Rebecca Zemans Jewelry Blog — hand made

We are continuing our metals series with gold-plated, a metal that we are slowly starting to incorporate into some of our designs. As you might know we mainly work with precious metals such as sterling silver, gold-filled and 14K gold. We work with those metals because first of all, we can forge them and move them into the designs we want and secondly, because they are known for its value and longevity. Gold-plated is a metal used mostly for costume jewelry, which is often mass produced and not meant to last forever. That being said, gold-plated can be a very...

We have been doing a lot of custom wedding bands and engagement rings lately, so we decided to do a little blog post about the different stone settings we use for those of you who are interested in a custom design that includes stones. In the end, which setting you choose to use in your design mostly depends on which one you like the most. However, there are advantages and disadvantages to each setting, that should also be taken into account.   Flush setting A flush setting is when we cut a hole into the band, just big enough to...

This is our new blog series about metals. We decided that this would be an interesting topic for all you jewelry fanatics, so if you are interested in learning more about the metals we use for our jewelry, then you should definitely keep reading! Today we will be talking about sterling silver, which is our most used metal, and a favorite of many. Sterling silver is an alloy containing 92.5% pure silver and 7.5% other metals, mainly copper. The 7.5% can be any metal depending on preference, but time has proven copper to be the best addition to the pure...

We have been busy building up our inventory and working on many custom pieces and so we thought it would be nice to give you a little preview on what we have been working on!   These two gorgeous pieces are wedding bands, which have been carved in wax and then cast into 14K gold with diamonds.  These are variations of our classic Starburst Ring in different metals.     And here are some of the custom necklaces we have been working on over the last few weeks/months. As you might be able to see, the necklaces are variations of our...

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....