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Showing posts from April, 2008

New Birthstone Jewelry

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We've just added some cool new birthstone jewelry items to our store! You can select birthstones to add to the jewelry, and even have laser-engraved names added on the Heart Charm Pendants ! The Mother's Key Brooch pictured here is priced as fully populated with birthstones (imitation variety). You just have to pick the colors for each location--the heart-shaped handle of the key is for the birthstone of the mother, and the center stone at the end of the key is for the father's birthstone, surrounded by the children's birthstones. The Birthstone Heart Pendants , pictured below, can be populated with a specific number of birthstones, up to six, as shown in the diagrams on the item page. You can choose from lots of other designs on our Birthstone Jewelry page! And, if the process of setting up the stones and locations is just to complicated for you, feel free to call us and we will be more than happy to walk you through the process.

Wide rings and skinny rings...

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If you have ever clicked on our Ring Sizing Help link, and/or ordered our $2.00 Ring Sizing Kit , you may have noticed that we recommend ordering one size larger in wider rings. So, what is a "wider ring" anyway? A great example would be the wider styles in our Domed Gold Wedding Bands . In our ring size kit, the "rings" that you can try on are about 3.5 mm wide, so that could be a big difference compared to, say, a 7mm band. So, why do you need to order the wider bands a little larger? It's because the ring must slide over the knuckle of your finger, and the knuckle is wider than the rest of the finger--but that is good, because it keeps the ring from slipping off the finger (unless the ring size is too large)! The wider the ring, the more it must compress the skin that surrounds the knuckle as it passes over it. A narrow ring does not have to compress as much skin. This is one reason why many rings are "tapered", that is, the bottom of the ring is na

Hollow Jewelry: Cheap or smart?

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Gold prices, like crude oil, have skyrocketed--see my previous post. One way that jewelry manufacturers have attempted to address this is by making some jewelry designs that use less gold. For instance, we carry lots of crucifix pendants, and one of these, our Byzantine-style crucifix, #5441 , is made with a unique, hollow construction. The front of the crucifix carries an intricate design, and the back is flat, with a delicate, "engine-turned" finish. But, the pendant only weighs just over 2 grams in the 1 5/16" size. If you compare this with some other cross and crucifix pendants we carry, you will notice that it is lighter in weight than some other styles that have similar dimensions. That's because this crucifix is hollow--if it was solid, it would probably cost about twice as much! You see, a piece of jewelry that is labeled "14K Gold" must be 100% 14K gold--it cannot have any other metals as part of its construction. So, if the inside of this crucifi

What's happening with Gold prices....

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When you are in the jewelry business, you have to keep up with the price of gold, because the majority of the items you sell are affected by that. And, lately, gold has soared in price. Why is that? Mainly because the US Dollar has declined in value as compared to other currencies, especially the Euro. And, the price of crude oil has been rising steadily. Coupled with the shaky US economy (according to some folks), these trends cause investors to run for cover and put their money into something that they feel will have lasting value--Gold. As you can see from the chart (courtesy of Goldprice.org ), gold has tripled in value over the last 5 years, and since September of 2007 it has risen about 50%! You can click on the graph to get a larger view. Gold prices have receded in the last couple of weeks after peaking at $1000 per ounce, but it remains very high compared to historical levels. Don't be surprised to see it resume an upward trend in the near future as crude oil continues to