Happy Stories From our customers

What’s wrong with this picture? (Take it off!)

With the first of the “big” holidays approaching, we expect many jewelry wearers to be knee deep in kitchen preparations. And many will already be dressed beforehand, with a mere apron serving as a protection against the “elements” of Thanksgiving (steaming heat, splattering grease and hard knocks on unyielding frying pans).

How about some friendly holiday advice?

Take off your jewelry before even entering the kitchen. 

While many jewelry aficionados know better than to wear jewelry into a pool or the bathroom, most don’t think of one of the most dangerous zones in the household for jewelry: the kitchen.

Not only can cooking oils and fats stain metals, but food can get lodged into the setting of your engagement ring. And it doesn’t stop there: detergents can cloud up your gems, slowing dimming their inner fire.

And let’s not forget about potential loss. The bathroom isn’t the only place with a drain waiting to cause trouble, afterall.

The takeaway? Get into the habit of removing jewelry before entering the kitchen. It’s that simple. Take a few minutes before dining to don your glittery best. You’ll provide your guests with an extra treat by showing them another layer to your holiday look!

Good morning, Jen,

Sure, we’ve shared a bunch of jewelry cleaning tips over the years. But…these tips are from the Queen of All Things Domestic, Ms. Martha Stewart. Does she give any mind-blowing advice? Well, she does advise ammonia (which we don’t hear often) and covering your drain with a cloth…that’s a good one!

There’s something about “hair jewelry” that makes me cringe a little. Like “dusty ice cream” or “peanut butter and snails.” It just doesn’t seem right. But like many things in life, we have to look at the context, historically speaking.

Queen Victoria made hair jewelry popular by wearing a locket of her beloved Albert’s hair around her neck after he passed away.

The Victorian era ran with this morbid phenomenon and instead of just wearing a locket containing a snip of hair, began creating entire pieces of jewelry consisted of human hair…like, the whole piece (I’m not quite sure how they managed the clasp).

According to Nat Geo: 

It could be a brooch, or a pendant with hair woven in the middle, or even a bracelet of hair. In its heyday, hair jewelry was considered both sentimental and fashionable. It caught on in Europe sometime before the 19th century, and then fell into vogue in the United States around the Civil War.

While we do custom design, we’ve yet to encounter any requests for hair jewelry. But you never know, right?

Victorian Hair Mourning Jewelry

A historically famous jewelry lover, Marie Antoinette wasn’t known for her ability to rule fairly but certainly yielded power when it came to what she wore. Even 200 years later, her fashion choices reign supreme.

A pearl and diamond pendant belonging to the French Queen Marie Antoinette has been sold for $36m in what Sotheby’s auction house is declaring a world record for a pearl.

Says the BBC:

It was part of a major collection of jewellery sold by Italy’s royal Bourbon-Parma house.

Some of the jewels had not been seen in public for 200 years.

The pendant more than tripled the previous world auction record for a pearl, which was held by a necklace that once belonged to Elizabeth Taylor.

Additional auctioned items from this ill-fated Queen include a diamond necklace, a pair of pearl and diamond earrings as well as a monogram ring with a lock of her hair.

#1: 1.40ct F, VS1 GIA
#2: 1.50ct F, VS2 GIA
#3: 1.50ct G, VS2 GIA

The market is flooded with fake jewelry. And that’s not a bad thing: fake jewelry has its place and can be a fun and flamboyant form of adornment. But when you think you’re getting a particular metal or gem and its something else (like a cheaper grade metal or a fake stone) well, then you got yourself a problem.

This fairly in-depth video quickly and easily displays the ways you can detect fake jewelry so you don’t fall victim to a dupe.