Custom Jewelry Designs

The winners of the annual Couture Design Awards were announced several days ago to a standing-room-only crowd of 800 retailers and designers at the Wynn Las Vegas. This is the best of the best, when it comes to custom design jewelry. And this year, the bar was raised yet again with some of these stunning pieces:

Shaun Leane took top honors in the Colored Gemstones Above $20,000 category with his “Queen of the Night” collar, featuring more than 15 carats of pear-shaped purple sapphire, 174 carats of sapphire pave, 35 carats of diamond pave and more than 6 carats of ruby pave, all set in 18-karat blackened gold.

Federica Rettore took first place in the Colored Gemstones Below $20,000 category, with her 18-karat gold earrings (below) with rose cut and brilliant cut diamonds, more than 6 carats of multi-colored sapphires, fossil coral and gun-barrel stainless steel. (1st Runner Up: Sutra; 2nd Runner Up: Carelle)

La Reina won first place in the Diamonds Above $20,000 category with her ring with flat and oval diamonds, illustrated in a sketch below. (1st Runner Up: Sally Sohn; 2nd Runner Up: Imperium)

Designer Moritz Glik took first place in the Diamonds Below $20,000 category with his necklace in 18-karat yellow gold and blackened silver (below) with more than 2 carats of rose cut diamonds and more than 4 carats of brilliant cut diamonds. (1st Runner Up: Rodney Rayner; 2nd Runner Up: Yewn)

In the Gold category, Elena Votsi won with her gold ring with brilliant cut diamonds and garnet (below). (1st Runner Up: Roberto Coin; 2nd Runner Up: Paul Morelli)

Sevan Bicakci was recognized with first place in the Pearls category with his octopus ring/cuff (below) made in 24-karat gold and sterling silver with more than 3,000 hand-set multi-colored diamonds, 164 hand-set seed pearls and one South Sea baroque pearl. (1st Runner Up: Mikimoto; 2nd Runner Up: Yael Sonia)

The winner in the Bridal category was Stefan Hafner, with a ring made of white gold and 7.5 carats of rubies and diamonds (below). (1st Runner Up: Michael B; 2nd Runner Up: Jolie B. Ray)

Isabelle Fa took first place in the Platinum category with earrings made in platinum and diamonds. (1st Runner Up: Henrich & Denzel; 2nd Runner Up: Harry Kotlar

The winner in the Silver category was Atelier Zobel, with a cuff made with silver, platinum, onyx and black and champagne-colored diamonds. (1st Runner: Aida Bergsen; 2nd Runner Up: Arman Sarkisyan)

Read more about the other winner at National Jeweler.

Custom design jewelry can be a bit of a mystery to some folks. Why not simply purchase a pre-made piece at Tiffany’s? How does one even come up with an idea?

Well, first: you can purchase a pre-made piece at Tiffany’s. So can several million other people. Custom design jewelry insures that your piece is one-of-a-kind. It’s made for and by you. It’s personalized jewelry, so your connection to the piece is deeper. We’ve had several happy customers tell us this very thing. “It’s mine. No one else has a piece like it in the world.”

How do you come up with an idea? There’s several answers to that.

Many see a piece online or in a store and like it, but they want some changes to it. That’s what we call semi-custom design. People will see a piece we have on our website and say, “Joe, love it…but you can make the side stones sapphires instead of diamonds? Can you use rose gold instead of silver? We’re happy to oblige.

Some create an idea from their mind’s eye. They’ve had a piece in mind (some their whole lives!) and can “sketch” it out, with our assistance. If that sounds difficult or too technical for you, not to worry. Our staff is trained to interpret your suggestions, even if it’s “I want something girlie, but not too girlie.” We know how to tease out your idea. And before you commit to the piece, you are shown the possible looks of the piece first – so you don’t have to commit until it fits you exactly.

Others come in with a piece of jewelry they want “made over.” This is a form of custom design as well. Sometimes a piece just feels too dated – or someone gave them an important piece of jewelry…but they never really liked it! (Another reason for custom design – why purchase a high-end piece of jewelry if you’re not exactly sure what the receiver wants?)

Custom design jewelry is what we do best, here in Scottsdale. After 3 generations of creating pieces from all sorts of suggestions, we’re confident in our ability to make your jewelry dream a reality. Check out our custom design page for more details on the process as well as examples.

If you’re looking for a one-of-a-kind piece of jewelry that reflects you, let us take care of it! Joseph Schubach Jewelers of Scottsdale, Arizona is a third-generation jeweler specializing in custom design jewelry and semi-custom design jewelry. This process helps you genuinely personalize your piece.

Check out our video, which explains just how semi-custom design jewelry is created…and how we can create a custom design piece for you!

Cal and Roberta contacted us to duplicate her wedding band in 18kt yellow gold, which we did nearly identically! We also enlarged her original wedding band to fit over her knuckle keeping the design flowing all the way around.

Here’s a fun one! A semi custom design of our style 10365 with a pink cultured pearl. Thanks Lucy!