Jewelry would always be a great piece of accessory you can purchase for your own or as a gift to someone special. There’s something about jewelry that makes you look and feel more luxurious, classy, and sophisticated all at the same time. While you can quickly purchase one off the shelf, it’ll be nice if you could customize your jewelry to make it truly yours.
There are some designs you can easily purchase that feel perfect but are still missing a detail. To achieve that flawless look, customizing is a great idea. However, customizing jewelry is intricate, so you need to ensure that you entrust the task to the best one on the field. As you look for an Orange County custom jewelry designer or from whichever city you’re at, below are some tips on how you can choose the right one for your needs:
Search For Reputable Designers
One of the first things you need to do is to search for reputable designers online. This lets you see your options and narrow them down to your top three choices. When searching for designers, check their reputation and see how they sit well in the crowd. Are their customers satisfied with their work? Or do they usually mention small imperfections that don’t bother them that much? Ideally, you should be as thorough as possible when searching for reviews, as they can determine your piece’s look.
There are plenty of platforms that allow you to search and read reviews of designers online. However, you need to be careful; ensure that you’re reading legitimate ones. With the power of the internet, it’s almost easy to post a fake review to make someone look great.
Confirm Their Credentials
Like in other professions, jewelry designers hold valid credentials to prove their skills, expertise, and professionalism. Moreover, there are plenty of certifications they can bring to the table. Depending on their specialty, they can be verified by national diamond institutes, fine jewelry vendors, or design guilds. You can check their credentials and verify them online to ensure they’re legitimate. Depending on where you’re from, some accessible websites allow you to search a jeweler’s name and let you see their credentials and expertise in the field.
Identify Their Specialties
While it might seem easy, jewelry designers also have specialty. If you’re looking for a design in mind that focuses on using delicate gems or intricate metal bending, then you need to look for a designer who can provide excellent designs on the field.
Most jewelry designers have at least one or two specialties in jewelry design. This can include engraving, stone setting, casting, or wire wrapping. Moreover, some carry a unique style, making every piece truly one of a kind and fashion forward. For example, if you’re eyeing to customize an engagement ring, you need to look for a designer focusing on stone settings.
To know about someone’s expertise, you can ask them a quick question by phone or email or check their online portfolio and notice which type of designs they usually play around with. Alternatively, they may label themselves experts in certain design aspects.
Check Their Craftsmanship
When you’re already eyeing a custom jewelry designer, as they have plenty of amazing reviews and credentials, it’s still best to check their craftsmanship and see if they’re within your standards. Even if some people may already be satisfied with the output they can provide, if you’re specific about every detail, such as the smoothing and sizing, then they may still not be the best option for you.
Before you seal the deal with any designers, it would be helpful to check their previous works. This shouldn’t just involve photographs of their work but seeing the actual output from their shop. In most cases, they’ll have some samples for you to see. Check how detailed the jewelry is, from the gemstone cut and setting to engraving.
Ask About Exchange And Repair Policy
The last thing you’d want to happen when you customize jewelry is to be excited about your new ring only to find out that it doesn’t fit. Even if the ring is the right size, if your finger has a drastic change in size, then you’ll need to bring it back for a quick resize. However, not every jewelry shop offers this service, especially if their jeweler is from miles away and can only create new objects rather than edit one.
To avoid any possible future inconvenience, you should confirm with the designer what are their exchange and repair policies for their works. This primarily applies to designers who only offer online services as they don’t have any physical stores to work with. Moreover, you should ask for any specific scenarios just to ensure they can be held accountable for any possible errors on their end.
See How They Communicate
If you plan on having plenty of custom jewelry pieces, it’ll be great to hire a jewelry designer who’s easy to communicate with—someone you’ll feel comfortable about sharing every detail of your piece and even bargaining for their final price. Moreover, they should be someone who will provide you with updates about the progress of your custom order and give you a timeline about when you should expect your item to finish and would be ready for polishing.
Apart from how they speak to you, you should see how quickly they respond to your inquiry. Even if you’re just asking about how much it’ll cost, they should provide you with amazing service and a quick response. Customizing jewelry doesn’t come at a low price. With that, it’ll only be nice if they can make you feel at peace and satisfied with their service and work.
Do It In Person
If the jewelry designer has a physical store, then it’s best that you do the business in person. Online presence is different from the physical one. Even if you feel comfortable checking out their online profile, if you visit their store and it feels shady or you’re not utterly comfortable with, then you might want to trust your gut and look for a different designer. Doing things in person allows you to see who you’re working with and get a feel if they’re someone you’re comfortable paying.
Takeaway
Choosing the right custom jewelry designer would never be a walk in the park. But with the right research, you should be able to find one that best suits your wants, needs and, maybe most importantly, budget. While the process might be intricate and lengthy, allowing yourself to be with a professional and amazing design will make your every effort worth it.
