Valentine's Day: Coming Soon

Valentine's Day is just around the corner - less than a month away, and I'm trying to get the newest Valentine's creations on the Cluny Grey website. A few jewelry pieces that I will be adding are featured here today: first is the heart pendant necklace above made with garnets and a touch of Swarovski crystals here and there. Of course, the lampwork beads of Lynn Nurge, especially the silver-laced heart I used to make the pendant, are the focal points of the entire necklace. The necklace can be found on our Handmade Necklaces page (along with the last heart necklace at the bottom of this post).The Prayer Box Necklace above has some of my favorite silver freshwater pearls, little flower beads and charms, and of course a sterling silver prayer box. This prayer box is a favorite because when it opens, not only is there a place to put a prayer or wish, but a kneeling angel comes out. The prayer box hangs from a flower shape that reminds me of some stylized flowers I've seen in the great cathedrals in Spain and Portugal.
The last necklace also features the beads of Lynn Nurge: the lampwork heart with flowers, rose quartz coloured tabs and mauvey-pink and green rounds. The gemstones here are purple crazy lace agate faceted rondelles; little charms hang from two places on the necklace as well-flowers and hearts - very appropriate for Valentine's Day. The necklace also has a flower on the "S" clasp (from the Thai Karen Hill Tribes).

jewellery accessories jewelry fashion shopping braceletsbeads handmade beaded jewelry beading helmi gioielli smykker takı juvelen lampwork beads The Jewelry Blog jewelry trends accessories garnet lampwork beads handmade necklace

Emeralds: The May Birthstone

Emeralds are the May birthstone - which means that the emerald is my birthstone. I really love emeralds, and I would create with them all the time if they weren't so expensive. Emeralds are quite difficult to get in bead form (ones that are affordable and still look good that is), but sometimes I get lucky. My dream is to have huge emeralds to create with, but I don't know that it will come true anytime soon.Emerald is considered to be one of the "Big Four" gemstones (the others are diamond, sapphire, and ruby). It has a hardness of 7.5 to 8 on the Moh's scale. Today the best emeralds come from Columbia although emeralds are found in Australia, the United States, and Africa (Zimbabwe, most are small emeralds but of high quality). At one time, emeralds were mined in Austria and also Russia. There are emeralds in India that have been found recently (Rajasthan) but most are lower quality and made in to beads. However, the emerald has been popular in India since ancient times although no one is really sure where they came from.

The emerald is a beryl, that is, it belongs to a group of gemstones, including aquamarine, that are known as beryls.
All the bracelets shown here can be found on our Emerald Bracelets page on the Cluny Grey Jewelry website.

The earrings above can be found at Cluny Grey's Emerald Earrings page.

jewelry jewellery bracelet bracelets fashion accessories earrings emeralds handmade beaded jewelry handmade jewelry unique jewelry handcrafted jewelry käevõru gemstones koristaa jalokivillä helmi joyería mücehver takı jewelry trends The Jewelry Blog