Novica is a website affiliated with National Geographic. It sells the work of designers from around the world who would otherwise wither away in oblivion, far from the world’s eye. But Novica gives silversmiths and craftsmen like Buana from Bali the opportunity to show their work to a world hungry for new talent.

Buana, a Balinese silversmith.

Buana has been working with silver for almost twenty years now. He lives in a region of Bali called the Gianyar Regency. Thanks to Novica, he is able to sell his jewelry to a much wider audience than he has in his native Bali.

Buana for Novica “Face of the Moon” Ring, $49.95 at novica.com.

Look at the intricate detail on Buana’s hand-carved cow bone ring. This piece is exquisite! And there are hundreds more artisans and designers worldwide that are featured on Novica. Only National Geographic could find work this unique and bring it to the world stage!

If you’re looking for a special gift for a savvy traveler, I highly recommend that you “wookit” this site.

Globally,
Olivia

I don’t really own any fine jewelry. I don’t have an engagement ring, all of my pearls are faux, and I decided that it would be irresponsible of me to spend my life savings on one diamond necklace.

But for those of you who do, here is something to consider if you want to protect your investment: jewelry insurance.

Sometimes, a cleverly disguised hiding place isn’t enough to protect your valuables.

Many people depend on their homeowner’s or renter’s insurance to protect their fine jewelry. What they don’t know is that many policies only cover jewelry theft. So if your house burns down and your engagement ring gets lost or damaged in the debris, you’re out of luck.

You’re also out of luck if your jewels aren’t stolen from your home. If they’re stolen from a hotel, for example, they wouldn’t be covered by your homeowner’s insurance.

If the thought of losing your engagement ring keeps you up at night, you may want to consider purchasing a separate insurance policy specifically for your fine jewelry.

The value of your jewels, the amount of coverage you want, and whether or not you are willing to pay a deductible in case of a claim are all issues that you want to consider when looking at policies. If you can’t afford to pay much (or aren’t willing to), then you may be better off sticking with the theft coverage in your homeowner’s policy. But make sure it’s a risk you’re willing to take before you settle on it.

Jeweler’s Mutual is a fairly reputable company that offers a wide range of policies. And if any of you Woobies out there have insurance and can recommend other companies, we’d love to hear about them!

Not everybody needs to take this step, but you know what they say: better safe than sorry. And we definitely think you should play it safe when it comes to your jewels!

Cautiously,
Olivia

We recently posted an article about the difference between palladium and platinum. As we head into the weekend, we here at WooMeOver want to know:

Robbins Bros. Vivant Palladium Engagement Ring, $595 (without center stone) at robbinsbros.com.

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All that talk about cubic zirconia got me thinking that CZ gets a bad rap.

Sure, you want the real thing when it comes to your symbol of your future husband’s eternal love for you. But what about using it for, say, more temporal pieces?

Well, I don’t care what other people might say about it. I’ve decided to fall in love with cubic zirconia in fashion jewelry.

Eliot Danori Cubic Zirconia & Crystal Pendant, $40 at macys.com

I mean, take a look at this pendant. I love statement jewelry. I love the size of this piece. I love the bling factor. I love that I could wear this piece with a cute cocktail dress or a black tank top and jeans.

And just to ice the proverbial cake, this piece is deliciously affordable! A diamond this size would bankrupt me. This CZ piece leaves me plenty of room in my budget for matching earrings and a bracelet!

Cubic zirconia may have a reputation for being fake, but I think its fashion value is definitely for real.

Keepin’ It Real,
Olivia

At the Pasadena Bead and Design Show, I had the pleasure of meeting Mariella of Mariela Designer Jewelry.

Mariella with some necklaces from her latest line.

Mariella draws inspiration from design motifs from her native Peru. The ancient Incans worshipped the sun as a god, and Mariella has designed a one-of-a-kind necklace with a sun pendant that you will want to worship!

She’s also been working on a technique to combine all-natural bullhorn with sterling silver to create some clean and modern rings and bracelets.

Some horn jewelry designed by Mariella

She loves working with natural materials; she sees so much beauty in nature. It’s easy to understand her love for nature once you meet her and see her own natural beauty.

She loves using traditional techniques to create her jewelry, and is totally committed to creating eco-friendly pieces by eco-friendly means.

She’s also working on a top-secret new technique with a top-secret new material. I would tell you what it is, but… it’s top-secret! If you want to know what it is, you’re going to have to wait until Mariella launches her new line!

Due to copyrighting concerns, Mariella does not have a website, but she’d be happy to send you a catalog if you want to see more of her work.

