Our handmade
Real is Real
GOLD / 18 KARAT
75% pure gold by weight, 18 karat is used in the finest jewelry for its rich color and exceptional gold content
PLATINUM / 900, or higher
90% pure or higher, platinum is the rarest white metal used in fine jewelry, reserved for setting the most exclusive gems
Natural Diamond / Colorless - VS - Ideal Cut
Perfectly white, lacking any unwanted color (GIA Color Grade Range: D-E-F)
Perfectly clear, no inclusions visible to the unaided eye (GIA Clarity Grade: VS1-VS2)
Perfectly cut, showing rare ideal ‘Hearts and Arrows’ symmetry
Handmade. Lot’s of people say it, we actually do it.
These days the term handmade is used for everything from artisan chocolates to trendy tee shirts. But what does exactly does handmade mean when it comes to jewelry? It’s easy to call parts and pieces that have been assembled into something new as being handmade, but is it? Thanks to the internet, a space for this kind of creative marketing has emerged and flourished and now, everything is called handmade to make it seem special.
But that’s not the truly handmade we create at Ursa Minor.
With the exception of any chain material used, every piece has literally been created, by hand. From raw precious metals, our pieces are rolled, drawn, filed, shaped, formed or cast into the precious jewelry we make. Our stones are hand set - not set by a machine, or by massive overseas production houses. Nothing has been designed in a computer because each item we make starts with classic design concepts that answers the question:
can we make the piece entirely from scratch?
Because of this, we don’t have to gloss over any detail about what we do, or how we do it to in order to call our pieces handmade. Our belief is that you know and appreciate our craft and because you know and appreciate truly handmade, fine jewelry.
Old School Cool + Modern Tech
Since the dawn of humans first discovery of pure metals and shiny stones, a jeweler has existed. The ancient art of melting and mixing metals, shaping and plying them to hold stones, and bestowing the crafted pieces of adornment to those we love or those in power, has been an integral part of every culture across the world. Today, gold melts under fire as it did a millennia ago and the allure of diamonds and rare gems endures on as a universal language of wealth, prosperity and beauty.
At Ursa Minor, we honor the roots of our craft by performing age old methods of goldsmithing and gem setting, but with the most cutting edge advancements in technology and technique.
One of our favorite blendings of old world technique and modern technology is how we utilize a specialty jewelers microscope to see in detail each stone being set, each prong being shaped and each stroke being cut for hand engraving. The microscope, which enables magnification up to 30X, allows for a level of unparalleled precision, ensuring the highest quality of work possible from the jeweler. Even the most keen, unaided eye simply cannot see what can be seen under such magnification. Additionally, the use of power-assisted hand tools takes our traditional craft into the modern era by creating efficiency and improving on the already exacting detail needed to work on items of such small scale.