I hope your holidays are in full swing and you're enjoying the heck out of them! It's the time to party, reconnect with old friends and to take some time for peaceful reflections. I know I am grateful for my husband, my friends and family, and my dogs and cats. I'm also grateful the German Wirehair doesn't chase the cats nearly as much!
Multi-colored gold and new diamonds enhance the heirloom diamond
This is the time of year to reflect, and some of my experiences may be relevant to you. I had some interesting and fun projects this year. One started with a sad and sort of panicked call from a client in Washington. She had incurred a ton of vet bills and didn't want to dip into savings at this time. She told me about some family diamonds that she had inherited. She had tried to sell them in her hometown but wanted to run the numbers by me first because it didn't sound like a great deal to her. Well, she was right.
She sent them to me, I showed them to a few clients but they weren't exactly the size they wanted so I then called my trusted diamond vendor. He said send them to him. I did, he confirmed my valuations, and made an offer that day. Start to finish the whole thing took about 10 days. My customer was thrilled to have cash instead of letting them sit in my showcase for who knows how long. The craziest part, the vendor sent me an E-Check through my email that I just printed it out. This world is changing fast.
And a little surprise - the heart is heirloom rose gold
Speaking of inheritances, another client came to me with her aunt's two-carat Old European cut diamond that she wanted made into a ring. It was great to be part of this special story as she adored her aunt and I think we honored her in more ways than one. We up-cycled the almost masculine diamond ring, starting from scratch, but used some the old ring's rose gold in a new fun way. We made a heart separately out of that rose gold, and soldered it to the new yellow gold shank. We added a few diamonds in the white gold areas, and the ring really pops now. We updated it to a modern (but with antique touches) yellow, white and rose gold ring that my client adores. Lucky lady, inherited a beautiful diamond and has a brand new ring with some sentimental touches. Check out the photos.
Another ring fun project involved the ring that went down the garbage disposal, but more about that next month! Be sure to bring your rings to me for a free clean and check, and avoid the garbage disposal disaster. She was doing the right thing by cleaning them, but it turned awry.