Why does your jewelry look cheap? Let's cut to the chase!

1. Childish themes. Anything with a childish theme will look cheap, no matter what you pair it with. While charm bracelets are a trend now, be careful that the charms do not have a childish appeal. Like teddy bears, hearts and other cutesy shapes will look cheap most of the time.

2. Beads can look cheap more often than not. After all, how can you make a bunch of beads on a string look expensive? Stick to jewelry that has one bead as an accent piece, as opposed to a row of beads, and if you must do beads, pair it up with your boho looking clothing and accessories so that it blends in.

3. Your jewelry is too shiny. A lot of the cheaper jewelry metals are alloyed with inexpensive materials, like plastic, or even painted a shiny coat. Anyone who knows jewelry is aware that real, more expensive jewelry is not super shiny. So, if your jewelry is so shiny, you can see yourself in it, it probably looks cheap, too.

This is just a few ways that jewelry can look cheap. Stayed tuned in the future here at BC Custom Jewelry, as we will share more tips in the future.

Jewelry is one of those gifts that is pretty much perfect to give to someone that is special in your life. Jewelry can carry symbolism, it can be thoughtful and meaningful or it can just be a simple gift, either way, it makes a gift that most people won't complain about.

Not everyone has a huge budget for Christmas, and that's why jewelry has always been a go-to gift idea. You can get a beautiful pair of earrings, a necklace, or a bracelet for under $20. But, beware of the inexpensive vs. cheap jewelry.

You don't want to buy cheap jewelry that is going to break before someone can wear it, or while they are wearing it. The difference is in the quality, and that is usually in the price, as when buying jewelry, we usually equate price with quality.

Affordability, however, does not necessarily always reduce the quality. If you are looking for an affordable (inexpensive) piece of jewelry for someone you care about this holiday season, look for silver and if you are seeking glitz and glimmer, look for cubic zirconium. Both are inexpensive and will last your recipient a long time.

Happy holidays from BC Custom Jewelry!

Thanksgiving is one of those times of the year when we all stop to think about the things that are important to us. The people that are vital to our well-being, the people who help lift us up. We think about our blessings and we start looking forward to a new year with new relationships and new blessings.

On Thanksgiving (and throughout the winter holidays) we tend to think about our families and friends, our business partners, our customers and clients and everyone else who makes our world go around.

We remember people who are no longer with us here on Earth and reminisce of times when they once shared the Thanksgiving table with us. We are more aware of our blessings during the holidays. Often, we are more thankful, as well.

It is our goal, here at BC Custom Jewelry, to remain thankful year-round and let the people we work with, the people we interact with, and the people we cater to know how much they mean to us. Those people include you!

Thank you for a wonderful and blessed 2015, from our family to yours! We are looking forward to another amazing and prosperous year with you all in 2016!

As we have done before, we like to feature hand-crafted Etsy finds created by our fellow jewelry making colleagues. With the spirit of the holidays surrounding us, we thought it would be appropriate to show off some of our Christmas jewelry finds.

We love this hand made lampwork bead Christmas ornament necklace for $64.

This miniature Christmas tree globe ring is another one of our favorites, at only $21.73:

And this rhinestone snowflake brooch has the right amount of bling for the holidays. You can get it for just $18.00

The above brooch is considered wedding jewelry as well as holiday jewelry, just like this zirconia snowflake necklace and earring set. Both are beautiful for bridal jewelry and holiday jewelry, as well as presents for someone very special. This set is only $54:

And our final pick for this week, in the spirit of the holidays and all things glittery, is the Mystic white druzy necklace here, which you can get for just $10!

Which ones are your favorites?

We hope you and your family have a happy holiday, here at BC Custom Jewelry. If there is anything we can help you with, feel free to contact us! Stay tuned for more Christmas ideas for the 2015 holiday season!

Manicures and jewelry can compliment each other nicely or they can look like a mismatched outfit. Make sure you pay attention and don't end up with the latter.

As you can see in the picture above, rings can match perfectly with a manicure. Or better yet, a manicure can match the rings that you own. Either way it's said, the last thing you want to end up with is a clashing and obviously unplanned combination.

Like this:

See the difference? We don't even have to explain the comparison, as the photos speak for themselves. The second picture looks like a confused catastrophy. Class vs. Clown.

In the second picture, there are too many accent fingers (finger which are decorated in a special manner) and too many finger wearing rings. It's best to have only one or two accent fingers and one or two rings on each hand. The first picture gets away with more than one manicured accent finger because the decor was kept to a bare minimum.

Now, obviously, everyone has their own sense of style, but if you want your rings to stand out on your hands, stick with a French manicure, an inverted French manicure or another nude choice, keeping the fingernails simple so that your statement ring can stand out.

Hair is just as much an accessory for women as jewelry is. Maybe even more, because you wear your hair every day and jewelry...well, whenever you feel like it. So, it would make sense that the hair and jewelry should at least work together in harmony.

Blondes

Blondes are lucky where jewelry is concerned, because blonde hair tends to go with just about anything nicely. On the color spectrum, though, yellow is opposite blue, so pairing sapphire or blue topaz is a big winner. Green is also an amazing contrast. And, believe it or not, orange stones can create an aura of warmth warn with blonde hair.

