A Simple & fun way to get an Original Design
At Green Lake Jewelry Works, we make creating original custom jewelry
easy!
No one really wants a piece of jewelry just like everyone elses. Now, by working direct with the Artists you can get an Original Custom Design for less than mass produced designer jewelry, tailored to exactly your style, budget & individuality.
We've often been told that Green Lake Jewelry Works is the largest Custom Shop
in America. We don't know if we really are, but we do try everyday to be the
best. We make getting an original fun!
One more thing,...search for "Design Your Own Ring"
& you'll find plenty of jewelry sites that only let you pick a Gemstone and a blank ring mounting, but that's not really custom, or original, is it?
On our industry leading website, our Artists work with clients from
all over North America and the world to design true Originals. If you can
imagine it, we can make it. beautifully...and we can even help with the
imagining!
Artists at Work...
The Tagline Below our Name says it all ...Artists at Work. Our staff of
talented jewelry professionals is unrivaled at creating Unique, Wearable, Artistic Designs.
Our Designers
& Bench Artists come from all over the U.S. and the World, and share a
desire to create something new and Fresh every Day! We believe in continuous
learning & improvement; many of our best Artists came to us
right out of Art school & our sharing pro's teach each other new tricks every
day!
We aren't re-sellers... We create the art here!
...Read More
We Read Minds...
From Innovative Jewelry
Designers fresh out of Great Design schools to Bench Artists with decades of experience,
We are passionate about Great Design...
Our Staff has hundreds of years of combined experience at Designing and Making fine jewelry, and it shows in our
craftsmanship and attention to detail.
We love jewelry and enjoy spending time designing new and unusual pieces. We show photos of
thousands of pieces that we've made in our Portfolio Online.
We also have many examples of our quality, handcrafted original design jewelry in stock.
We Design with you by looking through your favorite ideas and any images you send us...We move on to sketching
ideas and we usually create photo-realistic CAD renderings to help you visualize your
new piece, and we strive to make each design unique jus tlike you! Try out your ideas on
us, it's Fun!
Look Through Our Galleries and See
the results! Rings Bands Accessories.
Original Designs
We don't stock other designers work,
we are the Designers, & we create every piece ourselves, right here in our Seattle Studio...
Others jewelers talk about having exclusive designs, but in most cases they are just jewelry re-sellers. Our designs really are exclusive because we
create them & don't sell through other shops.
From unique & unusual Engagement Rings to interesting men's' bands to our
take on classic vintage styles our staff of almost 50 Artists creates new,
original designs every day.
We respect other original designers copyright & do
not copy other work...matter of fact, we rarely even copy our own work!
We are all inspired by great designs & love to develop our own unique take on
classic styles; Give us a try!
Browse our Portfolio of Original Rings, Bands & Accessories.
Real Jewelry vs Computer Renderings...
We show thousands of example of our work, while many others only show Computer Renderings of jewelry.
Think about what this means as you browse other sites...
Almost anyone can create realistic Computer Graphics...
You need Real Artists & a devotion to detail to make great custom Jewelry & we
show you our work.
...Read More
This may seem odd coming from us since we are known as industry leaders in the use of CAD/CAM for custom work, & love what CAD allows us to do. The thing is, you aren't buying a picture from a computer, and although we use and show CAD images every day, you deserve to see how our pieces look in real life.
That's why there are so many Real pictures of our Unique & Original Designs on our site... we are not afraid for anyone to see our work...we love it!
Other jewelers do try to copy our Original Designs, but rarely can they match our Craftsmanship and the nuanced
refinements we make to each custom piece we make...for a true original, come to the source- Green Lake Jewelry Works
Once again,Look Through Our Galleries and See
for yourself! Rings Bands Accessories.
A Few Words About Price, Quality & Doing Great
Work...
Most people think that custom made jewelry must cost more than "Mass Produced" items. However, We've shopped around, & have found that our Original, top quality
custom jewelry pieces usually cost less than similar off the rack items. Compare quality to quality (& we show you thousands of our Pieces...) & we are confident you will choose Green Lake.
How can we do this?
Well, both mass produced and custom jewelry is often designed in one place, Cast in another, and the finish work & stone setting is done in a 3rd or even 4th location!
We do all our work here in our Seattle Design studio.
So, while a large factory might be able to make a production run of hundreds or
thousands of identical pieces with slightly lower labor costs than us, they sell
them to jewelry re-sellers that mark
up the jewelry from 2-3 times to cover their added layers of costs.
Doing Quality work
"When Love and skill work
together expect a masterpiece." - John Ruskin
There are no shortcuts to quality workmanship...
Lately a bunch of websites have cropped up claiming to be the worlds best or to
have the worlds biggest custom selection or some such nonsense...
Ask them where their work is done... ask carefully...you'll find it is farmed out to the low bidder, or several low bidders... (they will actually say something about the finest resources, and careful quality control.)
...
Well, there's no quality control like doing the work yourself.
...Read More
You shouldn't put lipstick on a pig!
We don't plate our pieces and there's a reason. Rhodium plating white gold to make it look whiter is a sham. that plating will wear off, revealing yellower metal underneath and that piece will have to be plated over and over...forever, to look like it did when bought.
