Where—and how—to score scintillating jewelry.

Where—and how—to score scintillating jewelry.

To what lengths will a person go to procure a special piece of jewelry? In Milan in 2008, thieves drilled a hole into the world-renowned Damiani showroom basement from the building next door, outwitting the store’s alarm system and an armed guard and making off with millions of dollars in jewels (although not the best ones—those were on loan to various Hollywood stars for the Oscars). Gem miners have come up with innovative procurement techniques like swallowing uncut stones and, uh, recovering them later, or wearing glue-soled boots in the sorting workroom, then walking out at the end of the shift with diamonds literally on the soles of their shoes.

Here in the East Bay, we don’t have to work so hard—or stoop to illegal means—to find beautiful, original, and well-priced ways to adorn ourselves. Following are some scintillating ideas from local designers about what’s new in jewelry designs, colors, cuts, and metals.

Dare to deviate

Personal pieces: At Berkeley’s Solano Jewelers, owner Zareh Ekmekjian and daughter Aline Aghababian work with clients to design unique custom jewelry. Photo courtesy Solano Jewelers.

East Bay jewelers are well accustomed to crafting pieces that suit eclectic tastes. Maureen Ewer, manager of Bill’s Trading Post and Gem Gallery in Berkeley, describes a set of wedding rings commissioned by a couple who were avid mountain climbers: Etched in his ring were all the ranges he’d climbed around the world, while hers had a center tourmaline flanked by etchings of the two mountains they had summited together. Krista Meadows, owner of Fisher’s Jewelry in Albany, once made a pendant out of a baby tooth for a client (“We put a little gold cap on top of the tooth and hung it from a chain,” she says). Michael Endlich, owner of Pavé Fine Jewelry Design, in Oakland and Berkeley, incorporated titanium from a client’s dog’s leg—after the dog had died—into a ring.

Aline Aghababian, manager of Solano Jewelers in Berkeley, also has fielded her share of very specific custom requests. One client, she recalls, wanted a necklace incorporating the colors green and red and the number 8—all important symbols in his wife’s Chinese culture. In response, Aghababian, who regularly collaborates with her father and store owner, Zareh Ekmekjian, designed a piece made of burnished gold that lay on the woman’s neck in a figure 8; sprays of tiny rubies and emeralds created an airy look. Another client, an ardent supporter of Barack Obama’s presidential campaign, commissioned a white gold ring with a yellow gold bevel in which was mounted a custom-faceted London blue topaz. The stone is a saturated, inky blue, with green undertones when viewed from certain angles.

“She’d noticed that in all of his important speeches, Obama wore a blue tie,” Aghababian says. “So she asked us to have it ready for election night. She knew he was going to win.”

Another way to find a unique piece is to look to the past. Victoria LaFond at Aura Jewelers in Berkeley often travels to Britain to shop for antique and estate jewelry. The draw of antiques is not only economic—although old jewelry can certainly be less expensive than custom-made new pieces—but also because of the traditional beauty of older things, LaFond says. The Victorian and Arts and Crafts pieces she buys tend to go quickly—sometimes the first day of her return from a trip.

Some examples of what’s on hand in LaFond’s shop now: an Arts and Crafts American brooch, circa 1910, studded with an antique opal and flanked by two gold dragons with ruby eyes; and an Art Nouveau Ceylon sapphire ring, circa 1900, made of 15-karat gold.

“These pieces are special in part because they were made with such great detail,” she says. “The craftsmen had a lot more time to make things by hand.”

Melissa Rallis, owner and designer at the 11-year-old Kiss My Ring in Berkeley, looks to both the past and the present for design inspiration, often incorporating text or engravings in her pieces to create an ethereal, talismanic feel. Her “Tokens of Affection” line includes brass and silver pendants inspired by Spanish galleon coins, with engraved relief inscriptions in French like Je chéris même son ombre (I even love her shadow).

“I get jewelry design ideas from music, old reference books, my travels,” says Rallis, whose “Signium” collection incorporates ancient Roman motifs into silver or rose gold necklaces, rings, or earrings. “I’m inspired by jewelry from the Georgian period. I love the romantic and heirloom quality to them.” Rather than looking to current trends, Rallis prefers to keep one foot in the past, which influences her own designs. “I want to create jewelry that can be passed down.”

