Wednesday 25 October 2017

How to Style Jewellery

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwIAR_4zQWM


 


Hi everybody and welcome back to my channel. Today I am so excited to bring you a video on five tips for styling your jewelry but before I get into that, if you are new to this channel, thank you so much for stopping by. I hope that if you like this video, you will consider subscribing to my channel and hitting the little bell next to the subscribe button, so that you can be notified each time I upload a new video.


So without any further ado, let’s get into this. I wanted to talk to you a little bit about jewellery because I love, love, love, jewellery. I’ve always loved jewellery and makeup, those are like my two things. I’m like a jewelry and makeup girl and you know some people love purses and shoes, not that I don’t love purses and shoes because I do, but I love, love, love, jewelry and makeup and in fact when I was in medical school and residency, I actually had a jewellery business. At the time, my husband was working in San Francisco and I would go up and visit him and in Chinatown they had these beautiful pearl necklaces that were like gorgeous big pink and gray and black pearls and that was when like the really chunky jewelry was in style, like in the early 2000s and the big pendants and I would make all of this jewellery and sell it and to earn extra money and one thing that I really, really loved about making jewelry, was mixing like beautiful things like pearl and more earthy stones and I loved mixing gold and silver.


I just thought it was so fun to do that, so that is something that I still really enjoy doing with the jewelry that I wear, is kind of like mixing tones, mixing um you know, like earthy elements with more fancy elements like pearls. So anyway, let’s get into a couple of tips. The first tip is do mix metals. So I know that in the early 2000s white gold was super, duper, duper in style and everybody was getting wild everything like and in fact I kind of jumped on that bandwagon myself. I have a white gold wedding ring, my watch is stainless steel like we all were really into white gold you know around 2005 or so but in the last four or five years, gold is totally back in and it is totally okay to mix your gold and silver jewelry.


So you know when you are layering necklaces you can wear a gold necklace and a silver necklace, you can wear a silver or a white gold ring like I have with a gold right hand ring. You can mix a stainless steel watch with a gold bracelet, all of that looks great and it makes your jewelry wardrobe so much more versatile. So don’t be afraid to mix gold and silver. The next tip is stack your jewelry, that is so it makes your jewelry looks so interesting. So one thing that I love to stack are rings, so this ring which is just an inexpensive costume ring from Costco let’s see if the camera will focus for you, it’s just costume jewellery but it looks like stacked rings. It’s actually like bonded together but it looks like stacked rings and I think that when you stack rings, especially if they’re dainty, it is such an interesting look. If you want to buy costume jewelry, bauble bar as a place that has tons and tons of rings that you can stack, to come up with a really interesting stacked ring look. Another set of stacked rings that my husband got me are these ones, where I mixed all the tones. I have a rose gold, a white gold and a yellow gold set of stacked rings and that looks so beautiful and you know I encourage you guys to, I will link some stacked rings below, did I say that already? Um at bauble bar that you can check out and so that you can kind of get creative with stacking rings.


You can also stack bracelets, so on my watch and often I will stack two bracelets. This one is Madri, it is from Nordstrom and this is Lagos and notice it’s two-toned it’s gold and silver and I enjoy stacking bracelets with rings. You can also stack bracelets on your right hand. So like an example are these two bracelets right here, that if I could get it open, I would show you. So I would stack these two bracelets together and if I had like three or four more bracelets, that look like they match these two, I would stack those as well. Typically if I’m stacking on one wrist I will not stack on the other. So if I have stacked bracelets on this wrist, I’ll leave this one empty or if I have a bunch on this wrist, I won’t stack them with my watch. The other thing is if you decide not to stack and you just decide to wear like a really big bracelet like this, which I’m going to get to in a little while, I wouldn’t wear stacked on that arm either.


So a little bit of information really quick about the bracelets that I’m wearing. So if you are looking for some really good quality jewellery that like for nice stackable bracelets, I wanted to share these two companies with you where I got these two bracelets because I think they’re so good. This bracelet is from Ross Simons, now Ross Simon’s I don’t know if you guys have heard of it it’s a company that’s got like catalogs and it’s online and some cities they have stores like in DC. They have a store, I think in Chicago, they have a store in New York, they have a store and at Ross Diamonds you can get like a whole variety of things. You can get like dishes and plates but you can also get really fine jewelry like real diamonds. You know they have the whole gamut of prices at Ross Diamonds, they have very expensive you know real diamonds jewelry, but then they have a lot of jewellery that is cubic zirconia but with gold plated or rose gold plated or sterling silver and at very good price points. So this bracelet is from Ross Simon’s and when I bought it I bought one in rose gold one in gold and one in white gold and I really love stacking those three or stacking them with this bracelet. Um really quick as a side note, other things that I’ve gotten at Ross Simons, actually I’ll get to that with my next tip, i’ll come back to that. So check out Ross diamonds for beautiful stackable bracelets, that’s the price point can be anywhere from like a hundred to two hundred to three hundred dollars. If you want something less expensive, I will link some good stackable bracelets from bauble bar for you, because today have awesome stackable bracelets. Then the other bracelets that I wanted to talk about was ones that are like this which I’m going to link below for you. This is from Henri Bendel, Henri Bendel is a store in New York, they have these bracelets that are made of steel and then they’re like rhodium plated. So they’re kind of heavy, they remind me of the Cartier love bracelets, I don’t have one of those, but they remind me they’re kind of heavy like the Cartier love bracelet but you can get them off really easily, you don’t screw them on and they have ones that have like gold shimmer, like this one but gold. They have ones that have silver shimmer like this one, they have ones that have like little screws that are very reminiscent of the Cartier love bracelet. They have one sand that flowers and they are so, so cute to stack. So I’m going to link all of those below for you. They are super high quality, um you know you can get them wet it’s going to be fine. I mean I don’t shower with this but I’m not worried about getting a wet, I’m not worried about banging it I’m not worried about it discolouring, they are on the more expensive side like there are 118 to 150 dollars. So that’s why I only have one, but they are really cool bracelets.


So check out the links below and look at the Henry Bendel collection and if you’re interested in stacking bracelets, they’re a really good like gift idea, you know, if you are having a birthday or during the holidays, if you’re looking for a gift for an anniversary they’re neat bracelets to get that you can stack and I think that they’re very, very, good quality. So that is my second rule, do stack or a second recommendation, do stack your jewellery.


The third recommendation is do layer your jewelry, so right now layering necklaces is very very in style and it just adds a lot of interest, to look. I love stacking dainty necklaces, that’s probably what i do the most just because i dainty necklaces are very, very easy for me to wear, especially when i’m at work. So I typically wear two necklaces, so this one is just like little discs and I think I saw Leanne says wearing a necklace that resembled this and I could just see it on our YouTube channel. I couldn’t see like the details of the necklace but I just saw something that looked like this, that was like kind of shimmering and sparkling off the lights. That was a choker and I loved it so I like search the internet far and wide for this necklace, hers was silver this one’s gold and so I will link it below, it is the cutest even in your 40s and 50s and 60s you can wear a choker. It is very dainty, it is very beautiful, it is I think considered a choker because it’s so short, but it looks really cute if you were a necklace that’s like this length and then you layer it with a 12 or a 14 or a 16-day or necklace and then you can even add a longer necklace, like this and I will link options for you guys below. This is old, but I will find a pretty long necklace that resembles this to link for you below, in case you’re interested in something like that or you could layer a tassel necklace with it. Like tassels are really in right now, this is from bauble bar and so you could wear these small two necklaces with a tassel necklace. Let me stand up for you guys, so you could get that look which looks really cute and really interesting. So I encourage you to layer your necklaces, it looks really, really adorable and you can be super creative and it has lots and lots of interest to outfits. So my next recommendation and again all of these things today are just my recommendations. If you don’t like to stack or you don’t like to layer or you just like a simpler look or you don’t like to mix tones, do what makes you happy. This is just a one girl’s opinion, but my next recommendation is to choose one spot of your jewellery to highlight on your face and neck and then one on your wrist and hands. That’s kind of a rule that I follow for myself, so if I’m wearing a lot of bracelets on this hand, I will just wear a watch on this hand. If I’m wearing a lot of bracelets on this hand, I will not wear a lot of bracelets on this hand, just so that the eye is only drawn to like one area, likewise, if you know I am wearing like a huge bracelet on this hand for example if I’m wearing a huge bracelet like this, I wouldn’t wear those bracelets but let’s say I was wearing a statement bracelet like that on my right hand, I would not wear a cocktail ring on my right hand.


So let me find a cocktail ring for you. I would not wear a ring like this on my right hand if I have a bracelet like this. I would choose one or the other, as something to draw the eye to. So pick the bracelet or the ring as your focal point, as your statement piece. Likewise, when you were talking about necklaces and earrings, if you are going to wear a lot of necklaces, pick dainty earrings you know I wouldn’t wear a super statement earring if you’re layering your necklaces. So an example is take these earrings right here, these earrings are kind of statement earrings, so I would not choose those earrings if I was wearing like a 3 if I was wearing this layered necklace, look because this is kind of what the eye is being drawn to and so I would wear something really dainty.


