The appeal of the downtown jewelry district long has been its historical buildings and deal-making wholesalers and retailers.

But history has caught up with the area -- bounded roughly by 5th and 8th streets, Grand Avenue and Broadway -- as environmental concerns saddle several building owners with expenses in upgrading their facilities.

Some of the cleanup efforts can be traced to two years ago, when state Attorney General Bill Lockyer put a halt to jewelry manufacturing in the Park Central Building on Sixth Street, citing unsafe levels of chemicals such as copper, chromium and lead.

Park Central was cleaned up, but fear of further crackdowns led to the formation of a neighborhood task force to address a variety of environmental regulations. About 30 buildings have since gone through clean-ups, with much of the work centered on ventilation.

"We wanted to keep the industry together without being so onerous that they couldn't comply," said Jimmy Hill, fire marshal for the city of L.A.'s Bureau of Fire Prevention and Public Safety, which came up with guidelines for alleviation.

Owners of the largest building in the district, St. Vincent Jewelry Center on Broadway, have been doing renovations over the past year that include upgrading sewer lines and air filtering systems. The building houses hundreds of wholesalers and several manufacturers who have managed to stay open through the renovations.

United Jewelry Mart on Broadway borrowed $12 million in March for planned refurbishment, according to its lender, Ed Ptacek, regional director of mortgage lender AMI Capital. He declined to say whether the United Jewelry Mart improvements are in response to environmental regulations, and building officials declined to comment.

Keeping jewelry manufacturing is a key goal of building owners. They are the economic engine of the area, and the stores that sell their wares need to be close to them.

"The jewelry sellers can go right upstairs and get the products and bring them down, If the manufacturers leave, this area would be dead," said Karabet Akpulat, a part owner of the St. Vincent Jewelry Center and owner of Nova Gold Imports Inc., a store on the first floor.

The area has thrived as an economic and ethnic melting pot for decades. Mexican craftsmen, Armenian jewelers fleeing civil war in Lebanon and Russians emigrating after the breakup of the Soviet Union all have congregated there -- along with wholesalers from Asia. and Israeli diamond dealers.

When I first met Suze Weinberg, I was enamored with the way she created three-dimensional texture and divine accents on paper. With the wondrous products from Ranger and other fine stamp and supply companies over the next couple years, Suze created the most amazing impressed and jeweled pins. This process spoke directly to my desire to create beautiful things, as well as to expanding the use of my ever-growing stamp collection.

Imagine my thrill when Suze approached me to work with her in her shows at conventions across the country--from 1999 through 2000, I was able to frolic in the wonderful world of creating with UTEE and Suze.

lways looking for new ways to use UTEE, I developed a technique named Faux Abalone Shell using UTEE on pieces of cardboard. They can be made in a variety of shapes and sizes, and are quick and fun to fashion from minimal supplies. After making several Faux Abalone Shell pieces, I began to wonder how best to feature them in a project.

Enter another amazing person in my stamping world--Roberta Altshuler. She's truly a master creator and teacher, using seed beads for necklaces and other jewelry. She came to Tucson to teach a polymer-clay class and I had the delight of having Roberta and "The Hun" (hubby Gene) stay with us. While we had a wonderful time visiting for three or four days. I showed her my new UTEE creations to get her feedback. I wanted to turn them into a jewelry form but didn't know what form to take. Roberta showed me a beading technique that encased the Faux Abalone Shell pieces in a durable protective flow of stitched seed beads. The results have fooled many an eye into believing this is an authentic abalone-shell bracelet.

