Vintage Cameo Locket of Memories

I was garage sale-ing the other day when I happened upon a pristine cameo locket.  The ivory cameo was the profile of a woman with up-swept hair and a high collar (no doubt wearing it’s own cameo pin – oh, the irony) and the backing of it was a deep blue.  It was set in a metal that appeared to be sterling silver.  It had a price of $2.

My mom used to tell me a story of how her grandma had a cameo locket and if memory serves me right, it was incredibly similar to this cameo.  In her cameo, my great grandmother had a picture of my great grandfather, who was off at war.  My great grandmother, while raising her three children in the 20’s in his absence, would wear that cameo and clutch it to her heart while praying every night before she went to bed.  She would pray for strength, enough money to keep her children fed and clothed and most importantly, the safe return of her husband.  All her prayers were answered. 

This story resonated with me and immediately came back to me upon the viewing of this cameo.  It made me smile and brought me back to an innocent time in my life, listening to a story of a tumultuous time with my great grandparents.

$2 for a this cameo locket????  I paid it.  

Outside the Jewelry Box: Custom Jewelry Design

Custom jewelry design is offered by most professional jewelers at affordable rates, which is half of why this trend has never really fallen out of favor with jewelry lovers. Bringing in your own designs and watching them come to life is an extremely gratifying experience, especially if you are looking to give the finished jewelry piece to someone as a gift.

There are a lot of options open to someone looking to customize a piece of jewelry. First, decide what kind of jewelry you are looking to work with. Are you concerned with using specific gemstones or metals? Do you have a design you want to work off of, like the eternity symbol? All of these are concerns and ideas you would want to bring in with you to your consultation.

Overall, when looking into custom jewelry design, one of the most important things to keep in mind is flexibility. The jewelers are often more than happy to work with you in order to really bring your idea to life and turn it into wearable product.  Plus, they bring years of experience to the table. Working closely with them and considering with their suggestions can help ensure you create a great piece of fine jewelry that is very personal.

Let the Professionals Handle Your Jewels: Jewelry Repair Services

You wouldn't let a first year med student perform brain surgery on you. So why would you let anyone but an expert professional repair your fine jewelry? I know I wouldn’t. That’s because I view jewelry as more than the obvious precious metals and valuable stones that it’s made of. No, they’re more than that. They are physical reminders of precious memories that I never want to forget. That’s why I only trust established jewelry repairservices when life happens.

 Unfortunately, chains have a tendency to snag and break, metal rings bend, and jewels fall out of their settings. If anything like this happens, the natural tendency is to put the broken piece in your jewelry box and slowly, but surely forget about it. Every time you see it sitting sad and broken in its corner, maybe with other functionally challenged jewelry, you think to yourself that you should really do something about it. Yet you never do. Why?

Stop seeing them as broken hunks of metal and rock. Embrace the intangible emotion they represent. You bought them for a reason or someone gifted them to you because you obviously mean a lot to them. Don’t let those emotions sit idle in a box as you slowly forget about the meaning behind them. There are many reputable jewelry repair services that can get your functionally challenged pieces back to like new condition and back on your wrist, ears, or neck where they belong.

Love is celebrated: Journey Jewelry

I have lived in a lot of places across the country and in doing so I have become friends with a lot of people. One of the perks of meeting people from all over is that they tend to be pretty different from one another. You learn different things, discover new styles, and see a different point of view, all things that I help make for a more interesting life. The story I want to relate to you now is about a friend I met out west and how he introduced me to the style of journey jewelry.

My friend had been with his girlfriend for a long time. When I say long, I mean I’m pretty sure they went to their first dance in seventh grade together. Even though they studied at different colleges, they stayed together, still in love with each other. After college, when they were both living in the same town, they knew it was time to do something, to move to the next step. Thing is, these two people aren't the most conventional couple in the world, so the something they wanted to do was something different than the norm. Only thing is that they didn't know what that would be.

They did know that they wanted to celebrate their love with a piece of fine jewelry, so they visited the professional jeweler who had been in their town ever since my friend could remember. They were looking through the collection of affordable jewelry, not really sure what they wanted when the jeweler approached them. They told him their story and without hesitating he pulled out a beautiful gold chain with a small diamond attached. He explained that is journey jewelry, and how it worked was that each passing milestone of their life together, they add another, slightly larger diamond. Immediately they knew it was perfect for them, and when it comes time to buy something unique to celebrate your life together, I think it will be perfect for you.