Happy Stories From our customers

An allergy to metal may seem rare, but its not. Maybe even you have scratched your ears or wrists a little after wearing certain costume jewelry, for instance. And for obvious reasons: the jewelry sits on your body for prolonged periods of time causing the irritation to worsen.

The most frequent metal allergen? Nickel, which is known to cause significant local contact dermatitis (skin reddening and itching).

Other frequent metal allergens include: cobalt, copper and chromium, not only found in jewelry but also cell phones and clothing items.

Some may think they are allergic to gold and silver but that’s almost always not the case. More likely, it is the alloy ingredients (the other metals, along with gold and silver) that are causing the irritation.

Here’s a list of the basics when choosing non-allergenic metals for your custom design jewelry.

Source for table: eBay

Few of us truly understand the attention and skill required to become excellent in the craft of hand engraving. It’s an arena that requires the utmost in specialist knowledge, like understanding metals on an intimate level as well as learning to master precision tools. (And that’s on top of a solid base of calligraphic and artistic skills!)

And it’s an old craft. Hand-engraving has been around as long as jewelry itself. Historically, it’s been used in myriad of applications; from royal seals to hunting arms, bank notes and coins…and of course, jewelry.

When it comes to hand engraved jewelry, we all intrinsically understand the end result. A simple ring with engraved details–even initials or dates–can provide personality and sentiment that bring the piece of jewelry to an entirely different level.

If you’re interested in a hand-engraved piece of jewelry, we’re happy to provide our exemplary skills to your personal heirloom!

While many people throughout time have worn jewelry and other accessories as good luck charms, some of these items of adornment weren’t so “lucky.” As a matter of fact, some were straight up dangerous. Take your average boutonnière or corsage (flower pins used as fashionable adornment on men and women respectively) of the Victorian era.

According to Mental Floss:

Arsenical dyes were also a popular addition to artificial flowers and leaves, which meant they were frequently pinned to clothes or fastened on heads. In the 1860s, a report commissioned by the Ladies’ Sanitary Association found that the average headdress contained enough arsenic to poison 20 people.

The British Medical Journal wrote of the green-clad Victorian woman: “She actually carries in her skirts poison enough to slay the whole of the admirers she may meet with in half a dozen ball-rooms.”

Fashion should always slay them…but not literally!

Blue is one of those uber-rich and mesmerizing colors. The deeper, the better. And what gem captures it better than the beloved gem we call sapphire? Whether mined or lab grown, the blueness of sapphire is what draws our eyes toward it, almost hypnotizing us with its heavenly shade.

So what makes a sapphire blue?

Interestingly, its the impurities in sapphires that create its majestic color. Like rubies (both rubies and sapphires derive from the mineral corundum), sapphires are allochromatic.

This means that when this gemstone goes through a developmental process within the earth’s crust and titanium enters the picture, a divine blue is created. Another impurity that factors in? The amount of iron, which affects the shading of blue.

The sapphire is also incredibly strong. It’s hardness is only second to the diamond.

If you were born in September, you can proudly call sapphire your birthstone.

Take a look at the Radiance Lab Grown Sapphire below. (Don’t look too long though–you might be carried away by its spell.)

Image Source

As fans of comedy around the world mourn the death of Jerry Lewis at 91, we decided to take a moment to focus on the jewelry choices of this fine comedian…and what an interesting story to share.

According to a classic movie blog, Lewis frequently–if not always–wore two rings in any film he appeared, regardless of whether it was appropriate for the character (which it often wasn’t).

No matter what character he played, it appears Jerry Lewis almost always wore two rings. One looks like a large gold wedding ring, which is weird, because he tended to play single characters:

The other is a pinky ring with an enormous sapphire (which can be seen in the photo above).

These rings almost never fit with Lewis’ characters, who tended to be not only single, but not wealthy enough to afford such fancy jewelry.

In fact, I don’t know for sure why he had to wear either of those rings, regardless of the character he played. I can’t think of any actor more determined to keep a personal piece of himself in every performance like that…

There’s speculation as to why he was so determined to wear these rings, regardless of the film, including Dean Martin who thought Lewis was simply “flaunting his wealth.”

Knowing jewelry the way we do, we have a different guess: each ring must have had enormous personal importance to him, possibly in the same vain as good luck charms he felt compelled to wear throughout much of his life, not just in films.

Regardless of the reason, let’s say farewell to Mr. Lewis and the real charm he possessed: an amazing sense of humor.