In Praise of Purple

I am not the only person currently in love with purple, a colour I normally stay away from. But purple stones are very much in fashion, not just the amethyst, the purple classic, but lesser known stones such as lepidolite, sugilite, and charoite to name the top 3 that are currently in vogue. I shouldn't forget about purple turquoise, however, although it is actually, according to Dakota Stones, Sleeping Beauty turquoise that has been colour enhanced to look purple. I've been "drunk" (despite amethyst's meaning "not drunk" in Greek) on purple lately.
In the bracelet above and to the left, I've used a luscious faceted amethyst nugget, carved oval and faceted oval amethysts, little amethyst rondelles, and a Cape Amethyst (very light coloured) flat rectangle. To add to the mix, I put in 3 large faceted purple crazy lace agate rondelles separated by Bali-style vermeil and a largish carved flower of mingled purple and light green fluorite. I love the 14 karat gold and vermeil with this. It just wouldn't be as rich in silver!
The large teardrop earrings are lepidolite, a stone that is known for its flakes of mica that cause it to sparkle (and I love anything that sparkles) in the light. The opaque lepidolite does look good with the bright sterling silver. The large slab of lepidoloite in the bangle bracelet shows the sparkle of lepidolite to better advantage. The small lepidolite rounds seem tame by comparison. Once again I've use the very bright, or as some call it "white" sterling silver because it picks up the sparkle of the lepidolite so well.


The bangle bracelet below features 2 large sugilite barrels on either side of a lampwork bead made by Gumeson Designs (I highly recommend the work of Burt and Scott Gumeson). The sugilite, too, is usually opaque and is usually described as "violet" although I have seen creamy swirls in both sugilite and lepidolite.
By the way, all the jewelry here will be posted on theCluny Grey Jewelry website within the next week.

The rarest of the purple stones is probably charoite, found only in Russia. I'll save my example of charoite jewelry for the next blog since at present the stones are sitting by my workbench!The
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