Lab Cab Destash

Joopy Gems Labradorite Freeform Cabochons
Labradorite Freeform Cabochons, assorted sizes, $9-$16

Aaaand there’s more! I came across these little beauties earlier today and thought they need to find new and happy homes. They are pretty large freeform labradorite cabochons in the 20-30 carat, 20-30mm range. Standard grade material, so inclusions, fractures and a sort of translucent dark grey body material. But the flash is amazing – there are a couple of really striking pinstripes, and that one up in the top left corner is my favourite. I keep wanting to write a series on ‘In Praise of Inclusions’ and that stone is a real case in point – lots of fine, little fractures that look like the delicate veining on a leaf, and with a superb bright gold flash. You can find these little chaps here. Prices start from $9 per stone, and they are all on a 50% discount.

joopygems.com

 

 

 

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.

joopygems.com

Extreme labradorite

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

I’ve got lots of new labradorite in at the moment; these are oval cabochons. I have 6x4mm, 7x5mm and 8x10mm to go with the 8x6mm and 10x12mm I already have in stock. As with all of my labradorite, I stick to the Madagascan material, which means a light, translucent body-colour with a vibrant flash. I have a variety of colours; blue, aqua, green and gold. This is very nice quality material, but that doesn’t mean it is entirely free of fractures; labradorite (and moonstone for that matter) is a stone composed of many layers and so to find completely clean material is quite difficult. The bigger the stone, the more difficult it becomes. It’s getting a little bit ‘grab it whilst you can’ as I am finding it harder and harder to source this, especially in larger sizes. As I wrote in my previous post, the Inuit claim that labradorite fell from the frozen fire of the aurora borealis, which I think is just the most wonderful, magical piece of lore imaginable! You can find all of my oval labradorite by clicking here. Prices start from $1.30 per stone for a 6x4mm labradorite oval.

Below, the beauty of Madagascan labradorite is complemented beautifully by the cool sheen of sterling silver in Kira Ferrer’s labradorite and sterling silver set of 5 stacking rings.

Kira Ferrer labradorite stacking rings.jpg-1
Kira Ferrer set of 5 labradorite and sterling silver stacking rings, $108

joopygems.com