We don't do this, we select and use better and more expensive white gold alloys that are much whiter in color, all the way through & don't need plating.
Ask other potential jewelers if the pieces they are showing you are Rhodium plated...if so, run! don't walk, the other way.
Another example, most shops have Polishers to do the casting cleanup & final polish;
Our artists couldn't imagine handing off their pieces at the end to a polisher to "finish it up".
Compare the details; Many shops no longer even do hand forged work like we offer.
Almost all of our bench artists do hand made filigree & forged wire work.
Even hand engraving is usually sent out to a separate shop...ask other jewelers how many hand engravers they have in their shop?
We have 6 amazingly talented hand engravers and several apprentices...On staff,
on site.
Jewelers that don't do their own work in house cannnot possibly do the finest
work. Our designers, CAD modelers, wax carvers & bench artists can collaborate,
trouble shoot and do Great work because they all work within feet of each other.
Now you can work with great jewelry Artists directly!
Just for fun, ask other jewelers & "custom jewelry" sites where there work is done &
to see some finished pieces up close...you'll see the difference.
At Green Lake, you work directly with the Artists. Compare our workmanship and original designs to
anyone's... Our intricate & detailed work
is done under 10x Microscopes, & each piece is finished out wonderfully. You
will see that custom designs as well as original, made to order jewelry at Green Lake is just more beautiful and well made than mass produced or "semi-custom" from almost anyone else.
Ask a Friend...
Word of mouth is the best advertising, and we are proud that most of our clients
are referrals from satisfied customers.
In the Seattle area & in all 50 states, ask a friend, chances
are they know someone who have had their jewelry made in our shop!
Look through our Portfolio of custom designs we've made for satisfied
clients all over North America & the world, then read what our Friends &
fans have to say about Green Lake.
...Read More
When you're ready, call, live chat our Designers or log in to set up your own
Online Personal Design page & Work directly with our Artists to create your own
Unique One-of -a Kind Jewelry!
Our clients are the best... they allow us to create unique new designs every day, and the collaboration between us has created some of our finest pieces.
Read what our Friends & Fans say in their own words...
Our History
Jim Tuttle, Designer, CAD/Modeler, Gold & Platinumsmith started
Green Lake Jewelry Works in 1996, after more than a decade perfecting his jewelry
crafting skills. Jim is a "No Compromise" kind of guy, and knew that working
directly with people to create Original one-of-a kind Designs, with no retail
salespeople or markup between Artist & client was the only way to go.
He also knew that doing every step, from pencil sketch to final polish,
in one place was critical to making each piece perfect That is why we design &
manufacture every one of our Original Designs right here in our Seattle Design
Center.
Our dedication to Real Custom work, with no shortcuts, and our focus
on Original Design, Artistry & Great Craftsmanship has led
Green Lake Jewelry Works to over 16 years of uninterrupted growth. Many
in the jewelry industry tell us we are the standard for Custom jewelry in America.
Don't accept less than working with Amazing Artists & craftsmen in a collaborative & Artistic atmosphere.
"Real Jewelry design is about working with
people every day to create great new designs tailored to each individual.
Designing alone is too easy; The interaction between client & Artist
creates a synergy & challenge that helps create new and innovative designs, and always satisfies the best.
I am delighted every day to see our original designs made better by the Artist /
Client interplay."
Jim Tuttle- President and Founder of Green Lake Jewelry Works.
Jim has worked as a Designer, Gold & Platinumsmith, & CAD
Modeler for over 25 years and is focused on Original & Custom Design, Working
with clients all over the country Online, CAD/CAM in the jewelry industry and Jewelry Design & Production Systems. He has lectured and written for Jewelry trade magazines and events on these and other topics many times.
Modern Tools...
Our shop is state of the art.... We do love our tools!
For example, each of our stone setters, hand engravers
and filigree artists has a personal bench microscope for the finest detailed work.
We also use one of the finest casting machines made - the Galloni Fusus New HD.
We were the second shop in America (after Tiffany & Co.) to install one.
Although
the mind and hand of an artist create each new design, modern techniques help to
perfect the manufacturing of fine jewelry. We use the world's finest jewelry CAD/CAM
software, Gemvision's Matrix, to create perfect symmetry on our master models for
most custom pieces. Following the machine work, skilled craftsmen work carefully
to hand detail each wax or resin model before client approval and casting.
We also use an Envisiontec Perfactory 3-D growing machine to grow castable resin
models with internal details that wax models could never have. This technology
also allows us to virtually cut apart our models and cast in multiple pieces for
better detail and allow for perfect cleanup of difficult to reach areas.
Ancient Techniques...
We combine these modern tools with the time-tested techniques of hand crafting fine
jewelry one piece at a time. from hand forged details to hand engraved patterns
we use all the best of modern and tradional jewelry making techniques.
Our custom pieces are created individually, not in
massive batches of 100's of identical pieces. We carve waxes, cast, hand forge,
hand engrave and carefully match and hand set the stones in our jewelry right here
in our Seattle workshop.