Brunettes

Brunettes are pretty fortunate, too. Blue and green are also great gemstone colors for brunettes. Deep purples and stunning reds will also go well with brunette hair, while these colors are not the best match for other hair colors, but they highlight the natural undertones of darker hair.

Red Heads

Muted and earth toned gemstones are the best for redheads, but that doesn't mean they cannot pull off deep blue gemstones. Yellow and greens look amazing on redheads, as well.

Black

Black hair is, by far, the best hair color for pretty much any color of gemstone. Neutrals, muted, and earth tones might get lost and washed out on someone with black hair, brighter pinks, light blues, greens and even deep reds look amazing on ladies with jet black hair.

Have you ever looked at your jewelry collection and realized that you only wear one tenth of what you own? Just like when you clean your closet, you need to do an annual or seasonal cleaning of the jewelry box.

It might be a difficult thing to do, looking at your jewelry collection from a different angle. However, if you don't, you're probably limiting your ability to find more versatility in your clothing ensembles. After all, your wardrobe is probably much more up-to-date than your jewelry and there's only so much room in your jewelry box to fit new stuff.

Just like with your clothing wardrobe, you need to look at your jewelry and figure out what goes and what stays. A general rule of thumb for clothing can be applied to jewelry, too. If you haven't worn it in over a year, it should go.

Obviously, there will be pieces that you inherited and others that carry some kind of sentimental value. Keep those. If it makes you feel any better, donate the pieces to a charity that you believe in or rregift them to a friend or family member.

It might not be the easiest thing you've done in life. However, once you notice how organized your jewelry collection is now that it's narrowed down to the pieces that you love and wear, you will feel much better. And might even be inspired to look for new and exciting pieces to add to your collection.

Gold, as most people know, is worth a certain amount of money for its weight. Diamonds are judged by the 4 C's (clarity, cut, color, and carat weight). And, even though it might make more sense that diamonds would hold their "weight in gold," as opposed to the soft, scratchable metal, gold, there's a reason for that well-known phrase.

Gold is an easy metal to liquidate - it's recognized as a "form of international currency," as  the managing director of Chow Tai Fook Jewelry (Hong Kong), Kent Wong, calls it. He says that it's commonplace for gold owners to sell their jewelry back to jewelers.

The only problem is that gold is much softer than diamonds, which means you need to take good care of your gold to maintain its newness. However, even if it's not well taken care of, gold will still not be judged like diamonds are. You won't see a jewelry scrutinizing your gold for clarity and color, but rather simply throwing the gold on the scale to find out how much it weighs.

Because gold prices per weight are completely transparent and posted to the general public, there will be no questions as to how much your gold is worth. Diamonds are not that easy to determine the value of.

Gold in your jewelry box is like money in your wallet.

The jewelry industry has seemed to explode over the past few decades, and especially for recently. More designers, including ordinary people selling their creations online on their websites and other outlets, like Etsy. Many more retailers have been established, as well, as the Internet has opened the doors to a plethora of jewelry related endeavors.

While the outlook is positive for the industry, some believe that it is somewhat saturated. Therefore, the concept of jewelry retailers selling pieces in a consignment type of manner (the designer gets paid when the piece is purchased), makes more sense for jewelers. However, designers feel like this practice is unfair, as they won't have money to invest in new designs until their pieces sell, as opposed to the retailers buying pieces up front and then selling them.

At the end of the day, jewelry isn't going anywhere. Regular, everyday people and glamorous, rich and famous people will continue to buy jewelry. Trends will change and new jewelry will be designed by designers and sold by retailers.

Despite any fears, it seems that, even if policies do change toward consignment, as long as a designer is creating jewelry that consumers love, it will sell. Everyone in the jewelry industry will continue to profit, and predictions will most likely be reached.

The New York Times reported that there are some new trends popping up in piercings. In one of these trends, women in their 30's and 40's are getting multiple piercings in one ear and wearing mismatched studs in those holes.

As a matter of fact, there doesn't seem to be an age limit for this trend, with ladies even older than their 40's joining the bandwagon, doing something that was seen as a form of rebellion, or even possibly goth, back when they were teens. And, rather than doing it with ice, alcohol and a needle in a school bathroom, they're visiting classy, quiet, higher caliber salons to get their ears pierced.

The statement is said to be less edgy or rebellious than the piercings of yesteryear. According to New York Times, salons are reporting that their biggest percentage of ear piercing clientele are in this 30's, 40's and up age range, a change that they are just recently noticing.

These salons (which the likes of Gwyneth Paltrow and Uma Thurman have brought their daughters to, by the way) say that it's not so much a punk rock style type of thing as it is a trendy, how many diamonds can I get in my ear? type of thing.

Rather than gaudy looking jewelry in these upper holes, the trend now is to wear more dainty, delicate pieces with bling like tiny diamonds. As a matter of fact, six or seven holes up one ear could be made classy and appropriate.

Today, it's about tiny, almost not-even-there jewels, even dainty little diamonds. Five, six or seven piercings in one ear, layered and contoured with a neat little row of sparkly dots, it would seem. A drastic change from what multiple piercings used to be perceived as.