At BLOU, our core values are quality and personal attention. We don’t just create jewelry, we want to use our knowledge to take care of all aspects of your jewelry, from creation to maintenance, cleaning and reparations.
Feel free to come by our store with any questions or to check-up your jewelry for free or to discuss a custom design. We love to help you get the most joy out of your jewelry!
Cleaning and Reparations
Some wear jewelry every day, some wear it only on special occasions. Regardless of how you wear it, we subject our jewelry to the elements of nature and that means that even the highest-quality jewelry will wear over time. This is perfectly normal, and with timely maintenance you can keep your pieces in a brand-new condition for generations on end.
At BLOU, you are always welcome to bring your own jewelry for a free check-up. Often, we can clean-up your jewelry at no costs. Prevention is the best remedy, so don’t wait until the damage has been done!
Mechanical damage: loose stones
Goldsmiths secure stones in jewelry using various stonesetting techniques. Over time, due to friction or vibrations, stones can get looser in their socket. Eventually, the precious stone might fall out, and that might mean losing your beautiful gemstone altogether. It is therefore important to re-secure loose stones before you loose them! Margriet is an expert stonesetter, often inquired by jewelers for complicated settings or setting reparations. Have your stones checked at BLOU regularly to avoid losing them.
Chemical damage: oxidation
So-called noble metals are resistant to many types of chemical damage. For this reason, we use noble metals, such as gold, in jewelry. However, while pure gold is highly noble and resistant, even pure silver is less noble and still subject to some chemical reactions. The most well-known reaction is oxidation, which is the interaction with oxygen (air), causing black spots on silver jewelry. One can even recognise real silver from fake by the oxidation that builds up over time.
Oxidation can simply be cleaned off using the right materials, so to keep your silver jewelry good-looking, bring them around for a quick cleaning!
Custom Designs
We love designing personal and unique jewelry. While we create many pieces out of our own inspiration, we love it even more to build a piece of custom-made jewelry for a specific person. This way the jewelry can get a unique and personal touch, combining your personal story with detailed craftsmanship.
Froukje and Margriet each have their own style, using different materials and gemstones. Their styles complement each other in a harmonious way, so you can choose which goldsmith best fits your needs and style.
Re-smithing your existing jewelry
Many people own older jewelry that is dear to them. Sometime inherited, sometimes bought long ago. At times, the memories stays dear, but the jewelry doesn’t match anymore. In that case it might be valuable to use the original stones and metals to create a new piece of jewelry. This way, the memory can remain in the unique stone, while the jewelry matches with you in the current day. Humans are not static, and neither should our jewelry be.
When re-smithing a piece of jewelry, we can also combine gemstones of different jewelry, or add metals, elements or gemstones in an existing piece. Together we will make a unique, beautiful and meaningful piece of jewelry.
