Part I of this series here.

Part II of this series here.

For more photos of this process, visit our flickr photostream!

Quick review- here’s what we started with:

And here’s what we’re going for:

How we get from point A to point B has been detailed fo ...

I’ll always remember my first time at the wheel. I was a short, scrawny, 9 year old girl with straggly, brown hair. I did not know what I was doing.

Zzz… zzz…zzz, went the hard, abrasive wheel, as I gouged deep, rough valleys into the thin, silver, practice ring, that was just cast and cleaned. Trying to take down the casting sprue. Then the ring slipped off the wheel and my finger received the same treatment. Zzz… into my soft, not yet calloused finger tip. I received a little instruction from my teacher, my dad. He showed me how to firmly but gently, roll the ring into the wheel to keep the nice ...

I was at my sister’s house today and noticed a lovely shade of nail polish on her counter. I did my typical girlie oohing and ahhing and complimenting her choice, but she merely shrugged,

“I don’t even bother painting my nails anymore unless it’s a special occasion, no point in it.” “Well, if you get a really strong topcoat-” I began, but then, seeing her shake her head, I shut up.

A jeweler is not known for pretty nails, even less so for pretty hands. Emily basically gave up her right to nice hands when she first sat down at the jeweler’s bench so many years ago. The bite of ...

One of my duties entails serving the customers who walk through our door.

It was a normal day, and I was in the process of photographing rings to upload to our website. Around 11:30, a lady walks through the door, and almost instinctively, I smile and say “hello there”. As I get up from my station where my photography white box is, I notice a hand full of gold. This lady loved her jewelry, and loved to show it off as well.

Whenever someone walks through our door, we like to offer to clean their rings in our ultrasonic cleaner. Not only does it give them an excuse to walk around our cases, it gives them a sense of getting something nice even if they didn’t buy it. Like getting your car washe ...