Custom Jewelry in Reno Usually Means a Catalog

Ask for custom jewelry at most Reno stores and what you get is a configurator: pick a setting from a screen, pick a stone from a list, and the order ships to a factory somewhere else. It is a fine way to buy a ring. It is not custom.

Custom means someone sits across from you, looks at the stone your grandmother left you, sketches three ways it could be reset, and then goes into the back room and makes it. That person, for Northern Nevada, is John Roxburgh — GIA-trained, about twenty years at the bench, and the reason Forever Rox is the only jeweler in the Lake Tahoe area offering full in-house custom design.

We are in Incline Village, thirty minutes up the Mt. Rose Highway from South Reno. Reno and Sparks clients make up a meaningful share of the fifteen-plus custom projects we complete every month, and most of them only drive up twice: once to see stones in person, once to pick up the finished piece.

How a Custom Piece Comes Together

The process is the same whether you live in Incline Village or Damonte Ranch. The only difference for Reno clients is that the first and last steps usually happen by phone, video or email.

What Reno Clients Bring Us

The engagement ring. The most common project by a wide margin. Usually it starts with a natural diamond or a colored stone — sapphire, spinel and alexandrite come up more than people expect — chosen in person, with the setting designed around the stone rather than the other way round.

The heirloom that does not get worn. A grandmother's ring in a setting nobody wants to wear, a brooch that has not been out of the box in decades, a wedding set from a marriage that ended. Redesigning heirloom jewelry is one of the most popular services we offer, and it is where in-house work matters most: the stones never leave our hands.

The drawer of gold. Broken chains, single earrings, a class ring. Instead of selling it for metal weight, the gold becomes the metal in something new. If you are weighing that decision, the gold buying and appraisals page lays out the sell-or-remake math honestly.

The piece that does not exist yet. A pendant built around a specific stone, a men's ring with a particular meaning, a bracelet that matches a piece you already own. Bring the idea; that is all it needs to start.

Metals, Stones and What We Will Tell You Honestly

We work primarily in gold and platinum, and we will steer you toward the right one for how the piece will be worn — platinum for a ring that lives on a hand every day, 18k for warmth and color, 14k for a harder-wearing everyday piece.

Our stones are natural diamonds and natural colored gemstones sourced through trusted suppliers, including the rarer material that chain stores cannot get at all. If you want a lab-grown diamond in a custom piece, we can source one on request; we will simply explain the difference in long-term value so you are choosing with your eyes open.

What we will not do is talk you into a bigger stone, a heavier setting or a more complicated design than the piece needs. Sometimes the honest answer to "can you redesign this?" is "the original setting is better than anything we would make — let us just restore it." You will hear that answer when it is true.

What the Extra Weeks Actually Buy You

A ring from a Reno mall counter goes home the same afternoon. A custom piece takes a month or two. Here is what you get for the wait.

You get the stone you chose, not the stone that fit the mounting. You get a setting proportioned to that stone — prongs placed where they protect it, a gallery that lets light in, a band sized to the hand that will wear it — instead of a mass-produced mounting that fits "most" one-carat rounds. You get metal and finish chosen for how the piece will be worn. And you get a jeweler who knows the piece intimately, which matters years later when a prong needs work: nine repairs in ten at Forever Rox never leave the building, and a piece John made is a piece John can service.

For a gift, a first anniversary or a "just because," off the shelf is often the right call and we will say so. For the ring, the heirloom or the piece that has to be exactly right, the weeks are the point.

Timeline, Deposit and What It Costs

Most custom projects take about four to eight weeks from the first consultation to the finished piece. A deposit is required in most cases to begin and is applied to the final price. Every project is quoted individually because the design, the metal and the stones are what drive the number; some custom pieces start under $1,500 and engagement rings with significant natural stones run well above that.

Before you commit, you will have a rendering you have approved, a written quote, and a timeline. There is no version of this where the price moves after you have said yes.

Want to see what other clients ended up with? The custom jewelry gallery shows recent work, most of it starting with a conversation much like the one you would have on your first call. For the full detail of how we work, see our custom jewelry design page.

Making the Trip From Reno Count

Because the consultation and the design approval can happen remotely, most Reno clients only come up for the two things worth doing in person: looking at stones, and collecting the piece. The Mt. Rose Highway (NV-431) gets you here in about thirty minutes from South Reno — Montreux, ArrowCreek, Galena, Damonte Ranch — and closer to forty-five from downtown or Sparks.

New to Forever Rox? The guide for Reno clients covers the showroom, jewelry repair and watch repair in one place.

Frequently Asked Questions