The Case of the Pesky Ex-Phone Number (Perhaps You've Had One?) and Our Real Phone Number

Once upon a time there was a company called Merchant Circle (“MC,” for short). The nice people at Merchant Circle thought it would be a good idea to create a listing for Laynie Tzena Design, home of the San Francisco Jewelry Doctor. Great! Except for the fact that they used our old phone number.

So: If you see a phone number ending in -3690, that’s the ex. The correct number is (and has been for years, MC): 

415/796-3969. 

(You can also send messages to 415/596-4244.)

We now return to our regularly scheduled program.

“But why hasn’t MC gotten rid of the old number? You contacted them, right?”

Indeed we have—corrected the listing on their site, called them, written to them. But alas, they have yet to respond. Hence, we are writing to the most important person—You! (We are still hoping they will correct things on their end. But as long as you know how to reach us, that’s what counts.)

“Okay. But wait, Valentine’s Day is coming. Where are your stories about that?”

Well, thanks for asking. Yes, indeed! We have a whole bunch of Valentine’s Day stories, with lots of yummy jewelry for you and yours. http://myjewelrydoctor.blogspot.com/search/label/Valentine%27s%20Day

“For me? Don’t you mean for my sweetheart?”

Honey, you can both have jewelry. Isn’t life wonderful? (I mean, aside from The Thing.)

* * *

 

Update, 4/25/22: Well, it’s “Good News, Bad News” on the Merchant Circle front.  

 

First, the good news: the old phone number no longer appears when you look for the San Francisco Jewelry Doctor. Hooray! And thanks, MC.

 

Now the bad news: When MC took down the listing with the old phone number the reviews from our beloved customers who had posted there were also deleted. 

 

We now pause for a moment of silence.

 

Update, 5/12/22: Okay, we’re back—and with some very good news:  Those reviews have now magically reappeared!

 

Do let us know if anything changes, because, well, the internet.  In the meantime, we have been busily making all kinds of jewelry magic for our beloved customers and look forward to creating beautiful things for you and those you love.

 

©2022 Laynie Tzena. All Rights Reserved. 

Winter Flowers

Is there anything more beautiful than flowers in winter? Here’s a pretty ring from Stuller to spark joy in a certain person’s heart—or maybe yours?—at this time and, really, in any season.

https://www.stuller.com/products/57724/18745652/?groupId=209263&recommendationSource=Brochure9190&inStockOnly=true

 

The ring is featured here in white gold, and is also available in gold (which is called “yellow gold” in Jewelry-Land) and rose gold, along with platinum and sterling.

 

Call us today at 415/796-3969 (text 415/596-4244) and it’ll be on your doorstep in time for the holiday. But don’t delay, honey. The holiday is a week from tomorrow.

 

“What?”

 

Yes, indeed. So give us a call—oh, that must be you now. Hello! 

 

San Francisco Jewelry Doctor. Holidays, simplified. 

©2021 Laynie Tzena. All Rights Reserved. 

 

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

Dear San Francisco Jewelry Doctor:

 

I saw your story about recreating lost jewelry, and I am here today to tell you that you are wrong. My late jeweler, who is now designing for the stars in the sky, drew the engagement ring for my now-fiancée, and then created it in three different kinds of gold. When I lost my jeweler, we also lost that ring—forever. My friend also lost a tree pendant that had been created in rose gold. It, too, was unique.

 

So while I’m sure you’re very good at what you do, you cannot recreate jewelry like the pieces I described. Admit it.

 

Signed, 

 

Bereft in North Dakota

 

Dear BIND:

 

First of all, please accept my condolences on the loss of a treasured person in your life. It sounds as though you may have worked with a metalsmith*. That is a great thing. Metalsmiths are wonderful. No doubt about it. We have metalsmiths on our team, and we have enormous respect for their gifts.

 

That said, when it comes to jewelry that is purely metalwork, for example a design in gold or silver, unless you have/had the ability to travel back in time to work with Michelangelo directly**, chances are, your original jeweler based his/her design on a drawing (from something s/he saw or imagined), which can be recreated—once you provide us with either a photograph or a sketch. (We are also jewelers. We draw. We work from drawings. And we have imagination, too.)

 

So don’t despair! Call us at 415/796-3969 (text 415/596-4244), and that ring will soon be back on her finger. And about that tree? We can make that, too. (We love trees. We have seen many a beautiful tree, and drawn or taken pictures of lots of them. Happy to recreate your tree, and did you know we also have some wonderful trees in our collection of finished jewelry?)

 

San Francisco Jewelry Doctor. Making the impossible happen, on a regular basis.

 

*People who create jewelry (and other things) in gold, platinum, silver, bronze, and other metals are called metalsmiths. Again, we hold the ones on our team and the others who practice this art in high esteem. They are amazing.

 

**Even then. They usually worked from drawings. Also: you have mastered time travel? We are all ears! (Well, hands, too—while listening to you is the most important part of the work we do, designing by ear alone is beyond us. We admit it.)

 

©2021 Laynie Tzena. All Rights Reserved. 

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. 

In Which You Are Once Again The Hero

“It can’t be!” says the person who most would see as a fine, stand-up individual, the one who, even during the tail end of a less-than-fun event in our lives, has managed to remember birthdays, anniversaries, you-name-it.

 

But it is.

 

“Is what?” says the person, also fine and upstanding, but one who has been, well, like many of us, marveling at the first person and others who have sailed around the world (staying onboard, solo, with provisions, so as not to contract you-know-what) or written a bestseller or found the love of their lives or shown a certain someone the door or—well, you can fill in the blank.

 

Mother’s Day. Sunday.  

 

Now for the good news: Your friendly neighborhood* Jewelry Doctor has all kinds of wonderful gifts for the mom in your life (and her mom, too). 

 

“It’ll never get to her in time!”

 

Not to worry, honey. When your mom called recently we discussed everything and she, of course, understands. So we have a lovely little insert you may include with your card** that will magically extend Mother’s Day for your mom or Nana until the gift actually arrives on her doorstep.

 

Now all you need to do is call the doctor—the Jewelry Doctor, that is—at 415/796-5969 (text 415/596-4244). 

 

Oh, and honey? Do it now.

 

San Francisco Jewelry Doctor. Making special occasions even more so.

 

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

**Greeting card, not business card. But you knew that.

 

©2021 Laynie Tzena. All Rights Reserved.