Jewelry Safety Part 3: Insurance

18k gold and blue/green tourmalines

No matter how much you do to protect your possessions it can still be the case that someone actually manages to steal something (or that you lose something).  And that is why you should always carry insurance on your jewelry if you have enough value.  Usually you can get coverage on your jewelry with any home owner's or home renter's policy. There are also companies like Jeweler's Mutual that offer coverage only on jewelry (I'll get back to them in a bit).

The problem, however, with many jewelry policies is that you won't be paid any money if you have a loss. Most of the time the insurance company insist that you work with a jeweler that they have an agreement with to get a replacement. This can be problematic for a number of reasons, The first is that if you have a unique and/or designer piece, the jeweler may not be able to truly replace it. The second is that you are somewhat dependent on what that jeweler sells quality wise.  Not all "E" color, VVS1 clarity diamonds are created equal.  Some are better cut than others.  If the jeweler doesn't specialize in better cut stones you may end up with something that doesn't look nearly as good.  Additionally, different grading labs issue certificates with somewhat different standards.  The European Gem Labs (EGL) routinely overgrade almost every stone they give a certificate to.  For this reason, an "E", VVS1 diamond with an EGL cert will invariably be priced lower than one with a cert from the Gemological Institute of America (GIA).  So if the jeweler you are being forced to use buys mostly stones with EGL certs you won't necessarily be getting back what you originally had.

Despite the idea that insurance companies are supposed to "make you whole" in the event of a loss, they are really in existence to make money. That means that they will do everything possible to pay out as little as possible on any claim.  And that means that you have to have a clear understanding of what they are agreeing to do in order to make you whole again.  I run into very few people who actually read their policies (or at least more than the first page or two), and I think sometimes the insurance companies write their policies the way they do in order to make sure you don't read (and fully understand) them.  However, if you have a lot of jewelry it is critical that you do actually read the applicable parts so you understand what the companies are willing to do.  If the only thing that will make you happy is a cash payout, you may have to change companies to find one that will actually do that, or pay more with your company so that they will.  If you want to make sure that you are allowed to use your own jeweler, then you'd better make sure that they allow you to do that as well.  

Jeweler's Mutual is the company I am insured with and the only product they sell is insurance on jewelry.  Consequently their knowledge of the field goes far beyond what most insurance companies have.  They guarantee that you can go to the jeweler of your choice in the event of a loss. This can help tremendously if you have designer pieces as it means you can go back to your original source.  They also are a mutual company and have routinely over the years paid out rebates on their policies to policy holders (although there is some restriction on how they do this on individual policies so please make sure you read the fine print on that).

There is also a peripheral issue that is a little less frequent now than it used to be but still occurs.  Often jewelers, in an attempt to make you think you're getting a bargain, will give you an appraisal on a piece that is much higher than what you paid for the piece.  This is actually unethical (except in the case of a "true" sale and by true I mean one that really is only an occasional event, not a department store type sale where everything is permanently on sale) and it happens to be bad for your pocketbook as well.  If you buy a piece for $10,000 but the jeweler is hustling you and says this piece is really worth $15,000 so that's what I'm going to put on the appraisal you have to understand what is going on.  If you went back the next day and bought the same piece again, the jeweler would sell if to you for the $10,000 again.  And if the insurance company comes to the jeweler and asks for a replacement piece, they are going  to pay less then the $10,000 because they have deals cut with the jewelers to get large discounts based on their volume of business with them.  In this case you end up spending more on your insurance than necessary because the value has been inflated on the appraisal.  Appraisals of new pieces should ALWAYS reflect actual prices paid (except in the case of a true sale or occasionally when the metal markets are as wild as they are right now and a piece was purchased at older metal prices).

The earrings above are 18k gold with some beautiful blue/green tourmalines.

