Custom Made Jewelry by Solomons Jeweler
By Jamie Clark Tiralla
It may be a surprise that Solomons, Maryland is home to one of the area’s leading custom design jewelers. Maertens Fine Jewelry & Gifts, located in the Solomons Town Center, specializes in custom made and one-of-a-kind jewelry creations. The Maertens are known for their exclusive collections including the Bay and Maryland bracelets, as well as their seahorse collection, and their newest jellyfish collection but what you may not know is that a lot of what they make never makes it into their showcases. Heather Maertens, jeweler and owner of Maertens Fine Jewelry & Gifts, estimates that “at least 50% of the jewelry that we make is a custom designed piece, commissioned by a client”. The Maertens are passionate about unique jewelry and enjoy each and every custom project, they have made hundreds of creations ranging from rings and pendants to cuff links and belt buckles.
Custom designing a piece of jewelry can be intimidating, but the team of jewelers and designers at Maertens work hard to put their clients at ease. Your first visit will involve you sitting with a member of their team for a consultation. You should come prepared with your ideas and any pictures you might have. Their designers will sketch some preliminary designs for you. On your second visit, you will be shown more intricate sketches, capturing your design on paper. You will have an opportunity to perfect the sketch, making changes and alterations until you are ready to finalize the design. Once the sketches are finalized, the jewelry making process will begin. There are a variety of techniques that may be used to make your custom jewelry design. “We involve each client in the custom design process, it is a lot of fun to see a project start off from just an idea or a sketch and watch it turn into a finished piece of jewelry,” says Heather, “The client gets to make all the decisions about their piece, from what metal we use to where and how the gemstones are set and they walk away in the end knowing this is their piece.”
When making your custom piece of jewelry, you will be able to select the specifics such as metal type, diamond quality and be able to choose from a rainbow of gemstones. The Maertens will create your piece in any precious metal from sterling silver to gold to platinum. You may choose 14 karat or 18 karat gold and in any color: traditional yellow, contemporary white or fashionable rose gold. Heather Maertens suggests recycling diamonds and gemstones you have from old and unworn pieces of jewelry, “custom designed jewelry can be a great way to breathe life into the jewelry you already have but aren’t wearing either because it’s out of fashion or broken”. If you do not have diamonds and gemstones you would like to recycle, the Maertens can help you choose the perfect stones from a selection of diamonds and gemstones catered to your specifications.
The jewelers and designers at Maertens can create jewelry for you using a variety of methods and they will help you select the method best suited for your needs. There are jewelry mountings that are prefabricated that can be used or altered to create a unique piece of jewelry. Prefabricated mountings are a cost effective way to create a unique piece, because they don’t require that you start from scratch. Many designs are so unique that they have never been made before and there is no pre-existing model. These one-of-a-kind designs require that they be made by hand or made using computer aided manufacturing.
Since the beginning of man, jewelry has been made and worn as a sign of power, faith, and fashion. The jewelers at Maertens make jewelry using age old techniques from hand forging metals to hand carving waxes. Some designs are better suited to be made using computer aided design and manufacturing or CAD/CAM. The Maertens are associated with a CAD/CAM expert in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania who has been using the software since it was introduced to the jewelry industry. The computer aided technology allows the client to see their design in a three-dimensional computer image. Changes can be made to the computer rendering just as with the hand drawn renderings. From the final design, the computer can create a wax carving based on the design. A wax created by computer is more precise than those carved by hand and can be more easily recreated if changes are needed.
“Many people hear custom jewelry and automatically think it is going to be more expensive,” says Heather Maertens. She addresses this issue by saying, “it doesn’t have to be expensive. We work in every budget for every customer and in the end you’ll have exactly what you want”. The finished piece of jewelry that the Maertens create will perfectly capture your design, giving you a piece of jewelry that you can be proud of and that you will enjoy wearing.
If you’ve been considering custom jewelry but hesitate because you don’t know where to go or how it works, visit Maertens Fine Jewelry & Gifts in Solomons, Maryland for a no-cost consultation. Their team of jewelers and designers will walk you through custom jewelry design process. In the end you’ll have a piece unlike any other and the satisfaction of having been a part of its creation.
Maertens Fine Jewelry & Gifts is located in the Solomons Town Center, in Solomons, Maryland near the Boater’s World. They are open Monday through Thursday from 10am – 6pm, Fridays 10am – 7pm and on Saturdays 10am – 4pm, they are closed on Sundays. To schedule an appointment for your custom design consultation, call Jamie Tiralla at 410 – 394 – 3990. And don’t forget to visit them at Maertens on the Island located at the Solomons Pier on Solomons Island or on the web at www.maertensjewelry.com.
