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About Jan and Heirloom Jewelry

"I hope for my work to reflect the beauties of God's Creation.

I love using gemstones that have wonderful patterns

and are cut into unusual shapes, and then designing a setting

that creates a unique piece of jewelry."

I have been making jewelry for over 30 years. I learned the art at Oregon Institute of Technology in Klamath Falls, Oregon and at Revere Academy in San Francisco, and by practice, practice, practice.

After designing a setting for a stone or stones I use the method of fabrication which means I start with silver or gold sheet and wire, cutting (using a jeweler's saw), shaping (forging, reposse), and texturing (hammering, chasing and reticulation) the metal. A bezel is made using very thin flat wire, forming it around the stone and soldering it to the base piece. All parts are soldered together, the piece is cleaned (pickled in mild acid), the stone is set into the bezel and the piece is polished for a final finish.

I specialize in doing custom work for my customers, often they pick out a stone from my cabochon pages and we work together to design the piece, creating unique jewelry that fits their personal taste.

Inspired by the artifacts found in Northern Europe, Britain and Iceland, I recently started doing some sand casting using the same methods (with a few modern refinements) as the ancient Vikings. I also researched their writing which is known as Runes and decorated the resulting pendants with some of those symbols.

If you still want more information after all of that, just click: Jan's home page

Please click on the links to the left for information about gemstones and to see examples of my jewelry. Remember these are mostly "One of a Kind" pieces and this is my only catalog. I will update it often so please come back.

By the way, in case you are confused, my business name is "Heirloom Jewelry" but I am using the name "Designer Jewelry" on the Internet because it more accurately describes my product.

Email: jan@designjewel.com
or call: 1-800-851-6052
or: 541-884-6052