It’s out and it’s on time for once!! My February newsletter with a round-up of the latest additions, some interesting news and articles, the exclusive newsletter offer, and what to look out for next month. Click here to read the newsletter, and why not pop over to www.joopygems.com to sign up and you’ll never miss out again!
Last week’s post focused on rose quartz; this week I am looking at the second of Pantone’s colours of the year: Serenity. Pantone see these two colours in balance; the warmth of the rose quartz contrasting with the cool beauty of pale icy blue, perfectly realised by blue chalcedony. With its billowing translucency, this stone often glows as if lit from within. There are lots of examples on my Pinterest board; below are just a few that have caught my eye.
Pictured left is a pale blue chalcedony ring, set in solid sterling silver and oxidised to a dark, blackened finish. This is by Raphaela and Jenna of Fifth Heaven Designs, a team based in Brisbane, Australia, who love making interesting and quirky designs, and who specialise in one-off custom designs, hand-forged from silver and gold-fill. I love the edgy, industrial feel this ring has, the stark metal a perfect contrast with the soft blue of the stone.
Dana Evans of Dana Evans Studio is an architect-turned jeweller, who remains inspired by architectural forms and details; incorporating a love of shape and pattern into her work. Her silver and blue chalcedony Ravena earrings are part of her Etruria collection, part homage to the ancient Etruscans, who were masters of the art of granulation. You can see this technique in these earrings, which blend an ancient and modern aesthetic into a perfect harmony. I love the bold shapes and the contrast between bright silver highlights and oxidised background. Dana incorporates cast and hard-forged pieces into her hand-made work.
Bridget Clark takes her inspiration from primitive, industrial and organic forms which she simplifies into bold and striking pieces of wearable art. Pictured left are her sterling silver and Peruvian chalcedony long fob earrings; I love the matt silver finish and subtle elegance of these. Bridget states that she aims for a subtle asymmetry in her work, for interest and movement and I think this works perfectly, challenging the eye and the brain. Bridget makes all of her pieces herself and is constantly experimenting with shape and form.
I absolutely love mokume gane, and you don’t see alot of it about. That is most likely because it is a challenging, technical and precise technique, but Chris Ploof Designs specialises in it. It involves the bonding of many metals which can then be bent, twisted, cut, rolled, ground down or shaped with punches and chisels. These are then rolled out, to reveal the intricate, curving patterns. This hollow construction silver, 14 carat gold and white gold ring with blue chalcedony takes my breath away, the white metal acting as a perfect complement to the cool, blue stone.
For more examples of amazing and inspiring blue chalcedony pieces, check out my Pinterest board, including, below from left to right, J Chapa Hernandez Ellensburg blue chalcedony ring set in 18 carat gold, Dior Gourmande Libellule ring in white gold and blue chalcedony, Bartosz Ciba’s ‘Wennonah’; sterling silver upcycled wire wrapped earrings with blue chalcedony and Leslie Zemeneck Jewelry’s ‘In a Blue Mood’ sterling silver and blue chalcedony pendant.
Why not check out our range of blue chalcedony cabochons? We have a range of rose cuts, starting at $1.60 for a 4mm round. Pictured at top are our 10mm rose cut blue chalcedony round cabochons.
Pantone has for the first time this year chosen two shades to be their colours of the year; Rose quartz and Serenity. With this they are striving to demonstrate a balance between the warmth of pink and the cool celestial quality of pale blue reflecting the current preoccupation with mindfulness and well-being. These colours are perfectly represented by the gemstones rose quartz and blue chalcedony. This post is dedicated to the pale beauty of rose quartz; look out next week for blue chalcedony. I’ve been putting together a Pinterest board on this theme with a selection of jewellery that has caught my eye; the bold, the beautiful and the truly unique!