Beyond the pale

(Top to Bottom) Token treasure: At Kiss My Ring in Berkeley, owner Melissa Rallis incorporates text into pendants designed to look like old galleon coins. This sterling silver piece with an aged patina finish is inscribed Sempre il cor mio (My heart is yours forever) (Photo courtesy Kiss My Ring); Hanging history: Berkeley’s Aura Jewelers sells antiques like this pearl-star-blue necklace (Photo courtesy Aura Jewelers); Adornment galore: Bijoux at M. Lowe (Photo courtesy M. Lowe & Co.); Finger candy: This man’s ring—a 22-karat yellow-gold ring set with a purple star sapphire from Pavé Fine Jewelry Design—is a Spectrum Award Winner (Photo courtesy Pavé Fine Jewelry Design); Sea stones: A pearl bracelet from Fisher’s Jewelry in Albany (Photo courtesy Fisher’s Jewelry).

East Bay inhabitants tend toward the unorthodox, whether it be in politics, energy sources, fashion, or yes, jewelry. A great place to start creating an unusual piece is to go beyond traditional gem colors, says Meadows of Fisher’s. Most people don’t realize gems come in shades not usually associated with typical specimens. Sapphires, for example, can be found in a palette that varies from icy pink or vibrant fuchsia to lemon yellow, lavender, deep purple, and teal (red sapphires, however, are called rubies). Semi-precious gems such as peridot—which comes in shades of cool, grassy green—and apatite, a transparent, turquoise blue stone, are increasingly popular as well.

Meadows has owned Fisher’s Jewelry for more than a decade, and stocks estate pieces as well as offering custom designs. She caught the jewelry bug at the age of 16, when she got a job working with minerals for the Nature Company.

“I worked my way into jewelry from there,” she says. “I love the whole artistic side of it, the beautiful stones nature creates.”

Expanding your color horizons can even apply to diamonds, Meadows says. There will always be a market for white diamonds in fine jewelry, she explains, but colored diamonds are just as durable, with a pop of unexpected color. Diamonds come in shades of yellow, brown, blue, green, pink, orange, purple, red—even black (also called carbonado, black diamonds are more porous than their white counterparts and are made of many tiny black crystals; they’re found in alluvial deposits in central Africa and Brazil and are often paired with silver metals such as palladium or platinum).

In the past few years, Aghababian of Solano Jewelers has seen customers grow increasingly interested in colored diamonds, particularly chocolate- or cognac-colored stones. They add a surprising twist to a piece, even something as traditional as an engagement ring.

“Right now we’re doing a one-and-a-half carat chocolate diamond engagement ring, with the stone set between two yellow diamonds,” she says.

Even more unusual are matrix diamonds, raw diamonds with other minerals included, such as kimberlite or lamproite, made from volcanic magmas. Matrix diamonds are often rose cut (more on this later) to show off their complexity, according to John Moriarty, owner of The 14 Karats on College Avenue in Berkeley’s Elmwood district. Moriarty has been running the shop with his wife, Lily, for 30 years; visitors are often greeted by the family dog, an Australian Shepherd named Tooie. Recently, Moriarty designed a ring that included an eight-carat matrix diamond in a dusky red-brown.

“Matrix diamonds are so heavily veined with minerals that you can’t see through them,” he says. “They’re raw and rough-looking—very arty.”

Cutting corners

Not only are shoppers experimenting with diamond color, they’re also experimenting with the way the stones are cut, says Endlich of Pavé. One unusual choice, the rose cut, dates back to the 1500s. Designed to resemble a bud, the cut has a flat base from which a domed crown rises to form a point in the center. The technique shows off the opacity of matrix diamonds, but it can also highlight the beauty of a transparent colored diamond.

“The rose cut was primary when diamond cutting was first developed,” Endlich says. “It was the extent of the technology, and the cut is associated with old pieces. When our clients are looking for something different than the traditional round brilliant or princess cut, the rose cut offers a lovely, subtle alternative.”

