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Category Archives: Jewelry Industry Information

The Colors of Christmas in Gems

Every year for Christmas, we jewelers put our best foot forward, looking to make special pieces that will find their way into Santa’s sleigh. This year, I was able to find some spare hours to make these three special rings that feature one of the world’s most unique gemstones, the American Fire Agate.

Double Deco Delights

Recently, we’ve had the pleasure of working with some outstanding vintage Art Deco jewelry. We appraised this wonderful diamond and black onyx ring which features two large Old European cut diamonds, both approximately 1 3/4 cts, both eye clean, near colorless and well matched. Imagine some flapper gal dancing the night away in a Roaring […]

Geneology in Silver-Restoring a Family Bracelet

  Wife Kaye recently worked with a local family to renovate this heirloom bracelet, composed of sterling silver panels, strung on a ribbon, each hand engraved with the initials of a family member. Judging by the style, the bracelet probably was started around the late 1800’s or so– the most recent person on the bracelet […]

Fashion Forward Engagement Ring with Pigeon’s Blood Red Ruby

We always love the stories that go along with our jewelry, especially the ones about the special engagement or wedding rings of our customers. I just received this picture via email from a client in London, England, showing the magnificent ruby his bride is now wearing.

Vintage Modernist Munsteiner Jewel

Want to own a piece of historical art jewelry? We are pleased to showcase this wonderful handmade Modernist brooch/pendant of 18k yellow gold set with diamonds and a fabulous red fantasy cut tourmaline weighing 10.05 carats, created by the brilliant lapidary artist, Bernd Munsteiner.

A Custom WWII Ring for a Navy Dad

The Mardon team created this very special ring just in time to celebrate the 86th birthday of Harold Swanson, my father-in-law. Like many of his generation, he left high school as soon as he was of age and enlisted in the military to fight WWII. As a Navy sailor, he trained forĀ  submarine service, but […]

Let the Gold Rush Begin– $45 per gram for 14k gold

Last week, a young man, just graduated from dental school, came to the shop to sell us a small batch of casting gold leftover from his casting classes. We tested his gold as 14K, then weighed and valued it for him. He left the store to get his identification so we could make the transaction, […]

Who can call himself a jewelry appraiser?

This headline caught my eye in a recent email— the answer to this trick question is anyone! A newsletter by an insurance industry organization highlighted the fact that there are no federal or other governmental bodies setting qualifications for who may be a jeweler or a jewelry appraiser. A study by a related group also […]

The Problems in Making Jewelry from Old Gold

Earlier this week, we delivered this nice 14K rose gold custom gent’s wedding band to a very happy client. It was made as a replacement for the original wedding ring belonging to her husband, to be presented at their upcoming anniversary. From what our client told us, two uncles had combined their gold jewelry, one […]

Appraising Fancy Color Diamonds

We just appraised this beautiful bright yellow ~2 ct. round diamond for a client. She had inherited the stone, which was accompanied by an appraisal from a gemologist which described it as a “Canary Yellow” diamond, which implied but didn’t state specifically that the stone was natural-color. Our client said the diamond had originally been […]