Welcome.

Please feel free to share your jewelry questions and comments with us, and visit the Garwood's website.

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Solar-powered watches

Watch technology is ever-evolving giving consumers an array of options and making it easier for people to maintain their time pieces. Thanks to innovative watch companies, people no longer have to spend a hundred dollars or more to service their watch every few years.

Instead of winding your watch daily, moving your wrist or even using a small battery to power your watch, Citizen uses the power of light.

Citizen's Eco Drive watches use a solar conversion panel and energy cell to power the quartz watches instead of a battery like most comparable brands. Eco Drives can convert both sunlight and artificial light to energy, so the supply is limitless and doesn't cost a dime. With other watch brands, you'll have to replace the battery every one to three years with battery costs averaging $8 to $25 depending on who installs it.

With normal wear, an Eco Drive owner can expect his or her watch to last a lifetime. Of course, the watch needs to be in light on a regular basis and one should avoid submerging the watch in water if it is not a dive watch.

However, one does not have to wear the watch every day for it to keep a charge. In fact, an Eco Drive watch can keep time for up to 180 days on a full charge, so putting it in a jewelry box or drawer for a month shouldn't be a problem. If the watch happens to be off when it is removed from the drawer, simply pulling the stem out and placing the watch under a lamp for 24 to 48 hours will allow the watch to regain a charge. Pulling the stem out allows the watch to charge without trying to run at the same time. Once it is fully charged, the time can be set and the watch is wearable.

In addition to being hassle-free, Eco Drive watches are more earth-friendly than other brands. The Eco Drive cells do not contain any of the chemicals used in ordinary watch batteries and there is no need to dispose of used cells since the Eco Drive cell doesn't need to be replaced.

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Natural vs. Treated Jade

Mason-Kay, the leading producer of fine jade jewelry in the United States, provides great information on the various qualities of jade. Here is a basic run-down, and for additional information, visit http://www.masonkay.com/jade/whatisbjade.php.

  • 'A' Jade: Natural, untreated jadeite jade
  • 'B' Jade: Acid bleached, polymer impregnated jadeite jade
  • 'C' Jade: The dyed form of 'B' jade
  • 'D' Jade: Dyed jadeite jade with no polymer; predates the the polymer treatment
While dyed jade has existed for many years ('D' jade), a new kind of jade hit the market in the 1980s. It had a light but bright body color and good translucence. This type of jade is what is now referred to as 'B' jade.

To produce 'B' jade, poor quality jade that has internal stains is immersed in acid. Sodium, which is a part of jade's chemical composition, is leached out during this process, and with it, the stains are removed. At this point, the jade is put into a neutralizing agent and a polymer is injected into the stone using a centrifuge. A clear, plastic-like coating is then put on the jade and it is cut and polished like any other piece of jade.

'B' jade is not as tough as natural 'A' jade and can actually fracture and discolor. According to Mason-Kay, 'B' jade is valued at about 5 to 10 percent of 'A' jade's value, and 'C' and 'D' jade is worth $20 or less. The selling of 'B', 'C' and 'D' jade is acceptable as long as it is disclosed to the consumer.

-Information provided by Mason-Kay, www.masonkay.com

Friday, May 15, 2009

Jadeite and Nephrite Jade

The term "jade" refers to both nephrite and jadeite. Jadeite (pronounced jade-ite) is the finer type of jade. While some jadeite has been found in other areas, the exceptional, gem-quality jadeite is mined in Burma (or Myanmar).

There are six basic colors of jadeite: green, lavender, red, yellow, white and black. Green is the most traditional color and varies from deep emerald greens to apple greens and even black greens. Ideal shades are strong, vibrant and translucent, and shades that are very dark or very light are considered less desirable. However, white jade or "ice jade" is perfectly fused jade crystals. Unlike the other colors of jade, white jade is pure and lacks the color-inducing impurities.

