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
Extreme labradorite
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.
A billowing blue light
Back in stock I have AA grade 5mm rainbow moonstone. This is one of those products I can’t really get to order; I put in an order that goes ‘well this is how many I’d like, but just give me as many as you can.’ Because it’s becoming increasingly scarce, nice quality rainbow moonstone. This is a bit included, hence the AA but appears generally transparent with a wonderful billowing sheen that flashes from the stones. There’s blue, aqua, green and a few of the more gold tones. This material is from Madagascar and is just the antidote to all that cloudy, fractured sheen-barely-there material, of which there is, of course, no shortage whatsover! These stones are $11 each and you can find there here. To browse my entire range of rainbow moonstone you can click here for AA and AAA grade and click here for AB and A grade.
You can see this material perfectly realised below in Nicki Gluckman from NIXIN’s rainbow moonstone and diamond ring set in 14k gold, $225:
Floating in a turquoise sea
Just listed I have these gorgeous turquoise rose cut freeforms. There’s something very pleasing about a faceted opaque stone. Maybe because it’s rather unexpected, but I always think that turquoise lends itself so well to this cut. Maybe it’s because it’s not a cheap stone, and you can go to a generous size whilst still maintaining some kind of strangle-hold on the budget strings. And you all must agree with me because it’s one of the stones in this cut that I struggle to keep in stock – whatever I have just goes. So I am assuming the same will be true of this latest lot of new stock. I’ve been a bit brave and gone for some much larger ones than usual. The 12 or so carat one above with the lovely chunk of pyrite on the side – I think that’s gorgeous; I’ve got my eye on that one for my own collection, if someone doesn’t beat me to it. I don’t know how you feel about inclusions; I know not everyone loves them but I rather do, especially the silvery pyrite one often gets on turquoise – I think that’s really special. I also rather love the 2.4 carat one speckled with pyrite and dark matrix – so unusual. But if you’re a purist, then you can’t do better than the 7.6 carat triangle; just clean, clear turquoise, polished to perfection.
This cut lends itself particularly well to rings – big showy affairs that’ll make your fingers think all their Christmasses have come. Below, clockwise from left, I love the fierceness of the Turquoise Rose Cut Cage ring in 14k gold by Lex Luxe. Perfectly illustrating my point about the loveliness of pyrite inclusion is Erin Jane Designs’ Turquoise Ring in Recycled 14k gold. And see how that pyrite picks echoes the metal in the setting? And bottom right is Janish Jewels’ Rose Cut Sleeping Beauty Turquoise Twig Ring. Love the textured metal on the shank.
Lex Luxe Turquoise Rose Cut Cage Ring, set in 14K gold, $360
Erin Jane Designs Turquoise Ring in Recycled 14k Gold, $306
Janish Jewels Rose Cut Sleeping Beauty Turquoise Twig Ring 18k, $128
To shop turquoise rose cut freeforms, click here. Prices start from $17.
Aquamarine polki polka
Aquamarine Rose Cut Freeform 2.730 carats, 12x10x3.3mm, $29.75
Aquamarine Rose Cut Freeform 2.350 carats, 12×8.9×3.3mm, $25.50
Joopy Gems Aquamarine Rose Cut Freeform 2.140 carats, 11.9×8.8×2.9mm Joopy Gems Aquamarine Rose Cut Freeform 2.140 carats, 11.9×8.8×2.9mm Image 2 Joopy Gems Aquamarine Rose Cut Freeform 2.140 carats, 11.9×8.8×2.9mm Joopy Gems Aquamarine Rose Cut Freeform 2.140 carats, 11.9×8.8×2.9mm Aquamarine Rose Cut Freeform 2.140 carats, 11.9×8.8×2.9mm, $23
Aquamarine Rose Cut Freeform 2.985 carats, 12.3×9.7×4.1mm, $32
Aquamarine Rose Cut Freeform 3.045, 14.7×10.3×3.3mm, $33
Aquamarine Rose Cut Freeform 4.880 carats, 14.2×11.5×4.7mm, $53
I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with these freeform rose cuts: love, because they are always individually beautiful and more prosaically, they sell very well. Hate, because they always take such a long time to list; each one must be individually weighed, measured, photographed and listed. And they always sell out so quickly (!) And since I normally buy them in the hundreds, it’s a bit of a daunting task. So I have decided to keep a handle on it by updating on a rolling basis – a few types of stone every couple of months or so. And I’ve just done a new lot. First up are these aquamarine beauties; never stocked before, so I have just a few to see how they go. I think they will go well, because this is gorgeous material, ranging from the clear to the misty, lovely clouds and veils but no cracks or fractures. A range of lovely soft colours too; from sea-green to cool blue. Aquamarine takes a good polish, so these are really nicely finished as well and will look absolutely pukka in, well anything you choose to set them in. Warm in gold; cool in silver. These cuts are great; the shallow cut keeps the weight down so you can go large without either breaking the bank or causing someone to dislocate their wrist (or shoulder), or ripping through an ear lobe. Try them in a window setting, or possibly even a bezel. Perfectly illustrated in the picture below; Hammer and Verse rose cut sterling and 18k gold ring. Love the leaf detail on the shank as well.
To shop my aquamarine freeforms, click here. Prices start at $16.50, which is a fab price for this wonderful material. To shop all freeforms, click here. New in I also have turquoise, black rutilated quartz, labradorite, rainbow moonstone and a few lovely pieces of pink opal; watch out for more information about each of these. I will also be listing new watermelon slices and watermelon rosecut freeforms, coming soon!
Angels’ hair or a wheatsheaf?
