Some of you may have already found my Marx Jewelers page on Pinterest. For those of you who haven’t yet, please check it out and see what you think.

Tying the Knot

Pinterest has become a favorite destination not only for designers and craftsmen to share their products but as a top ranked site for inspiration – especially when it comes to planning your perfect wedding.

Pinterest is a great option for browsing dresses, decor, photography, hair and makeup, and, my favorite, ring designs. Check out my Wedding Ideas board to be inspired and then pop over to my rings, earrings, or necklaces boards to find the perfect jeweled accents to your gown and style.

Accessorizing and Maintaining

Not only do I have a board of all my pieces and wedding inspiration, but I also have boards that pin ideas for jewelry organization and maintenance.

Sometimes a piece of jewelry is so stunning in and of itself that you build an outfit around it. That’s what my accessorizing board is for.

And just for kicks, I recently started a celebrity jewelry board to collect all the fashion forward pieces of the men and women in the spotlight.

I hope you spend some time looking at my pins and check back often as I add more. Enjoy!

Dedicated to being your jeweler,

Slava

Customer testimonials are one of the most flattering things for any business. Making a happy customer is a number one priority.

One of my favorite things about this testimonial is the way neither one of them can stop looking at the wedding ring!

We wish this and all the couples that come to Marx Jewelers much bliss.

Dedicated to being your jeweler,

Slava

There’s jewelry, and then there’s JEWELRY! Sometimes a simple necklace or pair of earrings isn’t enough to adequately express who you are and what makes you tick. Many other jewelry stores shy away from the more creative side of bedazzling our bodies, but Marx Jewelers is ready and willing for whatever custom work you have in mind. We would love to make you a piece that is as 100% unique as you are!

Bling for Your Skin

I recently was asked by a friend of mine to make a custom piece for his wife. She wanted a piece of implanted body jewelry fitted with a diamond. The original piece was made with a cubic zirconia and she wanted us to replace it with a real gem.

For those of you who don’t know, microdermal piercings are installed on flat surfaces of the body where only one end of the piercing is visible on the surface of the skin. The other end is embedded in the dermal layer of the skin. This is in contrast to piercings that go all the way through the skin, like your ears or your lip.

This type of procedure is done by inserting the micro dermal anchors underneath your skin. After a couple months, the tissue and skin grows around the anchor and holds it in place. The jewelry part of it is actually screwed into the anchor so that only the gem is visible.

This was a first for me but I was happy to take on the project! And I’m ready for more creative pieces. So what can you come up with?

A Truly Sparkling Smile

A few years ago one of the stars of the hit TV show Gold Rush Alaska got into a fight where he lost his tooth. I have worked on several gold teeth over the years but this guy had something totally different in mind: He wanted Diamonds!

This was no simple undertaking. The process for fitting a crown can be extensive. I worked closely with the dentist to try to figure out a way to ensure that the diamonds could be fitted to the crown without having to cook the crown again once the diamonds were placed on. High heat will smoke the diamonds causing them to lose their characteristic sparkle, which would make the whole project pointless.

Together with the dentist, we found a special medium that allowed us some time to place the diamonds before it cured and the results were truly amazing.

Dedicated to being your jeweler,

Slava

These celebrities know the true meaning of bling! Some of these rings cost more than a mansion in Portland, Oregon.

Love the design of these rings but don’t want to spend a cool million? Give Marx Jewelers a call and we can design you a custom ring that will match the style but not the cost.

Dedicated to being your jeweler,
Slava

I always laugh when people ask me what is the best apology gift I have ever made. In all the years that I have been a jeweler, I have seen just about everything, from “Sorry I forgot our anniversary” to “I’m really sorry I was not home for the birth of our baby.” In every circumstance, I see a man walk through my doors in sheer panic. Knowing that he is inevitably going to be in the doghouse and he is desperately trying to appease the angry lady in his life.

The Bigger the Trouble the Bigger the Diamond

When it comes to apology presents, bigger is better! The bigger the stone the more sorry you feel is the message you are sending. I recently had a customer come in and purchase a $7000 belly button ring for his girlfriend.

He neglected to share the details, however when I was making the jewelry my thoughts were that this man was incredibly sorry for whatever it was he had done!

Cushioning the Blow

Surprisingly, or maybe not so surprisingly, most of the apology pieces are bought by men. Many of the women that I have spoken to over the years have told me that a gift does not always mean immediate forgiveness, and in reality, many situations that call for forgiveness cannot be bought with jewelery.

As a man, I know that all too often things come up and anniversaries or birthdays are forgotten, or unforeseen circumstances cause us to miss some important event, but for the most part, we often want to make up for the things that make the woman in our lives unhappy.

Most women love jewelry and the men that love the woman in their lives, know this. It seems logical that if we screw up, we are going to try to make up for it, and what better way to do this than coming to our ladies with hat and gift in hand.

Forgiveness is a Beautiful Thing… and so are Diamonds

Some of the most beautiful pieces I have done have been made to mark a special moment. Weddings, engagements, graduations, births, and sometimes even those moments that start out not so great but end with the most beautiful thing in the world: forgiveness.

It is with this in mind that I create the apology presents that my customers come to me with. If forgiveness is what you are looking for, a Marx Jewelers piece will certainly make the act of forgiving all the more beautiful.

Dedicated to being your jeweler,

Slava

Did you know your cell phone contains 50 cents worth of gold?

Did you know there is enough gold in the earth’s core to pave the planet with one and a half feet of solid gold?

There are so many interesting facts about gold out there. Here is a small fraction of them.

~Slava

This wonderful young lady made us all smile with how happy she was.

