Jewerly Repair: part 1
I’m not a jewelry person by nature. I still have the cheap $5 earrings from junior high in my jewelry box and remembering the four c’s is like trying to rattle off the names of Snow White’s seven dwarves under pressure. So I’ve been holding off on getting my engagement ring restored. Every year about Christmas time, I dig out the name and number of a jeweler who was recommended to us when we first got the ring cleaned, and every year I put it right back and figure next year would be better. Well this was the year! It turns out that she is now an appraiser and recommended a few other places, one of which was Green Lake. I checked out their site and found that they don’t have any sales staff…the people you talk to are the bench jewelers themselves. Cool!
On top of that the referral came from a client who took a 250-year-old ring there; I think that’s a good a recommendation as any. Still, I didn’t just want to blindly hand off my ring, so I made an appointment to meet with one of their restoration jewelers, Ray. I figure if I like the staff, get a good impression of the store, and am comfortable I can leave the ring there. If I’m not, then I can just take it back home and keep looking.
When we drove up the first thing I noticed was that the building looked more like a fine dining restaraunt than a jeweler’s shop (which it was at one point). The place was pretty cool. It certainly wasn’t the hole in the wall I was expecting. We walked in and the second thing I noticed was the floor. Each of the employees had painted a portion of the floor and it all flowed together as one giant design. The third thing that caught my eye was an enclosed machine turning out small green wax rings (part of the custom process).
We met with Ray and talked about the ring, what we were looking to have done, and what he thought it would take. Since it was an engagement ring and wedding band soldered together, he mentioned two ways it could be done: create one band out of the two so the bottom would be one ring while the top would be the two seperate OR seperate the two rings, restore them and then put them back together. I definitely wanted the second option since this is what my guy’s grandparents had done. He gave me a rough estimate of how long it would take and how much it would cost. I was pretty impressed with the whole non-salesman thing. Ray’s hands were rough from the work he did and he was able to tell me directly what it would take to get the ring done. Most places, no matter what you’re getting done, you end up talking to the middle man. We left the ring with them and then on a whim decided to leave our wedding bands too. We’ve been planning on getting them engraved for a while, but just never got around to it. Originally, I wanted Tiffany’s to do it, but they send their stuff out, so it wasn’t as romantic as Breakfast at Tiffany’s like I had planned. Plus they wanted quite bit of money per letter.
Angel’s Tip: If you’re thinking about getting engraving done, get it done before the wedding so you don’t have to go without your ring. It was so weird not wearing our rings; our fingers felt completely naked. I noticed both of us fiddling with what used to be there.
Ray’s Tip: If you plan on wearing your wedding and engagement ring together, get them soldered so they don’t rub and wear on each other. This will save your rings and money.
Next up: what we got back.