Harriet Kelsall Jewellery Design
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Hi

We have some really exciting employment opportunities here at our Halls Green design studio at the moment. We are currently looking to recruit a design graduate to join our exceptional team of designers as a Junior Design Assistant and also we are looking for a Manager for our beautiful studio. More details can be found on the website here http://www.hkjewellery.co.uk/web/page/employment. If you are interested or know anyone who might be please contact me at alison@hkjewellery.co.uk.

Kerrie-Ann, design assistant

Ali

If you are worried about saving your pennies this spring, it is a good idea to choose jewellery this season which is very versatile so that you can get several looks from one piece that will go on and on throughout the summer and beyond. Here are a couple of suggestions of longer necklaces from the http://www.purple-label.com/ spring collection which are fabulous and can also be looped in different ways to create several different looks with the same piece...

Alice Rochester designed this one and it is characteristic to her style as it is young, fun but can also look elegant and grown up with the right outfit. The different tones of crystal mean that this goes with many different tones of pinks and reds and we also thought it looked great with neutral colours like this grey dress.

The Om Symbol is a very interesting one first introduced to me by my sister who is a hatha yoga teacher in St Albans http://www.theyogahall.co.uk/. 'Aum' or 'Om' is a sanskrit monosyllable which represents the very essence of the human being. It is the oldest and most venerated of all Hindu mantras is also employed in Buddhism and spiritual endeavour (Yoga). In addition to what it represents, the pendant also just looks great and is an interesting conversation starter. This necklace (and our other polish finished more delicate Om pendant is worn every day by many of our customers...including my sister!

We had great fun with this necklace designed by Tracy Furlong looping it round in all different ways and almost squabbled during the fashion shoot as to which way it looked best! The options seem limitless and the many different tones of green of the chrysophase mean that this goes with all sorts of shades of green, brown and grey. The matching earrings also look great on their own and give you alternative combinations to further increase the number of ways in which you can wear this one!

See you soon

Harriet Kelsall

PS - In case you are interested in Yoga an in the St Albans Area visit out my sister's yoga hall - http://www.theyogahall.co.uk/

Sometimes people contact us who want to get a mass produced ring that they have seen elsewhere, which might be a bit too costly for them, made as a bespoke ring but cheaper. We'd never copy another jeweller's design as this is not only unethical but against the law, but what we can do is use this design as a starting point and come up with something maybe along similar lines that has something personal for you in it too - after all, this is what having a bespoke ring is all about - a personal touch. It isn't all about price. An engagement ring shouldn't be something that is just churned out in 10 minutes by a mass producing overseas jeweller.

And on that subject, we also often get e-mails from customers who are comparing the prices of gemstones, especially diamonds. This is easy to spot because they ask for something very precise (eg they say 'I am looking for a G VS2 0.52cts diamond in a platinum ring'). There are loads of loose diamond dealers out there who want to convince you that those measurements are the whole story, which would make it very easy to compare prices over the internet and select the best diamond for your money, sight unseen. The internet has made it very easy to compare prices of things which is often a really good thing. For example http://www.moneysupermarket.com/ is a very useful site. However, it is important to realise that not all things can be compared in this way.

If you describe a car as a 'MK3 Golf GTI with electric windows and a sun roof' then this is worded in a way that everybody could compare this with another. A better one would be a newer one, or one with less miles, better bodywork or sat nav etc. However, hand crafted things can't be compared this way and nor can natural things.

For example, if you wanted to buy a tree online, it wouldn't be enough for you to know that you were buying a half standard oak tree of certain dimensions with/without root ball...you would also want to know that the tree would be healthy and well-grown, and that the site were real experts and could guide you on the best way to plant it etc. A tree is forever - right? Or that is the hope. You don't want to buy a rubbish one.

OK - this one may be a shock - but diamonds are more like oak trees than they are like cars. Yes - they have been carefully cut by people and lasers, but they are essentially natural things that come from the ground.

Here is the important part - no two diamonds are the same. And even two diamonds which are both defined as, say, G VS 0.50cts brilliant cut diamonds will also not be the same - not even when they have the same proportions, symmetry, polish and fluorescence will they be the same. There are loads of companies out there telling you on their sites that diamonds are just a lump of carbon and one is just the same as the other once the 4 c's compare. This is not true - they are only saying this to try to get you to buy their stones on spec without seeing them. They are just after your money!

