The Jewelry Blog

Thursday, July 05, 2007

Rubies: Divinely Decadent

Rubies are one of my favourite gemstones. Rubies conjure visions of long-ago India, beautiful dark-haired women in colourful saris trimmed lavishly in gold, their ears and arms heavy with golden jewelry made of rubies and other precious gemstones...corpulent Eastern kings who leer at dancing girls, rubies and diamonds flashing on every finger...exotic courtesans who live only to be beautiful and to please...
But rubies are also a modern favourite; the ruby is the July birthstone and one of the three precious gemstones other than diamonds (the other two are emerald and sapphire). I love to work with rubies although I am limited somewhat by price. However, the natural rubies that you see on this page were all fairly inexpensive, as rubies go. Although I do have some gem-quality rubies on the Cluny Grey Jewelry website, I decided to feature these natural rubies today.

The top photo is a close-up of a ruby bracelet made of the natural rubies, sterling silver, and one wonderful borosilicate lampwork bead by Frozenfyre. You can see the full bracelet in the picture below. Above is a simple draped chain and ruby necklace of sterling silver with the natural rubies holding everything together.

The last bracelet is a handcrafted chain from the Karen Hill Tribes doubled with a toggle clasp and ruby charms. A very simple bracelet that can be worn everyday, these natural rubies are also a dark maroon/burgundy colour that can go with many different clothing colours.

Happy Birthday to you July babies!

jewelry

jewellery

Thursday, June 21, 2007

In the Pink...Drusies, Too!

I"ve still been busy, but have stayed at the studio late to make a few things so that the website doesn't start to look bare! I forced myself to use the marvelous lampwork beads above, created by Lynn Nurge, although I was enjoying having them where I could look at them everyday. They are one of my favorite glass colours, a pink opal. The almost teal green center of the flower and swirl on the swirl beads is lovely, too. I mixed the lampwork with green apatite beads that have a touch of teal in them and with rose quartz. The bracelet is made so that the flower should be on top of the wrist, almost like a wrist corsage and can be seen on our lampwork bracelets page as can another new lampwork bracelet with soft shell-like opal lampwork, too.

I've also been fortunate enough to find some good drusy beads, so I have been trying to use some of them, also. I love to mix them with dendrite opal as you can see here above and below in the earrings and bracelet. The translucent greyish-looking rondelles in the bracelet are actually ocean jasper. The huge focal is a drusy, of course, and so are the biggest beads near the toggle clasp. These can be seen on our Drusy Jewelry page.

The bracelet below is made of dark pink opals and lampwork beads mixed with sterling silver. The pink opals are really a bit darker in real life than the picture actually indicates, and the lampwork beads are luscious. I chose opals with dark inclusions because they were also those that were the darkest pink, and I wanted them to match the wonderful lampwork beads.

Finally, the bottom earrings are made with the "bumpy" lampwork beads that went with the set of lampwork from the first flower bracelet above. They are on our Lampwork Earrings page.

Meanwhile, the pool looks very inviting and I need to work on my tan (yes, I tan, but I don't burn), but it seems that there is always something else to do. In about 2 weeks, we are having a large part of our downstairs carpeting ripped up and wood floors put down; we're putting tile and a new shower in our bathroom and a Jacuzzi tub upstairs.
What a mess it will be! But at least it will give me an excuse to go early to the office/studio and come home late.

shopping

Friday, June 08, 2007

Coral, Coral, and a New Computer!

Ahhh....I have a new computer! Hooray for me! The last computer basically melted down; we even had to reinstall Windows XP on it to get it to work! But a new computer also means more work because there are many bits of data that I want to organize differently and more efficiently on my new computer. So I've been busy, but I have had a bit of time to list some jewelry.

I love coral for summer! From the top bracelet, the simple pearl and peachy coral, to the bottom red coral necklace, I love almost every piece of coral jewelry that I make - and want to wear it

Coral is also a great mixer - another reason that I love it. It mixes well with all kinds and colours of gemstone beads as well as lampwork glass. It looks great with gold and with silver.

My favorite bracelet has to be the blue coral bracelet (the second bracelet from the top) that is mixed with sterling silver dendrite opal and a sparkling drusy! Little charms (sea themed, naturally) dangle from various places on the bracelet. I've also added some ocean jasper that is almost translucent and little keishe pearls in a dark silver.

I finally used some of the most gorgeous, big, etched lampwork beads in coral and a frost that I've ever had. I've been waiting for the right colour of coral and finally got it. Again, the sea themed sterling charms just for fun!

This bracelet is all 14 karat gold fill mixed with lampwork boro beads, ocean jasper, lapis, coral, turquoise, and smokey quartz. I would never have mixed those particular gemstone beads, but I was playing with designs for a commision and the customer requested these gemstones. She decided to go with the sterling, but by then, I decided to go ahead and make the bracelet since I liked it a lot.

Finally, lapis and lampwork once again with long branches of twiggy red coral in this coral necklace. The lampwork beads are from James Derrick Reeves (and you know how much I love his truly excellent beads).

Did I mention that one of the reasons I like coral is because it looks wonderful against summer skin - that is, bare skin, lightly tanned to dark. So very, very sexy with something strapless!

handmade beaded jewelry