Magical Gems for June
June is the start of the summer season and there is no better way to honor this month than with the magical gems of pearls and moonstones! Both gems have the honor of being the birthstones for June and I can’t think of a better pairing of gemstones to represent this season and month!
Sterling Silver Moonstone Stud Earrings
Moonstones are from the feldspar group of minerals and is one of the few gems that displays a phenomenon called adularescence. Adularescence occurs when light is diffracted through the layers of the gem causing unique optical effects in the stone. In moonstone, this optical effect resembles the moon shining through the stone.
Legends say moonstone brings good luck and many believed that you could see the future if you held a moonstone in your mouth during a full moon. Moonstone is considered a stone of “new beginnings” and is associated with inner growth and strength. It’s also known to soothe emotional instability and stress.*
Mabe Pearl Crown Necklace
Classic, beautiful and considered one of the most elegant of gems, it’s easy to see why pearls are so loved and adored.
The earliest recorded mention of pearls came from China and dates to 2206 BC. In ancient China, pearls were believed to guarantee protection from fire and fire-breathing dragons. In Europe, pearls symbolized modesty, chastity and purity.
Pearls occur in a wide variety of colors naturally. The pearl obtains it’s color from the host mollusk’s shell. So, if the shell is pink in color, the pearl will be too. Cultured pearl farmers today, use that knowledge to produce pearls in a wide variety of colors.
There are typically 2 types of pearls: Natural and Cultured. Natural pearls form in bodies of mollusks without the help of humans in any way. Cultured pearls require human intervention and care in production of the pearl. Today, most pearls on the market are from cultured sources.
You can find pearls all over the world, but most commonly in Japan, China, Australia, Indonesia, the Philippines and Tahiti. China is the leading source for freshwater cultured pearls today.*
*Souce: GIA Gem Encyclopedia
Marching into Spring
Happy Spring!!!!!! March is here and the garden is waking up from its winter slumber! I’ve been dreaming about what I’m going to plant this year in our garden and all the beautiful flowers that make their appearance this time of year!
March is also the month of Aquamarine. I love this beautiful stone for its calming soft blue and green colors and the stone’s ability to be worn in almost any type of setting.
Aquamarine and white topaz necklace with sterling silver woven chain.
Aquamarine is the birthstone for the month of March., and the gem for the 19th wedding anniversary. The name Aquamarine is derived from the Latin for seawater. Legend has it that aquamarine stones will calm waves and keep sailors safe at sea. The gem is also thought to help keep marriages happy.*
In 1971, Aquamarine was designated as the state gem of Colorado. Many deposits of aquamarine have been found in the Mt. Antero region of Colorado and the Denver Natural History Museum has an amazing aquamarine collection.
Blue Agate and Aquamarine Briolette Earrings
It’s easy to see why Aquamarine is such a beloved stone by so many! The soft calming colors make this stone perfect for jewelry!
Happy Spring!
Chrissi
*gemstone information is sourced from the GIA Gem Encyclopedia.
Peridot for August
Egyptians called peridot the “Gem of the Sun” for its electric yellowish green hues. Peridot (also called Olivine) has long been prized for its yellowish green color that comes from iron and magnesium impurities. The best peridot is a pure grass green in color.
Peridot crystals are often found in meteorites, but these crystals are usually not large enough to be made into jewelry. Most peridot for gem purposes is found as irregular nodules from lava flows in the United States, China and Vietnam.
Some historians believe that Cleopatra’s famous emerald collection might actually have been peridot. People in medieval times often confused peridot with emerald. For centuries, it was believed that the 200-ct. gems adorning the shrine of the Three Holy King’s in Germany’s Cologne Cathedral were emeralds, when in fact, they are peridot’s.
Peridot is the birthstone for the month of August and also represents the 15th Anniversary gemstone. It’s easy to see why it’s such a popular gem and surrounded by so much lore!
All the best!
Chrissi
*gemstone information source: GIA website.
Mysterious Pearls and Magical Moonstones
Mysterious Pearls
June birthdays are especially lucky! They not only get one amazing gemstone to celebrate their special month, but 2 incredible gems!
Pearls are some of my favorite gemstones! They come in such a wide array of colors, sizes and shapes! Their luster beats no other! Pearls have been revered for centuries as an adornment and are one of the best loved gems of all time. From Marie Antoinette’s famous Baroque pearl necklace (which recently sold at auction for an incredible $32 million and dates back to the 18th Century!!!), to several American First Ladies (Jackie Kennedy, Barbara Bush to name a few), were all known for their amazing pearls. It just goes to show that pearls have been revered and adored throughout the centuries!