A full certificate will go through all sorts of details about the diamond including the cut and cutting style, the weight, colour, clarity, polish, symmetry, fluorescence etc and will include diagrams of the stone including positions of any inclusions. But this does not cover all of the characteristics of a diamond. To say that is does is a bit like saying that you can entirely trust that a beautiful view will be lovely by explaining (without seeing it) that it has a certain proportion of sky, land, colours, sun, etc. Every natural diamond is completely unique some are much more sparkly and full of fire than others.

I read a great analogy about this recently in jewellery focus magazine - a jeweller said that when his customers say that they want to buy a diamond that has to be, for example, an E colour, VS clarity and 0.50cts in weight, he tells them that this is like saying that they want to choose a blonde to marry by describing her vital statistics! There is much more to a diamond than just what appears on the certificate and you need to buy a diamond from somebody you totally trust not only to get the quality right for you but also to choose you a diamond with fire and life within it.

In addition to this, the diamonds are graded by people - and so two experts may grade the same stone slightly differently anyway (in theory it shouldn't be drastically differently - but one may say a stone is a VS2 whilst the other will define it as an SI1 if it is on the boundary of quality for example).

The thing with diamonds, is that miniscule factors about the diamond which are not detectable by the human eye of anybody other than an expert can vastly effect the price of the stone. So if you aren't sure what you are buying or more importantly who you are buying from, a certificate can, to some extent give you peace of mind that you are actually buying what you think you are buying. Although the criteria on the certificate certainly won't identify whether the stone is beautiful or not, it will ensure that you are at least getting the vital statistics that you are paying for.

This is the reason that the big diamond websites all bang on about their certificates - they know that you are not going to feel confident to buy a diamond from them unless their diamonds are accompanied by certificates. They rarely even have a shop front, let alone a history and reputation to give you faith that what they say is an H SI1 ideally cut diamond is that and so of course you need to insist on having a certificate. And of course they want your money - they will eliminate telling you that the certificate is, of course, not all that you need to define a diamond's beauty.

When we choose a diamond for a ring, we only choose one that is really really good and has that 'X' factor sometimes called fire. This is the case for our ready-to-wear rings or for our commission rings. During the commission process we also strive to educate you a bit on diamonds so that you can feel confident in the choices in front of you and understand what you are paying for - and can decide whether your priorities are size or quality for example.

So if you e-mail us and ask us for a quote to compare against a ring that you have seen online, and our quote comes out a bit higher this will be because the diamond will be better and the mount will be hand made and good quality. it won't be because we are more expensive for the same thing. In fact, like for like our diamond prices are generally below the UK average. It's true that our mounts can come out a little more expensive, but for your money you are getting a properly hand made, unique ring rather than a mass produced one.

Each of our rings takes many hours to hand make and hand craft. We have the ability not only to do 'meccano' with cast parts from jewellery catalogues, but also to hand forge from scratch if a design requires it. We have all the traditional skills you can need to do the right thing for your design and budget.

Most rings that you will see in all high street jewellers etc are mass produced and are made in approximately 10 minutes - everything else is done by mass production processes. Our rings, however, go through many hours of time of skilled designers and craftsmen and can have 20 or 30 hours work lavished on it Our experts will source a range of gemstones to find the perfect one for you, and can gather you a selection to your budget and needs - maybe showing you different quality and cost options so you can make an informed decision. We will help you choose from some great options and will hold your hand through this important purchase as much or as little as you want.

It is also the case that we have had many customers come to us in the last few years saying 'I'm tearing my hair out! I e-mailed you for a quote for my engagement ring a few years ago and yours was a little bit more costly so I went for the cheaper option...however I have had endless trouble with my ring had made elsewhere and the stone keeps coming loose - please can I come back to you and have you do it properly! I wish I had done that from the start!'. Often they end up starting again with a proper, hand made ring designed especially for them, when going for this in the first place would have been much cheaper.

If you're considering commissioning a ring and wondering where to buy a gemstone, please do get in touch and talk to us about it - you might be pleasantly surprised.

Harriet

I recently created a display in the showroom that was inspired by my make up bag using siren red Jade which reminded me of glossy red nails and mixed this with Black net Jasper which reminded me of mascara.

This then inspired me to look at make up and beauty trends, as there is no better way to lift and enhance the eye shadow that you are wearing than with a colour enhancing necklace! Spring make up should be light and bright and with Lilac being tipped as a big colour for eye shadows I thought I would do a blog to single out the best pieces to team with this look.

I have selected a few pieces from our Purple Label collection that would look lovely with a light dusting of lilac powder.

