I’m going to be completely honest about this; I hate photographing apatite.  Don’t get me wrong; I’ve been waiting for ages for this stuff to come in and now that it has, I find it it impossible to stop looking at it.  The colour is so fantastic, especially since it is untreated, and the stones so clean that it appears almost unreal.   And can I capture this quality?  Can I heck.  My camera (extremely good in so many ways) is not at is best in the aqua colour range, and I can’t get the glassy shine of the stones either.  So I’m going to ask you to take my word for it.  These stones are fabulous.  Eye-catching and unique, and I have them in a 4mm and a 6mm cabochon.  Even more exciting, I have rose cuts of these sizes on order; keep your eyes peeled for those!

This is my first foray into precious stones – I have generally steered clear mainly due to expense.  But they have a kind of glamour and mystique that exerts a certain pull, so when I was visiting a supplier recently and he produced them, I somehow could not resist.  So we have emeralds, sapphires and rubies, all cabochon cut.  The emeralds are a nice shade of green with that desirable bluish tint.  Included of course; you expect inclusions with stones that don’t cost an arm and a leg, but actually considering this, the clarity is pretty good and so is the lustre.   The sapphires are lovely; a good azure blue with a little colour zoning but saturated colour throughout the stones.  The rubies I am especially fond of; a lovely pinkish red with good clarity and lustre and none of the greyish cast that ruby cabochons can display.  I have the emeralds in a 3mm, the sapphires in a 3mm, 4mm and 5mm and the rubies in a 3mm and a 4mm.

I love it when people send me photographs of the beautiful things they have made from the stones they have bought from me.  Stones always look incomparably better when set, and their natural beauty properly framed.  This ring is a design by Trina Allen of TLA Designs; an 8mm pink tourmaline in a soft apricot shade, bezel set in sterling silver with a lovely hammered band.  Lovely clean, elegant lines which set off the warm pink of the stone beautifully, and you know, the older I get, the more I like pink.  It’s happy and uplifting and it makes you smile, so chuck out that basic black; spring is here, the blossom is blooming and it’s pink all over!

You can visit Trina’s shop here:  http://www.etsy.com/shop/tladesigns and you can find more tourmaline in my shop at www.joopygems.com

I’ve said it before, but tourmaline is so popular right now; the range of colours and colour mixes is unparalleled in any other gemstone.  Here is a selection of some of the tourmalines I have in stock – there are many more on the website and I will be adding more over the next few days.  Any one of these stones are unique and would make an incredible statement in any piece of jewellery.    There’s a few inclusions – less in the bi-colour rubellite, which is higher grade material, but I think if you love tourmaline, then you have to love the inclusions too, because clean material is so scarce and therefore so expensive.  If you want to know why the price of tourmaline is sky-rocketing, I am told that it is currently very desirable in China and they are buying it up by the 1000s of carats!  You can find the full range I carry here:  Bi-colour tourmalines

This week I have new stones in the very popular 4mm rose cut:  Sky Blue Topaz and Citrine.  Sky Blue Topaz is such a delicate shade, perfect for spring and summer and in this size, the stones are tiny and shimmering.  I love citrine for its wonderful, sunny colour, and I always think it looks fantastic with silver.  I used to have a drawing room painted bright yellow and it was impossible to feel gloomy in it, even on the dullest day!

Coming soon – some new bi-colour tourmaline cabochons in a range of colours.

I am delighted to announce a new loyalty scheme for my customers.  Every tenth order you place on the Joopy Gems website, you will receive a 10% discount on your order.  There is no need to do anything to claim this; your orders will be counted and the discount applied automatically.  Just one more reason to shop with Joopy Gems!