She brought us a beautiful heirloom piece of jewelry that needed repaired and it was our honor to be chosen to do so.

~Slava

Women know all too well the rules of fashion trends: What’s old eventually becomes new again, and styles we swear no one would be caught dead in ever again return to favor quicker than we thought possible (Welcome back 1990’s!).

It’s the same in jewelry, though our industry benefits from having a firm grasp on the timeless, where a round diamond solitaire is equivalent to a classic LBD.

You can never go wrong with a round diamond. They are always popular and always the most expensive. Hey, good taste is priceless if you ask me!

Experts are predicting a comeback of the Marquis cut diamond, you know like the one popular in the 1980’s (I really, really hope they are wrong).

I am predicting something different altogether though. I think a cut of diamond that is a little bit older and wiser will become immensely popular and will see it’s day of major glory soon.  It is called the cushion cut diamond. Let me introduce you two.

Cushion Cut Diamonds

Until recently it was difficult to find antique cushion cut diamonds for sale outside of estate sales and auctions. However cushion cuts are enjoying a small surge in popularity and are again being offered by jewelers. The most popular variety is the brilliant modified cushion cut diamonds.

The cushion cut is an antique cut that most often resembles a cross between the old mine cut and a modern oval cut.

The old mine cut is a deep cut with large facets that was common in the late 19th century and the early 20th centuries.

The antique cushion cut itself is not as brilliant or fiery as many of the newer cuts, but it is very romantic and classic looking and definitely stands out in a sea of the same. The modified brilliant cushion cut looks even better or equal to a round brilliant.

There are various ways you may see this cut of diamond as it varies widely since a lot is left to personal taste. As with most older (at least older type) things, measurements were not exact in the days of the old mine cut era. You will find cushion cuts that may be a long rectangle, or nearly square with varying size and depth of cuts.

Because this cut has large open facets I would advise you to choose the highest clarity and color your budget can afford. This is definitely a cut where people will be able to tell the difference!

A Unique Engagement Ring

Cushion cuts are not a “traditional” selection for engagement rings, however they are a romantic stand out from the common round (LBD) brilliant cuts that are generally selected for engagement rings.

Cushion cut diamonds require a minimum of four-pronged settings and larger stones will need to be set in with additional prongs to keep it secure.

I also recommend pairing this particular cut of diamond with our Palladium for your band. Palladium is in the Platinum family but is one third the price giving you a beautiful and long lasting ring at a fraction of what you might expect to pay.

For more info on Palladium, go to my blog on this amazing metal.

~Slava

Palladium is a hot new up and coming precious metal that is highly sought after in the jewelry community. Of course it has been around for a long time, but some of it’s wonderful properties are just now being realized, especially here at our jewelry store in Portland, Oregon.

What makes palladium so great?

In 2006, there were 8 million ounces of Palladium mined versus 7 million for Platinum. In stark contrast, there were 80 million ounces of gold mined. This is a factor in the price difference between Palladium and Platinum as well, but as you can see it is a very slight difference. Palladium is still very rare.

Palladium was named after Pallas Athena, the Greek Goddess of Wisdom and protector of Athens.

Palladium is also the LAST precious metal our wonderful planet gave us that is suitable for use in fine jewelry. William Hyde Wollaston discovered Palladium in 1803 or 1804 (depending on who you ask) in crude platinum ore from South America.

At room temperature Palladium has the unusual property of being able to absorb up to 900 times its own volume of hydrogen. Hydrogen readily diffuses through heated Palladium and this provides a means of purifying the gas.

White Gold VS Palladium

White gold is popular in jewelry and has been for years. However, as we have found from our jewelry shop in Portland, it has numerous drawbacks.

White gold is actually a compound. Jewelers mix gold with nickel to make white gold.

Nickel is a highly allergic element for a lot of people. This means that since white gold is 42 percent alloy and most of it is nickel, a lot of people have allergic reactions to it and can not wear it at all.

This mixture of the elements also is a fragile thing. There is much more maintenance associated with white gold than other metal. It must be “re-dipped” in rhodium plating regularly to keep it’s color and shine.

Palladium on the other hand is naturally white and requires no special treatment to make it or keep it that way. You will save time and money on not having maintenance costs. It is also does not tarnish in air naturally.

Palladium is also naturally hypoallergenic. So all the people out there that suffer from various allergies will not have any worries with Palladium. Also Palladium has much better “tear-wear” resistance than 14k or 18k white gold.

Platinum VS Palladium

Platinum and Palladium are in the same chemical family on the Periodic Table of Elements. This means they have very similar chemical makeups.

So everything that people love about Platinum is also found in Palladium.

Both have a shiny white finish, and are extremely durable and long lasting. The two are very resistant to tarnishing, as well.

The biggest difference you will notice between Platinum and Palladium is the price and density of the metal. Palladium rings are generally 1.8 times lighter than Platinum but about the same weight as 14k white gold. The price of Palladium pieces is generally one third of the price of Platinum.

Jewelry Tip:

If you have your eye on that perfect beautiful and large diamond, consider using Palladium for your band as a way to splurge on the diamonds themselves.

We can create the perfect custom piece of palladium jewelry for you here at Marx Jewelers in Portland. Come see us today to find out how we can make your dream a reality!

~Slava

In my latest blog, I went over the 5 basics of taking care of your jewelry to make it last a lifetime and more.

This is a great how-to for cleaning your jewelry at home yourself if you are unable to get into my jewelry store in Portland to have it done for free.

And just in case you were wondering, yes, we have lint-free polishing clothes available for purchase in the store as well.

~Slava