Rec. your jeweler for custom work

wittyschaffy

I recently inherited a pair of my grandmother's earrings and a matching necklace.  They are made of garnets - each has an oval cut center stone with round cut smaller stones placed around it to make a flower shape.  They're a beautiful set but need to get changed from clip ons to studs for my pierced ears.  I figured as long as I was having them worked on, I'd have them changed to drop earrings to make them a little bit more contemporary while still maintaining the integrity of the pieces. 

Because they are priceless to me, I am going to be pretty picky about who works on them and I really want to work with a jeweler who is not going to send it out to have the work done by someone other than who I talked through my ideas with.  Anyone have experience working with someone in town who is good at this kind of stuff?  (preferrably on the east side of the cities since that is closer to where I live although I'm not opposed to driving a little bit if someone is really fantastic!)  I tried to stop in at Arthur's in Roseville but they were closed today.

thanks!

hkiesling

My husband used Knox Jewelers and they custom designed my ring.  He absolutely loved them.  He actually made me call Ryan Knox (designer) in the car on the way home after he proposed so that I could tell Ryan that I said yes and how much I loved the ring.  Ryan was probably the fourth person to hear about our engagement.  Seriously.

Anyway, they have a shop on the first floor of their building where they do a lot of their own work.  I'm not sure if they do EVERYTHING there, but I know they do a lot.  www.knoxjewelers.biz 

littlemissflip

I highly recommend Thomas Joseph & Sons in downtown Mpls: http://www.thomasjosephandsons.com/

They custom-made our wedding bands, and they also resized and altered my engagement ring to fit the way I wanted with the band.  Their hours are a little restrictive, but they're a family business, very professional and friendly, and they do very high quality work in-house.  We've been really pleased with them.

In contrast, the owner of Arthur's in Roseville treated us extremely rudely, made it clear he didn't want our business, and left me in tears... so... yeah... I won't ever go back there

wittyschaffy

Thanks for the feedback!  I'll check both these places out.

 

 

MesmrEwe

It's a little late to chime in, but there's a jeweler in a little strip shopping center (not the strip mall, but sort of an office-building looking place - they're in the upstairs - I remember that much from going there once but not the name) across from Rosedale Center...  The jewelry store I go to (Johnson Jewelers in Hastings) uses them and they do good work..