Making the Faux Abalone Shell Pieces 1. Turn on your Melting Pot or hot pot and put enough Black UTEE in to melt to a 1/2-inch depth. Allow 10 to 15 minutes for melting. 2. Cut Jones Tones foil sheet into 2-inch squares for as many pieces as you plan to make--eight in this example. 3. With scissors, cut a 2-inch stamping square (cardboard) in quarters or other desirable shapes of similar size. 4. Working on top of the non-stick Teflon sheet, use the tweezers to hold the piece of cardboard securely while dipping one side facedown into the melted UTEE until covered. Remove the coated piece and place faceup on the non-stick sheet. 5. Working quickly, take the foil and place it onto the melted UTEE side of the cardboard piece. Be sure that the shiny, bright picture side of foil is faceup. Gently tap the foil so that areas of it are sure to touch the melted UTEE. Let cool 2 to 3 minutes. 6. Pull off the foil to reveal foil color on the surface of the black piece. Irregularities in surface texture are okay. 7. If you are using a Melting Pot, set up another liner tray to melt Clear UTEE to a 1/2-inch depth. If you have a hot pot, turn unit off and when fully cooled, pry the Black UTEE out, wipe with a paper towel and melt Clear UTEE as above. 8. When the Clear UTEE has melted, use tweezers to dip the black-colored piece down into the Clear UTEE. This will be the "glass" layer. If you leave the piece too long in the hot clear resin, the base of black and foil may slip off. Place the piece faceup on the non-stick sheet. It should look finished, smooth and multi-layered. Edges of the piece should be covered through the process. Allow to cool. 9. From here on, the pieces you've created will be referred to as piece or "cab(s)," short for cabochon, which is by definition a highly polished, convex cut, non-faceted gem. Today "cab" is a generic reference to a flat-sided nugget.

The Beaded Cuff Bracelet Assembly 1. Measure the circumference of your wrist where bracelet will be worn. Add 1 inch to this measurement. 2. Mark this total measurement along the length of the Pellon. Do not trim off the excess. 3. Set the Pellon around your wrist and decide where and how many "Abalone Shell" cabs you want placed on it. Mark these approximations. One piece will be right near one end, and the other end will need to have a 1-inch tab to accommodate the button closure. 4. Glue pieces to the designated places with E6000 glue. Allow to set. Drying overnight is a good idea.

Beading 1. Thread the needle with about a yard of thread. Pull the thread length through the block of beeswax a couple of times. This untangles and strengthens the thread. Tie a knot on the end. 2. Bring the needle up through the back of your interfacing so that the thread is right next to the cab. 3. Pour a variety of colors of seed beads into a small dish. Roberta calls this "bead soup." Using this method, you never have to spend time deciding what color to pick up on your needle. Just take whichever you pick up from the mix. 4. Slip on about four seed beads. 5. Pull the thread so the beads are flat against the interfacing and up against the side of your cab, and bring the needle back down through the interfacing. (Diagram 1) 6. Next, bring the needle back up through the interfacing and in between some of the beads you added. (Diagram 2) 7. Now thread the needle through the other beads to your right (if you work left to right). (Diagram 3) Continue this process until you have beaded all around your cab. 8. Now you are ready to begin the peyote stitch, which will form the bezel.

The Peyote Stitch 1. Stab a bead--skip a bead--sew a bead. This is the peyote stitch mantra. 2. Keep the tension tight as you work around the cab so that the new row sits on top of the last row and is tight against the cab.

This row can be another color for a lacy effect. 5. Depending on how thick your cab is, you might need two, three, or four rows of peyote to come up the side and over the top a bit. 6. Once the edge is done, larger ornamental beads and loops across the face of the cab can be added. 7. End by slipping the needle down the inside of your work next to the cab and going through the backing. Knot and glue. 8. Once you have accomplished this on the UTEE pieces, you will begin to fill in all the other areas over the bracelet, the same as in steps 4 through 7 in "BEADING." I beaded in concentric circles out and away from the UTEE cabs to the edges of the Pellon. Recheck the length of the cuff against your own wrist. Remember that some of the length of the Pellon is taken up in the stitching. Be sure to make the bracelet length comfortable to you. Limit the fill-in beading to the length and nearly to the full width of the bracelet. Don't worry yet about finishing the edges.

Finishing Steps 1. Use the 1/2" X 3" piece of Ultra Suede to make a loop closure. Fold in half length-wise, wrong sides together and finger press. 2. Sew a single row of beads along the open edges, sewing the edges closed. Set aside. 3. Hand-stitch the button to the extended tab. Work between the existing beading. 4. If any areas on the bracelet look sparse, this is the time to go in with a beaded stitch here and there, securing threads to the Pellon backside. 5. Glue together the Pellon and the Ultra Suede backing, sandwiching the loop piece into one end of the bracelet. Adjust the length of loop to be sized for the button closure. 6. Cut excess Pellon and backing free from the determined length and width of the bracelet. 7. As a final finishing touch, slip stitch around the perimeter, adding in each stitch. This will finish the edges.

