In her latter years,  my grandmother used to have a whiskey mac every evening before supper.  The way she mixed it, this was half a tumbler of whisky topped up with Stones Ginger wine, no ice.  Quite amazing that she managed to stagger to the table after downing that, but my mum said that it cheered her up, and that was always a good thing.  Plus she was not the kind of woman who liked to be told what to do, so if she wanted to end her day lightly sozzled, no-one was going to tell her she couldn’t.  The reason I mention this is because I have some new hessonite garnet in, and this stuff always makes me think of my gran’s whiskey macs; that deep, tawny reddish gold, with a slightly cloudy quality; the fine, swirling inclusions giving the stones a silken lustre, as if they are glowing from within.  And don’t tell me that I don’t give you odd and interesting stuff either, because I’ve got this in not just a standard cab, but a rose cut as well!

More new stock!  I have some absolutely gorgeous pale indigo rose cut tanzanite; very clean material and full of sparkle.  I know that there are some real tanzanite addicts out there, so this is a real treat!  Also new in is melanite in 4mm, 6mm and 10mm kind of rose cut.  What I mean by ‘kind of rose cut’ is that it is a cut that I see other people routinely describe as rose cut but which is a little less complex than my standard rose cuts.  My supplier calls it something like ‘upside down checker’ but I think that would create even more confusion!  It’s triangular facets, and they make a rose pattern, but just without the fancy flower that I normally have on my stones.  Also have 8mm coming in, but I still have to photograph and list that.  Finally, Swiss Blue Topaz in a 4mm rose cut, lovely and vibrant, to go with all these bright colours that are coming in this season.

Finally back in stock!  This is beautiful, intense pink rubellite, absolutely gorgeous fuschia coloured droplets.  Lovely quality as well; beautifully clear although there are a few inclusions of course, this is tourmaline after all.  I have these in a 4mm and a 5mm round, available now at http://www.joopygems.com

Recently purchased; this beautiful dragonfly pendant made by the talented Julia Quinn at Cheeky Lemur .  The wings are of opal and the body is set with peridots, and it is such an eye-catching, unusual piece.  I bought this pendant for my sister-in-law as she is fond of butterflies and dragonflies and other such winged creatures, plus her birthday is in August and peridots are the birthstone for August, so it was just perfect.  I have now sent the pendant, having spent a couple of weeks gazing covetously at it and wishing I could keep it!  Julia lives in Normandy and says that she derives inspiration from the lush natural landscape that surrounds her, and I can imagine this creature hovering across a lake or perching on a strand of long grass.

Along with stone-set jewellery, Julia also has a fine line in enamel work as well.   I could not resist this purple enamelled pendant for myself as well.  Purple is my favourite colour and in this pendant the enamel is laid over silver so the colour really sings.  Check out her Etsy shop for a selection of funky and original work.

Finally, some of those new stones I was promising you.  These are tiny 4mm checker cut cushion cabochons, and were a special request from Adele at The Nosejob so hopefully you all like them too!  I’ve got them in London Blue Topaz, rhodolite garnet, citrine and peridot (as pictured) as well as amethyst and white topaz.  I am always surprised at how popular the 4mm rounds are so I am hoping these are as popular as well!

It’s always nice when you can put prices down instead of up.  This new batch of London Blue Topaz I had cut just a little shorter than my last lot – that is the dome is a little lower.  It’s still a good sized stone – 1.2 carats for a 6mm stone.  But the last lot were 1.4 carats, which is actually quite hefty – and obviously pricier.  These new ones are $7.50, which is a whole dollar cheaper than the previous lot.  Available now from www.joopygems.com

New products as promised!  Beautiful 8mm rose cut peridot, a really vibrant apple-green colour with just a touch of gold, and such a nice, big size for this stone.  I allowed just a few inclusions into this so as to keep the stones affordable, but I am so pleased because they are barely noticeable.  I can see this looking great for the autumn perhaps with some golds and pinks and purples.  Also pink tourmaline in 4mm cabochons – yes, I got the pinks sorted!  We have dark and light pink and dark and light apricot.  This is really gorgeous quality material – a few inclusions; you always get that with tourmaline unless you are as rich as Croesus – but very clean for this stone and still an excellent price.  Check them all out at www.joopygems.com !  And look out for more coloured 4mm tourmaline which I will list over the coming days.

A mixed bag of tourmaline.  Cheaper if I buy it like this, with all the colours, rather than just pink or blue or whatever (so obviously better for you guys), but an exciting task ahead of me separating them all out! These are 4mm round cabochons, beautiful material, really very clean for tourmaline.  I’m going to have pinks, apricots, blues, greens, yellows, all sorts.  I will be listing all of this once it is all sorted.  Then for my next task I will be plucking needles from haystacks…!

This always gives me pause for thought.  I don’t mean the kind of gold and diamond bling I see in Luk Fook every time I wander through Central Hong Kong; no I mean the prices I see whenever I browse through the shops on Etsy and Artfire and other homes for hand-made artisan created one-off stuff.  I often take a look through the jewelry shops not just through intrinsic interest, but also because I like to see what kinds of colours and cuts people are using, and I am constantly amazed by the low prices that so many artisans place on their work.  Not everyone, of course, but there are an awful lot of people offering hand-made jewelry for insanely low prices.  Can someone explain this to me?  I can’t understand how these artisans are even covering their costs, let alone their time.   I suspect that it is in many ways a function of sites like Etsy (and that it is not just jewelry that is prone to this kind of competitive undercutting); great though they are for establishing yourself and getting known, when you are in the same cyber space as many other people in the same business as you, there is constant downwards pressure on prices.  I do know that pressure; I felt it myself at first, until I realised that if your only USP is price, then someone will always undercut you. Pricing is difficult and it is a brave thing, sometimes, to price at something’s true value, but I know that if I am buying jewelry, I buy things I fall in love with.  Price is always a consideration of course (I love the Koh-i-noor diamond; it won’t be in my collection anytime soon!) but not the most important one.  Anyway, I hope this doesn’t offend anyone, I just think it’s an interesting issue, and I would love to hear some designers’ views.