It was such a pleasure meeting Mariella and seeing her sleek, modern pieces! This all-natural girl has an all-natural sense of style that we at WooMeOver just love!

Naturally,
Olivia

I had the pleasure of attending the Pasadena Bead and Design Show last Friday, and it was well worth the hour-long commute to the Pasadena Hilton!

The Pasadena Bead and Design Show

I had a great time at my first industry show. It was an excellent opportunity to meet hot new designers in the area (look for interviews and profiles in the days to come). I also learned a ton about the latest in current trends and innovative techniques.

Those of you aspiring designers out there should keep an eye out for our top ten secrets to marketing your jewelry, compliments of Angela Lovesmith of Lovestone Beads.

The Pasadena Bead and Design Show did a great job of bringing together a diverse group of exhibitors — designers and suppliers in all kinds of genres and styles, and from different walks of life — and joining them all into one unified show that actively demonstrates that, while we may all have different styles, a common love for jewelry is the only bond we need.

Connected,
Olivia

Tomorrow, I’ll be attending the Pasadena Bead & Design Show with a colleague.

Graphic by Pasadena Bead and Design Show.

I’m pretty excited about attending my very first industry show! Don’t know what I’ll see there, but I’m looking forward to seeing as much as possible!

From the show’s website:

“Pasadena Bead and Design Show is managed by Garan-Beadagio on behalf of Anna Kathleen Johnson. Having been in the artisanal trades for many years, Anna wanted to produce a show that mirrored the relationship of nature and art, the way they are lovingly interlaced in colors, textures, and patterns, at the deepest levels of the mind, and discovered through the expression of traditional handwork. She believes that art is the embodiment of dream, and that in a mystical sense, ownership is more like custodianship, passed on from generation to generation, and that it is essential that we discover the tradition continuously.”

If you’re in the Pasadena area, I encourage you to come and check it out! Maybe we’ll even get to meet!

Showing Off,
Olivia

Palladium. It’s a word I’ve been seeing a lot on the internet lately, especially in ads.

After a friend asked me what it was, I decided that I needed to look into it, for the good of Woobies everywhere.

Palladium.

Palladium is a “platinum group metal” (”PRG”), a group of metals that have chemical properties similar to platinum. Palladium has an atomic weight of 46, and is actually 12% harder than platinum. At different times in history, platinum has actually been more plentiful than palladium, driving up the price of this precious metal.

However, due to recent innovations in palladium production, palladium is about a quarter of the price of platinum right now!

People tend to look at the price of palladium and assume that it is of a lesser quality than platinum. However, the only significant downside to palladium vs. platinum is that palladium tends to discolor at high soldering heats, become brittle with repeated heating and cooling, and also reacts to strong acids. But unless you plan to wear your palladium ring in a fire or handle some sulfuric acid without gloves, you’re okay — and, even then, you’re going to have bigger problems than your ring getting ruined.

Palladium is about the same price as white gold, but has the added advantage of being hypoallergenic. Also, it’s far more resistant to tarnishing and fading than white gold. In fact, white gold is often an alloy of gold and palladium, which gives it its white luster.

The Robbins Brothers website has a great comparison chart that you can look at to see exactly how palladium stacks up against more popular metals.

Photo credit robbinsbros.com

I also found some beautiful palladium engagement rings on their website.

Vivant Palladium Engagement Ring with Round Diamonds, $595 (without center stone) at robbinsbros.com.

At a fraction of the cost of a similar ring in platinum (all the platinum designs I saw that even came close cost at least $2,000), think of how much money your fiancé will have leftover to spend on the diamond! Let’s face it: the only reason for the band is to house the diamond!

And now is a great time to buy palladium, too. There’s been a huge advertising push for palladium and, as it grows in popularity, the demand is bound to rise, which means that the cost will rise right along with it (hey, I took high school economics). So get in on the ground floor with this new trend in precious metals!

Preciously,
Olivia

Most of you have it in your jewelry boxes. Some of you are even wearing it now. All of you have heard of it. And we should all know exactly what it is.

I’m talking about sterling silver.

Pure silver is extremely malleable — far too soft to hold a functional shape for very long. Sterling silver is an alloy of 92.5% silver and 7.5% of another metal added for strength, usually copper.

The downside to adding copper for strength is that copper is much more reactive than silver. While silver doesn’t react with oxygen or water at room temperature, copper does. Sterling silver does tend to tarnish because of its copper content.

However, if your sterling silver jewelry becomes tarnished, you can clean it yourself at home!

