Tag Archives: jewelry

Spring Cleaning

It’s the time of year for spring cleaning, and your jewelry collection is no exception. Getting your jewelry cleaned and inspected routinely is the best way to prevent a loss due to physical wear and tear. I recommend getting your jewelry refinished once a year, which includes a thorough examination for any structural damage, tightening…

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Lashbrook Wedding Bands

If you’re getting married this summer, hopefully you’ve already started looking at wedding bands for both parties involved. But whether or not you have, there’s a line I carry I think you might consider if you’re into more contemporary or edgy styles. Lashbrook designs and produces wedding bands, but their jewelry is not your grandpa’s…

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Springtime Colors

Spring gives pastel colors their biggest stage of the year. The strong jewel tones have not yet developed in nature during March or April. Spring fashion has always revolved around pastel colors. That’s not a trend; it’s historical precedent. With pastels in mind, one group of minerals stands out as dominating that color tone palate:…

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Mother’s Jewelry – Custom designs in time for Mother’s Day

Mother’s Day is coming up. Don’t believe me? Check your calendar. May 11th is two months away. That may seem a little far in advance to make dinner reservations, but it’s just about right to start a custom jewelry design. Mother’s jewelry (rings, pendants, bracelets, etc.) has been dumbed down and commercialized for years, and…

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Aquamarine – March Birthstone

In the last thirty years, aquamarine has developed a somewhat generic reputation for being washed out, uninteresting, or not living up to its name. And while the majority of commercial-grade aqua certainly fits such a description perfectly, I prefer to set the bar a little higher. My sales staff will gladly show you the difference…

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Sugar-Coating Drusy

When many people think of gemstones, they think of a transparent faceted jewel sparkling in a ring; often a diamond or some other gem of their favorite color, perhaps a ruby or an emerald. Some people may think of pearls, or gems that are typically cut en cabochon like jade or opals. But there is…

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Glass Isn’t Always an Imitation

Faceted Moldavite

Since the Annual Tucson Gem and Mineral Show is this month, some of the more unusual things in the colored gem world are on my mind. I wanted to take the time to comment on a part of the jewelry industry that gets overlooked and has some of the coolest science behind it. Man-made glass…

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Amethyst – February

The Ancient Greeks once believed that if you kept an amethyst in your mouth, you could drink as much alcohol as you wanted and not become intoxicated; in fact, “amethyst” finds its roots in the Greek word “amethystos:” quite literally, “not drunk.” Of course, this was totally erroneous, and people would die because they choked…

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Pantone Color of the Year

I’m not usually a mainstream kind of guy, but fashion critiques of the Golden Globes and Grammys are everywhere online and in print. With the Academy Awards coming up on March 2nd, they’re not going away any time soon, so I thought I’d offer my two cents. So let’s talk fashion for a bit. Let’s…

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Protecting Your Jewelry in Cold Weather

The cold snap we had the first week of the year got me to thinking. One of my employees had burst pipes in his apartment complex from the extensive and extreme cold. Did you know a similar effect can happen to certain kinds of colored gemstones? Opening your sink cabinets and letting your faucets drip…

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