Hand-Crafted-Rings
Hi. I'm Brian and welcome to my web page!

I hope this little lot can answer most of the commonly asked questions about Diamonds and what it is I do with them, but if after ploughing through it :-) you have any questions about my rings etc just Email me at handcrafted.rings@virgin.net

FAQ's .......The 4C's.......Some links......A few golden oldies :-)
My current auctions .....Ebay.....A bit about me
And here are a few items I made a little earlier :-)
(click the picture for a big version)

handcrafted handmade hand crafted hand made

A bit about me

I started making rings via a very devious route - I started life as a Telephone Engineer! everything from maintaining the old electromechanical telephone exchanges to climbing poles to maintaining the latest Digital Private Exchange equipment. Then BT offered me a largish sum of money to leave (ie redundancy!) which I took and became........ an Antiques dealer (?!). Having lost a considerable amount of my redundancy money learning the many pitfalls of being an Antiques Dealer (ouch) I found myself more and more interested in Antique jewellery, especially rings. It seemed a shame that I saw so many items broken or damaged, and the cost to repair them was so high that I decided to have a go myself. Many ruined items and expensive mistakes later :-) I decided to read up on what to do and why and how, and with that plus some training I'd had with BT as an apprentice (believe it or not) I gradually got the hang of it. Now I'm virtually a full time jeweller in my own little specialised field of mostly making Diamond rings, selling about half through eBay and I'm a lot happier than when I worked for BT!

back to top

FAQ's

Do I do private commissions?
Yes I do, though 95% solitaire Diamond and Engagement rings I also make wedding rings, pendants, earings, etc. Email me with an idea and a thumbnail sketch of your requirements and I'll see what I can do, or send me a telephone number and a time if you wish and I'll call you if you prefer to speak to me and check I really exsist :-)
Please note though I will generally only use Diamonds and precious metal that I have sourced myself. a) because in the past people have sent me 'diamonds' they've bought elsewhere to be set that were out and out fakes, and then accused me of 'switching' them! and b) because competeing with myself is fairly pointless :-)

Do you Resize your own rings?
Yes BUT.... I will happily quote to do this if you so wish but I always strongly advise people to have it done after they have actually seen the ring (in the Flesh so to speak :-) ) and made sure they are happy with it before it is altered. Then if they really want me to do it rather than their local jeweller to send it back to me afterwards. This is because if I customise the ring for you by resizing it before I send it out to you then you can't return it if you want to for any reason, under the Distance Selling Regulations :-(  This is because a resized/altered ring is defined as customised/used goods
This is for your protection by the way, not mine obviously!

Can I be sure the stone you supply is real and not a fake ?
Yes. I unconditionally 100% guarantee that I only ever use genuine mined from the earth Diamonds and gemstones in my rings. I do not use CZ, Moissanite, YAG, synthetic or 'lab' created stones etc

Can I be sure the ring is really made of Gold or Platinum and not plated?
Yes as all my rings are Assayed and Hallmarked for the required standard at Birmingham Assay Office and so are absolutely guaranteed to be the precious metal I say they are.
(No thinly plated base metal or rather suspect and very untested '14K', '10K' etc marks !)

Whats this I1, SI2, P3 business?
These are clarity gradings for Diamonds. Different Laboratories/companies use different systems. But basically if it has an 'I' or 'P' grading you will be able to detect a fault or faults in the Diamond with the Naked eye. In some I1 or P1 grades the fault may well be difficult to detect and you have to look closely to find them. I2, I3 (or P2, P3) stones usually have very obvious faults that can detract badly from the look and stability of the stone, they frequently look like cracked, dirty ice! I won't generally use I2's or I3's for solitaires at all, unless they are exceptional and larger than 2ct. For more information on the '4C's' which includes the Clarity scale(s) please see below and the links. The less inclusions or flaws the rarer more expensive the Diamond, but remember it takes an experienced eye and special equipment to detect the difference between top SI, VS and VVS grades. To the naked eye there may be no difference when mounted, but the price difference will be very noticeable!

Whats the real difference in all these Colour grades?
Diamonds are graded for Colour (or colourlessness really :-) ) on a scale from D (colourless) to Z (strongly tinted yellow or brown or a mixture of them). There are also 'Fancy' coloured diamonds including Yellow,Green, Blue, Black etc. which are a whole different ball game!
In practical terms you can usually detect a hint of colour in a Diamond at around about the 'J-K' grading, depending on the lighting and your eyesight of course :-) In a solitaire up to around the 'K' grade it will not be obvious unless you can directly compare it with another one of 2 or more colour grades difference. The less colour the rarer and thus more expensive but bear in mind it takes a trained eye, equipment and special lighting to detect the difference between D and F grades. To the naked eye there is no difference when mounted, but the price difference can be considerable!