I think something like this is fine or studs or just a dainty earring. I would not wear a statement earring like this, this would be an earring that I would wear with no necklace, like I would wear my hair up and I would wear no necklace at all. So that the eye is drawn to the earring because that’s what you want people to see, that’s like your showpiece. So that is my advice regarding how to pick where you’re putting what, make sure that you choose your focal point, either earrings or necklaces and on your hands, either wrists or statement rings, to be the focal point of your jewelry and then lastly I would encourage you to wear statement piece jewelry.


So let’s talk about statement piece jewellery. Um I as you guys might have heard, when I did some of my fashion videos, I’m not like super duper great with fashion. I tend to wear a very neutral colour clothing like all black, all white, all grey, you guys notice I don’t wear like a lot of bright colours and that’s just because I’m not fabulous at putting outfits together but what I do like to do, when I’m wearing a lot of neutrals, is we’re a piece of statement jewellery, that really gives the outfit a pop and makes the outfit interesting.


So this necklace is an example. So let’s say I was wearing this black shirt with some black pants. I would take off all my layered necklaces and I would wear this necklace with some stud earrings and this would be the focal point of my outfit and it can really, really make an outfit, so interesting. Um another idea with statement necklaces, say you’re wearing a black dress and it’s just a plain black dress and you’re going to a wedding or an event in the evening, instead of wearing dainty jewellery like this, consider wearing a pair of stud earrings and a really big chunky statement necklace like this. I got this at bauble bar and I will link something similar to it below, but if you’re wearing a plain black dress adding a statement necklace like this, with no other jewelry except for like maybe some dainty earrings and like your ring and a watch, is a really, really beautiful way to make your outfit pop and add some interest to a plain outfit.


So that’s how I like to wear statement jewelry, by wearing really plain clothes and then adding the statement jewellery to really add interest to the outfit, even with non dressy clothes you can very easily wear statement jewelry. So a lot of the time in the winter, I will wear this necklace, straighten it out for you guys, I will wear this necklace with a white t-shirt, my moto jacket jeans and Monica moto boots and I love the way that looks, because it’s got some sparkle, it is a statement necklace and this adds a really nice feminine touch to that outfit. So um I encourage you and then I won’t wear much other jewelry, I’ll just for like small earrings and my ring and I encourage you to use statement jewelry to dress-up outfits like that as well, not only dressy outfits. So but just remember if you’re wearing a really chunky statement necklace, go easy on the rest of the jewelry. Coco Chanel once said something like put on all your jewellery and before you leave the house take something off and I think her point was, make sure that you don’t overdo it, kind of pick your focal point. So um if you like statement jewelry, decide if you like more neutral statement jewellery, that’s more my preference, like this which are more subdued colours or like this, which are just very neutral colours. I used to buy more bright coloured statement jewellery, for example this necklace and what I noticed when I was filming one of my first YouTube videos, was that when I wear this necklace, it just does not work for me. I bought this because Erin Busby was wearing this in one of her blogs and she was so amazing, she looked like she walked out of the cover like of a boat magazine with this beautiful red necklace and like a navy blue and white stripe shirt and it looked so awesome and then I put it on and I look like I walked out of a terrible 80s movie. I don’t know why, it just did not work for me it looked beautiful on Aaron but not beautiful on me. I mean to the extent that I actually took down the video where I was wearing this because I just felt like I like I look like an 80s girl. So you know I typically after I saw that youtube video do not go for my bright, bright jewellery anymore, I go for more subdued neutral statement pieces but if you are a person like Aaron Busby who can support this and you look amazing, do it. So take pictures and see how you think you look in pictures to decide what kind of statement jewelry, that looks good on you. So those are my recommendations there was one more thing I wanted to tell you in terms of layering necklaces, Ross Simons has really great necklaces that are so good for layering. So this is a diamonds by the yard, these are cubic zirconia but this is gold covered over sterling silver and it’s like $30, it’s a $30 necklace that you can get at Ross Simon’s but it’s such good quality. I have it in every colour, I have it in gold, I have it in silver, so this is sterling silver with cubic zirconia and I have it in rose gold and the reason that I love these is because I don’t have, because they’re real metals, they’re not like nickel or something like that, I feel like they’re just gonna last longer I don’t need to worry if I get perfume on them or if I get lotion on them that they’re gonna be ruined and they’re only like $30 and they’re from Ross Simon’s and they are so beautiful for layering.


Another beautiful necklace for layering that I got at Ross Simon’s would be this, sorry, I forgot to talk to you about this earlier guys. Um it’s sterling silver with cubic zirconia, so it’s such high quality but it looks so expensive, so check out Ross Simon’s you guys for beautiful sterling silver and 14-karat gold earrings and necklaces and bracelets at very good price points. If you want to look at bauble bar for super inexpensive pieces to layer. I am going to link a bunch of things below from bauble bar so that you have all kinds of options in terms of things that you can look at for yourself if you’re shopping for jewelry. So I hope I know that was a lot of information, but I hope that you guys enjoyed that video. I’m giving you some recommendations on jewellery, I’ll just recap it really quick, mixed metals don’t be afraid to stack on your rings and rip on your ring fingers and wrists, don’t be afraid to layer necklaces and make sure that you pick one focal point for your jewelry, like something to pop on your hands and wrists and then something to pop either your ears or your necklaces and then lastly do wear statement jewelry to really jazz up an outfit, but make sure that when you wear statement jewellery like big chunky necklaces or big chunky earrings, that those are the focal points of your outfit. So thank you guys so much for joining me today, I really enjoyed making this video and I will look forward to seeing you next time bye.


Video Credit – Dr Dani Fisher



How to Style Jewellery

Tuesday 1 August 2017

How To Choose Diamond Earrings


Thank you for joining us on imagine diamonds. There’s a line in Lewis Carroll’s beloved Alice in Wonderland in which Alice asks the Cheshire cat which she should go to. He asks her where she’s going and she replies that she doesn’t know. If you don’t know where you’re going, the cat replies, any road will lead you there. In other words if you don’t really care where you end up, then it doesn’t really matter which path you take.


I think of this exchange whenever someone asks me for advice on a jewellery purchase, particularly earrings because the types are so varied. If you truly don’t care about the type, style and quality of your diamond earrings, if you’re just looking for something prettier, a quick solution for at last mini gift, it doesn’t matter which pair you choose. If however, you do have preferences, ideas about your perfect pair and would just like to get some help getting there, some help with choosing diamond earrings, let me see what I can do about helping you narrow down the possible paths.


Choosing a pair of diamond earrings comes down to two components, the style and the diamonds. By style we of course mean the type of earrings, are they small and dainty, large and gaudy and when it comes to the diamonds of course we need any all included in the pair whether that means two large studs or dozens of small stones embedded a pair of chandeliers.


The style, let’s start with that. You’ve heard me say this before and that I’ve always insist that a person start with the overall style they are looking for before turning attention to the actual diamonds themselves, because until you have a framework you hardly know what your diamond needs will be really and as we’ll see, when we get to the diamond section of the post, importance and prominence  of the diamonds and constantly the degree to which you must carefully select, depend entirely on the style of earrings you choose to buy.


So let’s look at a few examples that should give you some ideas when choosing diamond earrings. Hoops are one of the most commonly seen types of diamond earrings of all time, they’re versatile, can go with anything, ease make them at popular choice. At times I’ve heard complaints that hoops are a bit boring, in that the only aspect you can really customize is the size of the hoops but they’re no fuss, simplicity’s will likely always make them favourite.


With hoops it’s particularly important to make sure that diamond appears to be uniform in size and colour. If one is noticeably darker than all the rest it will stand out dramatically. Drop earrings are so-called due to the way they literally drop from the ear, usually they bear sizeable gems or perhaps a cluster of smaller gems. These are popular on the red carpet and there’s typically a good variety of options available. Make sure the pair you are eyeing is particularly sizable or gaudy that you make sure that it isn’t too much of a pull on the earlobe itself, as this can distract them the overall presentation.


Now a few words about chandelier earrings, they got their name from their appearance which hangs down from the earring, ornate and glamorous pattern of sparkle and flair, much like a chandeliers are popular in part, because each pair tends to be very unique. You can go over your whole life and never see a chandelier duplicated and the same type of a variety can be found in the chandelier earring style. Of course one can’t forget the classic and most popular option of all, the stud. Yes diamond stud earrings, though like hoops and the perceived lack of creativity perhaps reign supreme with a higher degree of diamond earrings. One thing to keep in mind about studs, however obvious this may seem, is that more so than any other style of the diamond earring we’ve discussed the diamonds themselves are much more important.


