Nikki Stark Jewellery

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Sterling Silver - a brief introduction

This weeks blog has a couple of facts about silver. Most of the silver jewellery sold in the UK is sterling silver. This is 92.5% pure silver, with the rest being made up of copper. The copper adds...

September's Birthstone - Sapphire

September’s birthstone is the Sapphire. Sapphires are of course one of the world's most precious stones, the most expensive examples being beautiful blue stones from Kashmir.  Sapphires come in all...

The 5 key decisions to choose your wedding band

When discussing wedding rings I very often hear the phrase 'I just want something simple'. No stones? No unusual shapes? No radical materials? No problem, there are just 5 key decisions you still n...

Wedding rings

Here are a few of my recent wedding rings from this summer.  This 18ct yellow gold ring is a hand shaped court band, with a soft curve added by hand to the inside of a piece of 'D' shaped wire. Thi...

August's Birthstone - Peridot

Peridot, the birthstone for August is one of very few gems only to appear in one colour, green. The intensity can vary and the most valuable stones are a dark olive green. It used to be mistaken o...

One Day Designers Sale

On Thursday this week I'll be at Craft Central for the One Day Designers Sale with a selection of sparkly things at some reduced prices! Here is a sneak previous of a few of the pieces I will have...

Gemstones for beginners - Facets

Following on from my introduction to gemstones, here is a little information on cutting. On a basic level stones are generally either cut with facets, or into cabochons, which have a flat back and ...

July's Birthstone - Ruby

July's birthstone, Ruby is one of the traditional precious gemstones alongside sapphire and emerald. Rubies are technically the same as sapphires, all other colours of this specific mineral are kno...

Hello July

I seem to always start these posts talking about the weather, a British preoccupation. It's a little disappointing at the moment which is par for the course for a British summer. Later this week we...

June's Birthstone - Pearl

Pearls have recently developed a strong association in many peoples minds with twin sets and grandmothers, but natural pearls were at one point worth more than diamonds, and were even more po...

Hallmarking

Have you ever wondered what those little marks inside rings mean?  A hallmark is legally required if you are selling over a gram of gold, half a gram of platinum or just over seven grams of silver...

Hello June

Things are a little frantic at NSJ HQ this month, it's wedding season and I have lots of lovely commissions on the way. One of my current obsessions is peonies, they are just so beautiful and I lo...

White Metals

I have recently quoted on a lot of white gold wedding rings, and very often the answer to my question 'Is your ring rhodium plated?' is 'what is that?' so I decided it was time to share some infor...

May's Birthstone - Emerald

If you were born in the month of May, like me, then the Emerald is your birthstone. Gem quality emeralds are incredibly rare, and therefore very expensive. The vast majority of emeralds found con...

Hello May

This wonderful weather is really just so exciting. This weekend I have been to my first BBQ and had my first Pimms of the year, both key milestones in the move towards summer. I came across a wonde...

Bespoke wishbone rings

A growing part of my design work at the moment is creating bespoke wishbone rings to fit around different shaped engagement rings, so I thought I would share a few of these. My Holly wishbone is ge...

Palladium - the new shiny thing

Palladium is a relatively new metal in the jewellery market. It has been used to make white gold since the 1930's but only recently started to be used on it's own. Hallmarking for palladium was int...

April's Birthstone - Diamond

April's birthstone is the diamond, probably the most famous gemstone. Diamonds are the hardest substance in existence and have a variety of uses across different industries making them hugely val...

Hello April

March seems to have disappeared in the blink of an eye, I think possibly someone stole part of it. It finally feels like time to stop hibernating, and this weekend my boyfriend and I decided to be ...

Jewellery care: tips for caring for your sparkly things

This week I have a couple of simple tips for taking care of jewellery.  Dealing with oxidation: Some metals such as silver and copper change colour slowly when exposed to air. They darken and can e...