The Season of Sapphires

The sapphire is the September birthstone (although many sources will list lapis as an alternate). It is a very popular precious gemstone probably since a large percentage of people say that their favourite colour is blue. However, the sapphire, although know for its beautiful blue, comes in many, many other colours.
The sapphire is a corundum (like the ruby!), made of aluminum oxide, and created by heat and pressure deep within the earth. Other elements are responsible for the colours of sapphires such as iron and chrome. There are pink sapphires, green siapphires, and I have quite a few yellow sapphires in my own stock as well as some white sapphires. When corumdum is red, it is called a ruby. So is a ruby a sapphire? Well, yes, in a manner of speaking. It is the red colour caused by an element in the sapphire that makes a ruby, a ruby!



Sri Lanka, once known as Ceylon, was one of the earliest places to mine sapphires successfully. Sapphires are also found in Burma, Thailand, Cambodia and Brazil. Today the largest suppliers of sapphires are Australia and Africa.
Many legends have grown up around the mysterious blue of the sapphire. The sapphire gemstone has been believed to represent wisdom - and even to endow one with wisdom if worn constantly. Thought of as a "mind-opening" gemstone, it is thought to prevent jealousy and bring truth and health to the wearer. Perhaps this is why in ancient times it was believed to be an antidote to poison.
The first two pictures represent jewelry on the Cluny Grey Jewelry website. The bracelet is made of rather large (9mm-10mm) faceted sapphire rondelles and - yes! I added lampwork beads to a sapphire bracelet! These are good borosilicate lampwork beads that have beautiful shades of sapphire in them, and then a faint glimmer of green and a hint of a dark red. They are perfect for sapphires. See the bracelet on the Sapphire Bracelets page of our website.
The earrings are made of faceted sapphire rondelles and sterling added to give them a slightly "Moroccan" look. They are on the Sapphire Earrings page.
The last bracelet is a combination of two favourite gemstones I recently got in. The pink Peruvian opals are some of the most glowing and beautiful I've ever had although they are not very large. The pink colour is wonderful. And the aquamarine gemstones I just got in from Thailand are beautiful. I decided to combine the two beauties just for fun!
Otherwise, custom orders are keeping me busy. I try to make one or two new jewelry pieces a week to put on the website to keep it fresh. So keep looking, you may find your heart's desire (and a great piece of jewelry to wear when you're with him!)

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The Swirls of Abalone

I am very fond of natural beads that have flash, iridiscence, sparkle, glitter, so moonstone and labradorite are favourites as are lepidolite, some mother of pearl, and abalone. When I am able to combine these into one piece of jewelry that is aesthetically pleasing, that makes me really happy. So I like the abalone and labradorite bracelet that you see above very much. Besides pretty swirling abalone ovals and the nuggets and coins of labradorite that have tons of good blue flash, I used some of Robin Weber's best (I think) silver lentil lampwork beads that do a great deal of glistening on their own. Karen Hill Tribe silver from Thailand and a Bali sterling toggle clasp complete the bracelet. This bracelet and the other abalone jewelry can be found on the Cluny Grey site on the Abalone Jewelry page.




I made two sets of simple earrings: the first resemble chandeliers with the difference being that only one oval of abalone hangs from each chandelier. The earrings below have some of the same abalone ovals, only this time they hang from very thick and large chain links of imprinted Karen Hill Tribes' chain which in turn hang from sterling earwires with a large swirled disk on the front and wires that fasten in the back.
Abalone jewelry goes with many different styles and colours of clothing. A lot of abalone that you see in jewelry is actually a veneer of the mother of pearl glued to a some sort of backing. True natural abalone is a plain brown on one side with the beautiful iridiscent mother of pearl on the other. Abalone is really a hard substance, so natural abalone is great for jewelry.


I'm still busy putting more of our Fall jewelry on the website. Meanwhile, we had a great thunder shower today which finally cooled things off a bit.


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