Generally fine jewelry refers to jewelry made out of precious metals, with or without gemstones. Fine jewelry holds its beauty longer than fashion or costume jewelry and tends to be more easily modified (such as ring resizing) and repaired.

Simply put electroplating is a process by which a very thin layer of metal is applied to another metal through the use of electricity. In reference to jewelry, a thin layer of a precious metal, usually gold, silver, or rhodium, can be applied to a much less expensive metal, such as copper or steel. This produces a piece of jewelry that is much less expensive than one that is solid gold, silver, or platinum.

Sometimes rhodium is plated over silver to help prevent tarnishing or over white gold to make it look whiter. The drawback to all electroplating is that the plating will wear off and require re-plating. The more the jewelry is worn the faster the plating will wear off.

A gemstone is a piece of mineral crystal, certain rocks, or organic materials cut and polished to make jewelry or other adornments.

CZ stands for cubic zirconia, a man-made gemstone created in a laboratory from zirconium dioxide. They are used as substitutes for diamonds and other precious gemstones. They are not glass, they are lab grown crystals that can be as beautiful as much more expensive precious gems. The trade-off is that they are less durable and more easily damaged.

Synthetic stones consist of the same elements as their natural counterparts but they are grown in a lab instead of being formed naturally. They are not imitation or fake gemstones but there are certain markers a gemologist can look for to determine if a stone is synthetic or natural.

Simulated gemstones are gems made from a material different than the gemstone they are designed to imitate. They may be glass or other material or they may be a gemstone treated to make it look like another, more expensive, gemstone. For example, alexandrite is a very rare and expensive stone so sapphires are often treated to imitate the color change of alexandrite. Although sapphires are precious gemstones, when treated to produce the alexandrite effect they are simulated or imitation alexandrite stones. They are not considered synthetic alexandrite because they do not consist of the same elements as alexandrite.

Diamonds are graded based on the 4 C’s—Color, clarity, cut, and carat weight.

Color—While generally considered colorless, most diamonds are not completely without color. With the exception of fancy colored diamonds, the less color a diamond has the more valuable it is.

Clarity—Blemishes and inclusions (or flaws) that occur during the formation of diamonds can make a diamond appear cloudy or dirty. The fewer flaws a diamond has the clearer the stone will appear and the more valuable it will be.

Cut—The ability to transmit light and sparkle intensely is what makes diamonds so beautiful. The way a diamond is cut directly effects how well the stone shines and sparkles, so the higher quality cut will enhance the brilliance of the diamond and a poorly cut diamond can diminish the beauty and the value of the stone.

Carat Weight—Carats are units of measurements used when weighing gemstones with one carat equaling 200 milligrams. The more a stone weighs the larger it is which increases the value as long as the color, cut, and clarity are good. A larger stone with poor color and clarity may actually be less valuable than a smaller stone with less color and greater clarity.

Yes. Diamonds are the hardest substance known to man, with a rating of 10 on the Mohs scale of hardness, but hardness in this context refers to how easily a substance is scratched. According to the Mohs scale a substance can only be scratched by another substance that has a hardness factor equal to or greater than itself. Therefore only another diamond can scratch a diamond. That said, diamonds are crystalline in structure and a hard enough blow can cause a diamond to fracture along the lines of cleavage, much like a block of wood can be split along the grain. Also inclusions (or flaws) in any gemstone, including diamonds, cause weak spots in the stones that can make it more easily fractured. The thinnest part of the stone, such as the girdle (the outside edge of the stone) or the culet (the point at the bottom of the stone), is the most vulnerable to being chipped.

It is important to have the stones in your jewelry checked regularly to make sure they remain secure. Gold and silver are soft metals and will wear away over time. When the metal holding gemstones in place gets worn down the stones will loosen and may become lost. Rings are the most vulnerable and if worn often should be checked at least every six months. Rings worn every day should be checked more often.

A carat is a unit of measurement equaling 200 milligrams or .2 grams used to determine the weight of gemstones. A karat is a term to measure the purity of gold with 24 karat gold equaling 100% gold and 14 karat gold equaling 58.5% gold and 41.5% other metals.

While it is sometimes possible to stretch a ring to slightly increase the size usually the bottom of the ring, or shank, is cut and metal is removed or added to increase or decrease the diameter of the ring. The ring is then soldered back together using a torch. The cost of having a ring sized depends on the width of the shank, whether metal is removed or added, and, if metal is added, how much metal is needed.

My Jeweler is located at 809 Main St. in Vancouver, Washington. Store hours are Tuesday – Friday 11:00 to 6:00 and Saturday 11:00 to 3:00.

All jewelry repairs are done in house.

It usually takes a day or two to have a ring sized. The cost depends on the width of the band and whether the ring is being sized up or down. If sized up the cost will also vary depending on how many sizes the ring is going up to.

Yes, though not all watch repairs are done in house. Older, non-quartz watches are sometimes sent out to a local watchmaker.

Yes. We charge 25% of the selling price of jewelry sold on consignment. We also buy jewelry directly but only for the value of the metal and stones. Often the majority of the value of jewelry is in the design and labor involved in making the jewelry so what we pay for jewelry will be considerably less than the retail value of similar piece of new jewelry or the amount you might be able to sell it for on consignment.