We make mostly solid 14kt gold jewelry.
We are making some 10kt gold and silver because of the very high gold price.
We use no gold plate or gold filled materials!
Gold filled does NOT mean "Filled with gold"
In fact it is just about the opposite....what it really means is heavy gold plate. It's generally filled with brass or steel!
We actually make all of our gemstones!
I think we are the only company in the USA to actually do this!
We make Man-Made
Rubies and Sapphires.
Man-Made means chemically and physically identical to something nature made, i.e., our Shelby "Rubies and Sapphires" are chemically & physically the same as those dug from the ground, with THIS EXCEPTION: since we made them, most are nearly flawless because we control the ingredients and cooking temperature. It is rare to find a flawless natural gem, and if you are lucky enough to find one they are VERY expensive.
We make the very rare (in Nature) fancy colored sapphires such as:
Gold, Pink Champagne, Aqua Blue, Yellow,
and the traditional Dark Blue Sapphire.
WE make Simulations of Diamonds, Emeralds, Aquamarine,
Blue Topaz, Amethyst, etc...
We have decided to call our Shelby Simulated Diamonds
"Diamond Encore™"
mainly because it will make them easier to search for on the internet!
Diamond Encore™ is chemically different from a genuine diamond.
Diamond Encore™ contains NO Carbon.
Genuine diamonds are basically pure carbon.
(There are 3 basic forms of carbon.....the soot from a candle, graphite, (if you heat the soot very strongly it will turn into graphite) and Diamond. If you heat the graphite strongly and compress it VERY strongly, it forms diamond. That's why many diamonds contains little black spots....the graphite didn't completely change to diamond.)
Diamond Encore™ is visually indistinguishable from a genuine diamond. Diamond Encore™ can scratch glass easily just like a natural diamond can.
(By the way, if you purchase a Diamond Encore™ and it gets accidentally scratched, we'll replace it at no charge for the gem.) The only natural substance able to scratch a Diamond Encore™ is a natural diamond or sapphire. Over the years, we have replaced a few scratched stones, but generally they have been scratched by nail files that were covered with natural diamond chips.
Shelby "Emeralds", "Aquamarines", "Amethyst", "Citrine", and "Topaz" are also chemically different from their natural counterparts.
They look like the very best natural gems but our gems are about 40% harder and considerably tougher than these fragile natural gems.
We think they are much, much better than natural gems!
Here is a chart showing the suggested Birth Stones
We do not make them all, but we do make most of them!!
