The Jewelry Blog: garnet

Sunday, January 13, 2008

Moonstones & More Garnets

Ive been trying to look over my website the last few days and in doing so I realized that I had only one moonstone bracelet that hadn't been sold. It was time to make more. I have a Rainbow Moonstone Jewelry page, but it was the regular Moonstone Bracelets page that was so depleted. I have some moonstone that I hadn't made anything with for a while that I am very fond of: these are faceted white moonstones in a nugget form that fascinate me for some reason. They have a strange gleam or glow at angles and I just like their faceted nugget shape. Ifound what I think is the perfect match with some of Robin Weber's magical translucent, silver-laced lampwork beads and with some pretty blue aquamarine faceted nuggets. I used all bright silver to match the sterling silver Robin had worked into the beads and added a Karen Hill Tribes thick white silver chain. To top it off, a pretty white silver toggle that has a flower on the edge of the ring. This bracelet just made me feel good!

But I also had these moonstone nuggets that were the same faceted shape and were odd colours - a greenish colour and a greenish grey. Again, I really liked these but hadn't used them before. Once again, Robin Weber's beads to the rescue! With their green touched with a grey, cream, charcoal and silver, they were perfect for the bracelet I had in mind. Sterling silver and some more moonstone beads with their eerie glow and I had a bracelet I thought seriously about taking home (one of the problems of this trade). But I dutifully put it on the website. With its spiral sterling Hill Tribes charms and rings, it's a real eye-catcher!

The third moonstone bracelet contains a mauvey-peach-beige moonstone that has little flecks of glitter as well as a glow in it. The addition of leopardskin jasper with deep peach tones was great for a different look. Leopard in the Moonlight is also on the Moonstone Bracelets page.

Don't forget that Garnet is the January birthstone. The garnet bracelet above mixes garnets with porcelain jasper and faceted rose quartz accented by the great lampwork of James Derrick Reeves. Little bezel set garnet charms hang at intervals on the bracelet.
I'm trying to stick to those New Year's Resolutions, and unfortunately, find myself adding more all the time! It seems I have a lot to work on! But I am working on them, little by little, getting organized, being more thoughtful of others, neater at home; I even bought an organization book for artists and artisans about how to organize a studio/office. Here's hoping it helps!

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Wednesday, January 09, 2008

Garnet Bracelets on Parade

I've been working on garnet bracelets along with the other work that I need to get done as well as playing with one of my new Christmas presents: Adobe Photoshop. The garnet bracelets are going well, the Photoshop less so, but DH got me a great book to go along with the software so that I can try to learn the way that I usually learn best (reading a book!). Some of the pictures are okay, but nothing special yet. I do like the photo of the triple strand garnet bracelet above, and the close-up of the garnet, iolite, and lampwork below.

The bracelet below features different garnets, not just faceted and smooth or different shapes, but different colours as well including Hessonite garnets, green grossularite garnets, and rhodolite garnets. The lampwork beads are by one of my favorite lampwork artists - Lynn Nurge. They are great little swirly shaped nuggets full of opal-like colours in burgundy and amber. If you scroll further down, you will see that the other picture of this garnet bracelet is a bit too light - I haven't gotten the light and colour features quite right yet.

Another double-stranded garnet bracelet (below) features the lampwork beads of Robin Weber. These shell lampwork beads are gorgeous, very naturalistic with a soft finish. Karen Hill Tribes silver is always special (such high quality sterling) and the little shell charm and a sand dollar charm which is hidden here makes this one unique. The toggle clasp has cabochon garnets set in each end of the toggle bar.

For me, one of the biggest difficulties when working with garnet beads is that it is hard to find lampwork beads that I like to match, blend or even contrast with the gemstones in a way that is pleasing. The other difficulty with working with garnets is that I can never seem to get enough good quality garnet gemstones that are large - when I can get any that are actually large at all!