Artisan Hand-Crafted Sterling Silver Earrings

Photo Credit: cutterstone

Artisan Hand-Crafted Sterling Silver Earrings

Asking Price: $176

Pros:

-Artisan hand-crafted sterling silver earrings have never looked so good! This gorgeous pair is complemented by faceted blue zircons and purple freshwater cultured pearls.

-These hand-crafted sterling silver earrings measure 1.875 inches (48 mm) long by 0.625 inches (16 mm) wide.

-Cutterstone jewelers is a husband and wife team based in Calimesa, in Southern California. Cutterstone has been selling on the Etsy platform since 2010. The husband, John, has been cutting gems since 1975 and repairing/crafting jewelry since about 1990. This considerable experience is evident in the outstanding quality of every piece of Cutterstone jewelry.

-These hand-crafted sterling silver earrings have had been cast in a carved cuttlebone mold, giving them a uniquely organic, wave-patterned surface. Cuttlebone casting is an ancient jewelry making technique that uses the bone-like internal structure of cuttlefish - a cephalopod that is closely related to squids.

-The purple pearls set in these earrings are almost certainly Chinese freshwater cultured pearls. Chinese freshwater pearls, while undeniably beautiful, have been mass-produced in recent decades. Although relatively common today, China's ongoing struggle with water pollution makes it an open question whether their rivers will be able to sustainably support a commercial pearl industry in the future.

-A cuttlebone mold is always destroyed in the jewelry making process, ensuring that only a single example of any particular cuttlebone-cast jewelry can ever be made. These artisan hand-crafted sterling silver earrings are absolutely unique, which makes them very desirable.

-I have had my eye on these earrings for a couple years now. They are so compellingly beautiful and modestly priced that I simply cannot believe that someone hasn't come along and snapped them up already!

-Zircon (ZrSiO₄) is a highly under-rated, natural gemstone that comes in a dazzling rainbow of colors; reds, yellows, browns, greens and blues (usually heat-treated) are all possible. Zircon is not only a relatively hard gem (Moh's hardness of 6 to 7.5 versus 7 for quartz), but also sports an exceptionally high refractive index (about 1.9 to 2.0 versus 2.42 for diamond), which grants it tremendous sparkle and eye appeal.

-Rather than spending $50 to $100 on a pair of generic costume jewelry earrings, it makes a lot of sense to splurge on these one-of-a-kind, hand-crafted sterling silver earrings instead. At $176, they are hardly more expensive than most costume jewelry, but have the potential to appreciate in value over time. And you'll look fabulous wearing them in the meantime!

Cons:

-The intrinsic value of these hand-crafted sterling silver earrings is relatively low. I estimate that the zircons are worth about $20, the silver around $10 and the freshwater pearls $5 or less. Even using optimistic assumptions, these earrings have a total intrinsic value of no more than $35 or $40.

-Purchasing contemporary jewelry as an investment is always fraught with risk. While antique or vintage jewelry is generally safer from an investment standpoint, I believe that carefully chosen, artisan-made new jewelry can be a stealth investment. In fact, I wrote an article on this very topic, focusing on a marvelous, hand-made Cutterstone pendant that I purchased a few years ago.