Reel Seats Reel seat sales and manufacturing have been suspended for the near future. While this portion of the J. Marcus site is being reorganized, Jewelry and all other sales will remain functional.  ~   A natural extension of the jewelers' arts and skills, extending to include fine woods, used for an activity close to the heart. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------   Ferrule Plugs Abalone Mabe's for Sale Fine Jewelry ~ 1 ~ Rings Fine Jewelry ~ 2 ~ Necklaces and Pendants Fine Jewelry ~ 3 ~ Bracelets Fine Jewelry ~ 4 ~ Earrings Carved Mexican Fire Opal More Related Items  ~ note ~  .73 ct. diamond for sale at a more than reasonable price. Photo and details in "More Related Items."

On jewelry and fashion:

Petite and demure are now passe' in jewelry fashion. The sizes and designs have been getting steadily larger and bolder for a few years now. In fact--sometimes surprisingly so--if one can believe what is showing up in the latest fashion magazines. When I first recognized this change in direction, and understanding that fashion runs in cycles, I thought long and hard about what this would mean as we moved through the early 21st century version of the 1950's and 1960's. There were other factors to consider as well, such as: increased demand for scarce gems, many of which are in short supply and becoming more scarce all the time, are obviously driving prices for these gems up out of the range of affordability for many. Also, the price of precious metals keeps soaring both as the dollar falls in value and rapidly increasing demand develops as a result of  increased prosperity in countries like China and India. I am finding that most of the conclusions that I arrived at are proving true. I'll let you in on a few trends that are building:

1. Silver ornamented with 18K gold, very high karat gold and rose gold, in combination with colorful, semi-precious gems are seeing increasing popularity as it becomes harder to produce affordable, larger and bolder jewelry.

2. Agates and Jaspers are finally attracting the attention they deserve as designers gave them a hard, second look and, realizing what beautiful colors and patterns many of them have, in addition to their generally larger sizes than many other gems. Agates are showing up in the high-end, jewelry-industry and fashion magazines set in karat golds as well as silver and silver/gold combinations.

3. Gems of the feldspar family, such as moonstone, sunstone, labradorite, amazonite, etc. are being recognized for the beautiful, desirable and generally larger materials that they can provide at more reasonable prices.

4. As demand develops for many of the beautiful, semi-precious, gem stones formerly given short shrift, the jewelry industry has begun to come up hard against the fact that even a good number of these materials are really in rather short supply or even rare. A good example of this is fire agate, my favorite gem. I have never heard of or come across any fire agate that had a source outside of the southern half of Arizona or northwest Sonora, Mexico. It's a gorgeous yet tough gem that there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of in the world. Sugilite is another. There is only 1 source of this--a single mine in South Africa! It is becoming quite expensive--when you can even find any.

I have put together a very comprehensive lapidary shop with a wide range of equipment and hope that you will come back to my site regularly to see what I am creating. It's an exciting time to be involved in these crafts!