Nicole Scheetz is the inspiration behind Luxuring, based in Alberta, Canada. Specialising in rings, her pieces speak to a feminine, minimalist aesthetic. I love this delicate ring of 14 carat gold set with a rose cut rose quartz cabochon. Nicole uses recycled metals; solid silver and 14k gold in her work and hand-forges all of her pieces. Nicole is a customer of mine and it’s wonderful to see the many amazing ways in which all you talented designers incorporate my stones into your art.
Chris Engelken is a US designer based in Wisconsin who has been designing and making jewellery for over 20 years. Right is his amazing Rose Quartz White Gold ring. This setting really showcases the beauty of this unique sculpted piece of rose quartz. Rose quartz can be quite pale but this 30 carat chunk really demonstrates a superb density of colour, which with the cool, white gold setting is a match made in heaven!
Ben Proctor of Benati jewellery is based in Israel. Inspired by nature and architectural forms, he blends old gold-smithing techniques and modern technology to create fine, individual pieces with an emphasis on quality and perfection. This approach is encapsulated in the rose quartz pendant pictured left; a combination of fine, delicate gold mesh-work and a classic bezel set rose quartz.
For more examples of exciting and inspiring rose quartz pieces, check out my Pinterest board, including, below from left to right, ‘French Kiss’ Lip necklace by cliffandb, Madagascar Rose Quartz and 14k gold earrings by Marie Wu Designs, Winged Rose Quartz ring by Agrigento Designs and Rose Gold and Rose Quartz Sun Necklace by Snowflake Designs
Why not check out our range of rose quartz and blue chalcedony; we have cabochons and rose cuts in a range of sizes. Pictured top are 10mm rose cut rose quartz and blue chalcedony.
Not the rather unforgiving Dulux paint colour, but that crowd-pleasing favourite White Topaz. Just listed I have rose cut pears and ovals, with – due to popular request – flat backs. White topaz is such an excellent choice for a white stone – easy to obtain in clean quality with really excellent brilliance. It’s great value for money, so you can go really large with your stones, and who can resist a big chunk of glittering clear rock? It’s also just a little bit more gemmy than, say, rock crystal, helping to maintain the value of your catalogue. Here I have 8x10mm and 10x12mm pears, and an 8x10mm oval, all good, large sizes to make show-stopping pieces, all of fantastic, eye-clean clarity. As stated, these are all cut with flat backs, so will set neatly in a bezel setting. Prices start from $11 for the 8x10mm faceted pear; click here to shop all white topaz.
Here we have the first of a literally huge re-stock – lots of new lines, as well as old favourites back in stock. This is ever-popular green amethyst, finally back up to numbers, in 4mm, 6mm, 8mm and 10mm rose cuts, with the new addition of 5mm. This is lovely material, eye clean and with good saturation for green amethyst, which is a pale stone. You can shop green amethyst here, prices start from $1.35 for a 4mm rose cut round. Keep your eyes out for a cascade of new additions over the next few days!
Just in, I have 6mm rose cut labradorite. Just a few of these lovely, translucent stones with fantastic labradorescent flash, so if this is your bag, hurry before they go! Unfortunately I’m not going to be able to supply these for this price in the future. They are $3 per stone and you can find them here
One of my gemstone books informs me that efforts are being made to come up with a more enticing name for this vibrant and dramatic green stone, but that was written a few years ago and it is still known, somewhat off-puttingingly as chrome diopside. But never mind the fact that it sounds like a brand of car wax! This is a fantastic stone; highly saturated, highly refractive, so that stones appear brilliant, and with a vitreous lustre. The saturation of the stone can mean that larger sizes appear dark and closed, but the good side of this is that it is one of the few stones that retains great saturation in small sizes. At the moment, it is also not enhanced or treated in any way, so it’s a great option for those of you who like their stones natural. I have some new in stock; rose cut 3mm and 4mm chrome diopside, in addition to the 3mm and 4mm cabochons that I generally stock. The 3mm rose cuts are $5.75 per stone and the 4mm rose cuts are $15.50. This pricing reflects the fact that chrome diopside is far more common in small crystal sizes so therefore as you go up in size, the price increases exponentially. The material I have is clean, with great saturation.
