Charms are also known as amulets and pendants. They are as popular today as they have been throughout recorded history. Ancient Egyptians wore bracelets with charms or amulets. They were used to protect against bad luck and evil forces. They began with religious symbols and became a part of everyday dressing.

Charms/jewelry were made of almost any material of value to people in their time. Many were made of precious metal. Others were made with gemstones inlaid in them or mounted with precious metals in the form of necklaces, crowns, staffs, and bracelets. Queen Victoria gets the credit for popularizing jewelry charms throughout Europe by wearing lockets or charms on her royal bracelets

America became enchante with Charms around the time frame of World War II. Soldiers returning from duty station brought with them various types of charms or pendants. Today popular charms are maded from Gold and Sterling silver. Other materials are still used in the making of charms.

Sterling Silver Charms today represent as many things as there are interests and personalities. Some charms or pendants represent the religious leanings of the wearer. They also represent the interest of the wearer such a musical instrument for a music lover, a pair of sneakers for a jogger, or ballet slippers for a ballerina. Imagination is the only limit for what a charm can represent. Silver charms are also used to commerate life events such as births, weddings, anniversaries, birthdays, or graduations.
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Diamond Cuts

It is said that the true worth of a diamond is determined by its clarity, cut, carat and color. Generally, people evaluate the worth of their money by diamond’s color and size but they are really naïve about its cut. In fact, the cut of a diamond is a major factor in establishing its price.

The cut in a diamond is really important as a small mistake in cut can ruin the whole piece so, it should be done intelligently and carefully that enhances the look and beauty of the piece. Therefore, it totally depends upon the expertise and magic of cutter’s hand in shaping up the raw stone into the refined glittering gem that lays its impact on its wearer for forever.

Diamonds are available in different shapes such as round, oval, marquise, pear, heart, emerald pieces and radiant that distinguishes diamonds according to its varieties. So, it’s really tough for a cutter to bring a life in diamond from a dull stone to a dazzling sparkling gem that is cherished by its wearers. For making a diamond alive certain principles have to be keeping in mind, let’s know them in brief:

Depth:
Depth of a diamond is important in giving an accurate angle to the raw piece that further divert the internal lights of the stone from upside, bottom, sides and corners. If it is done poorly, the radiance of the diamond gets lost and restricts its real glow and charm so, the depth is always considered sharply.
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Although it also applies to traditional brick and mortar jewelry retail stores, the surge of ecommerce through the advancing internet infrastructure and a significant decrease in overhead costs enable many entrepreneurs to start their own businesses online. Combined with the exponentially increasing number of web users, online retail has become an attractive opportunity for people who want something for their own.

The online retail sales grossed about $110 billion in 2005 and jewelry category accounted for 5% of the total. Other major categories include books, apparel, computer related, electronics and drugs. The reason why jewelry is particularly attractive to a lot of entrepreneurs is that the startup capital could be small and the logistics is easy to control. The reason is that the spectrum of jewelry range from costume jewelry to silver jewelry to diamond luxury items, which offers a flexible startup capital requirement. Also, due to the nature of jewelry, it does not require a large storage space in the beginning and is relatively easily to package and ship.

For someone who is already convinced that jewelry store is a feasible online business, the next question would obviously be where to get the merchandize. To answer this question, we have to state the characteristics that one should look for when selecting a vendor. I know some of you are thinking “prices”. Sure, different vendors have different prices for similar items, is the one with the lowest prices odd to be the one we should work with?

Granted, your vendor’s pricing is crucial to the success of your business, this is all about money after all. Nonetheless, in order to be competitive in the market, there are many other facts you might want to get from a wholesaler before any decision is made.

Firstly, especially in jewelry and apparel industry, the vendor has to have the sense to the changing fashion trends. New styles come out every day and popular styles are changing every season, it makes a huge difference between your vendor selling styles that were hot last summer rather than styles that just got exposed in a French fashion show. You should do your own research, of course, but a vendor with the good connections and senses propels your business and saves you a lot of time.

Secondly, if you decide to carry some unique styles that can rarely be found anywhere else, do make sure you get them from a vendor who guarantees the availability of the stock. By doing this, you can maximize your effort for processing each item. Typical pre-processing of an item are photo-taking, editing, copywriting and data entry. If the vendor runs out of stock for most of the items you purchased, and not being able to perform backordering, the effort for maintaining the inventory will be dramatically increased.
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We have been manufacturing and selling The Bell Collection by Jewelry John since early 1998. All of our bells are made from Sterling Silver (we also make them on an individual basis in 14K gold). They are cast, assembled and finished individually with jewelers care, giving utmost attention to every detail from bail to clapper. The entire Bell Collection is manufactured in Austin, Texas USA.

The bells are made using the “lost wax method” which means, we make a rubber mold from an original carved wax, a wax copy is then made for each body, bail and clapper. The parts are then attached (sprued up) to a wax tree. A temperature resistant plaster of Paris type material (investment) is poured around each tree in a rubber cup (this step is called investing). When the material hardens, it is removed from the cup and put into a kiln, which reaches a temperature of 1350° F. The wax is vaporized leaving a plaster mold into which molten silver is poured, making the bells. They are removed, cut from the tree and go through numerous processes before the 3 pieces are assembled by hand, making a completed bell. Each bell is then given a final polish before being sent to our retailers.
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