Birth Stones
January Birthstone
For the month of January, you have your choice of Garnet. The garnet ring is available in a variety of shades and garnet types, from rhodolite garnet rings, to spessartite garnet rings you will find them in our showroom.
February Birthstone Rings
Do you like purple? If you are a February baby your birthstone ring is Amethyst. You will see amethyst ring designs with brilliant saturated deep purple amethyst. Our amethyst rings are available as gold amethyst rings and white gold amethyst rings. Amethyst and diamond rings are also available, and they can be created in any color gold like.
March Birthstone Rings
For the month of March, the soft blue aqua color of Aquamarine is it, and you are sure to love the rich tones of Jewelry Designs aquamarine ring selection. The aquamarines used in our aquamarine rings are rich and saturated with color. You will see simple aquamarine ring designs in both white and yellow. You may even see one of a kind handmade platinum aquamarine rings with the prized deep blue Santa Maria aqua.
April Birthstone Rings
April babies are arguably the luckiest, as their birthstone is the Diamond. Visit Diamond Rings where you will find a whole section dedicated to the stone of every woman’s dreams.
May Birthstone Rings
The Emerald is yet another prized birthstone to have. Visit our Emerald Rings, and let us tell you what makes each emerald so uniquely special.
June Birthstone Rings
As for people born in June there are two traditional choices, Pearl and Alexandrite. As we have already become familiar with Pearl Rings, let us discuss the elusive alexandrite ring. Alexandrites are a rare gemstone exhibiting a phenomenon, known as color change, whereby the stone shifts in color depending on the type of light it is seen in. Alexandrite rings are prized, as they are among the rarest of gems. If you are a June baby, and you are fortunate enough to acquire an alexandrite ring, then you are in for a treat.
July Birthstone Rings
Birthstone rings for July are set with the Ruby. Visit Ruby Rings and discover why rings set with rubies are so admired.
August Birthstone Rings
August’s birthstone ring uses Peridot. A Peridot ring is typically golden green to lime green in color. Peridot rings are fresh and vibrant in color, and consequently peridots look great set in both yellow and white gold.
September Birthstone Rings
The Birthstone ring for September is set with the Sapphire. Find out what makes the sapphire ring the most popular gemstone ring today. Visit Sapphire Rings, and discover variety of sapphire colors you never knew existed.
October Birthstone Rings
October means Opal is the birthstone of choice. Have you always dreamed of owning an opal ring with fiery red, blue, green, and orange flashes? Maybe you prefer the free form shape of the boulder opal ring in an original design in gold or white gold. Perhaps you are enchanted by the rare black opal rings that our artisans have created here in jewelry shop. Whatever your preference in opal rings, you are bound to find it within our collection, or choose from our extensive collection of loose opals and we will design an opal ring just for you.
November Birthstone Rings
Traditional Imperial Topaz rings, in golden and peach colors, are the accepted standard for November birthstone enthusiast. Still, many people choose Citrine rings as an alternative to topaz rings. Citrine rings are golden to golden orange in color, and the citrine provides an affordable alternative to an imperial topaz ring.
December Birthstone Rings
This brings us to the last month of the year, with fiery Blue Zircon rings as the traditional favorite. In recent years, many people have been substituting the blue zircon ring with a blue topaz ring, because the blue zircon is hard to come by in larger sizes. The blue zircon is a fiery bright blue stone, with a steel blue color distinctly different than that of other blue gems. Birthstone Rings
What is Gold?
Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. It is a chemical element with the symbol Au and atomic number 79. Gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a transition metal. It is one of the least reactive chemical elements solid under standard conditions. The metal therefore occurs often in free elemental (native) form, as nuggets or grains in rocks, in veins and in alluvial deposits. Less commonly, it occurs in minerals as gold compounds, usually with tellurium.
Because of the softness of pure (24k) gold, it is usually alloyed with base metals for use in jewelry, altering its hardness and ductility, melting point, color and other properties. Alloys with lower caratage, typically 22k, 18k, 14k or 10k, contain higher percentages of copper, or other base metals or silver or palladium in the alloy. Copper is the most commonly used base metal, yielding a redder color.[37]
Eighteen-carat gold containing 25% copper is found in antique and Russian jewelry and has a distinct, though not dominant, copper cast, creating rose gold. Fourteen-carat gold-copper alloy is nearly identical in color to certain bronze alloys, and both may be used to produce police and other badges. Blue gold can be made by alloying with iron and purple gold can be made by alloying with aluminium, although rarely done except in specialized jewelry. Blue gold is more brittle and therefore more difficult to work with when making jewelry.[37]
Fourteen and eighteen carat gold alloys with silver alone appear greenish-yellow and are referred to as green gold. White gold alloys can be made with palladium or nickel. White 18-carat gold containing 17.3% nickel, 5.5% zinc and 2.2% copper is silvery in appearance. Nickel is toxic, however, and its release from nickel white gold is controlled by legislation in Europe.[37]
Alternative white gold alloys are available based on palladium, silver and other white metals,[37] but the palladium alloys are more expensive than those using nickel. High-carat white gold alloys are far more resistant to corrosion than are either pure silver or sterling silver. The Japanese craft of Mokume-gane exploits the color contrasts between laminated colored gold alloys to produce decorative wood-grain effects.
The 4 C's
Color – Although most gem-quality diamonds, when seen alone, appear colorless to the untrained eye, there are subtle differences in shade that become apparent to a trained professional. To determine a diamond’s true color, the diamond is viewed from the side under balanced white light. It is compared to diamonds in a “Master Set” whose colors have been predetermined by the Gemological Institute of America (GIA). A color grade is then assigned according to the diamond’s deviation from the truly colorless diamond.
Clarity – Diamond clarity is determined by the absence of inclusions (crystals, feathers, lines, etc.). The fewer the inclusions, the rarer the diamond, and the greater the value. Flawless and internally flawless diamonds are exceedingly rare.
Carat Weight – As with all precious gems, the weight of a diamonds is expressed in carats. One carat equals one-fifth of a gram, or 1/142 of an ounce. One carat is also divided into 100 “points,” so a diamond weighing ¾ carat may be described as weighing 75 points, or .75 carats. As diamonds increase in value, their prices per carat usually increase geometrically, not arithmetically. Thus a two-carat diamond of the same quality will be more than double the price of a one-carat diamond.
Year Traditional Modern Suggested gemstone
First: Paper Clocks Gold Jewelry
Second: Cotton China Garnet
Third: Leather Crystal/Glass Pearl
Fourth: Fruit or Flowers Appliances Blue Topaz
Fifth: Wood Silverware Sapphire
Sixth: Candy or Iron Wood object Amethyst
Seventh: Wool or Copper Desk sets Onyx
Eight Bronze or Pottery Linens, lace Toumaline
Ninth: Pottery Leather goods Lapis
Tenth: Tin Diamonds Diamond Jewelry
Eleventh: Steel Fashon jewelry Turquoise
Twelfth: Silk or Linen Pearls, colored gems Jade
Thirteenth: Lace Textiles, furs Citrine
Fourteenth: Ivory Gold jewelry Opal
Fifteenth: Crystal Watch Ruby
Twentieth: China Platinum Emerald
Twenty-Fifth: Silver Silver Silver Jubilee
Thirtieth: Pearl Diamond Pearl Jubilee
Thirty-Fifth: Coral Jade Emerald
Fortieth: Ruby Ruby Ruby
Forty-Fifth: Sapphire Sapphire Sapphire
Fiftieth: Gold Gold Golden Jubilee
Fifty-Fifth: Emerald Emerald Alexandrite
Sixtieth: Diamond Diamond Diamond Jubilee