Can I return it if I don't like it after all?
Yes you can. Refunds are given on items returned for any reason within 7 working days of receipt, as long as they are returned in exactly the same condition as they were sent, including any tags, certificates, boxes etc. However (due to repeated abuse :-( ), unless you inform me within 3 days that you intend to make a return any refund will be less ALL the selling costs associated with the item, which I will itemize in detail for you. There is no refund option on specially commissioned or altered items obviously.

back to top

The '4C's' of a Diamond. Clarity, Cut, Colour and Carat.

Clarity grading.
One of the most awkward of the 4C's to evaluate!

Clarity grading is rather more art than science, so two people will often give dissimilar grades to the same stone as it depends on the number, type, locations and size of imperfection within the crystal and the size of the stone too. So, especially around the I1 to SI2/3 grades, it is important to know where and of what type the flaws are. On any of my stones just ask and I will do my best to describe and picture them for you.
The table below gives the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) Diamond Clarity grades along with some of the synonomous terms used by other Diamond grading labs. For example P (pique) = I (imperfect) in some grading systems, especially European sytems.
The UK's Birmingham Assay office's grading and valuation subsiduary "Safeguard" use the GIA system
The European Gemological Laboratory (EGL) who are actually based in the USA :-) introduced the SI3 grade to bridge the rather too wide gap between the GIA's SI2 (no faults to the naked eye) and I1 (fairly obvious fault to the naked eye) clarity grades. Some other Lab's have also adopted it.
Please be aware that virtually ALL real Diamonds will have inclusions and/or flaws, especially if viewed through a X30 magnification microscope rather than a standard x10 magnification jewellers loupe! Clarity definitions are always based first on inspection with the naked eye, and then under 10 times magnification.

In practical terms for solitaire Diamond rings around 1carat you don't really want less than a good I1 clarity grade. P2/I2 and P3/I3 grades are very obviously imperfect and will often looked like cracked, dirty ice. Good I2's can look OK in earings or studs, and big ones (ie 2ct plus) can be very impressive in a ring in spite of the inclusions, which do have the advantage of instantly proving its a real Diamond too :-)

Diamond Colour grades.

The G.I.A. Diamond colour grading scale..........

....................and the E.G.L. version
(I use this scale when evaluating uncertified stones.)

Again in practical terms, in a solitaire you can usually detect a tint of colour in a Diamond at around about the 'K' grade. It will not be obvious or noticeable unless you directly compare it to a higher graded stone, ie put it right next to it!

Other colours include the 'Fancy' colours - Pink, Yellow, Blue, Green etc which occur naturally and in enhanced form and the 'Champagne' scale which grades tinted yellow/brown Diamonds as C1 (light colour) to C7 (dark brownish yellow).

Diamond Cut

Usually 'Cut' is synonomous with shape - Round Brilliant, Princess (square), Emerald etc. but it should refer to the quality of the process of making the crystals facets. Otherwise known as the 'Make', it is critical to the amount of light reflected and refracted by a crystal. Too deep or too shallow and the Diamond allows a lot of light to escape from the sides or base of the stone resulting in a darker appearance. The difference between an 'Ideal' cut and a 'Poor' cut is fairly dramatic, but the price can be too! A lot of 1ct stones are cut so as to make that weight, resulting in too deep a cut as the price difference between a 1ct and 0.8ct, even if when the diameter and all other factors are identical is considerable.

Diamond Carat

Carat is simply a measure of the weight of a gemstone. 1ct is equal to 0.2 grams. It is also shown as a decimal eg half a carat = 0.5ct or is given in 'points', 100 points = 1 carat, so 50 points = half a carat and so on.
It is important to note that the weight is not the same as the size of the stone. A one carat Round Brilliant Diamond could be anywhere between 6mm (too deep) and 7mm (too shallow) in diameter. so a badly cut 1ct could have exactly the same diameter as a 0.8ct, but the 0.8ct could look brilliant and the 1ct dead depending on the cut.

Please also follow this link to the E.G.L.'s consumer guide for more information on the 4C's

and this one to eBay's own guide to the 4C's of Diamond

Or this one to see the creation of a solitaire ring in my workshop

Or to see a few I made earlier (just like Blue Peter :-) ) click here

Go to my eBay Auctions (Please :-)

Highly rated ebay shops

An excellent guide to html, and free too!

Back to the start