Green Lake Jewelry Works

Reviews 3

KY

Kyle Gilbert

This may be a bit lengthy, but bear with me, as the details truly show their fantastic customer service and talents. I live in Texas, and Green Lake Jewelry is in Seattle. I wanted to design a custom ring for my then future-fiance, but I didnt want to keep going into the store, fight traffic, time-constraints, and whatever else doing something as important as this consists of, as Austin, Texas isnt the most transit-friendly place in the world. So I found Green Lakes from doing research online and reading reviews, which seem to be nothing but great. I used their online customer design portal to do the entire ring design. I never once (and still havent) spoke to anyone over the phone. My original designer, Ben Marchant, was absolutely fantastic. His ideas, response time in the portal, designs, and advice were all everything I could have asked for. It truly was an incredible and, most of all, convenient experience for me. We designed an entire ring, and almost sent it to production... when my future-Mrs. told me she didnt want a diamond. She has no idea I was secretly designing this ring, by the way. She wanted something unique that others didnt have (an emerald), and, therefore, the ring design was scrapped. Ben happily started over from scratch with an entire new design, working with ideas that I gave and his expert ideas to add to the ring. The final product is awesome. It truly is a thing of beauty. The emerald is complimented by side trap diamonds with diamonds going all around the band. I couldnt be happier, and neither could my now-fiance. Unfortunately, Ben left the company for another industry. But Ive had the pleasure of speaking with Krista (a founding artist who I believe is part of the family that owns the store), and she has been nothing awesome. There were a couple issues with the prongs on the ring. My fiance works with her hands all day, and the 18k gold ring prongs are apparently a little too malleable for that, as they were split, double-claw design. They moved a little bit and "pinched" together, but Krista helped me immediately. We shipped the ring off to them and I had it back, fixed within a week. A few weeks later, we realized the same thing was happening again, and we would have to change the design of the ring. Krist to the freaking rescue. She had absolutely no problem with my request and has been quick, customer friendly, and so so so helpful through everything. They are currently changing the prongs to the single prong so that they will be a little thicker and wont move. Incredible customer service. Their customer service, attitude, expertise, and online design portal made this experience FANTASTIC. I wont go anywhere else for jewelry ever in life. Seriously. Thanks Krista (and Ben)! :)

TE

Teetotaling Skyler

I first met Pia when I went into Green Lake Jewelry Works to trade a consignment piece for store credit. I had looked at their available jewelry online and had found a ring that was equivalent to the trade price. When she pulled the ring from the case, she asked if I loved it? I hesitated and said "Its the right price". I didnt want to waste anyones time as I knew I wasnt there to spend any money. She quickly put the ring back in the case and gestured for me to sit down at a display case. She began pulling out ring after ring from the case, each one prettier than the next and all within my budget. My boyfriend whom I had forgotten was waiting in the car came in wondering what was taking so long. Pia and I were discussing diamonds. To be honest, I never really knew much about them... To my surprise, he began asking her questions about them as well. Pia escorted us to another case, this one filled with loose diamonds. She proceeded to tell us about facets and points and color, etc. My boyfriend was having as much fun examining the goods as I was!!! Pia spent an hour educating us despite knowing the fact that we werent there to spend any money. The opposite of rushing us to purchase, she seemed thrilled to just share her knowledge. I wound up spending an additional $300 in addition to the store credit on a ring that I fell in love with. As she was wrapping up my purchase she said "Im glad that you found a piece that you love, budget or not." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- When my grandfather passed away months later I was looking for an earn pendant for his ashes. I couldnt find anything suitable to honor his memory online, so I decided to go custom. Having had such a wonderful experience with Pia, I wanted to work with her on this very special project. She listened to my every desire and we designed the perfect piece. It was important that it be small, light weight and comfortable as I wanted never to take it off, not even while sleeping. Subsequently, the chain had to be strong and comfortable. I knew I wanted rose gold, and I brought in a watch battery for scale. It was also important that a honey bee was incorporated. Pia found the perfect sized yellow gold honey bee to solder to the rose gold pendant. The piece was astonishingly finished in 1 week. I cannot thank Pia and all the members of the GLJWs team that assisted in the making of my necklace. Words cannot express how much it means to me.

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Adam Parker

I worked with Ben M. at Green Lake Jewelry to design a custom engagement ring for my fiancée. She had picked out some rings that she liked at Green Lake and other stores. I started the process with Ben by posting these in an online discussion on their website. This was a great first step and Ben was incredibly helpful. He suggested we meet in person to go over each ring, isolate what my fiancée liked about them, and used those as design pillars. Ben also explained in detail the different features I was seeing in rings such as millgrain, asymmetry, finish styles, etc. This was helpful in building my vocabulary and understanding so we could narrow down the design to something perfect for my fiancée. After identifying what design aspects were appealing, Ben drew some beautiful ring designs that incorporated the features my fiancée wanted. With all these sketches, we mixed and matched different bands for the left and right sides. I identified the features my fiancée would like and others we could do without. Ben took all my feedback and came back with a near final design that was beautiful. We worked over this in person and online for a month. Ben has a great eye for design and helped me notice some things about the ring that could be improved. At the same time, he took my feedback and was happy to incorporate changes I suggested. Sometimes we had to make sacrifices in design to make sure the structural integrity of the ring was sound. I was glad to have Ben’s help so we could make a beautiful, seamless, sturdy, and re-sizeable ring that would last a lifetime. Once we finalized the design on paper, Ben worked with a 3D artist to model a draft of the design. This gave us new perspective on the ring’s design and allowed us to fix some details that didn’t show up in the 2D sketches. After finalizing this, wax molds were grown to show the rings major features and make sure proportions looked correct. Once everything was in order, a final ring was created out of our metal of choice. From beginning to the final product, the entire process took about 2-3 months. The final result was amazing: a unique ring with beautiful asymmetry. Ben created a great design and we collaborated well together. The final result was perfect and my fiancée loved it. I highly recommend Green Lake Jewelry for their professionalism, quality, and customer service. My experience with them and Ben has been excellent.