Good Jewelry design has ballance and flow. Symmetrical design ballances equally, mirror image from side to side. Asymmetrical design ballances by having a strong design horizontally, diagonally, or vertically.The ballance is offset with a less strong side. The ballance is achieved by a strong push and pull of elements. 
Free Form designs have a continuous movement that ballances form to a gemstone, creating a sense of eternal flow. 
Static Design, with no flow, is designed to create ballance through the proportion of the scale of a gemstone to a hand or ring band. The Ballance is achieved for example, by sizing the ring band based on the length of the finger and size of the gemstone. 
Jewelry Design is as individual as you, and you get to choose your perfect design.
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The sister birthstone of June is Alexandrite. 
Discovered in the Ural Mountain Range in Russia, the Gem was named after Tsarina Alexandra. It is RARE.
The gemstone is dichroic, meaning that under incandescent indoor light the gemstone has a purple-reddish color. When the gemstone is viewed outdoors the gemstone’s color changes to a green-blue color. Some are even golden colored. 
A prized Alexandrite has a distinctive and bold color change. It is a wearable gemstone with a hardness rating of 8.5. But just like a Pearl, it can be brittle, and susceptible to abrasion and scratches. 
Unique, rare and mysterious. What a beautiful birthstone to be cherished!

Have you ever noticed how many shades of colors their are in Pearls? 
Cream, White, Pink, soft Brown, Brown Black and Black with soft hues of pink blue and green are all represented in Pearls. 
When you pick up a Mollusk, you see all the many colors around the edge of the lips of the Mollusk. All of the varieties of these colors are present in each Pearl .
The mother Mollusk when secreting its nacre, coats the Pearl with a variation of one of these colors that is present in her shell. Water temperature, water purity and minearal content all play a role in determining the Pearl’s color. 
When considering purchasing a Pearl, see how one of these many colors compliments your skin tone, especially the South Sea Pearl varieties. Personalise your Pearl selection to complement your  skin ! It will give you the wearer , and your admirers, a great deal of pleasure and enjoyment!

I can’t count how many times in my 40 year career that a customer has brought in a Pearl Stud Earring and the Pearl has fallen out, or out of the gold setting. 
99.9% of the time, the Jewelry was made off shore, and the producer or manufacturer cut corners by not having a correctly drilled hole for the gold peg. 
When I inspect the Pearl and the Gold stud backing it is common that the Gold fitting was not drilled to the correct milimeter size, and does not fit the Pearl and is not a snug fit. So the Pearl falls off the setting. 
Glue or Epoxy to fill the gap will not create a bond, when the fit is not snug. Hence a couple of years of wear, the bond fails, and the Pearl is lost. 
Your Jeweler can create Pearl jewelry that will last and bring years of wear and pleasure. 

​Michael Nutter Jeweler
From Concept to Finished Jewelry
Award Winning Jeweler since 1978
Call Michael for Quality Jewelry

When Making a Repair to your Jewelry, the experience of your personal jeweler matters. 
Most often, jewelry repairs require some soldering or welds. 
There are FOUR types of Solders:

• EASY- Low temperature, easy flow/ BAD for durability
• MEDIUM- Medium Temperature, about 1800 degrees, use near gemstones
• HARD- 1820 degrees which is close to the metal melt temperature, usually the best for Quality repairs
• Repair Hard- Very Very close to metal melt temperature. I use this only for ring sizings

If you take your jewelry to a “hands on “ jeweler, your jeweler will be familiar with the different types of solders and welds, and will make the appropriate choice for the repair. 

All too often, the Big Box stores or Mall Jewelers use inexpensive repairs using easy solder where hard solder should be used.  Have you ever wondered why your ring shank cracked, or why the tips on your prongs did not last long? Chances are easy solder was used. I see this frequently when jewelry is brought in for repairs. 

Chemicals and Pearls Dont Mix!
Simple cosmetic ingredients , such as perfumes and hair sprays, can reek havoc with  the delicate organic Nacre. That is the surface coating that is secreted by the mollusk. This surface, if magnified, looks like overlapping fish scales!
Once the chemical has damaged one or more of these layers, the pearl will appear dull, and is subject to further abrasive damage. 
​Wear your Pears with Love, and Care.

