THE GREEN LAKE SHOP
Translating our client’s ideas into beautiful custom jewelry
to celebrate the iconic moments in life since 1996.
Your piece was crafted in the
Bellevue studio
The Bellevue shop is a state of the art custom design and production studio where the artists work in full view of the public. This location is also the heart of our stone cutting dept, with a full time lapidary on-site cutting Sapphires and other gemstones from rough.
The design Bellevue studio has 15 design stations including 3 private meeting rooms and a full scale coffee and wine bar.
Green Lake Jewelry Works opened its doors on Seattle’s Green Lake Drive in 1996. Since then, its craftspeople have grown to win national recognition for excellence in the art of fine jewelry making with two distinct workshops where each piece is made by hand.
In 2016, celebrating 20 years of artistry, Green Lake Jewelry Works created a second studio in Bellevue, WA with the aim of creating the perfect environment for both jewelers and clients.
Named one of the ‘Coolest Stores in America’ by Instore Magazine, the Bellevue studio is home to some of the most talented jewelers in the country, where a tradition of dedicated craftsmanship is passed from masters to journeymen and women.
YOUR CUSTOM DESIGN
Custom jewelry at Green Lake always begins with ideas, inspirations, and a sketch, where the many design elements that make for the perfect ring are discovered through ideation.
Oftentimes, a ring will go through many iterations and changes along the way before the final look is achieved.
DESIGNER
An award winning illustrator (Society of illustrators, American Illustration), Lena is an experienced designer with strong digital and hand illustration skills, and years of practical experience applying her skills to custom jewelry design.
Intricate, beautiful, detailed, and delicate—those are the words to describe her artful designs. Inspired by artists from different times and places, she knows how to bring a certain feel to a project whether jewelry design or painting.
3D MODEL
CAD
Engineering the X, Y, and Z coordinates of a design is not only a way to inform sophisticated milling and growing machines to create a model; they’re also a powerful way to communicate the vision for a ring.
Realistic renderings and physical models help transform sketched ideas into reality in an interplay between the client, the designer and the CAD team, all of whose input and ideas help create something that both looks right and fits perfectly.
The entire Green Lake project team collaborates on each piece, adding nuanced details and subtle improvements to the design, all while making sure that design cohesiveness, stability on the finger, and stone security are perfected.
Bringing your design to life
WAX MODELS
Lost-wax casting is thousands of years old, and it’s how we still cast today. From the increasingly rare skill of carving by hand, to the employment of digitally guided milling machines, blocks of wax are cut down into precise models.
These models are used both for design ideation and adjustment and casting the actual piece.
CASTING
At the workshop, the model was cast in a specialty plaster-like investment and heated to release the wax or resin from its mold, then cast using a specialized induction casting machine from Italy.
CLEANUP & DETAILING
Each ring in a small casting batch shares a common vein of gold or platinum, from where it’s cut and prepared for setting. Rough castings first need to be carefully cleaned and polished before more bench work can be done. Even the inner surfaces are carefully detailed.
CERTIFIED FAIRMINED GOLD
In an effort to transform mining into an active force for social development and environmental protection, the Alliance for Responsible Mining developed the Fairmined Standard, a certification that assures worker’s rights and safety while adhering to environmental guidelines.
By ensuring your ring is Fairmined, you’re ring is helping to transform the industry by bringing mining communities out of the poverty and dangerous working conditions they’d otherwise experience without global participation.
CRAFTSMANSHIP
All areas of old-world jewelry making are completed in a single workshop. Master gold and platinumsmiths receive rings from casting and set to care for each pieces as a one-of-kind, collaborating with designers to ensure each detail is included.
GEMSTONE SETTING
It required steady hands and confident mastery to set your gemstone for a lifetime of confident wear. Gems can be especially small and terribly rare, so the responsibility for this final stage in crafting a ring falls to our most experienced professionals.
FINAL POLISH
Each custom made item in the Green Lake workshop receives a final polish before it’s carefully inspected and reviewed for standards of excellence. Each project is at last stamped with the Green Lake leaf quality mark before delivery.
YOUR FINISHED PIECE
Custom 18kt yellow gold ring holding a bezel set customer provided round diamond center stone. The bezel has a cast in place pierced curl pattern on the outside of the bezel with a milgrain edge along the top edge. This ring has a halo of pierced leaves around the center stone with a bow on the top. The leaves and bow have bead set diamonds within with a bezel set diamond in the middle of the bow. On the sides of the halo, there are roses with two pierced, carved curls on each side. The shank is tapered with a soft flat profile with milgrain edges. This ring has a high polish finish.