Jewelry Insider: High end jewelry

What is high end jewelry? Better put, what can be called high end jewelry? This can be a very debatable question and at the same time a question of a clear cut answer. The musts have of fine/high end jewelry in my opinion:

Must be practical, wearable, comfortable
Must be fine in quality of make/technique and materials
Must be made from a genuine original concept design

After 25 years in this business, in my humble opinion, any piece of jewelry that does not carry all of the above is not of high end. I am not in any way degrading other kind of workmanship but only differentiating high end from normal kind of jewelry; again, in my humble opinion.

Must be practical, wearable, comfortable:

Not to go into too many details or many examples, I prefer to mention a very simple example for a wedding band. A wedding band is a very simple circular ring made of a metal. As much as it is a simple design, it can be done in many ways but only one way is a good way to make it fit into this first criteria of high end jewelry. A wedding band should be a nice outer shape and an even better inner form, it must be comfortable to wear and at the same time elegant.

The below images will show you that by making a wedding band outer side domed or "bombée" as they say it in French will give the band a high end finish. As much as important, is to give the inner side also a domed shaped for a comfort fit, thus making the ring fall into this very first important criteria. Producing a non comfort fit ring will make it practical and wearable but not comfortable as the comfort fit.

Both are wearable but the comfort fit

has a better feeling.

Standard fit vs a comfort fit ring.

Notice the nice domed shape of the outer
section and the comfort fit inner part.

An high end engagement ring

with a comfort fit construction.

Another fine example of comfortable and practical jewelry are earrings. Earrings should not be heavy and should not hurt the ear by applying pressure to the flesh. Depending on the weight and form of the earrings, an omega clip or alpa/butterfly system is used. Small studs and light weight earrings have alpa or butterfly system whereas bigger items have omega clips that give a very good level of comfort to the wearer. In addition to grooves that we make on the omega clip, we use clip earring cushions made of silicon. These pads will make the earrings very comfortable to wear for many hours.

These pair of earrings could be considered

heavy to wear by some. Mainly due to the

weight of the drops.

A good way to save on the weight

and have a nicer shape/cut for a

drop is a pendeloque cut drop.

You can notice that it is not a full

briolette but more like an almond

if you like from a profile view.

This flattish shape not only makes

the drop lighter but also gives an

elegant look to the earrings.

Gripper Silicone Earring Cushions

add an extra level of comfort to the wearer

Must be fine in quality of make/technique and materials:

There are so many ways a jewelry item can be made and to most of the consumers, all jewelry are made equal. A jewelry made in a fine quality of finishing a technique can last for very long time and won't lose on its value. Pieces made by Cartier and other renowned jewelry houses many years ago still are wearable and their value increase with time; they become vintage classic jewelry. Those jewelry houses created a name for themselves by producing jewelry with the highest finish and techniques of craftsmen who are true artists.

Many so called "jewellers" create items made of copper wire, stainless, and many other non precious materials and call them jewelry. According to the Oxford dictionary, jewelry means:

"Personal ornaments, such as necklaces, rings, or bracelets, that are typically made from or contain jewels and precious metal"

Yes, you read it right: "precious and jewels" and not "non precious and pebbles." If we are to consider the term jewelry to define any ornament then not all jewelry are created the same. Hence I come to my second point that fine jewelry must be made of fine materials. Yes sometimes jewelry contain non precious materials such as wood and leather but bear in mind that when used, the finest qualities are applied so the final product is to be considered of a high end.

A real jeweller always inspect a piece of jewelry looking t the back of the piece first. The back is more important than the front because in jewelry, the back of the item is considered the foundations of the item. When done properly and with the finest finishing an technique, and item will without a doubt end up a beautiful piece of art. We can within seconds tell if an item is of high end or not by looking how it was done at the back. There we can find all imperfections and poor assembly techniques that can degrade an item.

Below you can see pictures of a 18k (fine metal) center piece of a necklace. Pay attention to how the wires are soldered (technique/high finish), how well polished they are (high finish), and how the whole piece has volume (technique) and is not flat. Finally how the diamonds are set with nice beaded gold prongs (technique/finish)

Side view with a nice volume to the piece

Front view. Look how the 2 steps and inclination of the cups

give a good volume and feel to the piece.

Back view of the piece. See how clean and neatly

soldered the wires are. The good metal polishing

is essential for a high finish.

Nice beads on the setting expose the diamonds in a

very elegant way foe maximum stone exposure and

minimum metal appearance

Must be made from a genuine original concept design

Since not all jewelry are not created equal, they must originate from a genuine unique design. We all get inspirations but a fine jewelry item must have an original idea and execution. I won't elaborate further on this point and I will let a photo of a bangle we produced for a client do the talking.

This post was a long one and I hope you enjoyed it and give me a g+ if you liked it. Bye for now and until next post.