Home About Writers Categories Recent Issues Subscribe Contact File Transfer





Jerry Burnell
Jerry Burnell has been a driving force in the jewelry industry of Kansas for the past 30 years. Jerry is a native of Wichita and a graduate of Wichita State University. He jokingly says that he had a degree in business, almost a masters in business, almost a degree in chemistry, with heavy studies in physics, math, and biology and he just quit college, that he figured that with 239 credit hours he should be able to make a living somewhere. Actually he was already deep into the motions of starting the most respected jewelry design team in this part of the country. Jerry is highly regarded and considered an expert in many fields, three of which are Precious gemstones, jewelry manufacture, and jewelry design. Jerry is presently president of The Kansas Jewelers Association and holds a position on the advisory board of Jewelers of America. You may contact Jerry at Burnell’s Jewelers, (316) 634-2822, or find Burnell’s Jewelers on the web at www.burnells.com
Gold, Silver, Diamonds & Jewelry
2004-12-01 10:32:00
Birthstones to rings? Certainly.
:  Can those 'real' birthstones you mentioned in one of your recent articles be made into a Mother's Ring?"
ANSWER:  Certainly.  A custom jewelry designer is capable of designing and creating nearly anything you can imagine into an amazing custom piece of jewelry that will, more than likely, become an heirloom in subsequent generations of your family. Jewelry pieces that are well conceived and designed and then passed down to future generations can become amazingly valuable. One of a kind jewelry becomes valuable due to its unique design, and also because of the rarity of the piece. Then there is the personal satisfaction of wearing a specially built piece of jewelry, knowing that no one else on the planet Earth has one exactly like yours.Good creative custom jewelry designers spend years working at their craft, and not all of them are equal. Your eye is the best judge of the work, and when you see the work of a true craftsman, and check out the quality of the workmanship, you will see the sometimes obvious, but sometimes subtle differences. Some of these are overlooked by the casual observer, but a trained professional designer can point things out to you that can be very important to you in the future. Now on to your question about the "real birthstones", and whether they are available today, and whether they can be made into Mothers rings and/or bracelets. The manmade birthstones can be really pretty, and you can achieve a good result with them for quite a number of applications, but there's no way they can stand side by side with genuine birthstones. There is a marked difference in the appearance, and there's also a difference in the investment in the piece of jewelry. The choice, besides the visual difference,  is whether you're really interested in the investment value, or not. If your choice is based on the amount it will cost you, then you'll probably want to look for custom designed jewelry with the manmade stones. However, if you want to see the differences I speak of in this article, then you should drop by a custom designer Jeweler's shop and see these differences with your own eyes. Then you can decide which way you would rather go. More next month…
 
The Q & A Times Journal accepts no responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts or photographs.Materials will not be returned unless accompanied by a stamped, self-addressed envelope. Thank you.
 
Wildcard SSL Certificates