Did you know that pearls come in a variety of colors? The palette of pearl colors extends to every hue from bright white pearls to deep, rich black pearls and everything in-between. Pearls derive their color from the color of the inside of the shell of the oyster. The outside body of the pearl is called “nacre” and it’s the protective coating that the oyster produces to protect itself from a foreign body that enters the shell. Pearls are one of the few “organic” gems. Meaning that they are derived from an animal, not a rock.
The nacre that covers a pearl is delicate, so care must be taken when cleaning and wearing pearls. Avoid ultrasonic machines and harsh cleaners. No abrasives!!!! A soft cloth and a little soap and water will work just fine to keep your pearls shiny!
Magical Moonstones
Many cultures associate the gem Moonstone with moonlight, and it’s easy to see why. The gem is reminiscent of the moon with its white milky color and the way the light scatters through the gemstone. Legends say moonstones bring good luck and that if you hold a moonstone in your mouth during a full moon, you will be able to see the future. I’ve never tried this…but hey…why not?
Moonstones are a hardy stone and are great for most jewelry. They hold up to normal wear well but can be prone to breaking along natural fracture lines in the stone, so care should be taken not to bang them up against a hard surface.
Moonstones have an effect within the stone called “Adularescence”. When light falls into the stone, the thin, flat layers scatter the light in many directions, causing an effect of motion within the stone. Adularescence causes the light to give a glowing appearance within the stone. (You can see the glow at the bottom of the moonstone in the pendant above).
When caring for your moonstone jewelry, warm, soapy water is always safe and best. Mild cleaners should be okay. Because of the many layers that comprise the stone, it’s best to avoid ultrasonics.
Aquamarine for March
Whenever I see an Aquamarine gemstone, I always think of a warm beach with sparkling blue water in a beautiful tropical location. There is good reason for this…aquamarine is considered the “gem of the sea” and the name aquamarine in Latin means “sea water”.
The soft blue-greens of the stone give a comforting and warm feel. Aquamarine is a transparent or translucent variety of the gem species Beryl which also contains the emerald and morganite varieties of gemstones. As a relatively hard gemstone with a Moh’s harness between 7.5-8, aquamarine is an ideal gem for most jewelry.
The largest and finest aquamarines are from Brazil, Afghanistan or Pakistan, although, there are deposits in the United States. The most desirable color is pure blue. As the birthstone for March…I feel like it brings warmth and color to the ending of winter and is the perfect stone to celebrate those March birthdays!
Amethyst for February
Amethyst is the traditional birthstone for the month of February and how lucky February birthdays are! It is known as the stone that enhances intuition, spirituality and meditation. In medieval times, it was believed that amethyst would protect from nightmares and insomnia, and amethyst was widely engraved with animal symbols to provide protection and security.
The Romans believed that amethyst would be protected from drunkedness if they drank from a cup decorated or carved from amethyst. In Britain, power, wealth and royalty was often associated with the color purple, so many of the royal jewels are adorned with amethyst stones.
Amethyst is a purple variation of quartz. It’s colors range from deep, dark purple that appears almost black in some light to a very light lavender. Sometimes, you will find amethyst and citrine in the same stone which is called Ametrine. Because amethyst is a member of the quartz family, it’s a good gemstone for jewelry. It takes wear very well, and can be found in everything from bracelets, earrings, rings and necklaces.
Amethyst is one of my favorite gems. Be sure to check out our website to see all that we have available in this beautiful stone!
Chic Sapphires for Autumn
Celebrating Autumn? Sapphire is the perfect stone!
Rich tones and regal colors, sapphire beauties are thought to be the stones of kindness, hope and good fortune!
Sapphires and rubies belong to the same family of gems, and oftentimes, pink sapphire is mistaken for ruby. In order for a stone to be considered ruby, it must have a deep rich red color. Pink sapphire is just as beautiful though!
Blue is the most commonly associated color of sapphire. Although the gem can be yellow, pink, green, white in addition to blue. All beautiful and all elegant!
Shop Now for our best selection of sapphire jewelry!!!
Glamorous Emeralds For May
Emerald is the green to bluish green variety of mineral species called beryl, and is the most famous member of the beryl family, along with aquamarine. Emeralds rich green color is the perfect birthstone for the month of May, where it represents the rebirth of nature after the long winter.
Emerald is one of those gemstones that has fascinated and captivated people since the dawn of time. The first known emerald mines were in Egypt dating from at least 330 BC into the 1700s. Cleopatra had a famous passion for emeralds and used them in her adornments.
Emeralds from what is now Colombia were part of the plunder when sixteenth-century Spanish explorers invaded the New World. The Incas had already been using emeralds in their jewelry and religious ceremonies for 500 years. The Spanish, who treasured gold and silver far more than gems, traded emeralds for precious metals. Their trades opened the eyes of European and Asian royalty to emerald’s majesty.
