Rose quartz for a summer of love!

Back in stock I have rose quartz in 5mm and 6mm rose cut rounds. Rose quartz itakes its name from its very delicate colour; I have these in 3mm up to 10mm and the colour range goes from very pale ‘white not quite’ in the 3mm to a warm, soft pink in the 10mm. The 5mm and 6mm material is somewhere in between.

Joopy Gems 10mm rose cut rose quartz cabochon
Joopy Gems 10mm rose cut rose quartz cabochon, $17.50

It owes its glowing translucence to small inclusions that give it its classic cloudy appearance, and indeed, it comes in a variety of qualities from highly included and fractured – which ironically might give a deeper colour due to the more opaque nature of such stones – to almost transparent. Larger stones of good colour can have an almost golden cast in the right light. Now, as you all know, I prefer to stick to nicer quality so these stones are pale pink and range from translucent to nearly transparent. The colour rose quartz was picked by Pantone as one of its colours of the year, and despite their (to my view) slightly twee pairing with the lilac-blue ‘Serenity’, I think it would work beautifully with white stones – white topaz maybe, or rock crystal – grey moostone, or for a more surprising pairing, with a pop of colour for summer, peach moonstone. Said to promote love and healing, clearly, you can’t go wrong! To shop 5mm rose cut rose quartz, click here; for 6mm rose cut click here, or for 10mm rose cut click here. To shop the entire range, click here.

 

Rose quartz looks very different depending on what you set it in; gold brings out its warm tones; silver gives it a cool, elegant bloom. Below and clockwise from left: I love the feminine and delicate beauty of Belinda Saville’s 5mm rose quartz and rose gold ring, contrasting so amazingly with Charlotte Burkhart’s rose quartz and sterling silver ‘Coven Ring’. She has given the silver a gunmetal finish and this lends the 13mm stone a fantastic fierce appearance. Below right, the elegant simplicity of William White’s rose quartz and sterling silver ring. This is a 10mm stone set in satin finished silver, echoing the beautiful haziness in the stone.

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New in: rhodolite garnet rose cut freeforms

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I love rhodolite garnet, and its beautiful colour range from pinkish red through to purplish raspberry. Even the redder shades lack the rustiness you sometimes find with almandine, and whilst the prices are reasonable, at its best, the colours can rival red tourmaline. Rhodolite, for those interested, is a mixture of pyrope and almandine garnet and it’s the most valuable of all the red garnets. Despite this, it’s not hard to find clean quality stones at a good price. Here, for the first time, I am offering rhodolite garnet as rose cut freeforms, and I’ve got a good representation of the whole colour range. These stones are rose cut on the top and have a shallow, faceted table on the bottom. To shop, click here. This cut is fantastic for one-off creations, such as the ring below by Symmetry Jewelry; a trio of garnets, this contains rhodolite, spessartite and mandarin garnet set in 18k gold bezels on a sterling silver split shank.

Symmetry rhodolite garnet, spessartite garnet and mandarin garnet 18k gold and sterling silver ring
Symmetry Jewelry garnet, gold and silver ring, $1350

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