While you always want to be the diamonds in the earrings to be of superior quality, cut and polish, in the case of studs, the diamonds are the earrings, so you can’t scrimp on a selection. The diamonds, this selection is particularly important if you’re looking into studs or perhaps drops with sizeable diamonds. Again you always want the best diamonds that you can afford, but in the case of say a pair of chandelier earrings embedded with a dozen tiny diamonds you won’t need to opt out for the best.


The diamonds simply aren’t big enough and hence won’t be noticed in the same way that studs will. But back to diamond education which begins with shape and cut. Studs come in all kinds of diamond shapes, so this becomes a matter of personal preference. Round brilliants are by far the most common brilliant cuts and in general also show more fire and sparkle in the mix or step cut stones like emeralds.


The bigger the diamonds in your earrings the more important the clarity is. While there’s no need to pay for flawless diamonds, nor should you ever, ever go in anywhere near the other end of the scale. The I1 I2 or I3 category of included diamonds, anything in the VVS, VS or SI1 categories is perfectly acceptable.


Keep in mind, again, this becomes more important the diamonds are big that si1 diamonds are slightly cooler than that it may be possible though unlikely for some flaws and inclusions to be seen by the naked eye. Colour of course is also exasperated by how big the diamonds are and the bigger they are the more noticeable it will be, if you’ve chosen a colour grade with a hint of borderline yellow. Stick to something in the colourless range, these will have letter grades D, E or F or the near colours range better grades from G through J. Telling me the possibility of faint yellow or brown colour and once you’ve put this all together, the carat weight you will settle for on stud’s will ultimately be determined by your budget.


Keep it in mind, that you can always tweak any of the four C’s in order to adjust as needed and one thing I’ve always liked to remind people of, is that one needn’t not go big when it comes to studs. Small ones can suffice just fine. I have a pair of studs that I’ve sold to some of my customers one tenth and I don’t feel like a pauper when I give them to the clients. I feel glamorous that people are comfortable wearing these. Why? Because sometimes a small pair of studs defines woman’s beauty and her modesty.


Lewis Carroll’s analogy of the beginning of the post more likely to end up the perfect pair of earrings if you are coming to the decision already clear on what exactly is that you’re looking for. You’re much more likely to find the correct road to take and to ultimately get there much faster when you have some preferences for the goal. To learn more visit imagine diamonds and just to demonstrate some of the types of diamonds that we’ve talked about today, here’s a few samples.


This is the popular hoop earrings, as you can see diamonds are clearly set, was the perfect example, then we have the huggy earrings, much smaller than the hoop, but still a very classic look. Okay and then we have the drop earrings, which people like to wear on the red carpet. For more views and details of diamonds please visit imaginediamonds.com


Thank you.



How To Choose Diamond Earrings

Tuesday 25 July 2017

Gold Testing (What Gold Buyers Don"t Want You to Know!)


Right, hi guys. Today I’m going to show you how to check the karat, the weight, and the value of your gold before you send it out to any gold buyers in the mail and or take it to your local jeweller. Get rid of it, trade it out for cash for gold.


Alright so we’re going to start with this 21 karat gold chain I have here, you can see that or not, come closer and but we can do is take a loop right here which I got actually on eBay with all of this stuff right here. This is all the testing solutions for platinum, 22 karat gold, 18 karat, 14 karat, ten and also silver. Got a little stone right here, I’ll show you how, what that is used for in a second and also a jewellers scale right here.


I got all of these things right here on eBay for 20 bucks okay super cheap and super worth it if you’re going to you know if you’re considering selling your gold jewellery. So you know, have a good idea of what it’s worth before you just blindly put it in the mail and get whatever you get not knowing you know what it’s really worth. Because people will pay you less, not more. So on that note to test this necklace to see if it’s really you know a 21 karat piece, because a lot of times some pieces will be stamped one thing but not read for what it is stamped for it, could be you know nineteen karat or 18 karat versus 21, sometimes that happens you know.


So what we’re going to do is take this chain and rub it on this stone so we leave a trace of the necklace on the stone. What we’re going to do now is take the highest solution that I have here, the 22 karat, you always no matter what you’re testing, always start with a higher grade of solution and by the way this is a blend of muriatic and nitric acid; highly corrosive, don’t get it on your skin.


9ct Round Curb Chain (HM-CUR-0005)-335It’s very easy to manage in these little eyedropper bottles, so just put one drop on the stripe that you put on there, just smear it on there and you wait a few seconds and start to see what happens here is that if the karat of gold it’s less than the solution that you are using on it, it will be dissolved, it will be pretty much disappear under the solution. See how you can see the gold stripe is kind of clearing up, it’s breaking up, the acid is eating the base metals of the little the gold that’s in there, breaking it off the stone. So you know it’s definitely not a 22 karat chain, okay doesn’t say that it is, but that’s what we have to start with.


So we’re going to wipe it off that stone, we’re going to make another stripe of gold on the stone, okay and then we’re going to go down to the next solution, the 18 karat solution. Now again just a drop is enough, just rub it on there and see what happens.


Now you may or may not be able to see this but the gold is still on the stone. Okay you can still see the gold particles they’re not lifting off the stone so much as they were when the 22 carat solution was on there. So we know it’s definitely at least 18 carat, if not higher.


Let’s give it the benefit of the doubt that is a 21 carat gold chain. Clear that up, put that aside, next thing we’re going to do is weigh it. Okay you’re on the jeweller scale you turn it on and you don’t touch it, you don’t touch the table or anything let it set itself at zero and gently put the gold on there and it shows 24 grams.


You see that? Put it over, 24 grams okay and with that we’re going to calculate the value of the gold. Today on kitco.com, which is the website that most gold buyers refer to when they are checking the precious metal price, the current metal price of the day whether it’s platinum, gold, silver what-have-you. Today was 1181 or when I checked it, it changes all you know minute by the minute by the hour it was 1181 per troy ounce.


Now there are but I have 24 grams here how does that relate to a troy ounce? Well there are 31.1 grams in a troy ounce, so what we’re going to do, the way we’re going to calculate this, is we’re going to start with the world spot price per troy ounce which is 1181.  Okay 1181 and we’re going to divide that by 31.1 because that’s how many grams are in a troy ounce.


So we’ll see how much per troy ounce gold is going or how much per gram gold is going for. So divided by 31.1 equals 37.97; okay $39.97 per gram for 24 karat gold. We do not have 24 karat gold here, we have 21 karat gold, divide this by 24, breaking down per carat 24 and then we have to multiply that by the karat that we have. To see what that worth is, times 21 karat equals, so we have here is $33.22 for the karat I have.


Okay that’s on the world spot, that’s not what we’re going to get. We are going to multiply that by 24 grams, all right and that gives us $797.45 on the world spot price. But we’re not going to get a hundred percent of that, you know we’re going to take whatever, we’re going to get the difference between the gold buyer, what the gold buyer will pay us.


Typically they’ll keep, you know, if you’re just taking a couple pieces it’s between between 10 and 30% that the gold buyer will keep and you will get the rest. So we get 70 to 90 percent of what the world spot price is of the gold that you have. So on the 797 let’s say I know someone who will pay me 90% okay of world spot price, just for this one piece. A lot of times they’ll pay you more, the more gold the more pieces you have, the more percentage they will give you of the world spot price.


So let’s say so we’re going to multiply that times 0.9 797 times 0.9 equals $717.71; so this beautiful 21 karat gold chain, I can get today, 717 dollars for. On that note get rid of your old gold and cash out know what you’re taken to the bank pretty much, so you don’t get ripped off and good luck.


Video Credit – Sandro Marino



Gold Testing (What Gold Buyers Don"t Want You to Know!)

Monday 17 July 2017

Charm Bracelets


The wire wrapping here is quite secure for adding charms to a bracelet. When using jump rings however, it is necessary for them to be soldered closed. A jump ring will easily open if not soldered, so make sure you visit a jeweller to have the jump rings on your charm bracelet secured. An alternative is to use Link-Locks, these are very secure and can easily be fitted at home with a small pair of pliers or tweezers. You wouldn’t want to lose your charms because you hadn’t fitted them properly.



 


For the charm bracelet base we’re going to start with a length of chain. The chain is cut to the length of what you’d need it for, to fit you and this chain in particular we can either use flush cutters to cut the connectors apart or we can open them up. They’re like these little staples that can be opened and the chain, just take it off. So I’ll save that connector for something else and we’ll start with working with this piece of chain.


To one end we will add our jump ring, so open up the jump ring and put on the lobster clasp. We’ll have our base bracelet ready to go for making it extra pretty, because I particularly really love this chain. But with all the terms added to it is even better.


There we go okay for this charm that we’re going to add I’m going to take a head pin and cut off the head and that gives me a great length of wire to work with. Just cut off the head and now I’ve got a length of wire and on one end I will form a wrapped loop. Before I get to the wrapping part I’ll add my charm, so it’s connected securely to the length of wire.


