www.bluemoonantiqueshop.com

Bling-Bling Plaza

International shoppers can go here to convert your country's ring sizes to US sizes.  To open the link in a separate page, right click it and choose "Open in new window" from the menu.

The links on the left will narrow your search for the perfect ring or other jewelry item. 

Please bear in mind that my stones are the best available quality; I will have everything from amazing colors in various quartzes to topaz and sapphire, from amethyst to ametrine and garnet; all only the best. I am able to choose better quality by selecting my stones one at a time.   All of my stones are genuine; no CZ's or other synthetic stones.

Heating and MVP (Mineral Vapor Deposition) are acceptable to me because they are acceptable to the AGA as being enhancements that leave the stone natural, not actually altered in any way, while treating (oiling, difusing, waxing, borax-fill, etc.) is NOT acceptable.  The practice of heating Sapphires with Beryllium present in the chamber is a practice on which the jury is still out, but that procedure does not involve dying a stone as do the above treatments listed.  When you buy a Ruby, Sapphire or Emerald piece in a chain store, the chance that you are buying a treated stone is nearly 100%, and you will pay many times more for that unnatural stone than you would pay for my natural one.  My clarity rating standards are much higher than chain-store standards.  The long and short of it is that my jewelry is higher in quality and lower in price than the items purchased from 'jewelry stores.'

You will notice that clear accent stones abound on many of my rings.  The stones we use for this are the African Silver Topaz, White Topaz, White Sapphire, and White Zircon.  A word for those of you unfamiliar with Zircon; Zircon is a naturally mined stone that comes in many colors.  The White Zircon is the natural stone that was used as the model to build the prototypes of the cubic zirconium; hence the name given to that synthetic manufactured stone.  Zircon is natural and genuine, cubic zirconium, or CZ as it is known, is synthetic (fake).

Carat weights for solitaires in rings and pendants will range from 1.5cts to 25cts or more!  I list the millimeter sizes because they will give you a better idea of what size the stone actually is than will giving you the carat weight, although I supply that information when I have it.  Stones have different specific gravities, and carat weights only tell you how heavy the stone is, not really how large it is.  If a stone has a very deep cut, it will be smaller in appearance than the carat weight would imply as compared to a shallow cut stone. 

Most are mounted in pure sterling silver; nothing plated, bonded, or coated with 'tarnish guard'.  Estate Jewelry is mostly Gold, and the karat purities will be listed for each piece along with the gram weights.  Over time, the stock in Sterling will be allowed to reduce in size and Gold will be more available in new custom items.  

Each jewelry item comes with a gift box suitable for immediate giving; no craft-paper boxes with cotton filling. I also have gift bags and metallic tissue for special-occasion giving.

REPAIR POLICY:

My items are priced well below industry standard, and the quality of the materials and workmanship is well above those same standards.  Please remember that Sterling is more malleable than gold; a Sterling ring with prong mounted stones should not be worn every day unless you are willing to have occasional maintenance done on it.  It will require prong tightening, etc on a three-to-four times a year basis if it is worn as an every day ring.  Rotating your Sterling ring wardrobe is a MUST.  I have no less than 40 gemstone and sterling rings of my own, and so very rarely do any of them ever need work done beyond cleaning.  But I do not ever expect them to perform the same as gold under the same wearing conditions.  I cannot offer warranties on jewelry; I simply don't charge enough for my pieces to make that feasible. 

Laboratory Created Stones.  There is a lot of confusion surrounding the term "lab created" or "laboratory created" gemstones.  The stone is not technically synthetic, as is a CZ.  Here is why:  a lab stone is created by bringing the exact mineral materials that create a stone in nature into the lab, where the same pressures and temperatures are exerted to make a stone "grow" in as little as 4-8 weeks instead of 48 million years.  The advantages are that the stone remains a genuine stone in all ways; optically and chemically, and that lab stones are generally flawless.  A professionally created lab stone will cost somewhat less than a naturally mined stone, but in many cases the difference is less than 40%.  For example, canary diamonds are now being created in the lab that average $8,000.00 as compared to the same size, cut, and clarity in a naturally mined stone that would sell for around $13,000.00.  Other labs are scrambling to build equipment that can tell these new lab stones from naturally mined stones, because the equipment currently available cannot distinguish between the natural and the lab created.  Neither can your jeweler with a loupe, no matter what that auspicious individual may tell you.  A synthetic stone, on the other hand, does not match any of the optical, mineral, or chemical properties of a genuine stone, because only synthetic materials are used.  You may wish to think of CZ's and other manufactured stones as 'fashion jewelry', because that is what they are.  The term often applied to these synthetic stones is "simulated".  It is NOT the same as a lab created stone.

To avoid confusion, I simply don't buy lab stones on general principal.  If I EVER have a lab created  piece, I will specifically say so in the description.  CZ's will never be available, because I will not stock them.