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I grew up in a jewelry family. I learned at my father’s knee the basics of honest business and learned the four way test from Rotary when I was still in grade school. I have always lived by the “is it fair to all concerned…” creedo. I am a bit naïve I must say. I assumed for years that was the way most people did business. That’s why I find it so disturbing today to find so many examples of jewelers doing business in a less than quality if not unethical way.

In the last few years I have seen watch repairs come to my shop that have been “dipped” in cleaning solution and put back together. These watches are seeping with cleaner and old oils and running poorly as a result. What seemed like a good deal turns out to be a huge repair. Correctly overhauled watches are taken completely apart and each part is cleaned and oiled with the proper grease or lubricant. It may seem more expensive, but done correctly a good watch servicing will last for years.

More recently we have had a Rolex timepiece that was put back together using glue! On the surface, this may not seem so bad. But to those who know, it is a travesty. It’s sort of like gluing together your Porsche.

Having certified professionals doing your repairs doesn’t end with watches. It’s really just the beginning. I’m sure for most people, it is assumed that setting your precious diamond is done correctly everywhere. Not so. The correct setting procedure begins with a “crown” that is the correct size. You cannot make the wrong size crown into the right size. Stretching or shimming are done to keep from having to get additional parts and make a ring available that day instead of taking time to order. After the jeweler obtains the proper crown for the job, he then cuts a “seat” for the stone. This is done so that the exact angle is cut into the crown for the stone to sit on. When done right, the stone will have a solid well fit surface on which to set, so that loosening can only happen in extreme circumstances. If an incorrectly sized crown is “shimmed” to fit, and then a seat is cut, the stone becomes loose and repair of the crown then becomes impossible. A stretched crown compromises the strength of the prongs by angling them outward and results loss of integrity.

I would beg all consumers to have repairs done by certified professionals and know your jeweler. Things are not always as they seem. And discounts are not always discounts…sometimes its just cheap.

There is nothing that will put a little spring in my step quite like “back to school”. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I like spending the summer with my little angels (ages 16 and 14 by the way) but the school routine keeps everyone happier. Less complaining about who’s on the computer and less wrestling and pulling the furniture over. By the end of summer I get a little “over” all this togetherness, if you know what I mean.

And you’re probably thinking, ‘what has this got to do with jewelry’? Well nothing of course……but it does have a lot to do with shopping. With all that extra time on our hands, it’s a good time to get out there and treat ourselves to a much deserved ‘gift to self’. After all, it’s like working overtime all summer!!

This of course coincides perfectly with the influx of COOL new stuff that is coming in for fall. I suppose the average person probably knows that we jewelers spend our summers shopping for fall merchandise, and it all starts to arrive in September and October. Wow, is that fun or what???

This fall you can still look for ‘circle of life’ jewelry. It’s still available in diamonds, but now there are some great looks in gold as well. “Journey” jewelry that arrived on the scene last year is not making such a big presence this year. Yellow gold is making a scene…and is being seen! This year marks the best new product in yellow gold that come out in years. Can’t wait to get my hands on it!

Of course you don’t have to break the bank to have cool new do-dads in jewelry. If you like white metal, then the silver and diamonds or colored stones of Scott Kay’s silver line is great. Their new stuff is really nice, and fun to wear. These are items you can pick up with a little stashed grocery money. (don’t tell I said so….but you only have to pass on the fish monger once or twice to make it happen. Beans are good for you to, you know?)

Okay…here’s little something you can chew on. September is right around the corner, and if you have any September birthdays on your calendar, you may or may not know that the birthstone for that month is sapphire. (now that’s lucky!!) What you may not know, is that when this stone is blue, it’s called ‘sapphire. When it’s red, we call it ruby. And when it’s any other color (and there is every color of the rainbow) then we call it a fancy sapphire. To get technical, they all fall in the mineral family called corundum. On the mohs hardness scale, sapphire is second only to diamond. (about half as hard ). What does that means to you is? If you want to wear a beautiful gemstone, sapphires resist scratches and abrasions better than the rest.

According to folklore, sapphires confer inner peace, and offer healing properties for such ails as rheumatism, colic and mental illness. (I wouldn’t go mentioning that if you give it as a gift however!) Tradition holds that the tablets containing the Ten Commandments were composed of sapphire, so strong that a hammer swung against them would be smashed to pieces. Of course all that’s nice, but just an excuse to own one, and I wouldn’t need that. Sapphire in its finer forms is one of the most beautiful gemstones there is. The blue colors can mimic the ocean waters and it is really is wonderful to behold!

So, hi ho, hi ho, it’s back to school they go!!

Or precious metals 101.

There are so many metals out there that there is sure to be some confusion….heck I’m confused half the time. (but that’s pretty normal for me). Oh, but I digress. White being so predominate the last few years, there are lots of choices out there, and more to come. Most of you know about sterling silver, which is sort of the step-child of white metals. Bench jewelers don’t like it because its dirty and engravers fear it because it’s soft, but when it’s polished to a high shine, silver is a great choice for jewelry. Its one main downfall for the average person, is keeping it clean. It does get tarnished and require a little special attention from your jeweler from time to time. (polishing cloths in between do a fair job).

Platinum is also a very well known white jewelry metal and considered the king of all of them. The biggest drawback to platinum is its price. Precious metal prices are already through the roof, and that makes the price of platinum kind of scary right now.

White gold is my personal favorite on the white list. The one thing to know about white gold is that, someone took a yellow metal and made it white. How? Well it’s tricky, and it really still wants to be yellow. So after gold is alloyed with white metals to make it look white, it’s plated with rhodium. That’s a process that takes place every time its’ worked on and adds an extra step to all white gold work. But the bright side is the bright side! Gold has a high shine that you only have with platinum metals immediately following a good polishing.

The last one on my little list here is palladium. There are six metals in the platinum metal group, palladium being one of them. It’s strong and tough like platinum but not as heavy, so the price compares more to gold than platinum. That’s a nice plus. Unfortunately, right now, even though there has been considerable chatter about the virtues of palladium, I still don’t see much but wedding rings and wedding mountings being made from it. However, I read articles daily about how it’s the metal of the future…so I’m waiting for great things to come of it. The one thing about platinum AND palladium is that even though they are tough and strong, that doesn’t mean they are hard. Therefore, you will notice dents and scratches almost immediately upon wearing it, and those dents are harder to polish out than with gold. A nice plus for palladium is that it is a pure metal and is considered hypo-allergenic, unlike gold, whose alloys tend to bother sensitive people.

Yellow gold has been making a comeback for the last year, and this season there are many new choices with yellow gold. Great looking yellow gold necklaces with matching bracelets, and cool new hoop earrings are all showing up in yellow. They look great on and yellow gold is so rich and warm looking. It looks very flattering on most people and it’s the easiest for the jeweler to work on.

I hate to admit, there isn’t a “Red”. I usually drink my red…usually from the Russian River Valley while I’m wearing my yellow. But that’s another story!!