Open the loop, slip on the loop of the charm, close the loop back up and wrap the wire to complete that wrap loop and securely connect the charm. Now we’re going to do a second wrap loop on the same length of wire so you don’t need to make this section too long, too many wraps, once you’ve got enough and everything’s secure we’ll trim the excess.


Tuck in that end and then form the second loop above the first. Again we’ll start the loop get it so that I’ve got a nice round at the top and then open that loop up. Add it to the chain, close the loop so it’s connected to that link on the chain and then finish the wrap. You’ll want to work it until it’s a nice neat wrap, trim the excess and tuck in that tail. Make sure that everything is nice and clean, until it’s as perfect as you want it.


gold bracelet and charms

Now the bracelet is ready for some colour. On an eye pin I’ve strung a couple of spacer beads and this beautiful crystal bead and I will form a wrapped loop. Now this is an eye pin so it’s a little shorter, so you won’t have a whole lot of length of wire to wrap with. You could also consider doing a simple loop and that would be fine too.


We’ll connect it to the chain, pick anywhere you still have a lot of room to work with on the chain, slip it on, close it back up and then finish that wrap. Then once that wrap is secure I’ll use the loop on the bottom that was from the original eye pin. Open that up and I’ll add a bead to dangle which is just a bead add it to a head pin finish with a simple loop; and that gives me a nice extended dangle as well as gives me a some nice movement, on the charm bracelet.


So we to this point we have our charms added using a double wrapped loop, we have dangles added with a double simple loop and then an additional dangle added with a simple loop on a head pin. One of the other options would be to on a longer head pin create a wrapped loop and add that dangle.


So we’re really just filling up the charm bracelet. Once the wrap is finished we’ll trim the tail, tuck it in, because you’ll be wearing this you want to make sure all the ends are tucked, in so it’s nice and neat, doesn’t catch on your sweaters or your shirt or your skin.


You can add a charm also using a jump ring, just open a jump ring slip on the charm and just make sure you orient the face of the charms to feed the same direction as the other charms, so that everything’s facing the right way. For some added extra texture and some movement, I’m going to take a twisted wire jump ring and add it over, well just choose this one. And it’ll just hang down nicely over the bead because it’s just big enough to still have movement, but not so big that it falls down over the beads. Just continue adding it until the bracelet is nice and full and in any pattern that you like. We’ll take our leftovers and we’re going to move into the next project.


Video Credit –  www.firemountaingems.com



Charm Bracelets

Monday 10 July 2017

Jewellery Repair


 


Most of the large chain jewellery stores you will find in shopping malls today are simply retail stores. This is a far cry from 30 or 40 years ago, before shopping centres became widespread, and the ‘shops’ you visited on the main street were individual stores run by qualified jewellers.


Finding a real ‘bench jeweller’ isn’t that difficult and you will get personal service from the actual jeweller working on your jewellery. Being able to directly discuss your requirements with the jeweller who will be doing the hands on work is worth spending a few minutes to find a local jeweller. Recommendations from friends will help to find someone you can trust or contact the JAA for a list of jewellers local to you.


The charm bracelets that we supply our customers have the charms fitted here at the Chain Me Up in-house workshop. We also produce our own range of handmade bracelets and earrings, but for complex repairs or creating a new design entirely, we have our own jeweller on the Gold Coast. When our customers come to us with a request for something we don’t have or can’t do, we send them directly to our own jeweller. We don’t charge them or receive a commission for the referral.


Having jewellery repaired or valued has become a task that nearly all major stores send to an independent technician, rather than having a qualified in-store jeweller. The upside to this is that the technician will usually be used by many of the stores in that chain and will be both qualified and competent. They wouldn’t get repeat business otherwise and a large retail chain will feed them a considerable amount of work. The downside to leaving your jewellery repairs to a national chain store is that they will add a mark-up to any work they sub-contract out, costing you more.



Just about everyone has had their jewellery repaired at some point in time. Did you ever wonder what happens to your jewellery when you drop it off at the repair shop? Well today we’re filming from our jewellery repair and manufacturing facility right here at our Beecher road location in Flint.


To give you kind of a behind-the-scenes look as to what happened the multi-step process that every item goes through when it’s brought to our store for repair. Now this is where it all happens but this obviously isn’t where it starts. It all starts when our customer brings in their jewellery. We never take lightly the confidence bestowed upon us by our customers when they leave their valuable jewellery with us.


Whether the items have great actual value or just sentimental value, we go to great lengths to see that the items are given the care they deserve. When dropped off the article undergoes its first of four different inspection processes. Our associate inspects the items not only to verify the repair requested by our customers but also to ensure that there aren’t other pressing needs that can be dealt with while the item is in our possession.


After inspection is finished and all details of repairs explained to the customer, the repair is entered into our computer system detailing a description of the items and a description of the repairs to be done. A digital photograph of each item is also taken, from multiple angles if necessary, that will follow the item as it progresses through each process of the repair.


We then scan each envelope into our computer so that we know exactly where in the process each particular repair is at any particular time. If the item is a watch the job is handed off to our in-house watchmaker and founder and my father Bob Gaines.  Anything else is carried to our in-house jewellery repair facility.


Many jewellery stores have to shift their jewellery out to be repaired to a facility out of the city or sometimes out of state, but no frequent flyer miles for the jewellery left here at Gaines. Barring something very unusual this is as far as any of the jewellery goes.


After a thorough cleaning one of our Goldsmith’s does yet another inspection of their own before work on the article begins. We do a variety of bench work in our facility ranging from prong work to sizing to intricate design and actual jewellery creation. One thing we are proud of is the fact that we own one of the very few laser welding machines in Genesee County. This new technology allows us to work on a heat sensitive items in a manner that allows us a better repair and it’s safer for the article itself.


While the traditional method of joining gold is to use gold solder the laser welder allows us to actually melt the metal together. With the laser being so focused all this is done while holding the article in our bare hand it’s, truly remarkable.


Once the work is completed each piece endures a rigorous polishing cleaning and steaming process. It is after this process is complete that the true beauty of the article becomes evidence. Before releasing the item our Goldsmith’s do yet another inspection just to make sure the repair is correct and the stones are tight and it’s ready to go.


As a final check each job then goes through one final inspection done by myself or one of our associates, just to make sure everything is clean secure and ready to be worn by the customer. Once that is done the customer is notified that their item is ready. Well I hope you enjoyed our little how we do it repair video. Thanks for allowing us to give you a little behind-the-scenes looking to our repair shop and how things work. Remember if you like to be notified when we put out more new informative videos be sure and click the follow us links it’ll pop up here in just a minute and we’ll see you next time.



Jewellery Repair

Tuesday 4 July 2017

7 Jewellery Mistakes Men Make


So what’s the biggest mistake that men make in your opinion when it comes to jewellery?


Guys, write it down in the comments below before we get too deep into this video. I’m curious because in this video I’ve got 7 common mistakes that men make when it comes to jewellery and I’m going to flip those around and I’m going to give you 7 tips on how you can wear jewellery and look great.


So my goal with today’s video gentlemen is to point out the mistake and then flip that around and show you how to use it to your advantage because I want you to think about this. Hopefully I’m going to challenge a few of your concepts when it comes to when to wear jewellery, how should it be worn and even a little about what it actually does.


Now when it comes to jewellery what I’m talking about in this video; bracelets, talking about watches, gold necklaces, we’re talking about rings. Basically ornamental pieces that send a signal and that takes me to mistake number one.


Mistake number one that men make when it comes to jewellery is they assume that it is feminine. Somehow if you’re wearing a necklace, if you’re wearing a bracelet, that this is in the realm of women. That a man should only wear maybe a wedding ring or that he should only maybe wear a watch. Guys, that cannot be further from the truth. We look historically, jewellery, rings all of this stuff it has symbolised power, it has symbolised status, it has symbolised wealth, it has symbolised where you came from and what family you’re a part of. We go back thousands of years, we look at ancient burial sites, where you will find the heads of the tribe. They were buried with their beads, they were buried with the teeth or the bones of the animals they had killed.


More modern, we see that if you were rich, if you could afford to have gold jewellery, you were perceived as a higher level status person in society. Now today, especially in the modern American society, we tried to move away from that but understand that people still pick up on this. There are many parts of the world where this is still a big deal. Understand that for many people when you wear this, it is still a symbol of status.


Mistake number two that men make when it comes to jewellery is that they don’t wear it with confidence. Gentlemen, you have to believe in what you’re wearing and you need to practice wearing it. Two parts there, first off you have to like the jewellery, it has to be something that when you look at yourself in the mirror, you’re like, ‘I like the way that looks’, then this part too, you need to practice wearing it. The first time you start to wear a bracelet it’s going to feel odd the first day. After the second day you’re not going to notice it as much and by the third day, you don’t even notice it at all until someone actually compliments you on it. Until somebody says ‘hey that’s a nice bracelet’ or ‘where did you get that, can I see it’ and that’s the cool part. When you start to wear it with confidence it becomes a second skin, it becomes a conversation piece. Now guys, this video is brought to you by Zorrata, they’re the ones that sent me this bracelet. I’ve got some other ones here so if you go check out their website, let me know which bracelet in particular you like, I’ve got some I’m going to be getting rid of and you guys know what that means, I’m going to send them to you guys but you need to go to their website. Did you like their royal collection, did you like their lion collection. What do you think of their anchor bracelets and by the way their anchor bracelets are one of the most popular sellers. It’s a very simple bracelet, let’s start off with, I know many opf you guys love the look of the anchor bracelet, there’s actually a unique stone set right into the anchor. What I love about bracelets like this guys, is they’re not going to break the bank but they will definitely level up your style if you can pull it off with confidence.


