OUr Pledge to Local, Recycled, and Ethically Sourced
Christine Marguerite Design offers the best while maintaining environmental responsibility. The CMD Team consistently evaluates our supply chain to find the best, and most responsible materials and contractors. This evaluation helps find ways to reduce our environmental footprint and empower artisans both locally and word-wide.
Due to of our responsibility to the environment, Christine Marguerite Designs uses 100% recycled metals as part of the Above Ground© program. Because our precious metals are recycled, they are considered un-mined, which minimizes the environmental impact of the metal.
In addition, all CMD jewelry is 100% USA made. Local goldsmiths, wax carvers, and jewelers set 80% of our designs. Christine Marguerite Designs works to empower talented and trusted artisans to bring you the highest quality, conscious, Colorado-built jewelry. Quality, conscious, and local. Its the CMD way!
Ethically Sourced DIAMONDS
Christine Marguerite offers only ethically sourced diamonds. Our personally selected diamonds are conflict-free and UN-sanctioned. Any diamond 0.50 carat and larger can come with a GIA certificate. With 30 years experience brokering all diamond types, our long-standing diamond partners give us some of the most competitive diamond pricing around. If you have any questions, come in for a diamond consult!
Diamond Qualities
The Four C’s
Four attributes, “The Four C’s,” Carat, Color, Clarity and Cut, determine the quality, and therefore the price. The Four C’s were developed by the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) in the 1940′s and ’50s to ensure a standard system for specifying diamond quality.
Carat
Carats measure diamond weight. The word “carat” is derived from the name of the carob seed, which was used by ancient gem traders in their balance scales to weigh gemstones, since these seeds were both tiny and fairly uniform in weight. A carat is equal to 0.2 grams, which is then divided into 100 points. Therefore .50 carat may be referred to as a 50-point diamond. Diamonds are weighed with extreme precision, but usually rounded up to the nearest point.
Color
Color denotes a diamonds colorlessness. The more absolutely colorless, the more highly the diamond is valued. The color grade of a stone is determined by diamond experts who compare each one to stones of known color under very precise viewing conditions. These distinctions are can be very difficult to notice with the naked eye, yet can make a big difference in the quality, and thus the price, of the diamond. (Special fancy-color diamonds, such as pinks and blues, are graded using a different scale.)
The GIA color grading scale begins with “D” – Colorless, and continues to “Z,” where each letter represents a distinct color presence. GIA’s scale begins with the letter “D” to distinguish it from earlier, less-precise color-grading scales which had used A, B, C, and roman numerals as designators.
Clarity
Clarity denotes the absence of inclusions or blemishes in the stone. Inclusions are natural identifying characteristics in the interior of a diamond. Inclusions are minerals or fractures, which may look like tiny crystals, clouds or feathers. Blemishes refer to the presence of such characteristics on the surface of the stone.
Because inclusions can affect the diamond’s brilliance, the size and location of the inclusions determine a diamond’s price. The GIA Clarity Scale comprises eleven grades, ranging from FL (flawless) to I3 (diamonds with obvious inclusions).
Cut
Cut describes a diamonds’s man-made shape, angles, and proportions. A diamond’s cut determines its fire, brilliance, and sparkle. Fire, brilliance, and sparkle refer to a diamond’s ability to reflect light. 
Round brilliant diamonds are the most frequently used shape in diamond jewelry, with 58 precisely-cut facets. In 2005, GIA instituted a grading system for the cut of standard round brilliant diamonds. This scale assigned cuts from excellent to poor, based on the proportions, symmetry, and stone polish.
Other diamond shapes include marquise, pear, oval, emerald cuts, hearts, cushions, trillions.
How to read a GIA grading Report
Recycled METALS
We provide the best metals with our Above the Ground program, so you can be confident in your metal purchase. Every metal has different look, feel, and set of characteristics. The Christine Marguerite Designs Team helps you choose the best metal for your project.
Gold
Gold (Au) is named for the word Aurum, which means ‘shining dawn’. Gold is measured in increments of 24 parts or karats of pure gold, 24 Karat being pure gold. Therefore, 14k gold is 14 parts gold, 10 parts alloy and 18k gold is 18 parts gold to 6 parts alloy.
All gold under 24 karat has an alloy, which is displayed by the color. Yellow gold is a equal part silver and copper alloy, rose gold uses a copper alloy, and white gold uses a nickel and palladium alloy.
Platinum
Platinum is Pt in the Elements chart and is named for the word Platina, which is literally translated into “little silver”. Platinum is best suited for people who have allergies.
Sterling Silver
In the table of elements, Silver is named Ag for Argentum. Sterling silver consists of 92.5% pure silver, and 7.5% copper alloy.
GIA Laboratory