Tag: Gemstones

Every Trinket File guide tagged gemstones: settings, judging stones, pearls and organic gems, and the care each one needs.

Model in a black hat and black top wearing a graphic necklace of black stones and pearls

Modern Pearl Jewelry: Styling Rules Worth Keeping

Pearls don't belong only to formal sets anymore. A strand works with a T-shirt, a baroque drop sits beside a plain gold hoop, and black or silver pearls look as modern as any polished metal. The visua

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A velvet jewellery box holding a tray of silver rings

Caring for Jewelry at Home: Cleaning, Storage and Wear

Very little jewelry is ruined by cleaning. A lot is ruined by being worn in the wrong places, stored in a heap and scrubbed with something harsher than it needed. The right routine is unglamorous and

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A silversmith at a workshop bench with hammers and stakes behind him

Resizing and Repairing Jewelry: What a Workshop Can Do

Most jewelry can be repaired and much of it can be resized. The real question isn't whether something is possible in principle but whether it makes sense for this piece, and that depends almost entire

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Gold rings set with coloured stones along the band

Prongs, Bezels, Channels and Pavé: Picking a Setting

Most people choose a setting by how much stone it shows. That's an incomplete way to choose. The setting is what holds a brittle stone inside a metal object that gets knocked against desks, faucets an

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Model in a black hat and black top wearing a graphic necklace of black stones and pearls

Pearls, Coral and Amber: Judging and Care

Pearls and other organic jewelry materials get graded in language borrowed from diamonds, which is where the confusion starts. A mineral stone is judged on color, clarity and cut and shrugs off most o

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A ten-times jeweller's loupe on a plain surface

Judging a Stone: What You Can Check and What You Can't

The gem trade runs on the gap between how a stone looks and what it is. A colorless stone can be diamond, moissanite, cubic zirconia or glass, and the difference is invisible to the naked eye. A red o

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