Small but perfectly formed: 2mm rose cuts and cabochons

I’ve been promising these for ages and they are finally here! 2mm rose cuts and cabochons in a variety of stones. They really are so tiny I can’t imagine what you are going to do with them, so pictures please! Also probably best not to work with these if you have a heavy cold… I have all the usual suspects; garnets, turquoise, amethyst, peridot, citrine, white topaz, opal and more. Two things about these stones; firstly, because they are small, you’re not going to get the saturation on the transparents, and some of them are quite light; for example the peridot is light green, the amethyst is light to mid purple, the almandine garnet is pink to orangey-red, the rhodolite is pinkish. The other thing is the price. It’s not easy to get these cut and it is rather expensive; most of the rose cuts are around the $2.85 mark per stone, and the cabochons $1.45 (some – the ruby, emerald and turquoise, for example, are still more). Most of the cost of these is in the cutting, but the up-side is that because of this, they are really unusual and not everyone is going to have them. Why not give them a whirl – I can see rings dusted with gemstones, earrings with tiny scattered points of light…and please do send me pictures of your creations! To shop 2mm rose cuts, click here; to shop 2mm cabochons, click here.

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Rose quartz for a summer of love!

Joopy Gems rose quartz 5mm rose cut cabochon, $2.25
Joopy Gems rose quartz 6mm rose cut cabochon, $3.50
Joopy Gems rose quartz 6mm rose cut cabochon, $3.50

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.

Belinda Saville rose quartz and 14k rose gold ring, $120.86
Charlotte Burkhart rose quartz and sterling silver ‘Coven Ring’, $220
William White rose quartz and sterling silver ring, $125

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