Lilac is a romantic colour and certainly has a calming effect. I found some lovely shades available here;

http://www.maccosmetics.co.uk/templates/collections/collection.tmpl?CATEGORY_ID=CAT12506

http://www.d ior.com/pcd/International/JSP/Library/Full/full_L1.jsp?CAT=0

http://www.bourjois.co.uk/sbl_look_s pring08.html

Jodie x

Just a quick thing that I thought you might be interested in - I was reading Breakthrough Breast Cancer's magazine 'Purple' last night and I spotted an article about a trial they're conducting using a platinum based drug to combat 'Triple Negative' type tumours. Isn't it amazing that platinum can be used like this too?! The drug's called carboplatin, and trials will be on-going for the next five years or so. If you're interested, more information about the trials can be found here

http://ww w.breakthroughresearch.org.uk/clinical_trials/tnt_trial/index.html along with some of the other work that Breakthrough is involved in.

Here it is! Attached is the link to the Financial Times article that appeared last weekend!

http://www.ft.com/yourmoney/ftentrepreneur

We're going to be improving our minds with the Financial Times this weekend, because Harriet is going to be featured in it. She was interviewed last week for the business section, for an article about how the rural businesses are making use of the internet. We also had a nice young photographer come fresh from photographing President Sarkozy to do Harriet's close up. Check it out at FT.com

Often customers ask us if we can reuse platinum from an old ring and the answer is yes 'sometimes' we can reuse it. Whilst we can't melt it down and reform it all that successfully in a workshop environment (because of the inevitable porosity that would occur which is a problem with melting platinum in anything other than a large scale), we CAN re-use platinum in the same form without any problem.

For example, if you had an old platinum wedding band, we could use this as a shank for a new ring. Or if you had a platinum engagement ring and wanted it remade (eg to add some side stones) it wouldn't be a problem to simply re-use the same mount and add settings to it...or to cut off the band and use this just as it is, as a band for a new ring. All of these are things that our skilled goldsmiths can do and this can save you money as platinum is so costly and rising all the time.

An example that I remember is opening up an old family platinum wedding band, milling it out a bit and then using this as a collet and a bail for a new pendant for her...she then only had to pay for the work and not for the metal, so she had a lovely new piece at a really reasonable price and was really happy! With a costly metal like platinum, can make really good sense for you.

Sometimes this concept is hard to grasp and so really the designer will always need to see the ring - or at least see a photo - to advise with certainty whether it is useable or not and they can also sometimes tailor the design to make the best possible use of your existing piece.

Gold is different altogether; we can always melt people's gold up and reuse this in any way you like (or we can reuse it in the same form of course too). There is often a bit of porosity when we melt up gold too, but this isn't so bad as it is with platinum. The structure of gold can usually 'cope' without getting too weak unlike platinum which cannot cope if there is loads of porosity in it as the structure can become very weak. We can always come up with a design where the structure isn't important (eg making a platinum organic pendant for somebody who desperately wants to just have the platinum from their gran's old ring as a funky organic pendant).

With the price of gold and platinum as it is our design team can best advise you about reusing your metal...and with the escalating metal prices, this can make real financial sense.

Thinking of sending a little gift but you don't know the person that well?

Whether you have been given the daunting task of buying a gift for a colleague that you only ever see in her uniform, or if you have to buy a present for a friend you've not seen for years, it can be extremely difficult and you can feel like it's taking hours, but there is no need to worry or spend too much time as we have some great tips and suggestions for you.

Step one!

Visit the style tips section of our website http://www.purple-label.com/style-tips.asp as this has some fab advice including designs that would look best with different hair lengths and complexions. There are some great hints and tips such as the suggestion of going for our Swarovski curl earrings for those who are blessed with lovely curly hair.

Step two!

A lovely gift suggestion if it's for a birthday present is to choose something from our birthstone collections http://www.purple-label.com/search/by-birthstone.asp Each month of the year has a different stone associated with it so you can choose the stone that goes with the month of the recipients birthday for a really personal touch.

Step three!

Have a little browse through our bestsellers collection http://www.purple-label.com/search/web/collection/Bestsellers which is constantly being updated with the designs and colours that are most popular so this is a great place to choose presents from.

Step four!

These are some pieces that I have suggested to people that are trying to choose a present but had no idea what to get! They have been proven to go down really well so I thought I would share them with you.

Finally!

If none of these tips have helped you then do seek the advice of the showroom teams who deal with these conundrums on a daily basis so should hopefully be able to save you from the headaches.

Good luck!

Jodie x