Jewelry

[Glitter Puss]

13 REVIEWS FROM ANNIVERSARY SHOWS

Dewdrop necklace, earrings, & bracelet: Really great! Good workmanship. Beautiful detail. The center stone on the earrings lights up your entire face like a flash bulb. Love the option of wearing the necklace at 3 different lengths. And the necklace does work fine w/ very casual clothes. It does not flip even when I bend over. The bracelet is a great layering piece w/ any of the watches & w/ a lot of the cuffs.

The watch in blue (size small): I waited a long time to order this because of all the past problems & I thought enough time had passed since these problems occurred for them to have been cleared up. I LOVE the watch. The blue is a light blue, but recognizably blue, unlike the pink version. The blue is kind of pearlescent & when you turn the watch in the light, you catch glimmers of all colors of the rainbow. So far no problems w/ it. I found 2 great pieces in my collection that look fabulous w/ this watch: 1)the gold clad cuff w/ the stations of blue topaz from a few shows ago, & 2) a very skinny link bracelet from years ago (pre-DMQ) that has softly muted multi-colored gemstones – a light citrine oval, a light blue topaz heart, a soft amethyst color…does anyone else have this bracelet?

The East-West MOP ring: Very nice. The ring has substance & heft. I love the DMQ baguettes down the shank & the texturing of the silver because Judith has not done anything like this before. I didn’t have a MOP ring & I thought it was a little different from the heart shape that my other MOP pieces have…not so matchy.

The East-West ring in the synthetic light blue quartz doublet: Love it! The blue stone is exactly the same color as the little blue Monaco stone & it is a color that I do not have in my collection. Love it w/ the lt. blue & hematite link bracelet & love both of these w/ denim. The design is exactly the same as the MOP ring above.

The lt. blue Monaco ring & matching earrings: Sensational! I I did not buy the big Monaco because I liked it but did not love it, & for $300+ I figured I should love it. It seemed a little Gothic…sort of too much like Barbara Bixby. But as soon as I saw this scaled down version, I fell head over heels. I might be a plebeian, but I don’t care if a stone is synthetic or real. I just care how it looks & whether I love it. The lt. blue stones on the side are a perfect complement & the rhodium plating works well…not at all over-powering & doesn’t make the stones look dirty. Fabulous pieces!!!

The emerald cuff & stack rings: I like the diagonal design & the emeralds are a really beautiful color green & well matched…probably color-treated, but who cares? What I did not like was the rhodium plating, as so many of you have already mentioned. I agree that it made the pieces look dirty. Rather than return them, I used a soft sponge w/ some silver paste polish & rubbed them gently & most all of the rhodium came off. They look a lot nicer now. The only other negative is that the bracelet is very light weight…absence of good silver presence, but we can expect a lot less silver for the money now. The pieces did coordinate very well w/ my other JR emerald & GG pieces.

Yellow garland enhancer: Gorgeous design! A real statement piece. However, what I really disliked about this piece was the lack of a silver backing. This piece was made just like the onyx Maltese cross w/ the choice of center gemstones in that both pieces were open in the back instead of having that beautiful sterling silver back w/ the usual cut-out fleur-de-lis. For me, this is not so much a quality issue as it is a visual flaw in that if you wear the piece on a navy, grey or black background the yellow stone will not look as yellow. So I will have to wear the piece on a white, tan, or yellow background.

Lab-created ruby earrings: Gorgeous design & the color of the lab-created ruby looks just like the finest Burmese ruby. I got them to match the 3-stone lab-created ruby ring from a couple of shows back which I love. The only thing I dislike about the earrings is that they were made w/ a lever-back closure instead of the omega backs. I know this is another cost-cutting measure, but the lever-backs do not keep the earring right up close to the ear & consequently do not cover a stretched-out-from-many-years-of-use piercing.

Simulated sapphire earrings: F-A-B-U-L-O-U-S! Again, I like Judith’s simulated blue sapphires more than her genuine sapphires because the simulated ones are a nicer color & more vibrant blue. The design is extraordinary & they fit so beautifully because they have the omega closure.

Overall review of Judith’s new pieces: Bear in mind that I am easily pleased, not at all analytical about the jewelry, & never feel the need to loupe it for imperfections. It either grabs me or doesn’t. As a designer I think Judith is getting better & better. Her ability to create lighter weight pieces to compensate for the rising price of silver, her ability to use doublets, triplets, or lab-created stones to compensate for the rising prices of real gemstones, & her ability to produce the WOW factor while cutting corners all take real talent & innovation. Of course I don’t mind the DMQ or the lab-created stones. But the two things that disappoint me the most are the lack of a silver backing on the enhancers & the change to lever back closure instead of omega backs. And of course I do miss the old prices, but that is inevitable. I was just thinking, when they presented the key to your heart necklace, that about 2 years ago, for $5.00 less, we got that really chunky charm bracelet w/ 3 removable nice charms – one of which had a 2.3 ct. smoky quartz stone. The necklace presented in the show looked very thin & the charms were so much smaller & not removable. I feel lucky that I bought a good collection at yesterday’s prices.