The third mistake that men make when it comes to jewellery is they don’t pay attention to the situation. Understand that if you’re going into an interview and it’s a conservative industry that you wearing a whole bunch of rings, having a nose ring, having earrings, just having jewellery all over the place. It may not send the signal and yes you can say ‘they shouldn’t judge me based off this’ but I understand that people are human. They will judge you, pay attention to those details. Understand that if you go into another culture, if you go into another country they may not perceive that in a positive light.


Mistake number 4 is over accessorising and this basically is wearing too much and not allowing individual pieces to shine. What I mean by that is you can wear less and allow each piece to shine. A lot of guys may like to wear quite a few bracelets or maybe they’re going to go for quite a few necklaces, I like to keep it simple. In addition I like to spread things out, so if I want to wear a watch on one side then that’s where I would wear the bracelet on the other. Now some of you guys are saying ‘Now Antonio, I just love all my pieces and I’m going to wear them all at the same time.’ To me you should have a rotation, especially if you’ve got a few favourite necklaces; you maybe have a few favourite bracelets. Find a rotation that works for you, don’t wear everything at once.


Mistake number 5 is not wearing the ‘right’ piece of jewellery for you. You want to pay attention to proportion, you want to pay attention to skin tone. So proportion, what do I mean by this? I’ve got two bracelets right here. I was sent both of these by the sponsor and Zarrata, when I looked at these, I’m like you know, very similar bracelets, but the one I decided to wear and I’ve been wearing is a little bit smaller.


I’ve talked about this, I am relatively a smaller guy, especially when it comes to wrist size. So because of this I don’t want to wear something that’s oversized or gaudy but if you’re six foot five, 300 pounds and you’ve got huge 8 inch wrists, well in that case, you want to make sure the watch, you want to make sure that whatever you’re wearing is going to be sized appropriately. Otherwise it’s just going to look too small.


When it comes to skin tone you either are cool tone or you’re warm tone. For me the easiest way to look at this is to look at your blue veins. If you can see the blue in your veins, most likely you’re cool toned. If you’re warm toned, you’re not going to be able to see them very well, but what colours have you always naturally gravitated towards gold or have you gone towards silver?


The  6th mistake men make when it come to jewellery is that they do not maintain it. Guys, this is abig one. It can cost you a lot of money especially if you have some precious stones in your rings. Now my wedding ring, relatively very simple, no stones in it but my wife’s engagement ring I can tell you I spent a lot of money on that thing and I did notice that her stone is starting to become loose. I’m going to take it into the jeweller and they’re going to basically tighten it up and make sure that stone doesn’t fall out. Even if you don’t have stones, understand that you don’t want to be using toothpaste and yes it may give that initial first clean, but that’s so abrasive it’s going to damage oftentimes a lot, it’s can actually damage the metal. If you spent a lot of money on your jewellery you want to take it to a jeweller who can treat it with respect and use the right materials. Things like alcohol cleaners, the problem if you’ve got opal, if you’ve got turquoise, if you’ve got emeralds, these are very delicate stones that can be damaged if you don’t treat them correctly. The worst thing is when you try to take care and you do it yourself and you end up damaging. Take your stuff into a professional jeweller.


Finally, mistake number 7 gentlemen is don’t shower or wash with jewellery. So with this bracelet right here, it has an elastic band in it. I’m not going to be mistreating this, I’m not going to be throwing it in hot and cold water. It will basically cut the life of this significantly, the same actually for many of your rings. They are going to get soap scum on them, underneath some of the stones that are also going to lose their brilliance because you’re going to get hard water on there. Anyone who does any type of cleaning jewellery can tell you that it’s some of the hardest stuff to remove.


Video Credit – Real Men Real Style



7 Jewellery Mistakes Men Make

Monday 3 July 2017

The Best Earring Styles For Your Face



One of the things that I’ve wanted to do for a really really long time is do a video on what earrings you can wear and so often here in the shop, see customers walk in and they have no idea what kind of earrings look good on them and what they can wear and really get them to think outside of their boundaries and they leave here with earrings bigger than they ever thought they could wear.


I came up with this device with this chart to show you the easiest way to try and figure out some of the earrings you can wear that you probably don’t think you can wear right now. The first thing you are going to want to do is you’re going to find the widest place on your face. What we did is a chart here and it’s not terribly complicated. Here we’re showing a lot of times, this is a diamond or oval shape, the widest part of her face is her forehead. In this particular face and this lends itself more to the ovals and the rounds, is it is right across the cheek line. This is very important for you to know and also in a square type shape you’re wider down at the bottom.


The reason this is terribly important that you understand these things is that it is going to help you with the proportions and the length of the type of earrings that you can wear. When we talk about balance and proportion it’s also important to understand your jaw line and what that is. There are 3 types of jaw line, there’s a square jaw line which you see in a square face. There’s a rounded jaw line and all of this is going to affect the shape and the length of the earring you can wear, and also there’s a more pointed.


I want you to consider that when you start to see some of the earrings that we’re going to show you on these faces. I told you the most important thing you have to work with to decide the proportion and the right earring is where is the widest area of your face. I thought, let’s take these in detail and put some earrings to them to show you how it works.


In this particular case the widest area is at the forehead and this is a narrower chin line. This is important because this actually is a very popular face style. What a lot of what we see now will work with this and also some other ones that have narrower jaw lines. The area I look at when I’m looking at where I’m going to put the balance of the earring is right in this area here, where I’m looking to put some kind of detail. The weight of my earring, the bulk of the weight of my earring I want to do here in this particular face style, not up here.


That’s not necessarily a bad thing because one of the things I was taught by a jeweller in Italy was the closer the jewellery goes to your eyes the more you emphasise your eyes. The longer your jewellery goes down, the more it’s going to emphasise your face. This is a sexier look, this is a more romantic look so that’s something to consider that’s beyond of what we can wear.


Let’s do some particular jewellery lines. This is a bigger one, I’m going to tell you I don’t do little very well, and if I do little, I do it with a bright colour because the only times I do little is if I have a really ornate necklace and it calls for just a little bit of light at my face but the focal point is the necklace. In a situation like this if you can see I put an earring like this on its filling the area that I’m talking about, this is very flattering. In fact it doesn’t really show it here, but when this does on a tilt, this is very sexy and I also like earrings that have movement. This is a nice earring as you can see with this particular style. It’s not necessarily that you can only wear that wider, here is another style that I really like. This goes with a lot of them. I’m going to try to do this without dropping him but you can see what’s happening. Again it’s filling in and it’s down in this area here which gives us the most attractive look. It’s also filling a lot of colour to the face, it helps with your skin tones.


Your hair colour is going to make a little difference. This is one of the ones I hear that people can’t wear all the time. It’s a long one but it’s very popular. We get a lot of people, see what’s happening here? Your neck will be affected, if you have a shorter neck you don’t want to get too much under here in this particular type earring but a lot of times if you expose your neck and have your neck line exposed you can wear these a little lower because it’s going to settle a little bit on your neckline. You wouldn’t do this if you have a collar because it’s going to be in the way all the time and I think you’re going to be a little self conscious, but it’s really pretty.


If you want to do that with a collar, this is a great one. This can be as long as you want it and I’ve sold these very, very, long where they were draping down almost to the shoulder.  You see you don’t have to worry because the balance of the earring is up in the jaw line, filling it in and doesn’t she look pretty with that colour? This chain can be as long as you want, I’ve sold them all the way down so this is another pretty look with this one.


There is a trend more so to clip these days. The reason for that is when you do a pierced; it’s going to pull the earring down. Some of these bigger earrings are a little weightier so you need to do a clip. Also a pierced earring can never be positioned exactly on the ear. It’s only going to be wherever your hole is or where ever it pulls down. This idea of a clip being where you can actually position this on the ear where ever you want is really nice because you can put it in detail to your face.


There are earrings that have right and left. The ideal way is to have your earring, and this is a good example, flowing always into your face. See how it looks if it is on this side? So on this earring you want to make sure whatever you’re doing, so it always wants to be flowing into your face. This is a lot of tips for how you want to wear it for this particular style and this is an easy one to show.


