The Detail jewelers use a variety of gems in the pieces, many of them reflecting the trends of the season and exciting new discoveries from around the world. Our collection includes sterling silver pieces which incorporate Dichroic Glass, turquoise, mother of pearl, black onyx, Austrian Crystal, freshwater pearls, and other select gems.

Sterling Silver
Fine silver (99.9% pure) is generally too soft to be used for everyday jewelry.  The industry standard is to combine 92.5% pure silver with 7.5% other metals.  In Sterling the silver is usually alloyed with copper to give strength whilst preserving the ductility of the silver and a high precious metal content.

Sterling silver jewelry is easily identifiable by a 925 hallmark, indicating that the piece is of high quality and suitable for most sensitive wearers.  Sterling silver jewelry is becoming increasingly popular, which may be because it has the ability to match any skin or garment color and is affordable.

Abalone Shell
Abalone is pronounced AB-a-lone-ney.  Abalone is a member of the same mollusk family that includes clams, oysters and mussels.  These highly prized mollusks are found mostly in California, Japan and other Pacific regions.  Jewelry created from the shell of a mollusk features a virtual rainbow of color. Most abalone shell jewelry has hues of blue and green.

Mother of Pearl
Mother of Pearl is the iridescent substance that forms the lining of the shells of some mollusks. Most come from pearl oysters, found in the tropical seas of Asia and the freshwater pearl mussels, which live in many rivers of the United States,Europe, and Asia.  Although pearls are popular today, some past cultures regarded colorful pieces of mother of pearl as more desirable decoration for jewelry and other objects.

Shiva Shell
The Shiva shell, also known as Shiva Eye or Pacific Cat’s Eye, is the protective covering at the opening of the Turban snail shell. Toward the end of the snail’s life, the covering detaches and sinks to the seabed.  On one side of the Shiva eye shell is a beautiful spiral. The exact shape of the spiral is unique from one shell to the next. The color varies from beige to deep green, depending on the sea snail's diet, while the background always remains a pearly white.

Onyx
In jewelry design as in fashion, colors look crisper against a background of black.  In fine jewelry, the black backdrop is often supplied by onyx, a black chalcedony quartz with a fine texture.  Black onyx shines especially well when set in sterling silver and its fine texture makes it ideal for carving, making it a favored material for today's designers.

Lapis Lazuli
Lapis lazuli is a gemstone of the kind that might have come straight out of the Arabian Nights: a deep blue with golden inclusions of pyrites which shimmer like little stars.  This opaque, deep blue gemstone has a grand past. It was among the first gemstones to be worn as jewelry and worked on. Lapis lazuli is a versatile and popular gemstone which has shown extraordinary stability in the turbulent tides of fashion. No wonder, since it has fascinated both men and women for thousands of years with its fabulous color and those golden points of light formed by pyrites.

Turquoise
The turquoise is ancient, yet again and again it finds itself back in fashion. Its shining sky blue is one of the most popular trend colors in the world of jewelry and fashion.

In Nature, it occurs in the whole range of hues from sky blue to grey-green, and it is mostly found in places where there is a high concentration of copper in the soil. The blue color is created by copper, the green by iron and a certain amount of chrome. Often, the material has veins or blotches running through it, which are brown, light grey or black depending on where it was found.  The most well known deposits are in the USA, Mexico, Israel, Iran, Afghanistan and China. 

Being relatively soft, turquoise is very sensitive. Most stones today are treated with wax or resin and subsequently hardened.  Turquoise jewelry should be cleaned with a soft cloth and never dipped into harsh chemical or ultrasonic cleaners.