All About Gems & Jewelry Making

What does Cooking & Precious Metal in Jewelry Have in Common?

What does Cooking & Precious Metal in Jewelry Have in Common?
There are only eight metals deemed precious: silver, gold, and the six metals of the platinum family (platinum, palladium, rhodium, ruthenium, iridium, and osmium).  Though these are the official precious metals, non-precious metals can be mixed with the the precious metals to create new and appealing variations.  Just like the recipe book analogy, low fat alternatives vs low carb, the metal recipes provide tradeoffs as well.

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Learn All About Sunstone

Learn All About Sunstone

Sunstone is a favorite of mine.  The soft peachy orange color with sprinkles of shimmery specks, provides a unique and fancy look.  You don't see sunstone in much jewelry, as most people have never heard of the stone.  The stone is found in various places around the world, including being mined from Oregon, so we can support our country and look fabulous while doing so. 

I love to pair the stone with moonstone and/or labradorite, since they all share a shimmer characteristic.  

Sunstone shows a distinct and lively glitter called aventurescence. Aventurescence is a sparkly, metallic-looking luster caused by flat, reflective inclusions, sometimes called “schiller” by sunstone fanciers. Whereas, labradorite has "Labradorescence." Labradorescence is not a display of colors reflected from the surface of a specimen. Instead, light enters the stone, strikes a twinning surface within the stone, and reflects from it. The color seen by the observer is the color of light reflected from that twinning surface. Different twinning surfaces within the stone reflect different colors of light. Light reflecting from different twinning surfaces in various parts of the stone can give the stone a multi-colored appearance.

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Learn All About Rubies

Learn All About Rubies

It has always amazed me how much people pay for a ruby!  Rubies are simply red sapphires!  Granted, there are differences and specifically in how trubies are created. 

Experts and professors around the globe are yet to settle on a precise explanation for how rubies are formed. It’s known that a ruby is, in essence, a type of corundum, which is itself colorless when pure, and turns ruby red when chromium is introduced. Sapphires, incidentally, are also a type of corundum, created when titanium and iron are part of the mix, turning the stones beautiful shades of blue. But the conditions needed to create rubies are so rare that a definitive explanation for their creation remains elusive.

For rubies, it is their color, rather than their clarity, which makes them so valuable, and this is greatly determined by where the rubies are found. Ranging from vibrant orangey red to almost purple in hue, rubies can be many different shades.There are many red gemstone that can be confused with a ruby.  Red spinel is one of my favorites because it looks identical and is a fraction of the cost.

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Learn All About Tourmaline

Learn All About Tourmaline
I had never heard of tourmaline before I started making jewelry.  What a fantastic gemstone!  It comes in just about every color, is hard and durable enough for any type of jewelry, and can be cut into so many different shapes!  Tourmaline, though not a cheap semi-precious gemstone, is a great alternative to precious gemstones, such as Rubies.

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Fall is Here! Are you ready?

Fall is Here!  Are you ready?

Learning from New York fashion trends, here is what you will need to be on track for this fall! Jewelry that's colorful, sparkly, and downright statement-making is the overall theme. Keep in mind the outrageous styles at the fashion shows most of us won't actually wear, however, those trends trickle down to the consumer in a more day-to-day style. So, what have we learned? What do we need to stock our closets with? Here is the quick and dirty for "Fall Must-Haves": Overall Trends Pearls  Colorful Gemstones Silver is the Metal of the Season Tassels  Rhinestone-studded jewels  .        .   ...

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