It has been said that jade grows richer in color when it is worn by a person in good health, and illness drains the color. However, jade is not affected by perfumes, oils and most acids, so it does not actually change color.

For hundreds of years, jade has been carved into animals, religious figures and jewelry, including solid discs, rings and bangle bracelets. The rarity and beauty of jadeite has made emperors prize it and the wealthy covet it. In Chinese culture, important occasions such as birthdays, weddings and births are celebrated with the giving of jade.

Most gemstones are evaluated and priced based on their carat weight, but jade is sold by the piece. Because of the rarity of jadeite, there are never a lot of fine beads, bangles and necklaces in the marketplace, which can make the pieces very expensive. Color, clarity, carving style, texture and how much someone likes the jade are more important than its size. Fine gem-quality jade can be more expensive than diamonds or rubies.

On the contrary, nephrite jade is not rare and, therefore, not expensive. A fine jadeite cabochon could cost several thousand dollars or more, whereas a nephrite cabochon should be no more than $100. Since nephrite has been around for at least 5,000 years, antique nephrite carvings have value based on their age but not their gem quality.


Jade is the toughest gemstone, meaning it is hard to chip or break. However, diamonds are the hardest gemstone, which means they are hard to scratch. Jade can be scratched and abraded rather easily, but it is much harder to actually break them. While this toughness allows jade carvings to last for hundreds if not thousands of years, it also makes the actual carving difficult.

In 1953, an earthquake hit Southern California, including a small art shop in Santa Barbara. The shop sold carved vases and figurines made of quartz, rock crystal, beryl, coral and jade. When the owners returned to their store to see the damage, they were surprised to find that the most expensive pieces -- the jade -- were not damaged at all, and they had been on the highest shelves. In fact, pre-historic Europeans and Chinese used jade for axe heads, scrapers and instruments of war.


-Information from Mason-Kay and the Gemological Institute of America

Friday, May 8, 2009

Selling Gold

A few weeks ago we wrote about reusing gold. Today, Denver news station CBS4 had a similar online article about selling gold. While not entirely the same topic, we thought they had some good points.

CBS4 took unwanted gold around to pawn shops, coin and jewelry stores and a traveling gold show to see where they'd get the most money. They found the coin stores to be the best bet, but prices varied at each place.

Their advice -- and ours -- is to take unwanted gold to multiple places before settling on a selling price, and don't be offended if the prices are much lower than the jewelry's original selling price. You'd be very lucky to even get half because most places will take jewelry apart and refine the gold to separate it from the other metals it's been mixed with.

Another option is to find an independent buyer who wants the jewelry as is. He or she will likely pay more for it than a pawn shop or coin and jewelry store.


Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Professional Jewelry Appraising

Appraisal Methodology

  • The Cost Approach

    The cost approach is a common method for jewelry appraising that is generic in nature and is used when the item of jewelry can be replaced with similar items in multiple retail jewelry stores. With the cost approach, the wholesale cost of the components are determined, added together, and a markup applied. Sometimes, separate markups are used for the various components. For example, the diamond market is competitively priced and a lower markup may be used as opposed to the higher markup that a semi-mount consisting of gold and diamonds may have. The cost approach is the most common methodology at Garwood’s Jewelers with the market data approach the next most frequent method.

  • The Market Data Approach

    This is a method that looks for comparable items sold in comparable markets. For example, an exclusive jewelry design sold only in certain jewelry stores, like John Atencio, should be valued based on the same selling price of that item in those exclusive stores. Most of the time when designer, trademarked or copyrighted jewelry is encountered, the market data approach is utilized. Often, a designer will charge premiums for the design work and then give a suggested retail price for the store to charge.


A Note on Markups

While no standards exist for markups, research has given us guidelines. In the early 1980’s retail markups were considerably higher than they are now. The inception of the Internet has contributed to lower retail markups due in part to more available information and increased use of lab reports for diamond grading, which makes comparison shopping easier.

-Information from Gemworld International, Inc.