Jewelry Safety Part Two Alarm Systems

Alarm systems are generally a good idea these days, not just to secure your valuables, but for personal protection as well. There are a plethora of alarm companies out selling their products these days and many of them can provide decent protection, however you should generally look for larger firms to deal with.  This is because they will have both better response times (i.e. staff on duty all the time)  and better resources to deal with alarm problems.  Some fly by night guy who comes in and sets up something and you never see again just isn't going to give you proper service no matter what.  I normally (as my regular readers know) encourage you to buy local and buy small but this is one time where it is much better not to. There area local alarm companies that are larger than most (I use one at my store) and they can be fine but make sure you're dealing with a company that can meet your needs. 

The first question is how sophisticated an alarm system do you actually need.  This, once again, goes to what you are trying to protect.  If, from a jewelry standpoint it's a relatively small amount then a more basic system is fine.  If you are trying to protect a lot of stuff including jewelry, artwork, electronics, etc. it's better to have a higher end alarm system. 

A basic alarm system will usually have sensors on doors and windows that will trigger an alarm.  Add motion detectors in and the system is much more reliable (albeit problematic if you have pets).  Add cameras and you are going to have more protection.  Add things like motion sensitive cameras, digital recorders, etc. and you're dealing with a jewelry store quality system.  The alarm system world has been growing by leaps and bounds lately as the technological advances have made things possible that never were before, both in terms of recording incidents and notifying people (since everyone now has a cell phone).  Again the more you have to protect, the better system you'll need.

 If you're are concerned with personal safety as well you will need things like panic buttons and you will have to make sure you have a system that will allow you to be in the house with it on.  The problem with these systems is that you need to remember about them constantly as you can set them off by accident quite easily.  And if you make too many mistakes in setting them off, you tend to stop using them regularly and then you're right back where you started.  So if this is something you want your system to incorporate you need to think long and hard about how careful you are going to be in using the system.  And again, if you have pets, or kids, these types of systems get vastly more complex to use and stay on top of. 

There are, as I said, great advances being made in the security world.  Here is a link to an alarm system using your iPhone:  https://www.ismartalarm.com/ that has raised its funding through a crowd sourcing venture but looks like it would be an excellent reasonably priced alternative for someone who wasn't trying to protect a lot of stuff and wants to be able to control their alarm system themselves.

One other note. Most alarm companies give you a sign to put up outside your house saying that the house is protected by their system.  The thinking goes that if the criminals know you have an alarm system they will be less likely to try to get into your house. (The alarm company has the additional thinking that it is a great, and free, way to advertise.)  I am of two minds on this topic.  The first is that when you put a sign like that up it immediately says "I have something valuable to protect" and will make you more of a target.  On the other hand criminals tend to look for the easiest opportunities and the more barriers in their way, the better you are protected.  I think using the signs depends somewhat on where you are located. If you live in an obviously expensive area, the criminals are going to know you have valuables and you might want to use the signs. If you live in a dangerous part of town, it will also help as you want as many barriers as possible.  On the other hand if you live in a somewhat typical middle class neighborhood, it might just draw the wrong kind of attention.

Next article will be on insurance which is the third (and sometimes most important) part of jewelry safety.  The rings pictured above are some of my 18k yellow gold wedding bands.  

Jewelry Security

I have, unfortunately, talked to more and more customers recently who have had to deal with thefts at their homes, so I thought I would write a couple of articles about this issue.  The first thing of course is that you should have insurance, but I'm going to leave that issue for the third article in this series. In this one I'm going to talk about some practical measures for safeguarding your property.

As a jeweler I've always had to deal with issues around security. It is simply a part of my job at all times. The entire idea behind creating a secure environment is to have a layered approach, incorporating different security measures, some of them being redundant.  A little paranoia is necessary to truly act on the issues of security and in this case it's not a bad thing.

So what can you do at home to create a secure environment for your valuables?  Well first of all, you can take some rather simple, basic steps in your daily routines like always closing and locking your windows when you leave the house (for those of you in a high rise this may not be necessary, but for those of you living in 2nd or 3rd floors (especially with easily accessible fire escapes it is still a necessity).  You should also make sure you don't ever leave your doors unlocked, even when you are out working in the back yard or running up the street quickly.  Criminals look for EASY opportunities to ply their trade and there is nothing they like better than an unlocked door they can slip into.

