Small Business Saturday is So Romantic

“Oh, goodness, George, here it is Small Business Saturday, and I don’t have my list yet. What should I do?”

George takes out his earbuds. “What did you say, Brenda?”

“You never listen. I said it’s Small Business Saturday, and I don’t have my holiday list yet."

“Oh, that.” George smiles. “Why don’t you just give the money to me?”

He dodges the pillow sent in his direction.  “I don’t understand. You know I’m going to say, ‘Call Laynie at San Francisco Jewelry Doctor.’ You know they have great gifts. You got everything from her last year, and she’ll help you figure out the best choices this year. Need I add you always say I am clueless when it comes to making any kind of decision whatsoever?  So why are you asking me?”

Brenda is humming a pretty melody as she makes the call. She puts a hand over the phone and says, “Just a formality, dear, just a formality. You can go back to learning Italian.  Oh, and honey?  Love you!  Graci.”

After a slight pause, we hear what sounds like “Prego.”

* * *

That Brenda always has great ideas, and this might be the best of all (aside from that trip to Italy in the spring*). Have you called your friendly neighborhood** jewelry doctor yet?  415/796-3969 (or text 415/596-4244).

San Francisco Jewelry Doctor.  Holiday shopping, simplified.

*“How did you know they were going to Italy?”

Honey, as we have previously established, I am a doctor.  We know everything.

**If you can read this, we're in the neighborhood.

Color and Line

Two important elements of jewelry design are color and line. Let's start with color.

Part One. What About Value?

People sometimes ask, when we’re discussing redesigning a piece of jewelry, “Does it make sense to invest in a really nice setting for such an inexpensive stone?”

A perfectly reasonable question, right? 

Sure. But let’s dig a little deeper.  

First, did you think, “This is an inexpensive stone” when you bought the original piece of jewelry, or when it was given to you?  

Probably not. If the jewelry was a gift, it’s likely that you thought what a lovely gesture it was. If you selected the jewelry yourself, you might have just loved the look of the piece, and enjoyed wearing it.  

But perhaps over time your style has changed, and you’re ready to have a piece of jewelry designed that reflects who you are now.

Say it with me: jewelry is personal. Which means it’s not about what someone else thinks of the stone, or how much it cost. It’s about your connection to it. Related story here.

http://myjewelrydoctor.blogspot.com/2011/04/do-you-see-what-i-see.html)

But there’s more to the story. Many of us have a dynamic friend, someone who is the “life of the party,” really funny, fun to be around. And we love that friend. But we probably don’t want to spend all our time with that friend and, chances are, we don’t want to have a party consisting of lots and lots of people like that friend. It would wear us out. Instead, we like to spend time with (and balance gatherings with) lots of different kinds of people, some outgoing and some a little quieter.

In the world of food, the seafoods of choice when a chef wants to show off an elaborate sauce are often cod, flounder, and sole; halibut is also a great choice. Tuna or another strongly flavored fish, however delicious, would steal the show.

With these things in mind, let’s look again at those lighter colored stones. Salmon coral, Swiss Blue topaz, rose quartz—the color here is not as saturated as these gemstones’ sisters, oxblood and London Blue, or cousins, rhodonite and rhodochrosite. But they are every bit as lovely. 

Remember, when it comes to color, the word "value" just refers to shading. http://char.txa.cornell.edu/language/element/color/color.htm A lighter stone may have a lower price tag (though not always). It will always have its own winning qualities.

The question isn’t, in the end, about the grade of gemstone (many pieces of jewelry are set with "A" stones, some with "AA," and some with "AAA"), but what you do with that stone. For the customer, it’s all about finding a stone that’s just right for you (related story here http://myjewelrydoctor.blogspot.com/2015/07/just-right-ruby.html) or working with your jewelry designer to make the most creative, beautiful use of the stone you have.

Thinking again about cooking, some designers might say the “lighter tones” offer a certain freedom in design. More about that next time.

©2018 Laynie Tzena. All Rights Reserved.