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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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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Somewhere over the (extremely tiny) rainbow

Joopy Gems rainbow moonstone 2mm rose cut round, $2.85
Joopy Gems rainbow moonstone 2mm rose cut round, $2.85
Joopy Gems rainbow moonstone 2mm rose cut round, $2.85

Well, it’s a bit of a gamble, this. I’ve had a few requests lately for very tiny stones; 2mm to be precise, for things like baby jewellery and other tiny things. I hummed and haa-ed a bit: will anyone really buy these? – and then I thought, ‘blow it, only one way to find out’. So here we are. I already have 2mm rose cut white diamond in stock, and now I am introducing 2mm rose cut rainbow moonstone. These are really very wee indeed but even so, they have the same beautifully precise cut with the intricate kite-shaped facets. Whew! Plus lovely, clean AAA material with the classic great flash that I always endeavour to deliver. What are you going to do with these? Please buy some and send me pictures!! These are the first of a line of stones in this size, cabochons and rose cuts. I’m going to have amethyst, turquoise, peridot, aquamarine, opal and more!

To shop 2mm rose cut rainbow moonstone, click here. These are $2.85 per stone, and I know what you’re going to say: whew, that’s a bit steep. A great deal of the cost is in the cutting; very small stones are precision work and finding someone who will agree to cut them, and cut them well is no easy matter.

I normally feature someone’s work on these posts, so you can see the stones I’m talking about ‘in action’ as it were. But I couldn’t find anything for these, so…watch this space!

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White topaz 4mm rose cuts

White topaz 4mm rose cut round, $1.70
White topaz 4mm rose cut round, $1.70
White topaz 4mm rose cut round, $1.70

 

I couldn’t think of a fancier title for another popular stone back in stock; crystal clear brilliant white topaz in a 4mm rose cut round. The GIA says that topaz takes such a high polish it’s slightly slippery to the touch, and you can see that clearly in these stones, hard and bright; an excellent, versatile and economical choice for a white stone. This is a useful size; good for grouping or complementing other stones, or for using on its own. These are beautiful, eye clean and perfectly cut with kite-shaped facets that form a rose on top of the stone. You can find them here, at $1.70 per stone.

Below, Cyllene Jewelry’s white topaz and 14k gold earrings illustrate perfectly the simple and elegant beauty of these stones.

Cyllene Jewelry white topaz and 14k gold studs
Cyllene Jewelry white topaz and 14k gold earrings

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Back…but not for long

Joopy Gems rainbow moonstone 4mm rose cut cabochon, AAA grade
Rainbow moonstone 4mm rose cut cabochon, AAA grade, $4.65 per stone
Back in stock, rainbow moonstone 4mm rose cut round, AAA grade. I can’t count the number of customers who have asked me for this and I have now just a few pieces of this. I’m not going to be able to supply this in any quantity in future – only AA grade – as the AAA grade is becoming increasingly scarce, and anyone who has been asking me about it knows that the time taken for me to re-stock has been increasingly long. There’s just not a lot of this clean, clear material left; all gemstones are a finite resource and there won’t be more of this until more is discovered. If that happens. So if this is your thing, grab it!

It’s the layered make-up of the feldspar that makes this such a generally fractured and included stone, but which also gives it its characteristic sheen, or adularescence, as the light refracts off the layers within the stone and returns to the eye as a bright blue, aqua, green or gold sheen. It is this make-up that also means that clean material is rather rare. These stones are on sale in my website for $4.65 per stone; to shop, click here.

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Dancing, shimmering colour

White opal 6mm rose cut round, $15.45
White opal 6mm rose cut round, $15.45
White opal 4mm rose cut round, $4.55
White opal 4mm rose cut round, $4.55
White opal 5mm rose cut round, $8
White opal 5mm rose cut round, $8
White opal, 3mm rose cut round, $2.35
White opal, 3mm rose cut round, $2.35
White opal 6mm rose cut round, $15.45
White opal 6mm rose cut round, $15.45

I had a sample of rose cut opal in stock recently and it just flew out, in the space of a couple of hours. I don’t think I’ve ever stocked anything that sold out so quickly. So I got more in and once again it is selling phenomenally well. This is Ethiopian opal, which ranges from transparent to almost opaque, with a powerful play-of-colour that appears

Louisa Gallery opal and 14k gold ring
Louisa Gallery opal and 14k gold ring

to hang suspended within the stone. Opal from Ethiopia is a relatively new discovery – the source was only discovered in 1996. I have these in a 3mm, 4mm, 5mm and 6mm rose cut round and I must say, the rose cutting works phenomenally well with this material, highlighting the play-of-colour and making it absolutely pop. This is very eye-catching material, which is going to make stunning jewellery. You can see what I mean right; Louisa Gallery’s opal and 14k gold ring. Stunning, unexpected and rare.

To shop all rose cut opal, click here. Prices start from $2.35 for a 3mm rose cut cabochon.

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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