Jewelry by Harold — Local services in North Liberty

For anybody that has a preconceived notion that custom is more expensive, Harold will prove that this is not the case. This last spring, I was browsing many of the local and national jewelry places, big and small. I was looking to make a mother's ring with princess (square cut) alexandrite and garnet. One bigger local store in Cedar Rapids said they didn't even think alexandrite came in pincess cut, and tried to sell us what they felt the could do (walked out of there noting even a quick net search proved them wrong). Plus, the prices was way more than I would have ever expected, noting real alexandrite is more expensive than diamonds, so they quoted me with immitation stones at a price that tolerable. I decided to wait. This fall, I noticed Harold's new store on 965 up from where I work (not the route i usually take home but did that day). I looked through his online site and thought it looked interesting. When I saw his shoping feature linking his site to his supplyers, that is what really intriged me. I went right to the select stones, picked princess cut alexandrite and like magic, a list appeared with prices. I saw that some were what was quoted per carat at the other places, market price. I noted a few stood out though as extremely cheap (about 80% discount) for real stones of the higher quality. Again, said it must be to good to be true. I did though decide to stop in and get the scoop from him in person. I arrived, and they were able to help me right away. Harold himself was there and brought up the site right there with meand was astonished himself. We both agreed to buy them and see what the deal was. They arrived and notign some slight differences in size, it was something we could work with. In the end over the course of a month, he ended up crafting 2 pieces of jewelry for me, with real stones, for just under the price quoted to me by a couple of the stores for a ring with imitation alexandrite. In the end, the ring probably worth at least twice what I actually payed for it since we got the great deal on the stones. If it would have been a big box store or even those other Local stores, I would bet i would have payed the retail price and not just cost plus labor as Harold does. Thus, my different route home brought me to the differnt way of thinking about jewelry. Check out his site, or stop into the store and go through it with him right there. He makes it easy to find the deal and then create the jewelry that I though was just a dream. Plus, they will make you a cup of coffee or tea while you work on your...

Harold custom designed and made my wedding set. It is even more beautiful than I could imagine and I am so happy with it. I receive compliments on it regularly. As if that's not enough, the customer service experience that Harold and Astrid provided was the best I have ever seen or heard of. Their kindness and helpfulness set them apart from other businesses. I knew within 5 minutes of meeting them that there was no need to search elsewhere- I had found the best there is. They were endlessly patient with me, from the hours spent custom designing exactly what I wanted to the weeks spent scouring gem shows and the internet to get me the exact center stone that I requested. Despite my pickiness, Harold made sure I had my band in time for my wedding and made the engagement ring extremely quickly after receiving the perfect center stone, which he bought from out of the country just for my ring. Clearly, the service I received transcended a dollar amount. And yet somehow both the band and engagement ring were exceptionally reasonably priced. It is obvious that love, and not money, is what fuels these small particular business owners, because they certainly don't charge enough to get rich from their work. I could go on for paragraphs more about how wonderful these people are, about the sweet and gentle pups they let roam their store, about how clearly they demonstrated their superior knowledge of their trade through conversations that stretched into hours about different types of stones and their qualities, about their admirable dedication to their family and to their unique heritage, and on and on and on, but I feel like I've made my point. Jewelry by Harold is the place to go if you want a piece of jewelry that is unique among the hordes of department store jewelry, and the place to go. if you want to be treated with the utmost kindness and respect. I know I will never frequent another jewelry shop. There'd be no point- I've already found the best...

Not only do they do great work, but they're highly ethical as well! I came in wanting my engagement ring resized, but I was informed that due to the type and placement of the side-stones that resizing would not be a good idea for it. They could have sold me other temporary fixes, but they did not want to go that route because I would not like the end result. They suggested that I talk to the company that made the ring, but due to time constraints I was unable to have it resized by the original artist. Instead of taking my money to do something I wouldn't be happy with long-term, I ended up leaving the store with ideas as to how to get my problem solved in a few other ways. Eventually I came back to get my wedding band resized and they did a wonderful job! That took care of the problem, so I did not need to get my engagement ring resized after all. The resized wedding band looks flawless! Plus, we got some desert breads from The Netherlands as a free gift. Can't beat that...