Emeralds, while still a relatively hard gem, is not particularly durable. Many emeralds contain fractures under the service and are prone to cracking during the lapidary process. In order to enhance the beauty of the stones, and minimize the appearance of fractures…emeralds will be treated with substances from essential oils to waxes or resins. These treatments have varying amounts of stability in a stone, so care should always be used with emeralds if the treatment is not known. Most qualified gemologists should be able to detect any treatments given to the gemstone.
***Source: GIA Gem Encyclopedia.
December Gems!
Welcome December!!!
December is finally here and with it, brings us one month closer to 2021! 2020 has been an interesting year to say the least, and I know I’m really looking forward to the promise of a New Year on the horizon!
December also highlights my two favorite gemstones as birthstones for the month. Turquoise, with it’s variety of blues, greens and interesting patterns and Zircon, with it’s fiery flashes of light. Both stones are very unique and very different from one another, but both are also so beautiful!
I’ll start with turquoise. Turquoise is a stone that comes with so much history, lore and fascination. It’s prized for it’s perfection of color and interesting patterns. The most valuable turquoise possesses a soft and pleasing blue tone, reminiscent of Robin’s Egg blue. Turquoise was known and used as an ornament in antiquity. The earliest direct reference to turquoise occurs in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics*.
Turquoise ranges in color from beautiful sky-blue to pale green and present a wide diversity of shades. The most valuable stones contain no inclusions, however, as turquoise mines have become depleted over the years, this has changed. Now, the most highly sought gems come from mines that are no longer in operation, such as Bisbee, Orville Jack and a few others.
The most important deposits of turquoise are found in Persia, Central Asia, and the Southwestern portion of the United States.
Turquoise owes it’s color to the presence of copper in it’s molecule and iron exerts an influence over the color of the gem. The blue shades of turquoise are more readily influenced by copper, while the green shades have a greater presence of iron compounds.
Turquoise is a rather soft gem, and therefore needs care when wearing or working with the stone. Because the stone is rather porous in nature, it will easily absorb oils especially if it’s not a sealed stone. (I learned this the hard way with an unsealed sleeping beauty gem, and hand lotion). I always recommend removing your soft stone jewelry before applying lotion, washing hands, or bathing. Also, never put turquoise in an ultrasonic as the vibration can cause the gem to crack along any stress points.
Natural turquoise stone paired with a sparkling blue Zircon
Zircon is another one of my favorite gems, and is in an entirely different spectrum than turquoise. Zircon boasts bold flashes of light and refraction, making everyone aware of it’s beauty and presence. One of the things I love the most about Zircon is how brightly the gems shine! Zircon is best known as a colorless diamond imitation, but it appears in many different colors. Zircon is NOT the artificial gem material called Cubic Zirconia…which is an entirely different material, and not at all a beautiful as natural Zircon.
Blue, Golden and Raspberry Zircon stones
Zircon was widely used as a diamond simulant during the early 1900s. For that reason, many people have never really seen zircon. In the Middle Ages, Zircon was thought to induce sound sleep, drive away evil spirits, and promote riches, honor, and wisdom.Blue zircon was a particular favorite in Victorian times, when fine gems were often featured in English estate jewelry dating from the 1880s. Gemologist George Kunz—Tiffany’s famed gem buyer—was a notable zircon advocate. He once proposed the name “starlite” to promote the gem’s fiery nature. The name never caught on.**
*Source: “Turquois-Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences” by Joseph E Pogue.
**Source: GIA website
I hope you have found this gemstone information interesting. I always love to learn about the different gemstones I use in my work. One of my favorite aspects of making jewelry is working with these amazing stones and bringing them into wearable art!
Please visit it our website to see more of our work, and more interesting gems!
All the best!
Chrissi
Gorgeous Citrine and Golden Topaz for November
Citrine with it’s sparkly, golden hues is the perfect gemstone for Fall. This beautiful stone brings warmth to the crisp days, and the sparkly gold colors remind me of the golden leaves dancing on the trees.
Citrine is a very hardy gemstone as well. As a member of the quartz family…it holds up to wear pretty well. Citrine is in the same family of amethyst, which makes it a very versatile gemstone for jewelry.
Citrine’s golden color can cause it to be confused with topaz. Citrine’s attractive color, plus it affordability makes it an excellent alternative to topaz and yellow sapphire. The finest citrine color is a saturated yellow to fiery orange without brown tints. Natural citrine is rare, so today most citrine on the market is a result of heat treating amethyst to a golden yellow color.
In addition to being the birthstone of November, citrine is also the gem that commemorates 13-year anniversaries.