Science has developed new machines that duplicate the volcanic heat and pressure required to change carbon into diamond as found imbedded in the walls of volcanoes. The volcanic pressure alone is equal to [40] tons on a piece of coal! The volcanic heat required is a minimum of [1500] degrees celsius.This man made diamond growth technology is called [HPHT]"Temperature Gradient Method."

The second man made diamond growth technology is called [CVD] "Chemical Vapor Deposition." It is similar to [HTHP] in which a high temperature of [1000] degrees celsius is required along with a low pressure system using hydrogen and methane gas.

The third man made diamond growth technology uses the "High Temperature-High Heat" process applied to a diamond crystal and sapphire composite which causes a fusion of the two precious gemstones. This is primarily used to create man made diamond simulants.

All three technologies are using diamond crystals to grow real man made diamonds or fusion of diamond crystals and sapphires to grow man made diamond simulants. The [CVD] process will produce the purest diamond with lowest inclusion or metalic trapped in the man made diamond. The [HPHT] growth environment is more volatile and works better with "Fusion Technology" that requires higher temperature and heat to join compatible bonding forces together into a new molecular design configuration. The process is used to grow man made diamond simulants.

These technologies have grown and advanced over the years. The most advanced [CVD] "Chemical Vapor Deposition" process produced the "Apollo Diamond" in [2003] and the most advanced [HTHP] "High Temperature-High Heat" fusion process produced the "Israel Hybrid Diamond Simulant in [2004]. Moreover; [HTHP] diamond creation environment has resulted in higher metalic inclusion rate trapped inside elongated diamond crystalline structure compared to the newer inclusion free [CVD] technology.

All three man made diamond growth technologies produce either exact molecular duplicates of real diamonds or man made diamond simulants with all the natural qualities of real diamonds. The diamonds are still a little harder and less dense than the simulants. But world wide technology is being shared by European, American and Israel scientist who are working on a second generation of man made diamond simulants that share the same mineral properties with natural diamonds.

Some folks really enjoy owning unique and special jewelry pieces. Something that makes a piece special is if the jewelry contains a rare and unusual gemstone. One of the most underrated and little known gemstones on the market is chrysoberyl. Although it is rare, this stone is very hard and durable and well suited to any jewelry use, including rings. It has a hardness of 8.5 on the Mohs scale which goes from 1 to 10. The most common colors of chrysoberyl range from honey yellow to yellow green, and the colors are quite intense.

These can be very beautiful, but as I noted, these gems are somewhat rare and not often seen for sale in commercial jewelry stores. The prices for these transparent gems are not especially high because they are little known, and as a result, demand is accordingly low. However, two other forms of the mineral chrysoberyl provide some of the most fascinating and most valuable of all colored gemstones: Alexandrite and the cats eye. Alexandrite is one of the very few gems that actually changes color from a green shade in daylight to red shade in incandescent light. Gems that change color in different kinds of light are called photochroic.

The Chrysoberyl cat's-eye is by no means the only stone that shows a cats eye effect, however it has by far the most dramatic eye because of the dense, fine fibers that can occur in Chrysoberyl (it is these inclusions that form the "eye"). The line or "eye" effect in this gem can be very strong and it seems to float across the surface of the stone. It is similar to a star sapphire or star ruby, but with those gems, there are 3 lines that intersect, where in a cats eye, there is only one line. Translucent honey colored cats eye gems can be very striking and are also very valuable. The better the color and the stronger the eye effect, the more valuable the stone will be. The cats eye is probably the most commonly seen form of chrysoberyl, and high quality stones command a high price.

The cats eye is commonly used in men's ring jewelry as it is a hard a durable stone that can stand up to some abuse. Good sized chrysoberyl cats eye gems of a carat or more can command prices of several thousand dollars per carat. Because of this, many times the forms of cats eye seen in commercial jewelry stores are not actually chrysoberyl, but lower cost simulants and synthetic stones. This is important to know when considering a purchase of this beautiful gem. Genuine chrysoberyl cats eyes come from several locations in Asia, as well as Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon) and from the alluvial gravel deposits at Tunduru in Tanzania, East Africa.

