This ring was born in our store this past month. It isn’t just a simple process of scraping a chunk of silver off a block and gluing a gemstone down inside. It takes just a bit more work (and equipment!) than that…
Here you can observe- in painstaking detail- the conception, gestation, and final delivery of a custom designed ring from Wexford Jewelers.
It all begins with a wax model. This is extruded sheet wax that has been bent into the primary form, cut to shape, cut to size, and ...
There is something about a rose- perfectly furled silken petals, graceful tiny rosebuds waiting to open, and an almost fractal symmetry- nearly everyone loves roses. They come in so many varieties of color and shape and bloom, and they can even have health benefits!
We at Wexford Jewelers decided to celebrate the natural beauty of these blossoms by creating an entire line of rose jewelry. It has been selling quite well in our store and online for about a year now, and we would like to introduce you to some of the elements of this line:
Pictured below: Our first fitted rose wedding set.< ...
I don’t know of anyone who doesn’t love autumn. Crisp weather, penetrating blue skies one day, comforting gray the next. Brilliant warm colors, the crunch of leaves under your feet…
Sometimes the leaves are brilliant orange, swirling gently in the stiff November breeze.
Other times a more muted brown appears- dying grasses contrast against the dark wet wood, now bare. Pumpkins dot porches and yards, brilliant crimson-orange,
How to tell if you’ve been in the jewelry business too long:
1) You think of months in birthstones, always: “September 15th, huh? Sapphire… oh, you meant for dental appointment.”
2) You automatically assess other peoples’ jewelry- everywhere you may go: “I’ll have the chicken sandwich with mustard, please. Oh, and you have a missing diamond on your anniversary band. Yup, right down there on the side.”
3) You automatically evaluate other peoples’ jewelry, without meaning to: “Hmm, driving a Lexus but wearing CZs, huh? Mortgage payments mus ...
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 ...
For the past 13 years we have been using a track light system for illuminating our jewelry, and this track system consists of roughly (thirty) 75-watt flood lights. Being in an age where energy costs are up, and spending almost $4,000 a year on just the cost of running the track lights, (not to mention running the air conditioning to cool the building down due to the heat of the lights) we had to make a change.
After researching all of our options, we decided to replace the lights we are currently using with LED lights. I was skeptical at first, seeing that these LED lights only had an output of 300 lumens per light, as opposed to the 750 lumens per bulb we were used to, so I ordered only 2 lights. Plus they were ...
2007-2008 has been a time of change for Wexford Jewelers. Not only have we completely revamped our landscaping, we just painted our building! We’ve stared at mottled orange & brown brick for so long, the soft gray structure sitting at the corner of Mitchell & River Streets is almost unrecognizable!
Add to that new paint inside, new concrete sidewalks (at least on two sides of the building), a new design studio inside, a new and huge repair/finishing shop, this new and awesome website, and this place seems suddenly like a lovely chrysalis, a shining butterfly emerging from a dusty cocoon.
I will post photos later of the new paint job/garden/sidewalk. The painters are not quite done as o ...
Over the years, I have repaired every kind of jewelry there is. And it was brought to me in every possible condition. In doing so, it has taught me a lot about how to properly maintain my precious, not so easy to replace, baubles. I am now passing on a practical list of do’s and don’ts for you read, and implement. If properly maintained and checked, your jewelery will last for generations to come.
DO’S:
Do get your jewelry regularly checked by a jeweler. Every 6 months to a year.
Do take off your rings every month and clean them, if not by a jeweler, then yourself.
A solution of hot water, Windex, and a couple drops of dish soap, works wonders.
Soak for 5 to 10 minutes, ( no long ...
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 ...
The year is 1,200 BC. A man sweats in front of a furnace, a huge pair of bellows resting in his scarred hands. Beside him is a scorched earthen bowl packed hard with sand. He has spent hours shaping a plug of beeswax into an intricate crescent moon shape for a wealthy woman. Afterwards he tamped clean sand around the wax, delicately at first, then harder and harder as the shape became covered.
He places the bowl into the fire, resting it against an earthen wedge so that it is tilted sideways. The heat burns his face and brings tears to his eyes, but he is used to it now. The fire wanes and the man works the bellows again, forcing oxygen into the blaze with swift and powerful strokes. The small plug of beeswax, visib ...
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