Can you believe 2020 is practically halfway over? The past couple of months have definitely been unpredictable and unchartered, and I’m so grateful to have wonderful and understanding clients who have supported me and my business throughout it all.

Without further ado, I’d love to talk about one of my favorite gems to work with- pearls! It’s 1 of 3 June birthstones, with the others being moonstone and alexandrite. A quick couple of facts about the latter before I begin chatting about pearls:

Alexandrite:

1. Alexandrite was originally discovered in Russia, 1834.

2. Alexandrite is known as “Emerald by Day / Ruby by Night” because of its color change phenomenon.

3. Alexandrite is relatively hard—8.5 on the Mohs Hardness Scale.

Moonstone:

1. Moonstone ranks between 6 and 6.5 on the Mohs Hardness Scale.

2. Moonstone is a member of the orthoclase feldspar mineral family.

3. Moonstones are translucent with a blue sheen that is a result of the phenomenon “Adularescence”, which is the light that appears to billow across a gemstone, giving its surface a glowing appearance.

Now onto one of my favorite materials to work with. PEARLS. If you follow me on Instagram or have visited my online shop, you’ve seen my love for pearls shine through some of the pieces I design. I use a variety of pearls, including Tahitian, Keshi, and South Sea, that come in a variety of colors. Here are some current favorites:

Here is some wonderful pearl information from my alma mater, GIA.

This enchanting June birthstone originates from oceans, lakes and rivers around the world. It is a timeless wardrobe staple, beloved by women of all ages. The origin of pearls fascinated our forebears. Ancients from the Middle East believed that pearls were teardrops fallen from heaven. The Chinese fancied that the June birthstone came from the brain of a dragon. Christopher Columbus and his contemporaries thought that mollusks formed pearls from dew drops.

Pearls are organic gems that grow inside the tissue of a living saltwater or freshwater mollusk (either an oyster or a mussel). Natural pearls form when the mollusk secretes a substance called nacre around an irritant such as a piece of sand or a parasite that has invaded its shell. Cultured pearls are a product of human intervention. Technicians implant a piece of mantle tissue alone (common for freshwater cultured pearls) or with a mother-of-pearl shell bead (all saltwater) into a host mollusk. The mollusk covers the irritant with nacre, just like a natural pearl. Cultured pearls are raised in pearl farms – saltwater or freshwater operations where the mollusks are cleaned, protected from predators and eventually harvested. Thousands of years of pearl fishing have decimated the natural pearl beds, so cultured pearls account for the vast majority of pearl sales today. These cultured pearl birthstones come in a dazzling array of sizes, colors and shapes.

Pearls have long been associated with purity, humility and innocence. So it may be said that the June birthstone meaning is "sweet simplicity." As such, pearls were traditionally given as a wedding gift.

If you’re looking for some of your very own pearl or June birthstone jewelry, send me an email. I’d love to visit with you and hear all about your jewelry needs!

In this time of uncertainty and abnormal schedules, new norms, and quarantine for most of the globe, I just wanted to update you on the changes that I’ve had to make for my business at this time.

My family and I have been closely monitoring the Covid-19 developments and have decided that in-person appointments are temporarily unavailable. The safety of my family + my clients is top priority.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Here are the specific changes I’ve decided to implement for the safety + health of my clients + my family:

Redesign + new jewelry is business as usual, expect a slower process due to other business closures

Please contact me if you’re planning on purchasing jewelry for a loved one during this time! Although the world seems to be at a standstill, high school seniors and college seniors are still graduating, Mother’s Day is still May 10, birthdays are still happening, and people need a little sparkle in their lives now more than ever. Email me today if you’d like to chat with me about your jewelry needs.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

Virtual appointments

In lieu of in-person appointments, I am happy to be scheduling virtual appointments! You can email me to set one up: emily@emilysole.com. We can chat ‘face to face’ over technology, you can show me your jewelry, or we can chat about any jewelry ideas you had in mind!

Free Delivery + pickups

To keep everyone safe and happy at this time, I’m offering free delivery or pickup of your jewelry from your front porch. I’ll drive to your home at an agreed upon time and, making sure you’re at the door, I can set your jewelry in a safe jewelry bag. I’ll step back and make sure I watch you take the jewelry or vice versa, so you know it’s in safe hands!

No repairs at this time

Due to circumstances out of my control, the jewelers I work closely with on repairs have had to close due to the Covid-19 outbreak. At this time, I cannot do any jewelry repairs.

I will be posting regularly on Instagram in order to add a little sparkle to your feeds and distract you from the current state of things with fun games, tips and tricks to make staying home more fun, and to stay in contact with this amazing online community. We’re all in this together! If you'd like to say hi, just send me an email. Let's bridge this gap between us while we are all staying within the walls of our homes.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
With all of the uncertainty happening in the world right now, let's band together as a community to make sure we come out of this stronger than before. Remember to wash your hands, stay inside, and be safe! ⠀

I see jewelry in every shape and form possible- old, new, well taken care of, sparkling clean, with globs of lotion stuck between the prongs, or plain dirty. No matter what I am working on with a client, I always make sure to clean every piece of jewelry that I work on for a client. A large portion of what I work with are engagement rings.

The first thing I do when a client brings me an engagement ring to be cleaned, resized, or maintained is to view the piece with my loupe. A loupe is essentially a small magnifying glass. It makes viewing small details of the jewelry much easier, and I don’t leave home without it!

In the above photo is my loupe along with a client’s beautiful solitaire engagement ring. In this particular case, she hadn’t worn the ring in a couple of years because it no longer fit her. She brought it in to be resized which would automatically come with a cleaning. As always I inspected the ring with my trusty loupe. I even took pictures with my phone, through the loupe so you can see what I saw! Check out how much this ring needed some love:

The client left her ring with me, I resized and cleaned it, and we set a date to get her ring back to her. That’s one of my favorite parts of working with clients. I love being able to see their faces when they’re getting their beautiful jewelry back. She was very happy with the work I was able to do to her ring, and she said it truly looked like an entirely new piece of jewelry! Take a look:

If you’d like to clean your own diamond jewelry at home, follow these simple steps:

1) grab a bowl some very warm water, a soft bristle toothbrush, dish soap, and a hand towel

2) put a small amount of dish soap into the warm water and mix it together

3) place your ring in the bowl of soapy water and leave it for 30 minutes

4) Remove ring and brush it gently with the soft bristle toothbrush

5) Rinse under warm running water, and dry with the hand towel

To keep your ring looking it’s very best, I recommend cleaning it once every week or two. For a more thorough cleaning, I recommend bringing it to a professional jewelry or Gemologist (such as myself) once or twice a year where it can be professionally cleaned and maintained. If you’d like your jewelry polished, resized, maintained after years of use, I’d love to chat with you! Click here to contact me!