Labradorite, Golden Rutile, Turquoise, Charoite & More!

April 2018 Blog headerOur new newsletter is out and I have had so much new stock to list that I haven’t been able to include everything. From labradorite in new cuts and old faves that I haven’t had for a while, to turquoise. Plus ever-popular golden rutile in calibrated cabochons, rounds and ovals and in my quest to find ever more interesting purple stones in this year of purple, I have charoite cabochons too. Plus rock crystal lily beads, more aquamarine and tons more! I also have just a few discounts of 25% and 20% left, so why not either check out my newsletter here or go straight to the source and check out our latest additions here

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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.

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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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Good things come in packs of 5

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These labradorite freeforms are so popular that I find myself spending literally hours photographing and listing them. So I thought I would just try and see if I could save myself a little work and you a little money by listing them in sets. 5 randomly selected stones in each set, with a discount applied so that each stone works out as less than if you had bought them separately. These are sold ‘as is’ with no swapping in and out!!! You’ll find the total carat weight and the size range marked on each set, but not individual information. It’s a great way to buy these stones and I promise these come from main stock with no seconds, or rejects and there are no ‘mouldy strawberries’ in the packs to pad them out, promise! To shop all labradorite sets, click here; to browse the labradorite singles, click here. Prices for the sets start from $15.20

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Extreme labradorite

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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

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Labradorite; a little slice of frozen fire

I was going to do a post about these the last time I had new stock in, but by the time I got down to it, they had mostly sold out. Fantastically popular and it’s easy to see why. Desirable Madagascan labradorite, with the pale, translucent body colour and bright – and in some cases blinding – flash. Labradorite is composed of layers, and it’s the way that the light refracts off these layers that produces the flash, or labradorescence. The Inuit used believe that labradorite fell from the frozen fire of the Aurora Borealis, and it’s easy to see why – the stone has an almost other-worldly quality to it. A dull grey stone transformed to the extraordinary as the light refracts and relects off it. I have just listed lots and lots of new stones; you can find them here. Prices start from just $3.70.

Below is Luttrell Studio’s sublime labradorite and sterling silver ring, priced at $85. Perfectly simple and elegant, the cool silver against the labradorite makes the colour just sing.

Luttrell studio labraodorite and sterling silver ring
Luttrell Studio labradorite and sterling silver ring, $85