The widest part in a round shape is across the cheek line and this shape is a little more demanding. You have to consider if you have a shorter or longer neckline and your hair becomes extremely important in this. One of the easy things right off the bat is, if you don’t do anything, is that you want to start thinking about that area that you have which is right in here. Notice that it’s dropped lower and it’s a little smaller than it would be especially now that might be bigger if you have a longer neck, so you have to take that into consideration.


Here we have an area and see how pretty this looks, I like a geometric shape when you have a round face because it’s a contrast to the round and it pulls away with that constantly doing that. Another area here that’s always good is if you’re going to wear round earrings, it’s always lucky if you have short hair cuts and you can bring the weight where they’re going to widen you out up here. This will help you a lot to wear more types of earrings too.


Another thing that’s different about this hairdo and I’m going to use one of the other earrings, this shape I should say, is you really want to drop. If you have a long neck and a round face I definitely would be wearing the longest earring you can possibly get, because it’s really going to help you. Look at the difference between this and if you drop this earring down here. Again, I’m going to emphasise clip where you can position the earring exactly where you want to. This can be very very pretty and I just might point it out to you, this is definitely very romantic because this is the widest part, so whenever you emphasise up here remember it’s romantic.


These little round faced people are going to be sexy all the time because they’re going to have longer earrings to draw it out. We’ve come to the part now where it’s mostly identified with square faces and it’s where the widest part of you is at the bottom or around your chin line. This is usually accompanied by more of a rounded or squared chin line. What we want to do here is opposite of what we’ve done with the last two faces. We want to bring the weight away from the widest part of your face and bring it up here more towards your eyes and closer to the ear.


Just to show you the difference, here’s an earring we used in one of the others and when we were using it, we were using it like this; we were using the weight to drop down in this area and as you can see with this particular type of jaw line, it’s not as good. If we move it up and bring the weight up around the chin line, look how much better that earring looks. It’s really important to understand that you want to keep the weight away from the widest part of your face and it really show here.


Another good example that we used in one of the others, and this was when we used this one in the round, is remember how we used it in the round, we showed it here and it fit in so nicely. It doesn’t look as well here, look how much better it looks if we take the weight and put it at the top. Again, keeping it in the wider part. Remember a lot of eye makeup here will be very pretty because you’re going to be emphasising your eyes a lot when you have a square face.


Another one that shows it and this also emphasises that you need a left and a right earring. Now a lot of people think you should bring this shorter here but it doesn’t because the line, it goes out. This is one of those right, but remember we have the weight up by the ear, this is the right side for this earring , that goes into the face and look how pretty that is.


These are just some of the ideas we have that can show you the kinds of earring you can wear. You can wear bolder earrings and then the right place and you don’t feel uncomfortable. Showing you some earrings that you can wear with certain face shapes to get you the best results but most important is you shouldn’t be missing an opportunity to make yourself look more beautiful.


Video Credit – Marilyn Hellman



The Best Earring Styles For Your Face

Sunday 25 June 2017

How To Read a GIA Diamond Grading Report


The diamonds for sale at Chain Me Up are graded for your information, but as they are below 1 carat they do not have a GIA report due to the cost involved in obtaining one.


GIA is the creator of the famous four C’s of diamond value and the international diamond grading system which sets the standards for diamond grading, making us the world’s most respected independent authority on diamond grading.


Each diamond submitted to the GIA grading laboratory is tested to be sure it is actually a natural diamond, a synthetic diamond and to see if it has been treated or not. Then it is graded independently by several highly trained graders.


This is an example of a GIA diamond report which details all pertinent information about a stones quality and characteristics. This is the date the report was issued. Each diamond is assigned a unique identification number. All the grading information for the diamond is stored in GIA’s global database under this report number. Some people choose to have GIA inscribe the report number on the diamond’s girdle to aid in identifying it. You can also inscribe a special logo, graphic or personal message. This line shows that this stone has been laser inscribed with the GIA report number.


This diamond has a round girdle outline and the facets are cut in the brilliant style. This is the stones minimum girdle diameter, the maximum girdle diameter and the diamond’s depth. For a fancy shaped diamond the measurements listed are length, width and depth.


The GIA report also has a facet diagram that approximates the shape and cutting style of the stone. Diamonds are weighed in carats. One carat equals one fifth of a gram. GIA records weight to the nearest one hundredth of a carat which is the internationally recognised practice.


GIA grades colourless and near colourless diamonds for the absence of colour when viewed through the pavilion from colourless to light yellow or brown by comparing them to GIA master colour comparison diamonds. The scale shows the relative position of the colour grades in the GIA colour scale. This stone, a ‘G’, falls in here in the near colourless range.


GIA graders examine diamonds for the presence of any internal and external characteristics. Based on the size, nature and number of any clarity characteristics found using a 10 power loupe, they assign a clarity range of flawless to included. Here is the GIA clarity scale, you can see that VS2 falls in the very slightly included range. Significant or identifying characteristics are marked on the facet diagram. The symbols represent the type, position and approximate size of a clarity characteristic and a key to the symbols used is below the diagram.


Here you can see how cut can affect the appearance of a diamond. This stone shows an even pattern of reflections, this one is dark in the centre and the facets are washed out. The GIA cut grade is used for round brilliant only and is based on the stones face up appearance, design and craftsmanship and it is listed here. This is the scale for the GIA cut grade ranging from excellent to poor. The angles and proportions of the diamond measured with an optical measuring device are presented on the report on this diagram.


Fish grades include polish which is the overall condition or smoothness of the diamond surface and symmetry which is the exactness of the diamond’s outline and the shape, placement and alignment of its facets.


If a diamond shows fluorescence to long-wave ultraviolet, the fluorescent colour and strength can help identify it. Blue is the normal colour of fluorescence in diamonds but it may be other colours. If there is no discernible fluorescence or it is very faint, GIA lists ‘none’ on the report.


Comments describe additional identifying characteristics that are not otherwise represented on the report as well as treatments and if the diamond is inscribed with a special logo, graphic or personal message it is listed here.


GIA diamond reports are highly valued, to ensure that you are in possession of a real report and not a fake or copy they include a suite of security components including a hologram, security screen and micro print lines in addition to several other propriety security features. The GIA diamond dossier is similar to a GIA diamond report but less expensive. It provides the same information as a GIA diamond report but it does not include a facet diagram and plot of clarity characteristics. Instead clarity characteristics are listed here. This is the only real difference between the information on a diamond dossier and a GIA diamond report and all diamonds submitted for a GIA diamond dossier are laser inscribed with the report number.


GIA is not affiliated with any retailer or wholesaler or manufacturer giving you peace of mind knowing that your GIA diamond report or diamond dossier represents the impartial opinion of unbiased professionals. It’s the difference between wondering and knowing.



How To Read a GIA Diamond Grading Report

Monday 19 June 2017

If Jewellery Commercials Were Honest


Thought this was funny, and not that far from the truth in many high end jewellery stores that play on your emotions.


Let me guess, shopping for someone special? These are some pretty rocks we found. They can’t be used for anything and they all cost an exorbitant amount of money.


Some come in shapes and others come with metal wrapped around them. To get them we turn a blind eye to child labourers in the mines directly financed unsustainable mining practices the world over and in some cases buy diamonds directly from maniacal warlords using the money to buy guns and kill their countrymen.


You might think that the danger involved is why they’re so expensive but actually it’s just because we decided they are. There are vaults full of these things but we only sell a few a year to keep the price up like a ticket scalper except that a scalped ticket can be exchanged for the experience of going to a live show and these are inherently worthless rocks like this one, one of my favourites.


This is from our signature shiny rock that we found collection, it’s sure to make that special someone think, “you’re willing to spend too much money on something that shouldn’t cost that much money.” That’s love.


Actually full disclosure, this is cubic zirconia, it looks basically the same but it costs almost nothing. So we use it as a show model. I’ve got a yellow one and I’ve got one shaped like a square, I call these ones ‘fancy’, so we can charge more. Of course if you’re trying to coat an industrial drill, then real diamonds work better otherwise glass is fine but please buy diamonds instead because they cost so much more.


What about that one? Oh, that’s not a jewel, that’s just a pretty rock, it’s worthless. Alan, stop putting rocks in the display case unless you put the rocks in that we arbitrarily decided that are worth a lot of money. Sorry.


Hard to find good help these days when you sell shiny rocks at the mall to idiots. Oh, no offence. So come on down to shiny rock mall store and trade your rectangular pieces of paper and assorted metal disks for these rocks we found. We also accept that you hand us a plastic rectangle and we run it through a computer and hand it back to you. Oh, I’m Roger by the way.


 



If Jewellery Commercials Were Honest

Monday 12 June 2017

Gold Necklace Extenders

LC80EX-400x400It can be difficult to know exactly what length you should choose when purchasing a solid gold necklace.


Often the length will be dictated by the choice of the pendant it carries. You know exactly where the pendant should sit against your chest, and the length of the necklace chain is selected to accommodate this. Being able to buy a necklace of an exact length is one of the major advantages of buying gold chains from Fraser Ross.


