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

Saturday, June 18, 2011

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, but when he came back, he told us that he had called a pawn shop in Orange county and they had offered him $40 per gram for the gold, more than double what we had valued the material.

We told him that didn’t make sense because the day’s spot value for 14K gold was only $28 per gram. For example, according to Kitco, one of the largest gold sellers in the US, the spot gold market closed June 10, 2011, at $1532.10 per troy oz, (and the gold price has been at or near that value all week).

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Who can call himself a jewelry appraiser?

Saturday, June 11, 2011

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 found that most jewelry retailers are not Graduate Gemologists. Their study of appraisals received by insurance companies revealed that only 21% of them were prepared by Graduate Gemologists. Many of the appraisals they examined were lacking in such basic information as the weight of the piece and the weight of the gems–important components of value given today’s rising market for precious metals and fine gemstones.

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Unusual Gems in Shangri-La Jewelry

Friday, May 13, 2011
Black Opals in 18K Gold

Black Opals in 18K Gold

These gorgeous  perfectly matched solid black opal earrings illustrate the global reach of the gem trade. We acquired the stones a few years back from an Aussie opal cutter in Lightning Ridge, Australia, then sent them to Nepal last year. Each leg of their journey was about 8,000 miles, so these opals have traveled the circumference of the earth, flashing their their electric blue play-of-color to the far corners, west to east, east to west, then west to east again.

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Milk and Honey from the Land of Shangri-La

Friday, April 29, 2011
Chrysoberyl Cat's Eye in 18K gold

Chrysoberyl Cat's Eye in 18K Gold

This beautiful 18K gold ring we had made in the high Himalaya Mountains of Nepal shows the true magic of the Cat’s Eye gem. Cat’s Eye is an optical phenomenon seen in many different gems, including emerald, aquamarine, and tourmaline, to name a few, but the classic Cat’s Eye effect is best exhibited in the chrysoberyl, so that in the gem trade, when we use the term Cat’s Eye by itself, we mean chrysoberyl.

Cat’s Eye is a particular type of the optic effect known as chatoyance, where a bright luminous streak of reflected light appears down the center of a cabochon cut gem stone. Light entering the cabochon from a single light source is reflected off minute fibers or inclusions within the stone. The rounded lens-like shape of the cabochon gathers and focuses the light into a sharp line of light, as we see in the photo above.

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The Problems in Making Jewelry from Old Gold

Friday, April 22, 2011
Custom Wedding Band and Original

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 of whom designed the ring, created the wax and melted the “old gold” to make the ring, which was presented to the couple as a wedding gift.

Over the years, the gold darkened, and eventually broke into pieces. A broken fragment of the original (to the left) was our sample to recreate the design. Our job was to reproduce the original as closely as possible.

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Restoring Antique Jewelry

Thursday, April 14, 2011
Late Victorian Coral and Pearl Necklace

When we buy estate jewelry, some pieces need repair or restoration. The keys to a successful jewelry restoration are to use similar materials for replacements, to keep the original finish and patina intact, and to retain as much of the original design as possible

We just finished putting this lovely late Victorian “Swag” necklace back together–when we purchased it, the chains were in tatters, and several pearls were missing.

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Appraising Fancy Color Diamonds

Tuesday, April 5, 2011
1.97 ct Irradiated Diamond, Fancy Vivid Yellow

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 purchased at an estate sale for $1200, but this appraisal was for $43,000!

The antennae immediately went up!  First, it’s very unusual to find round natural-color yellow diamonds of this size, especially in today’s market. Diamond cutters have discovered that the Radiant cut maximizes the intensity of color in yellow diamonds, so most of the large natural-color yellow diamonds you see nowadays are radiant cuts.

The clarity of the diamond was at least VS1, perhaps better.

And the color– very intense for a natural-color yellow and thus very rare.

The combination of round shape, high clarity, and bright yellow color meant that if the stone were natural-color,  its appraised value would be well over $70,000! Our advice was to remove the stone from its mounting and send it to GIA for a full grading report to determine origin of color.

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A Lady Diana Ring

Friday, April 1, 2011
Royal Ring by Mardon

We’ve just completed this gorgeous sapphire and diamond ring, inspired by the engagement ring of Lady Diana and soon-to-be Lady Kate. This basic design, where a colored gemstone is surrounded by a circlet of diamonds, has been a favorite for centuries. Since everybody and their uncle has been doing versions of the ring, we decided to show off a well made quality piece by Mardon.

We studied the available photos of Lady Diana and Kate Middleton wearing the ring because we wanted to portray the Lady Di design as accurately as possible and get the exact structure and prong layout. It was challenging to keep the overall proportion and look of our ring similar, because we used a smaller sapphire– 3 ct vs the original 12. And where her stone is an oval, ours is similar but slightly different–the classic cushion antique shape often used for fine sapphires. Adjusting the stone sizes for the cluster surrounding the center, we were able get the same number of diamonds. We used a good match of VS quality diamonds, all recycled from estate jewelry!

You can see the gem report for the sapphire in our Gallery of Gems, I-17700. It’s a classic cushion shape, beautifully cut, eye clean, with a vivid velvety medium dark blue color. Although a Ceylon sapphire, the stone has a slightly sleepy appearance the softens its look, reminiscent of Kashmir sapphires. We think this stone is richer in color– the Lady Di sapphire seems bit dark, as you can see from the photos. We’ve surrounded it with over a carat of dazzling VS clarity diamonds of G to H color and set the gems in solid 14K white gold.

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What is a Built-up Diamond?

Thursday, January 27, 2011
A Built Up Diamond

These days, we buy a lot of jewelry, used as well as new. Last week, I worked with a young lady, a bit down on her luck and on the rebound from a relationship that didn’t work out. She was looking to sell her white gold solitaire ring that was set with the one carat round diamond graded on the cert above. We are always looking to buy saleable one carat round diamonds, but after looking at her stone, I had to tell her that even though the stone had a GIA diamond grading report and the color and clarity were perfectly acceptable, I wasn’t interested in buying this particular diamond because of the poor cut.

This stone is what I call a “built-up” diamond, meaning that it weighs much more than it should for it’s apparent size. It’s important because although diamonds are sold for their beauty, they are always valued and priced by weight. In other words, this diamond looks like a diamond weighing only 9/10 of a carat but costs like a diamond over 1 carat. The consumer lost.

The clues to this problem are readily apparent on the GIA diamond grading report. To a gemologist, numerous measurements and grades show us immediately that this diamond is heavily cut. Let’s dissect the report to see what it really tells us.

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A Special Gift for a Veteran

Thursday, December 30, 2010

We recently completed this great looking setting for a dog-tag. Our client’s husband rarely wears jewelry, but she heard him remark about a dog-tag he saw David Hasselhoff wearing on TV. She brought us his original dog-tag from his military service days and asked us to make a nice piece of jewelry that he would wear.

She loves jewelry herself, so it was easy to suggest things that would make the piece special and unique. She wanted diamonds on the piece, and we thought what better way to space the gems than with military style stars! A nice thin bezel, complimented with milgrain style beading along the edge completed the treatment.

Then we decided to add decoration to the back. Repeating our theme, we made reverse stars and beading– it worked beautifully. He had a heavy 4 mm rope chain, so a simple oval loop of 10 guage gold wire completed the piece. (Continued)

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