bay area jewlers

[movie zombie]

originally i was pricescope lurking to get educated re diamonds and was headed towards an 8* but decided i should not limit my research - then i saw a spessartite! now i am hopelessly torn.....i want everything! and in every color! alas, the budget does not allow this.

i''m looking to find a jewler anywhere from monterey to santa rosa who will have an inventory of color gems for sale and available to be viewed. i am looking for a "warm" gem color as it will be set in a george sawyer color ''H'' [yellow, red, and green golds] band.

i want this ring to "sing" because i wear real rocks and it is going to have to hold its own against some rather large rings, usually two on each hand. you''ll see what i mean by rocks if you check out

http://robertsilversmith.com/set1/Creations/creationsindex.html

these three jewelers were highly recommended in various posts:

willow glen diamond in san jose
joe escobar in campbell
geoffrey''s in san carlos

any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated. thank you!

peace, movie zombie

ps i''m also interested in champagne diamonds.......

 

[movie zombie]

oops, that should be BAY AREA JEWELERS!

peace, movie zombie

 

[innerkitten]

I''m interested to hear what people say. I can''t find any colored gem stone dealers in San Francisco. There is one that I know of in Grass Valley. Kinda far north for me.

 

[movie zombie]

innerkitten,

Grass Valley would be quite a hike! but i guess any recommendation in california should be followed up on.

by the way, i love your ''innerkitten'' tag....i have 9 feline companions.......

peace, movie zombie

 

[innerkitten]

Actually I almost forgot I take that back cause I do know of one stone cutter who has quite a lot of gems in the Phelan building in Downtown San Francisco. The building is all jewelry related offices. But I''m not sure what the quality of his stones are or anything like that because I''ve never bought from him. I think he mostly works with jewelers in the building not so much with the public, but he doesn''t mind people coming in to look and will sell to anyone. And there is another stone cutter in the building that has hessonite but not spessartite. I remember that cause I poked my head in and asked.
I''d have to walk by the building to see what suite he''s in.

 

[innerkitten]

Nine wow! That must be fun. I only have three

 

[innerkitten]

http://directory.superpages.com/listings.jsp?SRC=yploop&C=Accessories&PP=LN&STYPE=S&CP=Industry+%26+Agriculture^Wholesale+%26+Manufacturers^Clothing+Accessories^Jewelry^Lapidaries&MC=1&T=San+Francisco&S=CA

I just searched yahoo and found this.

 

[movie zombie]

innerkitten,

had prepared a reply earlier but lost internet connection to the website.

phelan building: quite some history! rebuilt in 1908 after the 1906 earthquate....had to be dynamited the friday after the quake to bring it down completely.

and its an historical jewelry building?! http://www.revereacademy.com/housing/housingintro.html

will check out the website you provided in your last post!

thanks for your help....are you on the hunt for a particular gem or like me wanting to see as many as possible before making a decision?

peace, movie zombie

 

[movie zombie]

innerkitten,

wow! five leads! i hadn''t thought of looking under labidaries......

i''ll be in the city this sunday but experience tells me that none of these will be open. i''ll give them a call to get hours and perhaps an idea of their inventory.

i contacted a couple of ''regulars'' at this forum and i''m going to heed their advice to see as many stones as i can before locking in one way or another. i''m not opposed to buying from either of them.

i''d love to see a richard homer and/or a jeff graham cut stone, too! but at this point i''m lucky to see color gem stones at all.....

and, yes, 9 cats is interesting and fun!

peace, movie zombie

 

[JoangA]

As someone once told me, you can have anything you want, but not everything.

Have you considered a champagne or cognac diamond? I think this would look great in a Sawyer setting. I purchased one for my right hand and I love it.

 

[innerkitten]

Movie Zombie, Yes you should call first to see if any of them are open on Sunday. I''m not after anything specific at the moment, I just love colored stones. I have kind of a small collection going ( one sapphire, five spinels, and a hessonite) but haven''t even gotten around to setting anything yet. I also have a nice old setting that is going to need a big stone, all mine are two small for it.

Interesting history about the phelan building. There are a lot of cool old buildings in that area.

 

[innerkitten]

Oh and I originally came on to pricescope wanting to learn about diamonds too when i was looking for my e ring.