Sometimes however the necklace will be used for more than just one pendant, and you may wish to wear them in slightly different positions. So rather than having to purchase two separate chains, how would you feel if you could make one chain just a few centimetres longer? You can, and it’s called a chain extender.


If the chain is to be worn alone, then you may want to match it to the outfit(s) you are planning on wearing it with. Normally you would want to wear it above or below the neckline of your top. If it sits at about the same height of your collar opening, it won’t be seen, so it would be better to have it shorter or longer.


We have a few ways that you can change the length of your necklace chain to make it suit more of the clothing you wear.


One choice is to buy a matching chain extender. If for example, if the perfect necklace length was 45cm to 50cm, depending on your top, you could buy a 45cm necklace and a 5cm chain extender. This gives you the opportunity to wear your chain short to suit a high open neck top, or you can add the extra chain and it will fall nicely over the high collar of a t-shirt. As the chain extenders are only 5cm long, they should remain hidden behind you head and under you hair. If you can see one side, it just looks like the clasp you would normally see on your necklace anyway.


Another way to have a single chain that can be made to different lengths is the simplest of all. Work out the longest size that you would want for your necklace and that is the size to order. If you choose the right style of chain, it is possible to connect the parrot clasp to one of the links inside the necklace instead of the loop at the end of the chain.


This requires a style of gold chain that has wide open links so that the parrot clasp can fit inside a link along the necklace. Belcher chains are one style that this becomes an easy option with. Each individual link is normally round although oval belcher chains are also quite common, but both these designs have adequate space inside the links for a parrot clasp to attach. A 55cm chain can easily be shortened to say 47cm by connecting the clasp back down the chain at an appropriate link. The remaining chain simply hangs behind your head from the clasp on your necklace.


Cable chains and long open curb chains also have links that can accommodate the clasp, so you aren’t limited to one of the belcher chain styles.


So it is possible to make a necklace shorter by taking advantage of the open link style chains or make it longer by adding a necklace chain extender. In a perfect world we would be able to afford a necklace chain to suit every outfit, with and without a pendant, but that is rarely the case, so now you know how to do the best you can with what you have.


 



Gold Necklace Extenders

Thursday 8 June 2017

Starting a Jewellery Business

ipad-website-cmu-750Wow, it’s now 7 years since I launched my online jewellery store and a lot has changed since day one.


I really thought it would be easy, I had a long and varied computer background and well understood (or so I thought) how to create webpages, manage a server and hack the odd program to make it work the way that I wanted, not the way the original programmer intended. Seems easy enough.


Prior to my computer career, I managed and provided all the technical support to a number of photographic labs. These ranged from large commercial providers where we would print photos the size of walls for advertising, through to the everyday, drop your film off and and get the prints and negatives back in a few days. I also installed the first mini-lab for Kodak in Box Hill, a suburb of Melbourne. It was run under a different name so they could get customer feedback that would be unbiased by the having best known brand in the world of photography on their signage. Surely someone with this much experience wouldn’t have any problems taking photos of the jewellery we sell? Being highly technically  skilled does not guarantee you can take a good photo, this is definitely a different skill set.


Well, let me say nothing is ever as easy as you would expect. Take photographing something really small and very shiny (like a silver charm) for example. Having the correct lighting for the shot is absolutely critical, which in itself is no easy task. When each piece is different in shape and reflects light very differently, the lighting needs to be changed for every photo. The camera position is also critical and needs to be changed to suit each different silver or gold charm to get the best angle(s) of view. Changing this of course means that the lighting has to be re-adjusted, oh dear.


If you have ever taken a close up photo of jewellery, you will know that this is just the start of your problems. You have to deal with reflections, something that doesn’t happen when shooting products that aren’t a mirror finish like silver or gold jewellery. Taking a single photo usually means that the whole piece is not in focus, it will be sharp at the front, middle or back, but not all three.


Our photos have changed considerably over time as we have acquired new equipment. A light tent is important as it guarantees constant lighting, unaffected by any ambient light sources, and was the first upgrade to our kit. The first camera we used was a Fuji Finepix, it did an OK job, but lacked any real control over close focusing and exposure compensation. We upgraded to a Canon SLR with a true macro lens. This gave us much better control over all the camera functions and was a big step forward. The real advantage though was being able to connect it to a computer and control everything from the computer screen. Focusing was still a problem as the depth of field when shooting close up is very narrow and our photos where still not in focus all the way from front to back. You can ‘stop down’ the lens aperture to compensate, but this introduces other issues with digital cameras. So to counteract this we invested in some new software that could take multiple images, from the front to the back of a piece with each focused at a different point. A companion software program combines all the individual images into one, that is in focus all the way from front to back. Yeah, a perfectly focused close up photo of a stunning gold charm!


Of course, getting the photo from the camera is just the start. It then has to be cleaned up in a graphics program to remove the background and any tiny dust spots that may have been missed when shooting. Colour correction is also needed at times and images may need to be lightened or darkened to stand out from the background. To make the images load quickly from our website, they must be as small as possible. There is always a trade-off between speed and quality, so getting just the right balance is important.


Our website runs eCommerce software that does everything from showing our jewellery products and their options and pricing, searching for items that we stock and looking after the transfer of funds from PayPal when we make a sale. It is comprised of hundreds of individual programs that interact with each other to form the shopping cart sections of our website. The overall layout is now based on bootstrap, which is excellent for creating a responsive design, that views well on computers, tablets and mobile phones.


Over the years we have made many custom edits to the cart software to make it do things that the software company hadn’t included. This in itself isn’t really a problem, until they release an update and we have to find and re-edit the changes we made earlier in the updated programs. As they are very active in improving their software, these updates are released more frequently than we would prefer. Thankfully, they have also included many of the ‘fixes’ we have custom written into the base product, so we have less to do each time.


Web design, cart software and photographs are only a small part of what it takes to build a jewellery store in the online world. There are so many other aspects to running a successful online store, each with its challenges. As a small business, we don’t have a massive support crew to call on day and night, so it mostly is a matter of head down and bum up until a solution is found.


So, would I do it all again? The same way? Hell, NO! Hindsight tells me I should find someone who had already been through all the trials and tribulations I have experienced over the past 7 years and paid them to do it for me. Having said that, I have learned a lot and if anyone needs my help to launch a new online store, I am well armed with the knowledge I wish I had when I started out.



Starting a Jewellery Business

Tuesday 6 June 2017

Jewellery Care

tangled-jewelleryWe often get enquiries from our customers at Chain Me Up as to how to properly care for their jewellery.


The first and most important thing we advise is to store their jewellery correctly. The worst thing you can do is just throw all your pieces into a box or drawer. This can lead to scratches as silver and gold are quite soft and are easily damaged by scraping on the much harder stones such as rubies, diamonds and even the glass stones in fashion jewellery.


It should also be noted that gold rubbing against gold or silver won’t normally cause any damage. Customers who are unaware of this will order a number of charms from our store and ask for them to be individually wrapped. They then have the charms fitted to their bracelet where they bounce against each other all day long and don’t get damaged.


It fact the last thing we do with our charms before shipping them is to polish them in a tumbler. This is a rubber barrel filled with stainless steel media, the jewellery, water and a few drops of detergent. The media is made up of balls, pins and saucers (like flying saucers) and this burnishes the surface of the jewellery to harden it and create a beautiful shine. The tumbler turns the barrel for about 8 hours and everything inside is constantly rubbing against and striking the media and each other. So no, your charms won’t be damaged by shipping them all together in one pouch.


If you own a number of necklaces and store them all together in a box, it is likely that you have found after time and digging through to find the necklace you want to wear, that the chains have all tangled together. Untangling a bunch of fine gold chains is about as much fun as trying to sort white sugar and brown sugar granules from a kitchen spill. The other issue here is that people get frustrated and can apply too much force in trying to untangle the mess and can damage the chains.


You should store your necklaces and bracelets individually in the box or suede pouch them came in. It will stop them tangling and being scratched by gemstones. You can also hang them one to a peg from a necklace tree and this also makes it easier to find the chain that you want to wear.


There are some beautiful jewellery boxes that have individual compartments for storing everything from necklaces to rings to pendants where everything can be easily seen as well as protected. The one down side to this is that all your precious jewellery can be picked up together in the event of a robbery.


Should you find that you need to untangle a mess of gold chains, then there are a couple of helpful hints to make it a little easier. Lay the chains flat on tea towel or table cloth; it is easier if gravity isn’t working against you. A light sprinkle of talcum powder works like a lubricant and helps to get the different chains to separate. A couple of dress makers pins can be used to pick fine chains apart, generally this works better than your fingers, especially with very fine chains.


One of the most common causes of jewellery losing its lustre is contamination. This may be soap, shampoo or conditioner if you wear your necklace or earrings in the shower. It is also common for people to apply makeup or perfume whilst wearing jewellery, this is not a good idea, put on your jewels last thing after getting made up.


