Borinquen Jewelry - Rochester
Calvin Parnell They buy and sell gold and white gold only
2 /5 Geen Stagni: It makes me sad to not be able to recommend Figgy, or at least the Studio/custom jewelry designing process, because the shop itself is gorgeous, well-maintained, and clearly supportive of local artists, which I also also believe in supporting. That being said, it does make me suspicious that Figgy doesn’t have a single review below 4* despite our experience, so here is ours:
I went here with two of my best friends to make pieces to celebrate and commemorate my college graduation. They were having a walk-in design day so we were very happily accommodated on their second floor studio. The process does take 6ish weeks, we found out, so we had to get our jewelry shipped.
The two ladies that explained the process and helped us create our pieces were wonderful and friendly, and we had a great time in the moment. However, fast forward to now when we actually receive our jewelry: we are very disappointed. We were told we could make “basically anything we wanted”, so one of my friends chose to make a “butterfly” shaped ring from a simple band, I chose to make a “class ring” from a leaf-like band, and my other friend chose to make a bracelet. We ran our ideas by the ladies and they told us they loved it, and would help us note everything down to how the stones are arranged to ensure they came out as we wanted.
Unfortunately, they did not. They turned out terrible, in fact. My friend’s ring’s butterfly shape was not preserved, despite that being her main concern, and my ring turned out incredibly clunky and uneven. I have attached some photos of my intention vs result, as well as my friend’s ring (sorry for the bad quality, they are taken and tried on by my dad). As you can see, for my ring, the “leaves” were completely destroyed in the process. For my other friend’s bracelet, the stones were unevenly placed, and melded together poorly. This experience wasn’t cheap either, with our rings totaling around $160 and his bracelet almost $300. I respect the value of the artisan and am okay with the cost, but only if it had turned out as we expected.
Now, I understand how the studio’s style might be different than what we were trying to design; however, I think I rightfully believe that it should have been the ladies’ duty to let us know if they don’t think our idea could be executed. And frankly, the quality of the execution just isn’t up to par with a professional, and I’m heartbroken as I can only graduate college once, and now I don’t have a class ring to show off.