Folklore has it that the tears from the Moon fell to the Ocean, where they turned into Pearls. 
One can see the beauty and mystery behind such lore. 
A fine Lusterful white Pearl does remind one of a full Moon. 
Enjoy the Tresures of lore and the mystery of the Pearl. 

The Queen of the Gemstone World: The Pearl

A Perfect Genstone. Organically birthed, and grown in the Great Oceans and Waters around the world; there are so many to choose from!
Mississippi River Pearls
Biwa Fresh Water Pearls
South Sea Pearls
Pearls are very diverse. There are many different sizes ranging from 2mm to 16 mm.
A wide range of colors from snow white, cream, light brown, pink, dark brown, golden, black, gray silver are available! Pick the color that is best for your skin complexion. 
This Wonderful Gem can be worn casually or Dressed up for any Formal Event. They will look absolutely beautiful!
Pearls can be crafted in many different jewelry settings!
From Classic Solitaire Pearl Stud Earrings, or an elegant Solitaire Pearl Ring, to the simple strand of pearls. Always in Style!

Ring Shank Repairs: 
Recently a diamond and sapphire ring came in for refurbishment. 
The client was unhappy with the ring shank, which had recently been repaired. The ring shank had cracked yet again. 
So I looked at the ring, and after inspecting it, noticed that the ring had been sized four times! The ring shank was thin and had lost the ability to remain in the round. 
I mentioned that an option is to replace a portion of the ring with new metal, basically a half ring shank. The client elected to have the existing shank resoldered. 

When I approach a repair like this one, the ring is thoroughly cleaned..... after cleaning I gently heat the ring up, to see where repairs have been made in the past. The Solder will gently discolor , indicating where the sizings or repairs have been made in the past. And, SURPRISE ...... the ring shank fell into the Jewelers Bench Tray!
The jeweler in the past used 14K or 10K Easy Solder. 
After removing the easy solder and thoroughly inspecting the other solder seams, I used 14K Hard Solder and reinstalled that portion of the shank. The repairs that I made were very solid, and will last a long time. 
However, this project was a very good candidate for 1/2 ring shank replacement, as it would have added strength and cleaned up the past mediocre repairs. 
But even so, I told my client, that in the future I would take care of any problems related to my repair, without additional charges. I stand behind my work. 

When I began my career in the field of jewelry design, the ARTWORK of jewelry design was organic and fluid. The textures were amazing, using wood, lava flow, and leaves that reflected the Back To the Earth movement of the 60’s. It was exciting and represented a BIG movement away from the 40’s and 50’s in jewelry design.
In the 40’s and 50’s, design was straight forward with lines of diamonds, center stones, and generally yellow gold. 
Forward to the 70’s , which brought BIG yellow gold jewelry with Wide yellow gold bands and Lots of prongs. 
In the 80’s ring fashion changed and showed lots of Channel set diamonds, freeform designs flowing with smooth movement, accented with small diamonds in channels to compliment the center gemstone. 
And then there was the 90’s. BIG Diamonds, 2 carat center stones were all the rage! These designs were taylored to allow the Centerstone to become Centerstage. 
In the 2000’s, the price of Gold hit an alltime high. The field of jewelry design retooled and redesigned: mountings became light and thin! Micropave and small diamonds embellished almost every surface. Designs used very little gold, and A LOT of small diamonds. 
And then there was CAD
Computer Assisted Design: the technology of the day RULES.
Jewelry designs have become neutered, boooooring and cookie cutter. 
One Halo design looks just like ten others, they all look the same. 
I Believe that the ART and Feel of individually crafted jewelry has almost disappeared. 
My Hope is that Individuality begins to reemerge; That REAL design reclaims true artistry in the Golsdmithing Design Arena. 
Afer all, who is really proud of a Mechanical Technical Manipulation that is sitting on their hand, VS a hand made, hand set collection of Gems, with sublte and beautiful Technique. Unique in design, subtle in its imperfection, with organically generated artistry, NOT a DNA cookie cutter model!
People will make the choice. I hope the human eye and hand will prevail over the CAD and Mechanisation that has taken precedence in the last decade.