The next step is to hide or secure your valuables (and these days this would include things like documents that have detailed information about you that could be used for identity theft).  Hiding things is better than leaving them out lying around, but trust me, most of the places you would think about hiding your stuff has already been thought of by the bad guys.  But the harder it is to find something, and the more things you put up in the way (like locked doors inside your residence), the longer it will take for the thieves and, trust me, they don't want to spend any more time there than they absolutely have to.  You can also separate out your better jewelry from the costume stuff and leave the costume stuff more visible, making them either think that is all you have or at least forcing them to look further for the better goods.

A better solution is to get a safe to keep your valuables in.  However you need to think about safes.  Any small safe that can be picked up and carried out is worthless, as that is exactly what the criminals will do (and then they will open it at their leisure).  There are ways to permanently secure safes to beams in the house (many contractors will do built in, hidden safes for a cost) or concrete floors, but if you have a bunch of stuff and it has a high value you really need to consider a safe that is not easily moved to begin with. There are then different levels of safe security as well. Gun safes are usually just about useless as most of their doors can be peeled back with a crowbar.  However, when considering safes you have to consider the amount of value, relative to the cost of the safe.  If you have one ring worth $1000 to secure and you spend $5000 on a safe it really doesn't make much sense.  On the other hand if you have a hundred thousand dollars worth of jewelry you really should invest in some decent protection for it.  Of course if you have a safe you have to remember to use it properly. I have some customers who have a built in, fairly secure safe, but they would only lock it when they went away for a trip.  Consequently, they got robbed when they were out for the day and the safe was open and it was pretty easy at that point for the crooks to know that anything actually in the safe was the valuable stuff.  So if you have a safe you need to keep your valuables actually in it and you need to make sure to keep it locked at all times. 

You can also get a safe deposit box and keep the more valuable items in there when they are not in use. Admittedly this is a pain in the neck because you have to go and retrieve the stuff and then make sure you put it back, but if you have some very high end pieces that you don't wear often, this minimizes your risk. 

So, for starters, keep your doors and windows secured, hide your valuables, preferably in separate, locked areas, and think about a safe and/or a safe deposit box.  The next level of security has to do with alarm systems and I think I will deal with that in the next article and then the insurance issue in the following one. 

The ring at the top of the page is an 18k yellow gold and platinum men's wedding band with a diamond in it.

Rare Gemstones

Rainbow Moonstone, 18k Gold Clasp

The clasp pictured here is 18k yellow gold with a rainbow moonstone.  Rainbow moonstones are technically not moonstones although, like moonstones, they are in the feldspar family of gem materials.  Rainbow moonstone is a trade name that came about because instead of the typical milky white or bluish sheen floating over regular moonstones, these had pinks, purples, yellow or oranges as highlights.  They have always been a favorite of mine and my wife owns a number of magnificent pieces that came out of my primary source for this gem material's personal collection. 

However a number of years ago, rainbow moonstone became an endangered species.  The mines they were coming from were basically mined out of all the better and larger material available.  Now mind you, this doesn't mean that there isn't mining still going on, but it tends to be of the tailings (the material first thrown away from a mine that,  after a mine has been spent, is often gone back through to find anything now deemed worthwhile). It also doesn't mean that there aren't other jewelers  who bought large amounts of the material when it was available that have back stock of it they can still release (as I had to explain to one of my customers who after I told her that I could no longer get rainbow moonstone because the mines were mined out showed up with a new piece she had bought elsewhere with rainbow moonstones in it and told me I was wrong).  And it also doesn't mean that there isn't other material (like blue sheen moonstone) that has a similar look but isn't really rainbow moonstone. 

When the material first showed up in the marketplace I was selling it for $20-50/carat on a regular basis.  Now if I can even find the material it's five to ten times that amount in cost to ME!  This particular stone is a great reminder of just how precious some gem materials truly are.  When it reaches a point where there is no new material coming in to the market place, not only do prices rise rapidly but availability becomes a huge issue.  Natural gemstones are NOT a renewable resource.  Once they come out of the ground, they can't be replaced.  The only way to have more material is to continually find new sources.  Unfortunately, like tanzanite, rainbow moonstone simply doesn't have other sources than its original ones. So sometimes, when you see a truly unique and beautiful gemstone, you should simply buy it because you never know whether you'll be able to again.

