Custom jewlers in Philadelphia

[mingagreen]

Hello all, I am looking for a custom jewler in the Philadelphia/ Allentown area. I have not been to jewlers row and have visited a few local B&M stores in my area although I am not sold. I am going to upgrade my Ering to a pave set around my center stone and on the band ( if that makes sense!) I am looking for any feed back or experiences anyone has had in this area. Thank you all for any help. Sorry if this is a repeat post

 

[dugwr]

Hi there..this is my first post to this board, although I have been lurking here for quite a while. So I wan''t to say thanks to everyone who has posted their thoughts and pictures. You''ve been extremely helpful to me. I went to the Philly Jeweler''s row today with an exact idea of what I wanted (center stone bezel encircled with smaller pave-ish border a la Ritani''s Endless love and numerous vintage pics I''ve seen), my deceased MIL''s .475 ct diamond solitaire, and my own anniversary band to have the stones reset.

I''m posting this because I noticed that we have lots of similarities--an inherited smaller stone, a love for the bezel/pave "ritani endless love look", white metal, and a concern for safety. (And I also live about 1 hour away from the city, but to the west having moved from the Lehigh Valley!) And I found a great match for me in Philly today: Ed G. Campbell & Co, 702 Samson Street.

I think I visited almost every shop on Jeweler''s Row, looking at semi-mounts and getting ideas on custom work. Lots of folks tried to talk me out of resetting my small round accent stones around the bezel center because they were "too large" and the center stone "too small"...then others said they would make something for me, costing an arm an a leg (but some still less than the designer settings). In the end, I walked in to talk to Mr. Campbell, described what I had in mind, and in less than a minute he had pulled out a picture of a ring he had just finished designing, and it was almost exactly what I had in mind. And when he came up with the quote for my ring it was actually hundreds less than anyone else around. YAY!

So, he said I will have my new ring in 10 days or less...if you want (and are still looking for a jeweler), I''d be happy to send you the pictures when I get it. He''s also going to email me the pic of the setting he showed me today, if you''re interested in seeing that. But I would definitely take the trip and spend a day looking around. There really are some beautiful semimounts available at fairly reasonable prices. And if you are set on a bezel as I am, just about everyone there was willing to modify the prong settings that I liked.

Incidentally, I agree with one of your earlier posts about size. I''m not a jewelry person--everyone in my family loves to load on the bling--my mom was with me today and was talking to some of the jewelers about getting her heirloom 4 ct reset!!! But I''m what I would consider a "jewelry wrecker"--if I don''t lose it, I break it...my solitaire had 1 prong completely bent double, and one without a tip when I noticed it was looking strange, and my band was crushed into my finger without my even realizing it one day! Some of the jewelers today said they''d never seen jewelry in worse shape. Anyway, Mr. Campbell seems to think that the "pave-ish" (I say -ish bc the accents are larger and round, not trillion cut) with the bezel will be safe enough for me. And everyone who looked at my .475 (some of which I have to say were quite snobbish about the size at first) were absolutely in awe of the quality of the stone when they looked at it under their loupes! So, for me, I agree, beauty is not necessarily in the size of the stone!

Well, if you are still looking for a custom jeweler in the area, I hope you find this helpful! Good luck!

 

[mingagreen]

Very cool dug! I am still very interested in this design and finding a jeweler in Philly. I am going to wait till after the holidays to go to the city, after the xmas rush! That is if I can wait that long!! Is Mr. Cambell making your ring right now? If so could you PM me prices he quoted, I PMed you my email. Thanks and good luck!