JCK Las Vegas

Meet Alexandria Matossian, the Designer and Creative Director of Bostonian Jewelers. She’ll share her extensive design knowledge to inspire you and help push your creativity to the next level at Solidscape’s JCK booth B65079.

As a trained metalsmith, Alexandria was one of a very small handful of jewelers to embrace CAD designing at the very beginning as a path to creative and business success.

Today, many of her designs have been included in print publications like Modern Jeweler, Boston Magazine, and National Jeweler.

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Even the most inspired designers need help bridging the gap between great design and physical reality.

Meet Alexandria to discover new jewelry design inspiration!
Alexandria Matossian, the Designer and Creative Director of 
Bostonian Jewelers will share her extensive knowledge 
to push your creativity to the next level.

Attend her talks in the Solidscape booth B65079
Saturday & Sunday at 11am, 1pm and 3pm

~Making the transition from bench Jeweler to #D CAD jeweler
~Re-inventing antique and estate jewelry using CAD
~It starts in your head - Making 3 color rings. 

 It is an exciting time to discover new jewelry design inspiration!

Going to JCK Las Vegas? Visit Solidscape booth #B65079 in the Essentials pavilion for an opportunity to talk with one of the industry’s early CAD CAM adopters.

Click to learn more

For the past 25 years, Alexandria has been designing and hand fabricating unique and timeless pieces for her clients around the globe. Check out her site and discover her portfolio pages. Click on>>>>

Vintage Engagement Ring...Re-imagined.

This Summer, we had the pleasure of working with a long time client.  She is always on the move, crisscrossing the country.  Boston is a frequent stop for her, however the West Coast is where she calls home.  She has a deep appreciation for all jewelry, so we can all connect on that level creating some amazing pieces for her through the years. Recently she became engaged, her fiancé gave her an amazing and unique vintage ring including twin European cut diamonds bezel set side by side on top if the ring.  The condition of the ring was typical for a ring that is over 100 years old.  The shank was worn, thin and split.  All the settings on the sides were worn as well as the under gallery being compromised by wear over the years.

Our Customer provided this image
when she first acquired the ring

The condition of the ring
 when it arrived to us

Our client loves color, so to truly make this ring hers and one she would love to wear for years to come, she wanted to incorporate (somehow) an
incredible gem in the center sandwiched between the two twin diamonds.  She has an impressive collection of loose gemstones in various shades and intensities, but a cushion shaped sapphire with intense color was the perfect selection. The bezel setting was created in CAD and fitted into place, however the remainder of the transformation was hand tooled in our workshop.  Our team worked together to make our client's dream of the perfect 'enhanced" engagement ring possible. 



Work in Progress:  Side image of the ring while the
 stones are being set

Work in Progress: The diamonds on the side bezel
 being set in place.






When our customer arrived to pick up her ring, she was overjoyed.  Not only was her vintage ring restored to a wearable condition for everyday use, but her ring had transformed into the style that she had always envisioned for her engagement ring.  Having vision and trust in the design and restoration process to create a spectacular heirloom to enjoy for many years to come.

Do you have a vintage ring that just does not suit your style?  Can it be re-imagined?  Contact us to discover the possibilities or visit our website for more information on restorations and our process.

Bostonian Jewelers Restorations

Photo Credit: Bostonian Jewelers and Client Photo

Bostonian Jewelers 1-888-523-0130



Super Bowl Bling - NFL's Crowning Jewels

With the Super Bowl this weekend, what better topic to discuss than NFL jewelry! and how jewelers are involved in the game? But first, some interesting facts.  These rings are not only huge, but expensive.  Upwards of 5K per ring per player and multiple carats of diamonds.  Many players say they simply don't wear jewelry and will only wear these things for public appearances. The Super Bowl ring represents a collective and symbolic memento for the players and team members to immortalize their victory. So who has the most bling?  Wikipedia update: Neal Dahlen. He earned 7 rings in his many years as an administrator with the 49ers and the Broncos.  Read more about Neal Dahlen 'Lord of the Rings" . We'll see if anyone tops his record this weekend.

