Creating Custom Jewelry Is Not Difficult

Creating custom jewelry is not difficult. Actually it’s quite simple. In many cases, you’re simply designing the piece around the emerald you choose. It’s a whole lot easier to cast and shape metal to the size you need than it is to perfectly cut or select a stone that meets the exact dimensions of a premade setting. Let that soak in for a second, because it should relieve some anxiety you might have about doing this. And so with that being the case, you should be able to focus on simply selecting the emerald you want. You’ll also need to decide if there are any accent stones or materials you may desire, and work with the jeweler to get the design that works for you. Most of the time, people have an idea in mind or at least certain features, but if not, an experienced jeweler can help walk you through the completion of the design. Except for telling him/her what you want, leave the sourcing of the accent stones and metals to the jeweler. They’ll be able to obtain what your piece requires.

One of the reasons you may be into making custom jewelry or enhancing and repairing what you have is the cost factor. In most cases it can be significantly cheaper to make your own jewelry piece than it would be to buy it already made from the jewelry store. It is easy for us to imagine a cost savings of 20-50%, but maybe as high as 70% of what you’d expect to pay. Some of this savings depends on the complexity of the design, your ability to find bargains, the jeweler you choose, and other factors, but a nice cost savings should be in possible for anyone to achieve and you’ll end up with a higher quality piece. It makes you wonder why more people don’t choose the custom option. The best explanation we can come up with is that many people don’t know where to start; they don’t feel they have the time to have a piece made, maybe they don’t know about how much they could save, or they don’t understand how the process would work and how easy it would be. Another possibility is they don’t have the patience to wait 2 or 3 weeks for their piece to be made. It’s unfortunate, because all it takes to get started is to buy the stone you want and visit the yellow pages online and search for jeweler, jewelry design, or custom jewelry.

Learn more about custom jewelry settings at Embassy Emeralds

Custom Jewelry - A Personal Tale

Before getting involved in the gem business, the first thing that came to mind when I heard the words custom jewelry mentioned was my first real love. I was in the military at the time, stationed in Japan for 3 years and I dated a lovely Japanese girl for most of my time there. She was a special girl who truly loved me to the point that it often made me feel unworthy to be so lucky. Because of the nature of my job, I deployed to other countries several times a year, usually for weeks or months at a time. It was difficult for us, but especially for her, as she had to imagine what danger I might be in because of my work or what temptations might be out there to test our relationship in exotic places like Bangkok or Singapore.

On this particular deployment, I was going to Turkey for about 7 weeks and it just wasn’t a good time for us to be apart that long. Our goodbye was tough, so I wanted to get her something special while I was away to show her how much I was missing her. I had been to Turkey before and knew that the goldsmiths there could make just about anything, so I brought along a textbook from my Japanese class that had examples of the Japanese characters that I needed to make a personalized bracelet for my Yumiko. It only took a week for it to be made, but it turned out great. Three gold medallions with Japanese characters on them linked together to spell her name and a lovely gold chain to bring it all together.

To make a long story short, I returned back to Japan and of course she cried when I presented her with the bracelet. It was perfect and it brought us close after being apart for so long. That is until a few months later when she tossed it in the ocean, but that’s another story.

The point is that custom jewelry is truly special and conveys magnitudes of sentiment more than something you pick out of store window or jewelry counter. If you’ve never given or received custom jewelry, you’ll be amazed at what it means to you, even if you’re the one giving it or just making it for yourself.

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Embassy Emeralds - Nothing Greens Greener

Quick... Think of a Jewel

The majority of people, if asked to name a gemstone, would probably think of a diamond first. But this wasn’t always the case. In fact, diamonds themselves only became in favor once lapidaries learn to correctly cut and polish this otherwise dull material to unlock the fire and brilliance within. Long before all this however, colored gemstones- and particularly the emerald- were kings. While a well cut emerald round can be spectacular to behold, the uncut emerald crystal nestled amongst its matrix can be equally impressive.

