Joya Bella Gem Studio

10/18/2024

(Long post alert lol).
I haven't made or done anything with jewelry in several months. But I have that one friend (actually a couple!) who drags me back in with some interesting, tricky asks. Here, we have an awesome vintage Schreiner rooster brooch from the 1950s. It was missing a few stones and somebody had glued some ill-fitting rhinestones in their places. I forgot to take a photo before I started, but it always makes me giggle when I see the attempted repairs 😂 I couldn't find the milk glass or red coral stones that I needed, so I used commercial grade opal with almost no color, and I filed it down to fit. Then I had a little fun and added garnets to make the rooster's comb and wattle. Schreiner made their pieces with many variations of stones, and I hope that they would approve of my choices. The next challenge - and it was a hard one - was sizing a wide, inexpensive silver band with CZs in it down from a size 10.5 to a 4.5!! Trust me, it's hard to do, and I warned my friend that the ring might be toast by the time I was done. Miraculously, I was able to size it down with a combination of cutting out about two sizes worth of metal and then soldering another silver ring to the inside diameter of the original band. The CZs all cracked under the heat, so I replaced them. It's not perfect, but it turned out pretty okay!! And finally, I was revisited by some beautiful large pavé diamond hoops. I've replaced stones in them before, and I'm SURE I'll probably have to replace more in the future. They're made of thin silver, so they bend out of shape easily, which loosens the settings. They sure are pretty, though!
In conclusion.... I'm currently down a Schreiner rabbit hole, trying to find the perfect first Schreiner piece(s) for my jewelry box 😂 💸💸

** Update ** I found my own first Schreiner pieces 🤣

05/12/2024

You can't go wrong with jewelry for Mother's Day! Handmade in 14k yellow gold

01/08/2024

12/25/2023

That's the reaction I always hope people have when they see what's inside the box!

12/23/2023

This is a sweet little apatite ring for my sweet little boy. Cooper loves loves apatite and asked me recently if "someday" I could make him an apatite ring. Men's rings are too big for an 11 year old, so I found a smaller version and sized it down to a 4. It's going in his stocking🤶🏼 I hope he likes it!

12/08/2023

I wanted a green ring for Christmastime, but I didn't want to break the bank to do it! My options for Christmas-y green were emeralds and tsavorite garnets. Tsavorite garnets are VERY expensive, as are naturally mined emeralds! So I opted to make this cute ring with silver and lab-grown emeralds to get the fun look I wanted without spending a bundle!

12/03/2023

Merry Christmas to me! 🤶🏼
I re-set this amazing smoky quartz in an awesome new ring with a dainty halo. This is the third setting for this stone (I do that a lot!), and I think this is its forever home 😂. I made a ring for a customer with this style setting about a year and a half ago, and I've been itching to use it again. This is a perfectly proportional setting for this beefy stone, and the small diamond halo is just the right amount of framing that it needed. It's a master cut, fancy emerald cut smoky quartz, set in continuum silver with 34 F+ color diamonds. As is the case with a lot of master cuts, this stone doesn't fit easily into a standard-size setting, so I had to alter the interior of the setting to accommodate the extra facets. Definitely worth the effort!

10/31/2023

I've made two of these bracelets (so far), using Mozambique garnets and citrines. I'm not sure which one I like better, but I think maybe the citrines! I'm usually a red person, but the AAA citrines are really pretty!

08/03/2023

I loved the earrings I made last week with Swiss blue topaz and diamonds, so I decided to make another pair. I have a handful of topaz that is cut by Swarovski. They briefly cut and sold topaz to one of my suppliers, but quickly discontinued the practice and went back to only cutting their own crystals, which are specially created for them. So I guess you can call these a very limited edition, since I can't get the baby pink topaz anymore, and I only have a handful of the red princess cuts. I made these with the bottom stone dangly. The Swiss blue pair were soldered in place. I can't decide which ones I like more! I love them both 💕❤️ I would love to make these with sapphires and sky blue topaz or aquamarine!

07/30/2023

It took me awhile to figure out the right design using my customer's existing diamonds from an old ring, but I managed to make a gorgeous pair of earrings that match a Swiss blue topaz ring she bought from me recently. I absolutely LOVE this design, and of course now I want a pair for myself 😂

07/14/2023

Yesterday, I was in a soldering mood, so I challenged myself to make a ring out of the little bits and scraps that were sitting on my desk. I had a ring shank that had the setting removed from it months ago, and that fit nicely up into a lopsided, domed piece of argentium silver. Then I rounded up bits of bead wire and a couple of spirals made from argentium silver wire, and used whatever silver settings were right in front of me. Some of the stones were slated to be returned, but they were on my desk, so they were fair game! I had some lab-grown rubies, two tsavorite garnets (green), a spessartite garnet (orange), two blue topaz, and some lab-grown diamonds. I LOVE IT!! I know it's not for everybody, but something that started out as a silly challenge turned into a really fun, cool ring! It teminds me of both a Christmas ornament and a Faberge egg! A little enamel could have made this even cooler!! (and even more like a faberge egg! 😜)
P.S. the only solder on my desk was easy, so that's all I used, and I had the torch on it 4 times