Who makes the rings? That honor goes to a list of 6 or 7 jewelers that bid each year on a design contract of 150 customized Super Bowl rings, bragging rights and great publicity. The NFL cap's the spending at $5,000 per ring, which means that the jewelers will have to absorb the cost for anything over that $5,000. On the opposite end the company who is awarded the contract also creates the losing team rings. According to NFL policy the losing team ring is only allowed to cost half of the winning team's ring. A company called Jostens tops the list of ring designers with a total of 26 Super Bowl Rings. They were also the first company to design a ring for Super Bowl I champs, the Green Bay Packers.

Each Super Bowl ring is unique in the design and representation.  Check out the "NFL's Crown Jewels",

a great timeline through Super Bowl history.

The rings over the years have evolved from humble to humongous! The first Super Bowl ring was designed out of yellow gold and a single round diamond. Today they're "blinged" out and covered in diamonds, intricate pave and multiple color gemstones. One of the most impressive Super Bowl rings ever was the Patriots 2005 Super Bowl ring. It boasts 124 diamonds, 3 of which are shaped like footballs and a total weight of 4.94 carats. It's made out of 14k white gold and has intricate diamond pave wording and small side sapphires on the ring.

This years ring's have yet to be released but in the spirit of the Super Bowl...I predict many, many diamonds, 14K white gold and quite the big ring size! So while some of you watch the game for the sportsmanship, some for the company or food, and still others for the commercials; we'll be waiting for the next day when the designs are released and our predictions are right!

If you have any design questions, ideas or are looking for customized jewelery please visit our website at www.bostonianjewelers.com

Super Bowl Bling - NFL's Crowning Jewels

With the Super Bowl this weekend, what better topic to discuss than NFL jewelry! and how are jewelers are involved in the game? But first, some interesting facts.  These rings are not only huge, but expensive.  Upwards of 5K per ring per player and multiple carats of diamonds.  Many players say they simply don't wear jewelry and will only wear these things for public appearances. The Super Bowl ring represents a collective and symbolic memento for the players and team members to immortalize their victory. So who has the most bling?  Wikipedia update: Neal Dahlen. He earned 7 rings in his many years as an administrator with the 49ers and the Broncos.  Read more about Neal Dahlen 'Lord of the Rings" . We'll see if anyone tops his record this weekend.

Who makes the rings? That honor goes to a list of 6 or 7 jewelers that bid each year on a design contract of 150 customized Super Bowl rings, bragging rights and great publicity. The NFL cap's the spending at $5,000 per ring, which means that the jewelers will have to absorb the cost for anything over that $5,000. On the opposite end the company who is awarded the contract also creates the losing team rings. According to NFL policy the losing team ring is only allowed to cost half of the winning team's ring. A company called Jostens tops the list of ring designers with a total of 26 Super Bowl Rings. They were also the first company to design a ring for Super Bowl I champs, the Green Bay Packers.
Each Super Bowl ring is unique in the design and representation.  Check out the "NFL's Crown Jewels",
a great timeline through Super Bowl history.

The rings over the years have evolved from humble to humongous! The first Super Bowl ring was designed out of yellow gold and a single round diamond. Today they're "blinged" out and covered in diamonds, intricate pave and multiple color gemstones. One of the most impressive Super Bowl rings ever was the Patriots 2005 Super Bowl ring. It boasts 124 diamonds, 3 of which are shaped like footballs and a total weight of 4.94 carats. It's made out of 14k white gold and has intricate diamond pave wording and small side sapphires on the ring.

This years ring's have yet to be released but in the spirit of the Super Bowl...I predict many, many diamonds, 14K white gold and quite the big ring size! So while some of you watch the game for the sportsmanship, some for the company or food, and still others for the commercials; we'll be waiting for the next day when the designs are released and our predictions are right!