 

[movie zombie]

JoangA, is your right hand ring w/the champagne diamond a sawyer setting?

and, yes, i am considering a champagne diamond....i may be able to see a couple today. i read on a thread here at pricescope that someone bought one at willow glen diamond in san jose. they also carry sawyer so if they have the champagnes in their inventory, i can see them together. i, too, think it could be very striking...


innerkiten, a winner coming out of tucson for design turns out to be in aptos! however, the website indicates that they are not a store front and the only place listed in our area carrying their color gems is: joe escobar in campbell. this is one of the jewelers i had already gleaned from pricescope.......

well, my ''hunt'' has started as a result of doing things backwards: we had a fabulous trip to france in 2002 that i now realize in many ways was our ''honeymoon''. we married december 30, 2003. we bought a new home on 20 acres in the santa cruz mountains in 2004. my husband asked me to marry him on december 29 and then said he would like to start the new year married! he had intended to ask me while we were in toronto in september for the international film festival but we didn''t go to the little french restaurant where he had wanted to ''pop'' the question. then he said things just seemd to keep happening and it didn''t seem appropriate. i said yes and the immediately sprang into action. it was all organized by 5p.

then came the hard part: we had no idea that it would be so hard to find rings! on the 30th we spent the day traveling to los altos and santa cruz looking for rings...who would have thought finding matching gold bands would be so hard?! we found that everything has to be ordered in advance! we finally found rings in scruz about 30 minutes before the ceremony. we were married in a favorite restaurant and the ceremony was based on a 1930''s ceremony. we only had three guests. believe it or not, it was perfect! one friend who was in attendance and who is rather jaded about such things is still talking that it is the best wedding he has ever attended and that the ceremony moved him to tears.

however, we had decided that we would have sawyer rings made for our first anniversary....didn''t happen given preoccupation with new house and an ill elderly cat......

so that is our story and i guess my new year resolution is to have our rings by our second anniversary at the end of this year!

my husband is Australian and from perth, home office for the argyle mines. my brother-in-law says there are outlets in perth and he will check it out for us. however, i''ve read on pricescope that they are very expensive there as most champagnes are shipped to the US.....i have no idea re cost as i have yet to contact any of the pricescope venders for a quote.


i''ve been in touch with george sawyers gallery. he will be in santa barbara in march for a trunk show. we''re planning to go down just to get more ideas. although we''ve seen the website and settings in actual jewelers, i''ve been told they can do much more.


thanks for all the help and suggestions.

peace, movie zombie

 

[innerkitten]

Your weding sounds romantic, simple is good. I hope mine works out as well.

 

[movie zombie]

thank you, innerkitten, it certainly was!

update: the champagne''s did not arrive.

so i went to another jeweler who had this insight: normally he could call a supplier and get some things for me to see; however, with tucson going on, they were all off wheeling and dealing and their stock simply unavailable as they often do sales and trades at the show.

i''m still going to call the 5 you found and find out what they have to say. thanks again!

when is your wedding?

peace, movie zombie

ps the jeweler who gave me the insight did have a couple of exquiste 2.5 mm spessartites!

 

[innerkitten]

My wedding is in August. We''ll go t o tahoe just bthe two of us and then have our reception with family and friends in San Francisco. I want to keep it simple.
Well I can''t wait to see what you finally decide on. You must keep us updated.

 

[movie zombie]

innerkitten, yes, small, simple, and intimate is good. lake tahoe is a wonderful place for such a wedding.

i will definitely do an update regarding my search and/or post what i finally end up with.

again, thank you for your leads in sf.

peace, movie zombie

 

[velouriaL]

I think that Richard Homer yellow sapphire or another warm color (maybe a spinel) would be beatiful as a perfect, non-traditional e-ring for a perfect, non-traditional marriage.

Something like this sapphire-

would really sing next to any "rock" in your collection... it would look the sun in the late afternoon next to a mountain-desert horizon. Nice.

 

[movie zombie]

oh, that is simply one exquiste sapphire!!!!!

i have been considering contacting richard homer....and definitely will now.

i hope this is not tooooooo stupid a question but does anyone know if he has stones out at any jewelers so i could go by and have a look see? not sure if he sells only through his website...and i understand that ''wink'' has his gems having read pricescope posts. but being able to see one of his fine gems in person would be great.

i guess contacting him through his website will answer all questions.

peace, movie zombie