Posts Tagged: anna rasche

Ask a Jeweler: A Buyer’s Guide to Diamonds

This is the second installment in a series about diamonds. For part one, click here.

As you can see by Marilyn’s facial expression, buying a diamond is equal parts exciting and confusing. I’ve tried to answer some FAQs to help you get the best diamond for your hard-earned money.

How is the quality of a diamond determined? How do these factors affect price?

The price of a diamond is directly related to its rarity. The more difficult it is to find and manufacture a particular diamond, the more expensive the diamond will be. A stone’s rarity is majorly determined by its carat weight, color, clarity and cut, otherwise [...]


Ask a Jeweler: Shady Platinum, Sizing Up Your Rings, and the Case For Sapphires

1. My engagement and wedding rings were custom made by a local jeweler in platinum, and have the PLAT marking. I noticed (after over a year of wearing them) that my rings were attracted by a magnet, yet my husband's platinum band isn't.

I recently took the rings back to my jeweler to be cleaned, and I intended to ask him, but I chickened out. The rings cost us several thousand dollars, and the jeweler gave us a valuation certificate when we bought them. Should I be worried?

Don’t worry, your jeweler is legit! Here’s why:

One hundred percent pure platinum is too soft to be used in jewelry, so [...]


Ask a Jeweler: A Beginner’s Guide to Diamonds, Part I

We've looked at pearls; now it's time for diamonds. Let's do this.


In the center of tectonic plates are places that remain still and stable as thinner edges of the earth’s crust stretch and swirl around them. These places are called cratons, and they extend hundreds of miles below the surface, ancient bedrock as reliable as Atlas, pushing into the dense mantle that surrounds the core. If you were a mole person, capable of tunneling about 100 miles down into one of these cratons, and you lived sometime between 1 billion and 3.3 billion years ago, you might notice that the temperature and the pressure was just [...]



1. Could you offer some suggestions for a non-metal engagement ring?

I work as an industrial electrician, and my company has a strict policy prohibiting metallic jewelry (which I am totally on board with, for the record.). For the time being I've pretty much decided not to get an engagement or wedding ring, because it seems silly to pay so much for something that I'd only get to wear a few waking hours a week. I'm ok without the token but … it would be nice to have my reminder that someone cares, especially at work.

As someone who also has a reaction to metal worn for more [...]


Ask a Jeweler: A Beginner’s Guide to Pearls

I've gotten a number of questions about pearls lately, so I put together a primer of sorts. Send me your questions here!

Natural pearls form when a parasite burrows into an oyster or mussel. The mollusk, trying to make itself more comfortable, coats the parasite with layers and layers of the same shiny, smooth, comfy material that covers the inside of its shell.  This material, called “nacre,” is produced in the mollusk’s mantle tissue. When the mantle deposits enough layers of nacre around the parasite a little clump forms, and voila—you have a pearl! Because a relatively small percentage of wild mollusks ever need to make a pearl, for [...]


Ask a Jeweler

1. Can I wear it in the shower?

A question for the ages. Or at least for all of the ages since showers have been invented. The three aspects of your jewelry to consider before bringing it into the bubble bath are: mechanical, metal, mineral.

- Mechanical considerations:

See if there are any nooks or crannies (just ate an English muffin) in your jewelry that might trap water. Think lockets, hollow bangles, or rings with closed-back stone settings. Also, see if any part of your jewelry is threaded on string or glued in place. If any of these features are present, it’s best not to wear that item in [...]