Method #1
Make a paste of baking soda and water. Use a soft cloth to rub away the tarnish and then rinse and dry thoroughly.

Method #2
Line the bottom of a saucepan with aluminum foil. Fill the pan with 2-3 inches of water. Stir in one teaspoon each of baking soda and salt, and bring to a boil. Add your silver and boil for 2-3 minutes. Make sure that the pieces are all covered with water.

Remove silver from pan, rinse, and dry thoroughly, buffing with a soft cloth.

Method #3
Toothpaste. You heard me. Toothpaste. Not gel, but paste — the white stuff. Put a nice coat of it on your silver, run it under warm water, and work up a good lather. Rinse off and dry thoroughly.

To get at the tarnish in the crevices, you could use an old toothbrush to get into those hard-to-reach places.

But before you get started, make sure that none of these methods will harm any other materials (such as gemstones) in the piece.

And now let’s take a look at some jewelry that really helps sterling silver to shine as it should!

David Yurman Sterling Silver Tiger Ring, $850 at saksfifthavenue.com.

This solid cocktail ring boasts a sleek tiger design in iron. It really shows how powerful sterling silver can be. After all, sterling silver is nothing if not — pardon the expression — fierce.

Ippolita Silver Gladiator Cuff, $595 at saksfifthavenue.com

Ippolita’s Gladiator Cuff recalls ancient Greece with this simple, but powerful design. It allows the silver to shine as it was meant to, and the hammered look gives it the feel of antiquity. It’s truly a modern way to wear a classic look.

Slane & Slane Sterling Silver Tassel Pendant and Necklace, $870 at neimanmarcus.com.

The early buzz on the latest jewelry is that bees are the new butterflies. And this chunky necklace is about as “now” as it gets when it comes to sterling silver. I love this season’s thicker proportions and heavy pieces. They feel more substantial. You can believe you’ve gotten your money’s worth when you feel the weight of this pendant at your throat.

So to all of you out there who can now say that you know exactly what sterling silver is, remember: it may not be 100% silver, but you can bet it’s the real thing.

Yours Truly,
Olivia

As we approach the end of the summer wedding season, the team here at WooMeOver is pondering some tough questions. But the toughest of all is the one that nobody has the guts to really ask.

How do you know if your engagement ring is a real diamond?

A symbol of eternal devotion… or is it?

Now, you don’t want to go and get it appraised because your future hubby might find out and be offended, which would make for an awfully awkward wedding ceremony (”I do… AND I’M SORRY”). A good marriage is built on a foundation of love and trust, so you want to make sure that he never finds out that you doubted him.

It’s worth finding out, though. The engagement ring is the symbol of a man’s commitment to the woman he loves; his eternal devotion to his beloved. But that commitment is only as good as the symbol he gives her because, while a diamond is forever, let’s face it: a cubic zirconia is only good until the beloved finds out that it’s just a cubic zirconia. After that, he’s toast.

But how to make the discovery without being yourself discovered? That’s a toughie. I mean, take a look at the two gems below. One is a diamond and the other is a cubic zirconia. Can you tell which is which?

Which is which? Diamond and cubic zirconia.

Don’t feel bad if you can’t tell the difference. The differences are negligible to the untrained eye. The one on top is the cubic zirconia and the one below is the real diamond.

But before you panic and call off your wedding, try these tricks first:

1. Dispersion.
Did you know that CZ actually has greater dispersion power than real diamond? This means that you’ll see more rainbows when you hold a CZ up to the light than when you do the same to a real diamond. So go and hold your ring up to the light and, if you see rainbows, go clock your fiancé over the head so that he sees stars.

2. Weight
CZ is also much heavier than real diamond. So find a friend with a confirmed diamond ring of the same size as yours and weigh them both. If yours is heavier, pull the ol’ switcheroo and keep your girlfriend’s ring and send her home with yours. Hey, she’s got the honest husband. I’d call that an even trade.

3. Hardness
Diamond is the hardest substance known to man, a full 10 on the Mohs scale. A CZ is only an 8.5 to 9. So borrow a friend’s diamond ring and try scratching your ring with it. If the diamond is able to scratch your ring, you can still take consolation in the fact that CZ is still hard enough to scratch other things — say, the side of your fiancé’s car.

That’s pretty much it for undercover ways to ferret out the truth about the man you plan to spend the rest of your life with. Well, I guess there is one more alternative. I suppose you could take his word for it and let your love for one another determine the value of the ring.

In all seriousness, though, we here at WooMeOver wish all of you engaged Woobies out there a diamond-strong marriage — no matter what sort of ring you really have.

Genuinely,
Olivia