I have gotten two new nice testimonials from a couple of customers lately.  I know it is a good thing to have on our website,  but sometime i wonder if it actually persuades someone to shop with us.  Or is it just a page on the website where our faithful customers can express their own joy and satisfaction  with our company.  Maybe it serves both masters.  Hard thing to do serving two masters,  but I guess maybe it is a place where folks can express their satisfaction and joy,  as well as let others who are searching for that kind of jewelry relationship,  know that we are here, and they are more than welcome to come and see us.

It has been several years since i went out to solicit an new wholesale account.  I have had many runners try and do it, but with little or no success.  I even offered them a $50 bonus if they brought in a new account and they would get the bonus the first time the account paid an invoice.  Still no new accounts.  I have added some new accounts in the past few years,  but they came to me based upon my reputation.  This morning, a new jewelry store opened up in our old shopping center,  so i went to personally pay them a visit.  I know by talking with other jewelry stores that the owner also owns lots of pawn shops,  so that the large portion of inventory is likely to be pawned items, that have been refurbished.  I have been to their pawn shops in the past to solicit work, and was always turned down.  This morning was no different, although this time, I actually spoke with the owner instead of a manager.  She kept my price-list just in case something came up.  So, who knows it may yet bear fruit.

About 5 years ago, I had a customer come in to see me three times before she had the courage to show me her wedding set and ask for help.  She was embarrassed to let me see it.  The engagement ring had been cut and two heads added to it,  and the jeweler had flooded the ring with solder.  The wedding band did not match the engagement ring.  The diamonds would not stay in it, and some of them were burnt, and some were broken.  I could not fix her existing ring,  the problems were too great,  so we salvaged the good diamonds,  and remade the set,  so that the wedding band now matched the engagement ring and it looked like a set!  Since we had to start over we also made a matching band for the other side.  The customer was at last proud of her ring.  She called me about 4 weeks ago, very upset and heartbroken; she had lost her ring and could not find it anywhere.  And to add to this tragedy, although I had given her an appraisal, she had not gotten the ring insured.  Since we had to recreate and repurchase everything she wanted a bigger ring with higher quality stones.  So once again,  I pulled the old file out,  got in some new larger stones for her to view,  and began to recreate the old ring only bigger and better.  She now has a masterpiece on her finger!  The pictures below do not do this ring justice,  it flat out takes your breath away.  The diamonds are so beautiful,  when you look down at the ring all that you see is sparkle!  This time she did get it insured.  On all of my custom pieces, I also send and appraisal.  These pieces are one of a kind, custom made and are therefor very much in need of  Insuring.  Any piece of jewelry not matter how expensive,  if it is custom made or has stones that are unusual needs to be insured.  They are not found everywhere, and will be harder to replace if possible at all.

 

I have had a large beautiful Ametrine emerald shaped stone for some time now.  A very good customer has been looking at it most of that time,  She and I finally decided to make her a hand made pend out of it.  We drew some sketches out, and decided on a design.  After a busy couple of months I was finally able to sit down and hand make the pendant.  I kept to the original idea with a few small changes.  The stone has two different colors in it, so i wanted to make the metal have two different colors in it as well,  but not stand out a whole lot so that the stone was still very prominent.  We had planned to have a hole on the side so that there would be no bail,  then for ease of wearability she decided she wanted a bail on top.  Typically this stone is set purple up,  this customer thought that was upside down.  I have found that most women will want to put purple up,  (I'm not sure why,  probably,  a men are from mars, and women from venus thing) and men will want to put purple down because the purple looks like a heavier color, and therefor would be at the bottom.  after hand making the bezel in 14kt white and yellow gold,  i thought the overall design of the pendant needed something more noticeable at the top,  and made a diamond bail for the top.  The customer was very pleased,  and said she felt like a diva,  or someone important now,   this did not look like something she would normally be able to afford.  It is a very elegant and beautiful piece.