NEWSCASTER: Welcome back to A.M. Northwest, and we are talking one of my favorite subjects, jewelry, which will be a lot of fun. And joining us this morning is Marco from Marco Designs, and you know, everybody cool goes by just a first name basis.

MARCO, MARCO DESIGNS: That's right.

NEWSCASTER: Madonna, Cher, Marco. So Marco, we appreciate you coming in this morning and talking about custom-made jewelry, which a lot of times, I think, people are little intimidated by because it seems expensive.

MARCO: Absolutely. It's surprisingly affordable, because there's no middle man involved. From a design drawing to the finished product, it's just me. So you're involved and I'm involved. From picking the stones, the idea evolving, because sometimes down the road, you might want to add a little something to it. Say pendants or earrings or whatever to go with a ring, and I can keep you involved. The better it is, the more you'll like it.

NEWSCASTER: Well, we have some great pieces here this morning to show you, and I love your saying, "Go Big or Go Home."

MARCO: Yeah, absolutely. I feel like you should feel it when you're wearing it.

NEWSCASTER: Absolutely. Tell us what you've done with some of these pieces.

MARCO: Some of these (pointing to the jewelry)

NEWSCASTER: That's big.

MARCO: Yeah, and that's big.

NEWSCASTER: I like that one.

MARCO: It's a new stone actually. It was just released in June of this year, from Asia. And this one actually, as a loose stone, is an Oregon sunstone.

NEWSCASTER: Well, I was going say, you don't have to just work with diamonds and pearls -

MARCO: Absolutely.

NEWSCASTER: Besides the precious stones, but you can choose something a little bit different to offset some of the costs.

MARCO: Absolutely. A lot of these are very, very affordable stone-wise. I mean, you can - let's say, sapphires are out of your budget, there are several other stones with the same color that might be a little bit less expensive that can still get the same result.

NEWSCASTER: This Oregon sunstone, again, where do we find this, or tell us a little bit more about that.

MARCO: It's eastern Oregon, there's a few mines. I believe it was actually the Oregon stone since '86, I believe.

NEWSCASTER: We're talking this one.

MARCO: It comes in a very vibrant orange to a pale color that you see there, and I've done several pieces in it. It's held up very, very well.

NEWSCASTER: Now, how do you go through the process of designing your pieces of jewelry? I mean, they have to come from somewhere?

MARCO: They do, inside my head. For me, I travel quite a bit, sit on an airplane; I can't sleep on the airplane, so I sit and sketch out jewelry. So those are the things that I make for me personally that people like. Then I also have customers that come to me with sketches; they have an idea of what they're looking for, and so I can help them along the way and go through that process.

NEWSCASTER: What is the process that you go through. I've thought about getting some custom designed jewelry made, and I just don't know where to start. I mean, do I just bring them what I want to have done and say, do it, or do I need something else?

MARCO: Yeah, you can.

NEWSCASTER: Okay.

MARCO: Again, I've had them on a cocktail napkin, somebody saying "hey, I thought about this last night" and so the first process is we have a drawing to start with, then we come into - I can make a wax version of it and here, these holes in here, are set for the stones to set in there and that kind of thing to see if you want that. And actually this ring that I've made a couple different prototypes of it had - they decided with one row of diamonds down it as opposed to the two rows. So keeping them involved along the way is making sure that they get what they actually want.

NEWSCASTER: Would you say the most tedious part of your job is creating the mold?

MARCO: No, the most tedious part for me is the polish because I want it to be absolutely perfect. There are several steps along the way, getting it to a finished product because of the very small hairline scratches and that kind of thing that you see along the way that obviously come with after you wear, but at least I want it to start out just right.

NEWSCASTER: Well, we have a lot of gold here this morning, but we've seen the trends kind of change a little bit, people are going to some platinum or the white gold, what is the trend right now?

MARCO: Well, right now in Portland, it is still in the platinum, some mixed metals , and coming back to yellow gold. It just depends actually where you are. What people like here is very different from Seattle, New York, or other places around the country.

NEWSCASTER: Who sets the trend on jewelry designs? Are we looking at what Madonna's wearing?

MARCO: Yes, absolutely.

NEWSCASTER: Good grief.

MARCO: A lot of the fashion magazines, the bridal magazines actually, too. Aside from gowns, there's a lot of gals that wear pretty nice jewelry.

NEWSCASTER: Men consult with their wives before you start bringing home what Madonna's wearing on her latest video, and that's all I'm going to tell you. We can also see some of your designs at Nordstrom's.

MARCO: Yes, at Washington Square.

NEWSCASTER: At Washington Square. So if you're interested in Marco Designs, you can check his stuff out at Nordstrom's or you can get a hold of him. This is the number: 503-816-0575. But remember, Go Big or Go Home. What is this bow tie?

MARCO: That is a functional bow tie.

NEWSCASTER: This is?

MARCO: It is, and I am actually making it, and there's going to be a mesh band that goes along the back of it, but I'm waiting for the customer's neck size, that way we can size the band.

NEWSCASTER: I thought that was just a nice little add on, but that's really something you can wear.

MARCO: It's actually something you are going to wear.

NEWSCASTER: Who knew. Wives, there you go. All right. And be sure to get all the information you need on our website also at katu.com.