Rebecca Zemans Jewelry Blog — chicago

Considered the “Universal Crystal” all over the world because of its transparent and colorless nature, Crystal Quartz is the perfect alternative to the diamond, the traditional birthstone of April. The word "crystal" comes from the Greek word "krustallos", meaning ice. Quartz was believed to be ice formed by the Gods. Since the Middle Ages, crystal balls made of clear quartz have been used to predict the future. The English word "quartz" comes from the German word "Quarz". Another theory, by Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder, was that quartz is ice that has been permanently frozen after a great length of time....

Today we will share with you some insight on one of our most important processes - forging. Forging is the process of shaping the metal using force. Forging can be done either hot or cold, depending on the metal. For our silver and gold jewelry, we use the cold forging process after annealing the metal. Meaning, we hit the metal while it is cold after heating it up to loosen the molecules and then cooling it off so we can hold it while hammering it. Hot forging is when you hit a portion of the metal while it is hot,...

An alternative birthstone for March is Jasper, a gemstone known for its many colors and its beautiful and unique patterns. Jasper is often thought to be part of the chalcedony class of gemstones. However, it can contain up to 20% foreign material, which results in the beautiful patterns. This makes Jasper considered a group of its own. The Jasper is a 6.5 on the Mohs scale of hardness, which makes it a fairly hard gemstone.  The Jasper rarely comes in one uniform color. Most of the time these gemstones have streaks or spots of other colors, which results in many names for the...

We has so much fun at Indie Wed! Held at the Ravenswood Event Center, a giant loft filled with 50's and 60's porsches, mercedes and ferraris, it was the perfect space for an event of this kind. Every booth was fun and unique, making all of us want to get married (again). Great music made the day feel more like a party than a show and we are still dreaming of the amazing food. We were so lucky to be next to Uptown Brownie...our waistlines still haven't forgiven us:). Our cozy Indie Wed booth! We also met Poladora, a really cool...

Creating jewelry is a much more technical process than most people think. To create certain pieces, we use chemicals, wax, and precious metals or processes such as forging, filing or soldering to create a certain design and effect. We solder almost everyday. It is the process of joining two metals together with a filler. In simple terms, soldering is the process of gluing metals together through heat. Soldering has been around for over 5000 years. There is evidence that the ancient Egyptians knew how to solder gold. The Romans also used soldering and did an impressive job by soldering together...