I think this is the first actual re-mount that I’ve done even though what I do lends itself so well to them! A re-mount is when a customer decides for whatever reason to take a stone out of a ring they already have, and mount it in a different ring. Pretty simple and a great way to use stones out of a ring that you don’t wear anymore. Some people choose to just use the center of their ring (like this customer did) and some choose to use all of the stones out of an existing ring.

This customer came to me because she’d seen a design of mine on a different website and wondered if I could make it for her to fit her stone. Of course I could!

The original ring was designed for a 1ct center stone with diamonds going down both sides.

My customer wanted to alternate sapphires and diamonds going down the sides of the shank instead of just diamonds. She also wanted the ring fit to her smaller diamond. Here are the choices I sent her for ways to change the mounting to fit her stone better:

The top version just switched out the 1ct stone for my customer’s smaller stone. The second brought the “bands” on the sides of the ring in to close the gap between the ring and the stone. The third made the chevron less pointed, also to reduce the space between the ring and the center stone.

She liked the second (middle) version the best so I sent her renders of the other angles of the design before she made a final decision.

After deciding to raise the height of the center stone a little, we decided to go ahead with manufacturing in 14K White Gold with diamonds and sapphires. The customer also decided to have the center stone set locally so we didn’t have to deal with shipping her stone.

The final piece that I shipped to her was absolutely beautiful…

but it was nothing compared to how it looked when she got her stone set!

I love making jewelry, especially engagement rings, that are truly unique and fit perfectly for the person who will be wearing them.

A client contacted me several weeks ago for just such a job. His girlfriend wanted something floral looking and did not want a diamond for her center stone. He was debating between a sapphire and an emerald for the center but was still ok with diamond side stones, maybe. After hearing about emeralds being softer stones than sapphires and that an emerald could scratch or break, he decided to go with a sapphire for the center stone. He had seen this design of mine on a different website:

but he thought maybe larger stones that looked like leaves would be neat instead of the metal leaves. I sent him 2 different designs to look at.

He loved the second design and after some discussion, we decided to use tzavorites (green garnets) for the side stones.

I don’t always get excited when I see a casting because I did the design and know what to expect, but this piece was an exception. When I got the casting and stones I couldn’t wait to see the finished piece.

The finished piece turned out amazing. The blue of the sapphire and the green of the tsavorites fit together perfectly and the vine-y look of the metal was gorgeous.

I can’t wait to hear what she thinks of the ring and hopefully work on wedding bands!

In the last few months, I have had several clients come to me who do not want diamonds for their engagement rings. Not only do they not want diamonds, they don’t want other super popular stones for engagement rings either.

A long time ago, diamonds were not “THE” stone for engagement rings. Sapphires were. Then the big guys (DeBeers) got ahold of the diamond mines and they marketed the crap out of diamonds until every woman though she needed a diamond. I don’t think there is any reason someone should get a diamond if they don’t want a diamond. That being said, there are some limitations with other gemstones that should be taken into consideration.

Each stone type has a different hardness. The scale used to gauge hardness is called the Mohs Scale and it goes from 1-10. Diamonds are a 10 and are the hardest. This makes them great for jewelry worn every day for long periods of time because they don’t easily scratch, crack, chip, or break. All other gemstones are softer than diamonds. Sapphires are VERY hard and are a 9 on the Mohs Scale. They are also very durable like diamonds which make them a great option if you don’t want a diamond but want sometime that will last quite well. Rubies are also a 9 on the Mohs Scale (they are after all just red sapphires) which would make them another great choice for an engagement ring.

After you get past sapphires, you get into stones Chrysoberyl which is an 8.5 then Spinel and Topaz which are both 8 on the Mohs Scale. These would be pretty durable stones but probably the only one that sounds familiar to most people is Topaz.

Once you get into the hardnesses less than 8, stones are considered “soft.” When a stone is soft, it doesn’t mean that it will crumble in your fingers or anything. It just means that if you knock it on too many things, you could scratch the surface or even crack or chip it. Aquamarine, Beryl and Emerald are all 7.5 on the Mohs Scale. Emeralds are famous for being soft but that doesn’t mean that they aren’t used all the time and I even know several people with Emerald centers in their engagement rings. My aunt has an Emerald and while the stone is still intact, it is very scratched after wearing it every day for so long.

Going down the scale after that are:
Amethyst, Citrine, Garnet, Iolite, Quartz and Tourmaline at 7 on the scale.
Jade, Kunzite, Peridot, Tanzanite, Tzavorite Garnet and Zircon at 6.5 on the scale.
Moonstone and Sunstone at 6.
Opal at 5.5.
Pearl at 4.

I have never, and will never tell anyone to get a different stone than what they want because of the softness of the stone they want. I have made pearl engagement rings and am working on an opal one right now. People just need to be aware of how to care for and prevent damage to their stone.

The most important thing is to be careful when wearing your jewelry. Don’t do dishes or shower with your jewelry on. I basically don’t wear my jewelry unless I’m going out and trying to look nice. Take special care when cleaning your jewelry when you have soft stones. Some soft stones should never be put in an ultrasonic cleaner and even regular liquid jewelry cleaner can be too harsh on some things. There are jewelry cleaners specifically designed for pearls that should be safe on any stone. Most of all, try not to hit your jewelry on anything. I’ve never chipped a stone that way but I haven’t loosened stones by knocking my jewelry on things at work and at home.

Diamonds may be forever; jewelry is not. But, with special care and attention, any stone should be just fine though so buy what you like without worrying about what you are “supposed” to have for an engagement ring!

I know last weeks post was a pearl piece but I seem to be getting a lot of requests for pearls recently!

This week I have a pearl pendant for you to enjoy with sapphires and aquamarine.

When the client contacted me she had a pretty specific idea of what she wanted. She wanted a simple pendant with a fairly large pearl surrounded by sapphires. She also thought it would be neat to use slightly larger stones at the 4 cardinal points. I put together what I thought would fit with what she had described but to further accentuate the corners, I used nice dark sapphires for the larger stones and lighter aquamarine stones in between.

She loved the lighter stones with the sapphires! She decided to go with 14K white gold for the metal and all natural stones. Once the decision was made, I went ahead and got the casting done.

Once I had collected the pearl and all of the sapphires and aquamarines, I sent those and the casting to my jeweler.

The finished pieces was gorgeous! The light and dark stones really set each other off. I hope she loves it!