Making a custom piece

[MichelleCarmen]

Hi everyone,

I''m wanting to make a custom piece with my mom''s wedding diamond and am on a tight budget and can''t find anyone to make the necklace except one place, and they will only be able to make it in white gold (I had wanted platinum). Now, I''m wondering, they are just a strip mall jeweler who sends the diamond out. . .Does this sound scary to you? Should I wait until after the holidays and I have a bit more money and have a specialty custom jeweler in a more "fancy" establishment who specializes in custom work make the necklace?

I''m a bit scared that my necklace may turn out horrible or they may switch my diamond! The jeweler didn''t even recognize my diamond as a D color, he announced it as a G! My eng. ring is a G and I know for sure that my mom''s is a D as I''ve seen the paperwork and it''s obviously brighter than my GIA graded G, so I''m a bit nervous about his experience. . .okay, rant aside. . .is a strip mall jeweler trustworthy to make a piece???

Thanks,
Michelle

 

[valeria101]

If he's been around for more than week (and intends to stay), your stone shoudl be safe from switching or such. Unless you have in mind a complicated design, the guy should be able to do it. After all, you can see some piece he had made, right? I guess what you are after is having the stone set in a pre-made (or partially so) rather than a hand-made setting. This should be a basic task indeed.

 

[Mara]

No I would wait until you have a better budget and can get a really experienced designer that you or your jeweler trusts. I don't trust alot of people with my stuff, and if I didn't have a relationship built with a local jeweler...I don't know what I'd do. I would never trust a maul jeweler...switching or not...the feeling just isn't there.




It's also important that the designer understand what you are asking and be able to deliver. You don't want someone who can't relay what you want (part of the hassle when working with a middleman rather than with the designer yourself), and/or a designer who just decides they know best and doesn't listen to what you want.




I would wait, and keep looking around. Possibly contact a Mark Morrell or Leon Mege who have reasonable pricing from what I have heard and their reputations precede them.

Good luck!

 

[MichelleCarmen]

Actually, it is going to be competetely made from scratch. It's going to be a replica of a Tiffany piece. This is what concerns me.


Michelle

 

[niceice]

If the jeweler is sending the piece out to be made, then why can't they have it made in platinum? Most of the casting houses produce jewelry in yellow gold, white gold and platinum... Perhaps your jeweler needs to open up one of the trade journals and do a little homework. We'd recommend waiting a little while until your budget can deliver the piece that you really want, otherwise it is likely that you will never be quite happy with the result...

 

[MichelleCarmen]

Thanks, Mara. I was thinking of Mark Morrell also, but figured he was way outside my budget. . .but, I'll email him and see what he says.

Michelle

 

[Michael_E]

Michelle,
I do a lot of this kind of work and the most important thing that any jeweler can provide is a sense of security and comfort to a client who brings their most prized posessions to us for remounting or custom work. If I were you I'd wait until I'd found someone who you are comfortable with and who you believe will get you where you want to be. To do this work in platinum isn't cheap and you deserve the peace of mind in knowing who is doing the work and how they're going to get it done.
A strip mall jeweler is like any other jeweler, some are good and some not so good. A comment about the color of your stone is really just a guess unless the stone is unmounted, upside down and right next to an accurately graded master set under the right type of light. My recommendations are:

1. Don't send the diamond out.
2. Find someone who personally does platinum work and will be doing the job themselves. You should be comfortable with them and they should be willing to do whatever it takes to get you what you're paying for.
3. If they aren't a gemologist, then find one and have your stone plotted. If you've got a cert then you've already got a plot of your stone. Have the person doing the work show you how the plot matches your stone.
4. After the work is done check the stone again to make sure that it still matches the plot.
If you've gone to this much trouble and show this much interest you should have no problems as anyone who'd be likely to mess around with you is unlikely to accept the job. Good luck and have fun with this!

 

[valeria101]

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On 11/24/2003 1:37:53 PM MichelleCarmen wrote:

Actually, it is going to be competetely made from scratch. It's going to be a replica of a Tiffany piece. This is what concerns me.


Michelle----------------

Interesting... The WG/Plat issue is another. Maybe the jeweler intended to reuse a mounting or budget considerations let to WG, who knows. I really do not know what the situation is. The jeweler I pesker all the time does his own casting, so this whole issue of 'casting house' menu has yet remained outside my interest.