Wedding Band for Three Stone Engagement Rings: Why the Band Has to Curve

With a three stone engagement ring, the wedding band is often left until later, and that is when the problem shows up: a straight band will not sit against the ring. It touches the side stones first and leaves a gap along the finger. The ring in this article came off our bench this month […]
How Thick Should a Bangle Be? One AI Image, Three CADs and 2.2 mm of 14K Gold

More of our inquiries now open with a picture no camera took. This one showed two flat gold bangles side by side, letter roundels running around the outside, a line of script on the inside, captioned like a catalogue page: 14K yellow gold, 4.8 mm wide, hinged. The client wanted a pair for two brothers, […]
Low MOQ Jewelry Manufacturer: Why One Piece Works in Solid 18K Gold

This month a founder building a contemporary fine jewelry brand in Europe sent us one message that asked everything a new label asks. Solid 18K gold, stamped 750. Lab grown gemstones. Modern, distinctive designs. A reliable manufacturing partner with low minimums, private label, customization, and access to designs we already make. Then four direct questions: […]
Bring Your Own Diamond: What Setting It Costs and Who Pays If It Breaks

Can you bring your own diamond to a manufacturer and have the ring made around it? At Redora Jewels, yes. Some inquiries start with a stone rather than a picture. It might be a loose lab grown diamond bought online, or a grandmother’s stone out of a ring that no longer fits. The honest answer […]
Does White Gold Need to Be Replated? Rings Yes, Pendants Rarely

Does white gold need to be replated? Yes, if the piece is a ring you wear every day. Jewelers who re-plate white gold as routine bench work generally put a daily ring at 12 to 18 months between platings, a bracelet at around two years, and a pendant at two to three years or longer. […]
Custom Jewelry Rush Orders: What We Will and Will Not Agree To

Every few weeks a client asks whether we can produce a piece in a few days and ship it the moment it comes off the bench. Custom jewelry rush orders are the request we decline more often than any other, and the reason is narrower than it sounds. We are not refusing speed. We are […]
What a Custom Jewelry Deposit Actually Pays For

A message arrives most weeks in some version of the same sentence. I need to see what I am paying for before I send anything. It usually lands right after we describe how an order runs, and it is a fair thing to say to a manufacturer on the other side of the world. The […]
Custom Jewelry Quality Control: The Five Checks Before a Piece Ships

Every few weeks a client puts their finished piece on a kitchen scale and writes to ask why it comes in under the number they were quoted. The ring is right, the stones are right, the stamp is right, and the weight is short by two tenths of a gram. It reads like a shortfall. […]
Is 9k Gold Worth It? What a Factory Can and Cannot Make in It

Every few weeks a client asks whether we can produce their piece in 9k to bring the price down. The honest answer has three parts: sometimes we can, sometimes the supply chain will not allow it, and in a few cases we will advise against it even when it is technically possible. Most writing about […]
What You Are Actually Paying For in a Custom Diamond Ring

Almost every article about engagement ring budgets is written from the retail side. This one is written from the bench. We are a custom fine jewelry manufacturer in Shenzhen. We cast, set, and finish the pieces ourselves, which means we know exactly where the money in a ring goes. Below is that breakdown, with real […]