Hello and welcome to our Etsy shop!

As you can see from our photo, we have been making jewelry for a long time:) David is the designer, manufacturer and photographer. Helen is the stone buyer, contact person, and all the rest. We found out about Etsy several years ago from a friend and former employee of ours. She has a very successful Etsy shop and encouraged us to give Etsy a try since we were looking for an online presence. We have been very happy that we did!

We got our start working for Helen’s grandmother in her jewelry store. With David’s background in sculpture (bachelor of fine arts in sculpture from the Rhode Island School of Design), jewelry design was a good fit and we went on to open our own retail store. Eight years later David won a design competition which awarded him a booth space in New York city at a major international jewelry show. For about 25 years, we sold David’s designs to jewelry stores throughout the U.S. and abroad. We sell exclusively on Etsy now. Every piece you see for sale in our Etsy shop is designed and made, from start to finish, by David.

Helen obtained the colored stone certificate from the Gemological Institute of America, while David obtained their diamond certificate. Helen does the stone buying and the stones are a great inspiration to David’s designing.

We produce most of our work through the method called lost wax casting, where wax patterns, embedded in a mold, are melted out and replaced with molten metal. The patterns used for this process are created by injecting hot wax into vulcanized rubber molds that David has made of his original, carefully crafted designs.

We use no commercial settings to hold gemstones. In fact, most of our pieces have no heads at all, but secure the stones through tension setting, using a spring action designed into the piece itself.





Argentium Silver. As registered users, we proudly stamp the official Argentium Silver Pegasus hallmark alongside our trademark stamp on all of our silver work. Argentium Silver is of 100% recycled silver, and the specific alloy that we use is the whitest, brightest, highest purity on the market, having about half the non-silver content of traditional sterling. In addition, it can be treated to be harder and more durable than the standard, lower purity material, and is hypoallergenic. Though a bit more difficult to come by, we think that it's well worth the extra trouble to obtain this beautiful, superb metal. For more information about Argentium silver:
http://www.argentiumsilver.com/

We use Chatham lab grown emeralds, rubies and sapphires. Chatham has been recognized as the world’s leader in the lab grown category for over 80 years. They are considered the premium lab grown brand with the highest quality in color, clarity and cutting. Their lab grown gemstones are not only identical to mined stones in every way, but they are guaranteed conflict-free and socially responsible. Chatham’s crystals are grown in their labs under very similar conditions as crystals grown in the earth. Chatham lab grown gems create the opportunity to own rare and exotic gemstones at a more affordable price while knowing that you are not contributing to the environmentally harmful mining process.
http://www.chatham.com

Like so many disciplines, jewelry making offers a lot to explore, always keeping both designing and production interesting. Our ideas feed off one another or spin off spontaneous observations that catch our eye and imagination.

return to Shop Home: http://www.etsy.com/shop/VerbenaPlace