Dave Sloan is CEO of Treehouse Logic, which offers a hosted design tool solution that enables customer co-creation. You can reach Dave at dave@treehouselogic.com and follow him on Twitter.

Why buy standard department store jewelry when you can customize your own pieces online for around the same price?

Jewelry is one of the hottest categories in the growing design-it-yourself market because it is extremely personal and highly configurable. Jewelry is the perfect fit for an online design tool that lets you mix and match colorful jewels and precious metals.

Each piece that you design is built to order and is likely a one-of-a-kind. Custom jewelry is a great way to express your individuality and style. Thanks to online shops that offer online design tools, you can start getting creative right away. Here are six sites worth checking out.

1. Gemkitty

Gemkitty’s mission is to enable anyone to discover or design a unique piece of semi-precious gemstone jewelry. Using the online design tool, anyone can digitally design their own natural gemstone jewelry. Gemkitty offers custom earrings and necklaces, and just launched a cool “Blingomatic” quiz that helps guys pick out the perfect piece for their lady.

2. Blue Nile

Started in 1999, Blue Nile helps shoppers navigate the complexity of diamond selection. Using a set of filters for attributes like price, cut, carat, color, and clarity, Blue Nile helps you find the perfect match for your tastes and price range. The diamond itself is shown with helpful dimension diagrams and sample photos.

3. Gemvara

Gemvara aims to create a jewelry shopping experience that is superior to going to a brick-and-mortal jewelry store. Users choose from among a wide variety of template products (rings, necklaces, earrings) and customize stones and precious metals before checking out. Orders take three weeks to ship.

4. Brilliant Earth

Brilliant Earth focuses on the socially conscious consumer by sourcing conflict free diamonds from Canada. Similar to Blue Nile, consumer can create their own ring by filtering through thousands of gemstone and setting options. Brilliant Earth donates 5% of their profits to local communities that have been harmed by the diamond industry.

5. Charmed by Ingrid Anne

Charmed by Ingrid Anne allows you to customize a necklace on a Facebook page without having to install a Facebook application. Being on Facebook itself makes it easy to post and share your creation. Select a necklace style and add three charms or gemstones to complete your necklace.

6. Delusha

Delusha aims to appeal to the fashion diva in you. They set out to give you the creative tools to express yourself, your style, and your look. Select beads and jewels and drag and drop them onto a metal wire. The experience is like sitting at a craft table with bowls of beads. All Delusha pieces are handmade in Valencia, Spain.