Other fresh-again diamond cut styles, Endlich says, include the Asscher, a shape nearly identical to the emerald cut, but more square—it was popular in the 1930s and used in Art Deco jewelry—and the evocatively named cushion, or pillow cut, a hybrid of the Old Mine Cut (the earliest form of the brilliant) and a modern oval.

Heavy metal

Gold will never go out of style, says Margo Lowe, founder and owner of M. Lowe and Co. in North Berkeley, known for its intricate window displays (during the holidays, for example, tiny mechanical ice skaters glide on a mirror that serves as a silvery pond). But with gold prices at the highest they’ve ever been—more than $1,400 per ounce—her clients are looking for alternatives. East Bay shoppers are still interested in silver metals, which have been popular for more than a decade, Lowe says, but she also suggests considering rose gold or copper, as their warm, distinctive tones flatter everyone.

“We’re selling a lot of rose gold and copper—the colors are compelling,” she says. “We have estate jewelry pieces in copper from the 1950s, mostly necklaces, bracelets, and earrings, and especially in the case of copper, the prices are affordable, with some necklaces under $300 and earrings under $100. We also do a lot of custom high-end jewelry, for weddings and everything else.”

East Bay shoppers also have a firm commitment to “green” jewelry, that is, recycled gold or fair trade gems, according to Meadows of Fisher’s Jewelry. Recycled gold comes from estate sales; then the jewelers take the pieces to refining companies that clean the metal. Or clients can bring in their own gold pieces that they want to transform into something new.

“Almost 40 percent of our clients ask about recycled gold,” Meadows says. “Per ounce, the price of recycled gold is the same, but the draw is that more gold hasn’t been mined to create the piece.”

At Bill’s Trading Post, some clients—particularly men—like the look of blackened, or patinated metal, whether it’s steel, silver, titanium, or gold, says Maureen Ewer, manager.

“A very popular combination for men is blackened titanium set with black diamonds,” she says.

What price originals?

According to Irish legend, a wealthy widow named Margaret Joyce married the mayor of Galway, county Connacht, at some point during the 16th century. Her new husband promptly left on a long voyage, and while he was gone Margaret kept busy by building bridges all over the county—using her own funds. God was impressed with her work; he sent an eagle to drop a gold ring in her lap as a gift for her service. This ring was the original Claddagh ring, then one-of-a-kind, now the ubiquitous design of a heart clasped between two hands.

Sound intense? Thankfully, around here it’s not necessary to complete massive public works projects just to gain a unique treasure. Use the energy instead to imagine exactly what kind of jewelry will be meaningful—in color, metal, cut, and shape—and take your ideas to one of the East Bay’s local experts. You’ll have your own special piece in no time.

“Jewelry outlives us,” says LaFond of Aura Jewelers. “The metal, the stones, all of it is from nature, and people are attracted to that.”

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Kate Madden Yee is a freelance writer based in Oakland. If she had a dollar for every time her children complain about homework, she’d be swimming in diamonds by now.

A Girl’s (or Guy’s) Best Friend

The 14 Karats, 2910 College Ave., Berkeley, (510) 644-1640; 14karats.com.
Aura Jewelers, 2122 Vine St., #A, Berkeley, (510) 644-1487; aurajewelers.com.
Bill’s Trading Post & Gem Gallery, 2945 College Ave., Berkeley, (510) 841-1615.
Fisher’s Jewelry, 1488 Solano Ave., Albany, (510) 524-0400; fishersjewelry.com.
J. Sahadi Jewelers, 4206 Piedmont Ave., Oakland, (510) 653-7769.
Jest Jewels, 1791 Fourth St., Berkeley, (510) 526-7766; jestjewels.com.
Kiss My Ring, 2522 San Pablo Ave., Berkeley, (510) 540-1282; kissmyring.com.
M. Lowe and Co., 1519 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley, (510) 486-0613; mlowejewels.com.
Pavé Fine Jewelry Design, 5496 College Ave., Oakland, (510) 547-7000; 1778 Fourth St., Berkeley, (510) 528-7300; pavefinejewelry.com.
Philippa Roberts Jewelry, 4176 Piedmont Ave., Oakland, (510) 655-0656; philipparoberts.net.
Solano Jewelers, 1895 Solano Ave., Berkeley, (510) 526-1100; solanojewelers.com.