Can it Be?

Chanukah already?  Yes, indeed.  Enjoy this story from our archives, and give us a call at 415/796-3969 (text 415/596-4244) so we can find something wonderful for all the jewelry-lovers on your list.

http://myjewelrydoctor.blogspot.com/2017/12/the-perfect-gift-times-eight-or-hark.html 

What Savvy Shoppers Know

So it’s the day after Thanksgiving and you’re tempted to go shopping, but you wonder if those deals really are all they’re cracked up to be. The answer? Yes and no. Have a look at this story from our archives before you head out the door. If you’re shopping online, send a link to your Jewelry Doctor or call us at 415/796-3969 (text 415/596-4244), and we’ll put our heads together about whether it’s really the best option for you and yours.  

http://myjewelrydoctor.blogspot.com/2012/11/white-turquoise-or-whats-big-deal-really.html

 

San Francisco Jewelry Doctor. Helping you make better jewelry choices on Black Friday—and every other day, too.

 

©2021 Laynie Tzena. All Rights Reserved.  

Pictures Are A Wonderful Thing, or All Is Not Lost, Part Two

A while back we were talking about the importance of taking pictures of your favorite jewelry. This is helpful for insurance purposes, of course. It can also help when, as sometimes happens—and here we pause to shed a tear*—a favorite piece of jewelry has gone missing.

 

“Help? How? It’s gone forever.”

 

Not necessarily.

 

“You’re going to find it?”

 

Sometimes. That is, sometimes a missing piece of jewelry, while it has personal meaning, was not the only one of its kind that was made. The designer may well have made many of the same necklaces or earrings.

 

“Why would she do that?”

Here we pull back the curtain. Jewelry designers do not, in general, cut gemstones, drill holes in stone or other materials to make beads, or make a setting for a stone only once. (The Jewelry Doctor likes to remind people, ‘Ralph Lauren doesn’t make the fabric. He designs with it.’) They have sources for materials, and they either work with standard settings or make customized settings based on standard ones.

 

You can understand this quickly if you think about what happens in your favorite restaurant. While that dish you love is something you look forward to ordering again and again, it is only available again and again because, well, they make a lot of it. Because other people also love it.** The cooks do not make every item from scratch every time, even in those restaurants with prices in the stratosphere. If they tried to do that, they would go out of business in a New York minute.  

 

So: The person (or team of people) who made your favorite piece of jewelry bought gemstones or beads and maybe settings and made a number of, if not the same, then very similar pieces of jewelry. Maybe there was a trend at the time, and they noticed that design was all the rage and so they made jewelry in that style.

 

Which means your Jewelry Doctor may be able to find that necklace or bracelet or those earrings for you. If she can’t, she may well be able to reconstruct the jewelry for you. And that’s where your photographs of you wearing the jewelry come in.

 

“But I don’t have a photograph!”

 

That’s fine. Make a rough drawing. Not to worry; nobody is expecting it to hang in a museum. Just see if you can draw the basic shape, and give your Jewelry Doctor all the information you can: the stones used, if you remember what they were (most people do—“It was my lapis necklace!”), the approximate length. If the lost jewelry was a pair of beloved earrings, tell the Jewelry Doctor the approximate length of the earring, the components you remember, and whether they were on wires or posts.

 

Now, your Jewelry Doctor would be remiss if she didn’t take this opportunity to suggest how to avoid losing jewelry (aside from putting it next to your plate in the restaurant when you got up to dance; she can’t help you there***). Make sure your necklaces have lobster clasps or other secure clasps.  If you must buy a necklace with a barrel (screw) clasp, get thee to your Jewelry Doctor afterward to replace it; those clasps are a recipe for a lost necklace. Ditto, hook-and-eye and many a toggle fastening. As to earrings, if you like wires ask your Jewelry Doctor for “ear stops,” which slip on the wire to prevent it from slipping off, and there are a number of solutions for keeping post earrings on your ears, too.

 

If the jewelry in question is a ring with a stone that has wandered off, we can replace that for you—and this story from our archives will help you avoid losing stones in the future.

https://myjewelrydoctor.blogspot.com/2014/04/building-your-jewelry-wardrobe-lets.html

 

So call us at 415/796-3969 (text 415/596-4244), and soon it will be “Happy Ever After.”

 

San Francisco Jewelry Doctor. For people who love their jewelry. 

 

*Truly. Your Jewelry Doctor, prior to her entry into the world of design and restoration, once spent in the neighborhood of 45 minutes on her knees outside the Fontainebleau Hotel, looking for a lost earring she can still see in her mind’s eye, and she is about to recreate it.

 

**This does not mean you are not unique. Honey, we thought that was obvious.

 

***”How did you know about the restaurant?”

 

Don’t you remember? I am a doctor. We know everything.

 

©2021 Laynie Tzena. All Rights Reserved.