Alexandrite has a distinguished and glamorous past: it was discovered in 1830 in Czarist Russia. Since the old Russian imperial colors are red and green it was named after Czar Alexander II on the occasion of his coming of age. Alexandrite can be found in jewels of the period as it was well loved by the Russian master jewelers. Master gemologist George Kunz of Tiffany was a fan of Alexandrite and the company produced many rings featuring fine Alexandrite in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, including some set in platinum from the twenties. Some Victorian jewelry from England features sets of small alexandrites. Cats eye Alexandrites are extremely rare, and good quality color change stones command very high prices.

Alexandrite is also sometimes available as an unset stone but it is extremely rare in fine qualities. The original source in Russia's Ural Mountains has long since closed after producing for only a few decades and only a few stones can be found on the market today. Material with a certificate of Russian origin is still particularly valued in the jewelry trade. Some Alexandrite is also found in Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe and Brazil but only a small percentage shows a dramatic color change. For many years, good quality Alexandrite was almost impossible to find because there was so little available. Then in 1987, a new find of Alexandrite was made in Brazil at a locality called Hematita. The Hematita Alexandrite shows a striking and attractive color change from raspberry red to bluish green. Although Alexandrite remains extremely rare and expensive, the production of a limited amount of new material means that a new generation of jewelers and collectors have been exposed to this beautiful gemstone, creating an upsurge in popularity and demand.

When evaluating Alexandrite, pay the most attention to the color change: the more dramatic and complete the shift from red to green, without the bleeding through of brown from one color to the next, the more rare and valuable the stone. The other important value factors are the attractiveness of the two colors - the more intense the better - the clarity, and the cutting quality. Because of the rarity of this gemstone, large sizes command very high premiums. Stones that show only a minor change in color may be called a color change Chrysoberyl, but these are not truly Alexandrite. Alexandrite is an expensive and rare gemstone. Prices of $2000 to $3000 per carat for stones less than a carat are not uncommon. As noted the price directly reflects the intensity of the color change and the desirability of the colors that are present.

What metal is best for children’s jewelry? What are the best earrings for sensitive ears? First let’s start with what to avoid: nickel.

Reactions to earrings are caused by metal allergies, which vary in intensity from mild to severe. If someone has a mild nickel allergy they may be able to wear nickel jewelry for a day, whereas those with severe nickel allergies must not only avoid all nickel jewelry, but also nickel watches and buttons.

When looking for nickel free jewelry, make sure that it meets the European Nickel-Free Standard. Currently the United States does not have a standard, whereas the European standard requires an item contain no more than 0.05% nickel (or no more than 1 part in 2,000). For more information on the European nickel ban, contact the MJSA (Manufacturing Jewelers & Suppliers of America) at 1-800-444-6572.

What most people don’t realize is that nickel is present in stainless steel (usually about 8% in jewelry), and will cause reactions in many. Metals other than nickel can also cause reactions. One person may not tolerate sterling, but is able to wear 14K gold. Another can't tolerate 14K gold, but can wear niobium (more on niobium later).

14-Karat gold is 14 parts gold out of 24. Pure gold is 24 karats. This is too soft to be functional, so it is alloyed with other meals for durability, cost and color. Depending on the color of gold (which can be yellow, rose, green or white), the other parts may be copper, silver, nickel, zinc, tin, palladium and/or manganese. (White gold contains nickel.) Those with metal allergies will sometimes react to 14K gold, but not to 18K gold with its fewer impurities.

For those with severe metal allergies, niobium is often the metal of choice. Niobium is an inert, precious metal used for surgical implants, and can be found in a variety of colors when used for jewelry. Most people who are sensitive to metals tolerate niobium well.

While there is no one best metal for everyone, the best earrings for sensitive ears are made from the following materials:

* Sterling silver (a silver and copper alloy)
* Niobium (a nickel-free inert metal)
* Nickel free jewerly
* Plastic earwires, posts and post covers (post covers are polyethylene sleeves that go over earring posts so no metal touches the ear)

Any of the above materials are good for children’s earrings, with sterling being a good first choice.