Silver and sterling silver can be affected by sulphur compounds which cause tarnishing. This causes the surface of the silver to slowly turn yellowish. If it is left uncleaned it will eventually turn a very dark grey. This is the same effect as ‘antiquing’ or deliberately darkening silver using liver of sulphur (a mixture of potassium sulphides). A jeweller can clean it for you or you can easily do it yourself with a homemade recipe that we have on our website.



Jewellery Care

Thursday 1 June 2017

Charms for life

gold bracelet and charmsA quality gold or silver charm bracelet will last a lifetime and will carry the individual memories of each of your achievements. Sometimes charms are collected just because they are beautiful, but much more often the reason is much more important. Birthdays, weddings, a love of a particular sport, the musical instrument or graduating with a degree are just some of the reasons your charm bracelet keeps growing.


If you are just getting the bug and starting out a charm bracelet from scratch, there are a few things to consider before taking the leap.


Most people once bitten, will wear their bracelet nearly every day, some never take them off. Any jewellery that is going to be worn 24/7 needs to be great quality. It is false economy to buy cheap bracelets, they just won’t last the test of time and they could never become the family heirloom. For this reason we only recommend and sell solid precious metal chains and charms. Gold filled, gold or silver plated, rolled gold, vermeil, gold layered and gold bonded are just terms for inferior jewellery, anything other than solid gold or solid sterling silver is really just costume jewellery, and certainly something that will never be passed down through your family.


The style of chain is also very important, to connect charms with a jump ring, the links in the bracelet need to be open and this is why the belcher chains are so popular with charm collectors. That’s not to say you couldn’t use any other style of chain that you find more attractive, just make sure that a jump ring can easily fit within the chain links. The other advantage of a belcher bracelet is that the links are short compared with other designs. This means that a belcher chain will have more links than a curb chain of the same length for example, the more links, the more ways you can arrange the charms.


Normally a jeweller will solder the jump rings closed to make sure the charms stay connected to the the bracelet. There are other ways to connect your charms though. Parrot clasps can be used to enable you to move charms around on a bracelet or to another bracelet. For Pandora style snake chains, traditional charms can be fitted to a ‘slider’ that the snake chain fits through allowing you to mix and match bead style charms with traditional charms on the same bracelet.


Link-Locks are an Australian invention that are just as secure as soldering, but you can fit them yourself. This is usually cheaper than visiting a jeweller, but it is sometimes good to have a professional look over your jewellery to spot and correct any small problems before any damage becomes a major problem. (A bit off topic, but engagement rings and other rings with precious stones should be checked yearly)


When choosing the charms to add to your bracelet you will very likely be influenced more by what is important to you than anything else. If you are buying for someone else, this should be the only reason you choose a particular charm. A charm bracelet is the very important story of one’s life and the events, achievements and loves that have shaped that life.


As with the bracelet chains, the quality of the charms is paramount. We only stock solid sterling silver and solid gold charms, anything else will not last, and a charm bracelet is a lifelong endeavour. If you purchase a bracelet and charms in one purchase, we can arrange them and solder the jump rings at the same time. You just have to let us know how you want your charms arranged.


Poorly made charms abound on sites like eBay and you may be tempted by the ‘great’ prices. In life, if something seems to good to be true, it is. Always. Due to very poor oversight on internet market websites, many charms are made of brass and silver or gold plated and then stamped (hallmarked) as being 925 silver or 375 gold. Only buy jewellery from a reputable site and you will be assured of getting what you paid for.


I’m sure we haven’t answered all of your questions, so feel free to call or email us. We are open everyday from 8am to 8pm and would love to help you to make the right decision when purchasing quality jewellery.


 



Charms for life

Monday 29 May 2017

Rural Jewellery Shopping

fraserrossblogLiving in rural Australia has so many benefits, clean fresh air, little traffic, room to run free and massive gardens to plant out all manner of fruit trees and vegetable gardens.


One of the downsides that comes with living away from major cities though is the lack of amenities and access to great shopping opportunities. With the explosion of the internet and better access to high speed connections, what was once impossible has now become ‘the norm’, shopping online. Other than the delivery times can be longer than for those living in the cities, it matters not where you live anymore. The massive increase in on-line stores has levelled the playing field for everyone regardless of location.


Most retail jewellery stores, city or country, have a limited range of products due to the high cost of having to hold stock of every conceivable design. The opposite is true of on-line stores like Chain Me Up. We actually keep no products in stock at all, all of our jewellery is made to order. Not only can we have an incredibly wide range of products to choose from, most can be custom made to your exact requirements.


As an example, our heaviest gold chain is available in any length, in yellow gold, rose gold and white gold. It can also be made in combinations of yellow, rose and white gold, so you could have 3 yellow links then 1 rose gold link followed by a white gold link and then the pattern repeats. You also have a choice of a parrot clasp or you could decide to opt for a filigree padlock instead. As these necklaces and bracelets are made to order any custom design is possible. For a retail store to offer this choice and have one of each on hand to buy, there would be around $8,000,000 of stock for just one style of gold chain. Clearly this is not economically viable, so the options in a retail store are limited.


As we produce all of our jewellery to order, there is a small wait (normally 2 or 3 weeks) for your necklace or bracelet to be manufactured. The advantage of custom made is that you don’t have to compromise. You want a 47cm oval belcher chain necklace in rose gold with a padlock clasp? At Chain Me Up, Easy! But I  doubt you would be able to walk into a jewellery store and have them gift wrap one for you, then and there.


Some people have concerns about buying on-line from a website. At Chain Me Up, we have several measures in place to alleviate those concerns. Our store is entirely run using an EV SSL certificate. This means we have undergone extensive security checks and all information passing between our website and your computer is encrypted, guaranteeing that no third parties can see the communications.


We have selected PayPal to handle every credit card transaction, during the checkout phase, you are dealing with a massive global business and we never even see your credit card details.


Over the past 7 years since we first launched our on-line store we have become a well trusted brand with many returning customers and referrals to friends and family of those customers. We also have a 7 day no questions return policy, this means you can buy confidently knowing that the products we supply are exactly as shown in our store and the quality of those products equals or exceeds what you will find in a retail store.


Lastly our prices are extremely competitive as we largely avoid the overheads of a ‘bricks and mortar’ and not having a keep a massive inventory of products.


 



Rural Jewellery Shopping

Friday 26 May 2017

Handmade Jewellery

sterling-silver-earrings-laycie-750Creating a range of handmade sterling silver earrings and bracelets has given us a chance to develop new skills and expand the range of jewellery we have in our online store.


We begin with spools of 100% recycled sterling silver wires in different gauges and some pre-made findings. We chose to not create our own findings as the ones that are readily available suit our needs and reduce the amount of work in each finished product.


We usually start from a design on paper, but sometimes we just play with a number of different rings we have already made and see how they fit together in various combinations. Often the designs on paper change along the way, but having an idea of what we want to achieve give us a point from which to begin.


To create the rings we wind wire from the spool onto a mandrel that is about 90mm long and of the desired diameter. The smallest rings are about 4mm and this is also the size of the jump rings we make for our charms. The largest rings are about 25mm for some of our earrings, but mostly we use 6, 8 10 and 12mm rings for our bracelets.


 


sterling-silver-bracelet-Celeste-no-clasp-750It’s important to keep a constant tension on the wire when loading the mandrel to get rings of consistent size. Depending on the gauge of the wire we get between 50 and 90 rings over the length of the mandrel. The spiral is removed from the mandrel and placed into a jump ring cutter. This is essentially a slotted clamp that holds the spiral firmly. A flexible shaft rotary tool is fitted with a very fine toothed circular saw blade. A special head fits the jump ring cutter and holds the saw blade aligned to the centre of the spiral. When cutting the rings, it is important to use a lubricant and a slow steady pressure to get the cleanest possible cuts.


Joining the rings together is done using an argon pulse welder. Argon is an inert gas that surrounds the weld position to prevent oxygen being present when the arc is fired. The absence of oxygen prevents/reduces fire scale and the weld is strong and clean. To produce consistent weld quality we developed a jig that keeps the arc distance constant and provides a method to ensure the argon is concentrated at the weld point.


With smaller ring sizes it is often easier to pre-weld and attach larger open rings that are welded around the smaller rings. When several rings all connect together, this is preferred, but not always possible depending upon the bracelet design.


The important difference between the jewellery we hand make and that of many cottage/boutique jewellers, is that every link in our jewellery is welded. This creates bracelets that are much stronger and much less likely to break or deform. This is time consuming and is reflected in the pricing, but great quality is the focus of our creations and the only way to produce jewellery that will last a lifetime.


As with any craft, great results can only be achieved by building from a strong foundation. This means that every step along the way, from the initial creation of each ring, with a perfect cut to the final polish must be perfect. One of the most difficult aspects of creating a bracelet or earrings is ensuring perfect alignment of the ring closure at the point of firing the arc. This takes much practice and a very steady hand and even after performing thousands of welds, it is not a fast process.



Handmade Jewellery