So where did I get the rainbow moonstone in this piece?  I had the good fortune to be approached by my primary moonstone supplier who had just taken on selling a collector's collection of rainbow moonstones as she needed the money more than the gems.  I bought a number of pieces from her because I knew I wouldn't have another opportunity unless another collector decided to sell out.  The one in the picture has some beautiful oranges floating across its surface. 

I am always interested in any feedback my readers might have.  I know you're reading this because you come in the shop and tell me and because I can see it on my blog tracking, so please write something back. Anything....just to let me know what you think. And sign up as a follower too. 

Lessons Learned, Fun Clasp, and Opal Earrings

18k yellow gold, Ethiopian opals and diamonds

A long time ago I learned that it is always better to not try to do everything yourself.  Despite the fact that I am an extremely well rounded jeweler in terms of my skills, there are certain things that, while I know how to do them, I realize it is far better to let someone with the proper skills (and patience) take care of.  I have belonged to a couple of jewelery news groups on the web and I was always amazed at what some of the "jewelers" (I use that term loosely since many of them weren't professionals) would make inquiries about.  They would want to know what people used to do their tax returns, how to build steam cleaners, how to build their own tools, etc.  I could never figure this out.  I mean, if you're a jeweler then you should be spending your time making jewelry, not filling out tax forms (there are accountants to do that), making your own tools (that are, unless you need something very specialized, available for a pittance in terms of your time wasted), or, as in the one case of one very misinformed gent, trying to make your own steam cleaner (which is the only thing that absolutely every person on the forum told him not to attempt to make on his own as it requires building a secure, high pressure boiler that, yes, if improperly made, can explode).

Consequently, I don't do my own casting (the people I know who tried to do the limited amount of casting I would be doing overwhelmingly had poor results).  I don't do my own engraving.  I don't do my own stone cutting. There is one particular type of stone setting that I don't do myself.  And I don't do my own stringing.  I know how to do every one of these things and have actually done them all.  But it quickly became quite apparent that to become a really good, and quick, stringer I would have to spend years perfecting the practice. Same with engraving.  These types of things are specialty projects and are best done by people who do it all day long every day.  Sure I could restring your pearls, but I'd have to charge you ten times as much and it just wouldn't be as good as what my stringer does.  Quite honestly, I also find some of these repetitive jobs incredibly boring (not that some of my work doesn't get a little repetitive but at least it's usually when I have a torch in my hand and I always like to play with fire) and they don't really go anywhere towards the things I love to do best which is actually making up new pieces.

So why am I talking about this (besides the obvious at this point that I like to talk)?  Of the things I don't do, engraving is like an add on to a piece, stone cutting is nice but I want to make the jewelry with the stones, and I only cast designs that I make a model up for, and the casting process really isn't about "making jewelry--plus I still do all the finish work on the pieces.  However, when it comes to selling strung product (pearls and beads), stringing is kind of the whole thing---well, usually.  But I'm not usual, so I refuse to use any commercial clasps on my strung product that I sell out of the case. I have for about 30 years always made my own clasps to go on the pieces.  While a lot of the clasps are just a simple "S" style clasp, some of them are much more interesting.  I have shown some clasps on the blog at times but I thought I would show you some pictures of a variation on an "S" clasp that is a two sided clasp.  This particular one has work, and stones, on both the front and back. In the event it rolls over there will always be something interesting to look at. This is a custom piece I made for a customer using her diamond and my chrome tourmaline.

The best thing about my strung product is that once I have it strung for an "S" style clasp or some of my fancier ones (see this blog picture here), you can always add more clasps to your collection as all of them will work on the same strand of pearls or beads.  In other words, your partner never needs to think much about a new gift, they just have to get a new clasp!

The picture at the top of the page is of the new earrings I made up with the Ethiopian opals I got in recently that I mentioned in a prior posting. We got some good representation of the color but it's even better than the picture shows as there are some red flashes that didn't come through.