In the middle and early ages, color was one of the most important characteristics in gemstones. Up until the discovery of the far superior specimens from Colombia in the 1600’s, most emeralds came from Egypt. But despite their poorer quality, the emerald still ran supreme.

With its grass green color, the emerald symbolized life, nature, and rebirth. The color green also has both spiritual and philosophical significance in a large number of cultures, both ancient and modern day. It has been said that to possess an emerald was to possess beauty herself.

Emeralds - Discover the Beauty of Most Ageless of Gemstones

Emerald Green

Ah, emerald green. What a beautiful color. Many things come to mind when we use the term Emerald Green in a general sense. Irish landscapes, car colors, the color of water, certain trees, and perhaps certain shades of fabric. But as a famous philosopher once said… “Nothing greens greener” than an emerald. You know, it’s no wonder why we name colors after prominent gemstones. When we here the names Emerald Green, Ruby Red, and Sapphire Blue we think of the richest and most beautiful shades of those colors. Because of these deep shades, rubies, emeralds, and sapphires became known as “The Big Three”. Their captivating colors made them objects of desire and symbols of love, status, and good taste. They take our breath away and bring forth emotion simply by gazing at them.

Embassy Emeralds - Redefining Emerald

Buying Gems and Jewelery

Buying precious stones has become big business in the United States as people seem to have more disposable income and are trying to come up with interesting jewelry ideas to create unique, one-of-a-kind pieces. This might seem to some to be another vain instance of first-one-on-the-block syndrome, but buying precious stones and valuables such as jewelry is really an excellent and practical idea.

Much like buying certain commodities such as gold and silver or perhaps like buying savings bonds, buying gemstones and jewels is safe way individuals can ‘store’ wealth. And an added benefit of doing so is that you can make use of it at the same time. Very few investments or items we buy can make that claim. Gems and jewelry can be worn giving the individual all the benefits of status, prestige, and a sense of happiness and yet still keep or even increase in value. This really isn’t a new concept. Many governments, or we can even say… civilizations have done this since gold, diamonds, emeralds, and all these fine treasures of the earth were first discovered.

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Loose Emeralds from Embassy Emeralds - An ideal source for emeralds from Colombia

When deciding to make a custom piece of jewelry, the designer will have to decide on what stones will be included. Many times the customer will already have certain types of stones in mind to complete the piece or at least for the primary settings if there will be multiple stones. But if not, the designer, or more likely… the customer, will have to make a very personal choice. This is one of the aspects of custom jewelry design that helps make the finished piece unique or special.

To make matters simple, we suggest choosing your main settings first and then brainstorming around that. Simple accent diamonds may be all you need to finish the piece or perhaps your main setting is a diamond and you’d like to accent it with emeralds, sapphires, or some other colored gem or gems. Either way, make the big decision first and then fill in the blanks afterwards.

At Embassyemeralds.com we tell our clients to go with their heart and choose the stones they feel would look best. Just as we tell them to choose the emerald they like best when faced with decisions on color variations, clarity, and all the factors that come into play when choosing an emerald. In the end, it’s what the customer wants or fancies most that matters.

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Colombian Emeralds from Embassy Emeralds

Richest Treasure Find Ever Includes Colombian Emeralds

by Garrett Fifer

A longstanding legal battle over sunken treasure appears to be no closer to resolution after the Colombian Supreme Court ruled that the estimated two billion dollars worth of treasure aboard the Spanish galleon, San José, that went down in sea battle with English ships near Cartagena in 1708, and found in 1982, belongs to the Colombian state. Sea Search Armada, a Cayman Islands based salvage company financed by 100 private investors claims an agreement reached with the Colombian government in 1979 gives them rights to half of any gold, silver, or artifacts that are recovered from the still yet unverified resting place.

Most experts agree that the exceptionally large booty of gold, silver, and Colombian emeralds is the richest treasure find ever. We may never know for sure, but many archaeologists are dying to see what fine relics might be retrieved from the depths. We may see some of the biggest and finest emeralds ever make their way into museums and collections if salvage work ever does begin.

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Find a large selection of loose colombian emeralds at www.embassymeralds.com