If you have any design questions, ideas or are looking for customized jewelery please visit our website at www.bostonianjewelers.com

Bostonian in the Press!

The history of Bostonian and the passion that is still alive today is beautifully described by Jennifer Heebner in JCK Magazine. The article focused on family run and custom designed jewelry houses; below is a portion that highlights Bostonian Jewelers.

“Thirty years ago, Hagop Matossian opened Hagop Settings, a jewelry repair shop, in Boston. His specialty was creating one-of-a-kind pieces, including diamond engagement ring mountings to accommodate oversize center stones, for stores that didn’t have in-house design capabilities. But nine years ago, two major events drastically shifted the course of the business. First, Matossian’s wife and now creative director, Alexandria, joined Hagop and his brother Barkev in the shop, abandoning her own one-woman custom business on the lower level of the same complex, and brought with her an unstoppable drive to take on more challenging custom jobs. Also, Hagop’s father, a longtime goldsmith who owned his own retail store, imparted some advice his sons couldn’t ignore. “He said, ‘You’re getting older, and you won’t be able to work with your hands your whole life, so open a retail store,’ Matossian recalls. Armed with his wife’s enthusiasm and his father’s wisdom, Hagop opened Bostonian Jewelers as a retail store, while Barkev continued to run Hagop Settings to accommodate the volume of wholesale repair jobs they’d developed. On the retail side, aiming to expand their restoration work, Hagop and Alexandria (ahead of their time in 1999) checked out the capabilities of a CAD/CAM. They instantly knew the technology could revolutionize the manufacturing of jewelry. Still, notes Alexandria, Hagop didn’t immediately take the bait. “I pestered him for three years to buy Matrix,” she says. Once the purchase was made, the payoff was immediate. Handmade jewelry models in platinum were no longer necessary since digital models were stored in Matrix. That move alone freed up thousands of dollars, eliminating dozens of platinum models that sat in a safe for future use. Also gone were the stacks of stinky, wet silicone rubber molds, waiting “in limbo” to be employed to make more models. The technology also broke the rules for jewelry fabrication, streamlining efficiency and profitability. For instance, when making a ring that will weigh 12 grams of metal, jewelers must start with double the material to account for shaping, fabrication, and waste; the latter is now eliminated, thanks to CAD/CAM design. “With rapid prototype casting, you can go from print to wax with no waste,” says Hagop. And Alexandria is making more than just diamond engagement rings. Business in bridal necklaces, cuff-links, and similar items has risen drastically since the changeover. “I am a lot busier,” she says. For example, she made a pair of 18k gold cufflinks with green quartz as a birthday present from a woman to her fiancé. Alexandria recalls another commission fondly because of the customer’s instructions: There were none. “He told me to make anything I wanted,” she remembers. His only stipulation was to consider one aspect of the female recipient: She worked with her hands. The end piece was a five-gram platinum band featuring vine motifs and a half-carat, bezel-set diamond center stone provided by the client. With business brisk, Bostonian Jewelers got a facelift last year. Stainless steel and glass accents now give the store a contemporary look. “It’s yummy,” enthuses Alexandria. All jobs are completed onsite in the 2,000-square-foot space, which is a 60–40 split between showroom and workshop. Bostonian’s custom capabilities are so stream\lined, efficient, and profitable that the company even makes its own wedding bands—plain metal ones that most shops tend to order. “In 10 minutes, we can make a simple band in CAD/CAM for 30 percent less than the cost of ordering one from a vendor,” says Hagop. Other benefits? Cherry-picking custom components across a variety of jobs, clean casts (no investment mess), and no torching necessary. “This is the difference between the old school and the new,” says Alexandria. “You can really push the envelope of design."

We are very proud to be featured in such an amazing publication. To view the full article please go to : http://www.jckonline.com/2010/05/25/you-ve-got-it-made