You can shop the whole of my chrome diopside range here
I love these. Golden rutilated quartz rose cut cabochons. I mean, I really, really love them. I love looking at them, I loved photographing them (and I don’t always love that part) and I love imagining what you’re going to do with them. A customer asked a while back for rutilated quartz or white topaz freeforms, and I thought about photographing 100+ white topaz stones and I confess my heart rather sank into my boots. Not that I don’t like white topaz, far from it, I just couldn’t get all that excited about photographing it. But the gold rutilated quartz; well that’s another matter. It’s all different and it’s all fascinating. I’ve got stones that have thick gold needles that look like straw, stones with fine strands, like angel-hair, some aligned, some in thick masses, some beautifully and artfully arranged into intersecting patterns. It’s fabulous stuff; known also as Cupid’s darts, Venus Hair stone and Fleches d’Amour. Can be hard to get it to look nice, as the quartz host and the gold rutile crystal inclusion have different hardnesses, so you can easily get pits on the surface, but most of these stones have an excellent polish. I think these stones make fabulous one-off contemporary pieces; the kind that get you noticed and get people talking. As with all of my rose cut freeforms, these are rose cut on the domed side and tabled on the reverse so can be set either way up in a bezel, window or prong setting. Why not have a flick through and see if anything grabs you? I have a feeling that these will not hang around for long. Shop now.
I’m always excited when I have new tourmaline in stock. I think it must be my favourite stone, with its unparalleled variety of colours, from soft pastels to vibrant primaries.
Egyptian legend has it that the tourmaline, when travelling up from the centre of the earth, passed over a rainbow, and in so doing assumed all of its colours. Whether or not you believe that, the name tourmaline comes from the Singhalese ‘tura mali’, which translates to something like ‘stone with mixed colours’, referencing the spectrum of colours which this stone displays. Here I have just listed a veritable bouquet of rose cut freeform tourmalines. I have single colours, bi-colours and parti-colours, with quality ranging from included to nearly clean; soft pale pinks, to vibrant bubble-gum shades, sharp apple greens, neon yellows, and deep, dreamy blues. All of them are lovely; every stone with its own special character and each one unique. These would look fabulous on their own, or keeping each other company in spectacular fashion. As with all of my freeforms, these stones are rose cut on one side and tabled on the other, so can be set either way up, in a bezel, window or prong setting. Prices from $7.50 up, click here to shop. http://www.joopygems.com/categories/freeform-rose-cuts-polki-and-cabochons/tourmaline.html
I’ve just listed some absolutely sublime high quality chrysoprase; pure apple green and beautifully translucent. I have singles (see left) and a few matched pairs (see right) and the matching is very good indeed. These are rose cut freeforms, also known as ‘polki’; a cut I have been stocking in increasingly large nu
mbers as it is just so popular. The name comes from the Greek and means ‘golden apple’, a reference to the slightly yellowish hue these stones have, and the name should be confined to stones that are naturally this colour and not dyed. Needless to say, the chrysoprase I carry is not dyed! These stones are really special and I can see the pairs as earrings in gold window settings. I also have some new standard grade chrysoprase too. T
his is not quite as translucent; some stones are more translucent than others, but is still of good colour and quality and additionally I have some pairs in this material as well (see left). Chrysoprase is becoming increasingly popular; it’s a little bit emerald-like, a little bit jade-like, but without the attendant price tag, of course. Prices for the finer chrysoprase start at $21.50 for a single stone and $88 for a pair; for the standard grade, from $7.50 for a single and $35 for a pair. Click here to buy the high grade; click here for the standard grade, and click here for matched pairs.
http://www.joopygems.com/categories/freeform-rose-cuts-polki-and-cabochons/chrysoprase-freeform.html
Joopy Gems | The Blog 