the same width all the way around.

These are all specific problems that could come up in this particular piece but it’s just one example of what can happen if you go to a jeweler you don’t trust and you don’t look over the piece before you take it.

First is Definitely Not the Worst!

Leah Ashley — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 18:12:08 +0000

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!

Custom Alexandrite Pendant

Leah Ashley — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 02:43:39 +0000

Alexandrite is probably one of my favorite stones ever because of it’s color change. Alexandrites with a “Russian” color change are green in daylight and red in incandescent light. There are other colors available but the highest valued color is the emerald green to ruby red color change. Alexandrite is the (almost forgotten) birthstone for June and was replaced with pearl in some places because of it’s scarcity.

I admit, this design is for me. I can’t design and make jewelry without making something for myself too!My husband bought me this natural 6×4 oval alexandrite for Christmas 2006. Because both of our birthdays are in June I wanted an alexandrite. I have yet to do anything with it and he keeps asking me about it because he spent money on something he thought I really wanted and I haven’t used it yet.

Side View of Custom Alexandrite Pendant

The color change in this stone is amazing and I am totally in love with it. This design is my idea for how to use my prized stone in a pendant I can wear every day. I usually wear a simple 1.33ct diamond in a simple bezel setting everyday. I don’t want to give up wearing that necklace because it is beautiful and simple and it works for almost every outfit in my closet so I had to find a way to make the Alexandrite and my diamond work together.

I chose a circle for the basis of my design because I think circle is about the most perfect shape there is. I think circles are feminine yet strong and are very pleasing as a design element.

I wanted the circle to rest on top of my diamond and use the same chain so the Alexandrite naturally fell below the diamond on the opposite edge of the circle from the diamond. I looked at setting the alexandrite sideways but felt that with it sitting up and down, the stone set each other off better because of the obvious different in widths.

I decided to add a few smaller diamonds around the circle to add another design element. I did not want the diamonds going all the way around the circle because that wasn’t interesting enough for my taste. I also didn’t want them to sit right next to one another so I plan to set them with space between each stone. I find negative space in unexpected places to be really fun in a design.

The area on the circle that did not have diamonds on it looked very thick so I decided to cut out the same width I was cutting out for the diamonds on the part of the circle that didn’t have diamonds. I think this empty slit will help emphasize the small diamonds set in the other slit.

After I played with all of the design elements and found a way I liked them working together, I had to get practical. Metal gets heavy very fast and a heavy piece of jewelry is both expensive to make and uncomfortable to wear. I cut rectangles from the side of the pendant to reduce the weight of the piece. I thought of adding some sort of design in metal around the edge but I felt that would take away from the simplicity of the overall design and take away from the most important elements in the pendant, my gemstones.

I also had to make sure that my chain would easily slide through the openings on this pendant so it was easy to put on for days I want to wear the whole piece and off for days I want to wear only my diamond.
Overall I am very happy with this design and I can’t wait to make it so my husband will stop bothering me about not wearing his gift!