Oh wise PS''ers, please recommend a jeweler for this project

[Guilty Pleasure]

I have a pearl ring in yellow gold that my father gave my mother in high school; my mother gave it to me to reset the pearl in white gold for my wedding day.

As a surprise, I would like to buy a ruby (my birthstone) and two diamonds (my sisters'' birthstones) and use the gold from the old ring to create a new ring for my mother - a ring representing her whole family

Too bad we had to have such expensive birthstones, right? hehe.

Anyways, I need a jeweler who would be able to give a fair price for a ruby and diamonds and would be willing to work with my gold from my mother''s ring. I thought that might be kind of weird, using an old gold ring to make a new one. I live in Houston, so I was considering whiteflash, but I''ll have to call and ask them if they work with rubies and would consider a project like that. Anyone else have any recommendations?

 

[LtlFirecracker]

Whiteflash came to my mind to. They do, source, and work with colored stones, and I think they have re-used gold before.

 

[Sagebrush]

Guilty Pleasure,

I get this request a few times a year and I always discourage it. Two reasons:

1. Re-using old gold poses technical challenges. Particularly true with white gold. Chances are there will be impurities, either solder or other elements or just plain porosity. We are goldsmiths and we often recycle large amounts of yellow. We remove steel from bench sweeps with a magnet, add a bit of copper, heat, pour into an ingot and roll into sheet. Remaining impurities create pits and cracks in the rolled sheet which we cut out. Often we find this more expensive than buying virgin sheet from the refiners. Because labor is 70% of the handmade equation, you will pay more to actually use your gold in a handmade piece.

2. Casters making jewelry out of wax simply heat pour and inject into the gold into molds. Not is time consuming but impurities not removed by this process result in pits in the finished casting which means pits in the finished piece of jewelry. Also more gold is usually required than supplied. Most of these commercial houses cast several pieces in a single mold and simply lie, tell you they are using your gold then use virgin casting shot to assure a quality result. If you really want to actually use your gold, go to a small workshop.

By the way, nobody buys at spot. Refiners charge between 25-30% over spot for refined material. Pricing gold by weight is like trying to figure out how many trees it took to build a house, then pricing the trees.

 

[Guilty Pleasure]

I don''t quite understand about a quarter of what you said, but I appreciate your response!


As for using the yellow gold from the ring, it''s meaningful to me, so I want to find someone who would do it. If it''s not really done or costs an arm and a leg, then I won''t. I just thought my mother would really appreciate it.


Any recommendations for a "small workshop"?