Articles – Designer Jewels, Inc.

Cleaning Your Jewelry – The Smart Way!

For those of you who own many pieces of jewelry, you may already be familiar with different cleaning methods depending on the stone or metal that your jewelry is made from. Product knowledge is important when explaining basic care and cleaning methods for jewelry. Hard gemstones such as diamonds, rubies and sapphires will scratch not only softer gemstones such as pearls and opals, but also precious metals. Metals and other gems can easily damage a pearls surface. We encourage you to take extra care with cultured pearl jewelry. Pearls should never be tossed in to a purse or jewelry box with other jewelry. If available, each piece of pearl jewelry should be wrapped in a soft silk or cotton bag…

How to Keep Yourself Secure during the Holiday Season

The Holiday season can be a very hectic time of year; entertaining visiting relatives and other family members, buying presents, celebrating Holidays, but it is also a time where we are vulnerable to theft and loss of valuable items we’ve bought for ourselves or our loved ones. Airport and hotel lobbies are public places that create a false sense of security and raise the level of risk for theft. It can happen as when you are checking into a hotel or airport and you are momentarily let your guard down. Below, we’ve listed a number of ways you can protect yourself when you travel with jewelry during the Holidays: Only bring what you wear everyday. Consider wearing faux pieces when…

All About Opals

October commemorates opal, a multi-colored gem that often gets a bad stigma, as this month’s birthstone. Opal catches incoming light, separates it into individual color wavelengths, and flashes every color of the rainbow back to your eye. It is not as hard as a quartz is, but does take a nice polish! Since opal can emit so many colors, people in ancient India called opal, “ the Goddess of the Rainbow”, whom they said had been turned into stone. The Romans also held opal in high esteem. In Australia, however, the ancient Aborigines had a negative mystique about opal. The Aborigines considered opal to be half-serpent and half-devil and thought opal’s colors were an attempt to lure them to the…

Silver Discoloration

Tarnish is the easiest form of discoloration to prevent. There are several things you can do to help prevent tarnish. Anti-tarnish strips are available from jewelry supply companies (and other places) to pack near your items. Placing your silver jewelry in plastic bags is a good idea when you won’t be wearing it for a long period of time. There is also a plethora of Silver polish available at your local grocery store. We all know about Silver polish, but few are aware that polishing actually scrubs some silver off the surface of your treasured piece! It can be especially detrimental for silver-plated pieces, especially where the layer of silver may not be very thick. Another problem with using silver…

Why and How EGL Certificates Created Confusion and Disparity

Most recently, EGL Certificates that grade precious gemstones have come under fire by groups such as RapNet, the diamond trading network operated by the Rapaport Group, due to disparities between some EGL reports and GIA, reports. GIA established the diamond grading system used in most of the jewelry industry. GIA, which is world’s foremost authority on diamonds, colored stones and pearls, also provides certification for diamonds and the like, and has been the go-to source for diamond grading across the industry. Once you have purchased a gemstone or diamond from a jeweler or other retailer, you may receive a report telling you all about the stone you’ve just purchased. The difference between these reports is in regard to the kind…

The Designer Jewels Difference

Hello! We are four generations of jewelers and lapidarists. As a family‐owned business, there are high standards of ethics and professionalism that we set for ourselves. With over 100 years combined experience in lapidary work, appraisals, repairs and custom design on our staff, Designer Jewels is your home for all your jewelry needs. What sets us apart is the way we conduct ourselves and put ourselves in your shoes when designing a piece of jewelry. Listening to your needs, concerns and guiding you through the design process are our priority. Additionally, Mark is a Senior Member of the American Society of Appraisers (ASA), an organization that is dedicated to the benefit of the appraisal profession. When you come in for…

How Designer Jewels Made My Dreams a Reality

Around this time two years ago, I started looking at the different options for UT Graduation rings. Being the son and grandson of jewelers with years of experience, I pretty much knew what I wanted my ring to look like and what kind of uniqueness I wanted it to carry. After tireless efforts to have a one of a kind ring from the University, I decided to not go through the company the school officially uses, but my family’s business, Designer Jewels. With the ingenuity and time invested in the design, my father and I came up with a different design that features the Greek letters of my fraternity, Alpha Epsilon Pi, along with my name inscribed on the inside…