Golden Rutilated Quartz Cabochon 8mm Round
Golden Rutilated Quartz Cabochon 8mm Round
Golden Rutilated Quartz Cabochon 10mm Roundochon-10mm-round
Golden Rutilated Quartz Cabochon 8mm Round
Golden Rutilated Quartz Cabochon 8mm Round
Golden Rutilated Quartz Cabochon 10mm Round
Golden Rutilated Quartz Cabochon 10mm Round
Talk about cryptic. But those of you in the know will realise I am talking about golden rutilated quartz. And those of you who know me will also know that I absolutely love this stuff. I’ve had it in freeform (polki) rose cuts for a while, but I’m just now offering it in cabochons, 8mm and 10mm round in the first instance. We’ll see how popular it is, and then I might offer it in other sizes or shapes. So rutilated quartz is also known as sagenitic quartz, or sagenite, (although I confess I’ve never come across it being called that, and I’ve been around the ‘gemstone block’ for quite a few years now, so it must be quite rare). What you have is clear to semi-transparent quartz included with rutile which has crystallised into needles. These appear in an amazing variety of forms; really fine, hence the name ‘angel hair’ to really thick, like lengths of straw. They may be sparse or dense; oriented into patterns – hence ‘wheatsheaf’ or randomly criss-crossed, but all are fascinating. The golden colour catches the light and gleams warm and gold. It looks great with silver or gold, and is the perfect stuff for creating something unique, as every piece is unique. I love the elegant simplicity of the pieces below, from left: Moon and Forge Studio’s rutilated quartz ring set in 14k yellow gold and sterling silver, at $315; Nijiko Designs’ rutilated quartz, 18k gold and sterling silver earrings at $175 and Chiara Batelier’s rutilated quartz pendant set in 18k gold
To shop 8mm rutilated quartz cabochons at $6 per stone, click here; to shop the 10mm cabochons at $8.25, click here
Rainbow dreams
It’s so hard to keep this material in stock. 3mm rainbow moonstone cabochons, clean quality. I also try not to run out of it, and re-order before it’s completely gone, but then someone comes along and buys up the entire stock, and we can’t find the rough and before I know where we are, I’m out for months! Anyway, this is the first of the 3mm and 4mm restock – plain cabochons, now $1.55 per stone. There’s so much of the cloudy, fractured material about, that when you see a clear stone with bright adularescence (or flash) it can take your breath away. In fact, a customer said to me just yesterday, having received her stones ‘is this real?’ Because the extreme, billowing flash can have an almost unreal appearance. It’s truly astonishing. (Answer, by the way, is yes, it is real. As far as I am aware, this is not synthesised at all). Harder and harder – and very expensive – to find in larger sizes, I can still just about put my hands on it for smaller sizes. Now, I’m not a fan of AAA etc grading systems as it is so subjective, and not standardised, but I do use it for moonstone as I carry such a wide range of qualities. This is AAA material, and for that you can expect clean stones with great adularescence. As for what to do with it, below is a lesson in perfect, understated elegance from one of my lovely customers. This sterling silver and rainbow moonstone ring from Brightsmith features a 3mm moonstone on a narrow, hammered silver band, $28.
To shop 3mm AAA cabochons, click here; to shop all my AA and AAA rainbow moonstone, click here. To shop my entire range, click here.
Turquoise cabochons
Now back in stock, ever popular 3mm turquoise cabochons! These are one of the (actually many now) stones that I struggle to keep in stock. This material is light greenish-blue with a bit of a colour range going from a bit more green to a bit more blue – do shout if you have a preference. It’s stabilised, as is very common with turquoise, but not dyed. There’s a bit of matrix on the underside of some of the stones, but not across the top and hey, at least you know it’s real! It’s pale tan matrix, so for those of you who are interested, this tells you that the turquoise formed in sandstone. Now, turquoise is quite strongly linked with the ‘southwestern’ style of jewellery, but it also lends itself very well to smaller, sleeker designs, and works equally well with both silver and gold. For inspiration, below are some examples of small-scale, perfectly formed turquoise jewellery. From left: Holly Presley’s turquoise ring features a 3mm turquoise sitting on an organic drop of silver; Rita Moehler’s sterling silver turquoise bangle features six turquoise stones on a solid silver ridged band; Melanie Casey’s set of 5 gold stack rings features 3mm and 4mm turquoise stones (and one green chalcedony!) set in solid 14k gold and Thalassa Jewellery’s silver pod earrings feature 3mm turquoise stones set in oxidised silver pods.
To shop 3mm cabochons, click here; to browse all turquoise cabochons, click here.
Purple Velvet
Sometimes I can’t believe all the stones I have. And sometimes I can’t believe what I don’t have. Like today, listing for the first time plain African amethyst 8mm cabochons. Well, I say plain, but these lovely, velvety-dark purple stones need nothing fancy to set off their beauty and in fact will work equally well in a sleek, clean setting or a something more complex. Some inclusions on these stones, as is common with this material; a bit of colour zoning, wispy veils and some crystals, but the colour is dark enough that it’s not obvious. $11.50 per stone; to check them out, click here. To shop all African amethyst, click here.
Inspiring pieces, from left to right, Laura Wilson Gallery one of a kind amethyst sterling silver brooch or pendant, my lovely customer L. Sue Szabo’s hollow form sterling silver and amethyst ring, and Stowe Gems amethyst cabochon 14k stack ring.
Enjoy a curious, witty and inventive new year!
Ring in the Chinese year of the monkey with our special 48 hour sale. A fantastically cheeky 20% discount on all products, valid from now until midnight on Wednesday 10th February! Coupon code below, valid for www.joopygems.com
Joopy Gems | The Blog 