Information source: GIA Gem Encyclopedia
Topaz, is November’s more brightly colored birthstone. Topaz has an exceptionally wide color range that includes various tones and saturations of blue, green, yellow, orange, red, pink and purple. Colorless topaz is plentiful and most often treated to give it a blue color. Topaz is a harder stone than citrine, which makes it just as suitable for everyday wear as citrine.
The name topaz comes from Topazios, which was the old Greek name for a small island in the Red Sea. The ancient Greeks believed that topaz gave them strength. Topaz has been popularly associated with wealth. In the Middle Ages, carved topaz stones were believed to be natural wonders possessing special powers. If a topaz amulet was worn on the left arm, some believed the amulet could protect the wearer from dark magic. Other beliefs were if a topaz stone was kept in the home it could ward off accidents and fires.
Because most citrine and topaz stones on the market today go through treatments to enhance their color, I recommend avoiding placing them in ultrasonic cleaners, as this may cause treatments to fade or dissipate. Using a gentle brush and mild detergent is always the safest way to clean your precious gems.
Sapphires for September
Sapphires are one of my favorite stones, and they are the birth stone for the month of September One of the most amazing things about sapphires is the range of colors they can be found in! Anything from colorless to blue to pink and even yellow and green!
Sapphires are ideal for jewelry because they are very hard and durable as a gemstone. Second only in hardness to diamonds, sapphires can be set in just about any type of setting without worry, however, it’s important to know, especially for cleaning purposes, if your sapphire has been exposed to any treatments, like heat.
It’s interesting to know, that clear sapphires are occasionally cut as microscopic lens, mainly because they are very hard and highly refractive. Gem-quality colorless sapphires are not common though. Rough colorless sapphires are usually light brown or grey when mined, and then heated to make them clear.
The most desirable blue sapphires are those with the cornflower blue color, which is commonly referred to as “Kashmir blue”. The word sapphire comes from the Latin word, sapphirus, meaning blue.
Sapphires belong to the category of gemstones called Corundum. Corundum gemstones all contain the crystalized composition aluminum oxide. What color a sapphire becomes depends on what other minerals color the stone during the development process. Red stones are typically colored with chromium, blue stones, typically colored with iron and titanium, and yellow sapphires get their color from iron.
The value of a sapphire depends on how rich the color of the natural stone is, along with it’s transparency. The most valuable stones have the best transparency and the richest natural color.
The most common treatments for sapphires is heat-treatments to enhance or change their color. Sometimes radiation is used to enhance a stone’s color, although this process is not very stable to light and another treatment called beryllium diffusion is also sometimes used.
In the United States, Montana is the largest producer of natural sapphires called “Montana” sapphires. These are typically small sapphires, and they come in a range of colors, but are primarily found in blue and yellow.
Chrissi
Pearls, the gem of the sea.
The sea evokes a sense of mystery and beauty. it’s calming waters can be stormy at times and provides a sense of passion and wonder to it’s observers. I miss the sea. The sound of the waves crashing in a steady rhythm, lulling one to sleep or to a sense of calm. Hopefully, soon, we can travel back to the ocean’s waters and enjoy the beaches again soon.
Pearls are the gemstone for the month of June. Pearls are one of the only gems that make their origin from the sea. Mother-of-pearl is the other one, and is usually gathered from the same shells we collect pearls from. The beautiful colors of the mother-of-pearl shells are the influence for the color of the pearl.
Pearls are one of a handful of gems that are organic in nature, meaning that they originate from a live organism, rather than inorganic, such as coming from not alive, such as rocks.
Pearls have a fascinating history. They were well regarded for their beauty, and valued much higher than diamonds for many, many years. Marie Antoinette’s famous baroque pearl earrings, recently came up for auction. They are large baroque pearls, and highly unusual and definitely beautiful! I suggest googling them to take a look!
We have a lot of pearl jewelry to choose from in our collections. Pearls have always been one of my favorite gems. They always seem to have a quiet beauty about them to me. They don’t sparkle as much as other gems, but have a rich color and depth of tone that draws you in. The range of colors is also fascinating. I love the dark pearls as much as the bright white. They all have beauty.
Because pearls are a natural gem and are created from the nacre of the mollusk, they do require some considerations when it comes to their wear and care. Pearls are not well suited for rings or bracelets unless the stone is well protected in the setting, such as a bezel setting. They are most ideally suited for necklace, earring and brooches. When it comes to cleaning your pearl jewelry, avoid harsh chemicals such as bleach or ammonia. Avoid ultrasonic cleaners as well. When storing your pearl jewelry, it is best to keep it in a soft cloth bag, away from other jewelry, especially diamonds, or harder gemstones, as they can be damaged when they make contact with those other gems.
All the best!
Chrissi