The Jewelry Blog

Friday, January 09, 2009

Garnets for January

Above, a Swarovski bracelet made with clear AB crystals
The birthstone for January is the garnet - probably named after the pomegranate whose seeds it resembles. If the garnet is your birthstone, you're lucky since the very dark red garnet goes with almost every colour in the wardrobe. But if you really don't care for the dark red, grossular (green) garnet is equally beautiful as is the yellow-gold of Hessonite garnets. In fact, garnets come in almost every colour except blue.

According to folklore, garnets have wonderful and magical qualities that are supposed to help one with everything from attracting love and success to curing depression and skin disease. It also inspires self-confidence and courage and bestows the wearer with energy.
Garnets look especially good with lampwork; they also play well with other gemstones as you can see in the picture below of the garnet and citrine bracelet. Garnets look equally good with gold or with silver so they never really go in and out of style the way many gemstones do. Of course, the Victorians were great aficionados of the garnet and mixed it with pearls and even with turquoise.

All of the garnet bracelets here can be found on the Cluny Grey Jewelry website on our Garnet Bracelets page.

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Friday, January 02, 2009

Happy New Year!!! Hamingjusamur Nýár! Feliz año nuevo! Verheugd Nieuwjaar!

Lapis Bracelet, aboveHave you made your New Year's Resolutions yet? I make mine every year, and it doesn't matter that I don't necessarily keep them; what matters is that I try to keep them and while I may not completely change for the better, I like to think that I am gradually progressing toward my goals.
Christmas provides an all too brief respite from work, and now it's time to get busy again. Making resolutions means that I have to examine different aspects of my life which in turn means examining not just my actions, but also my surroundings. And the Great Cleaning begins!

Garnet Bracelet above
Every year one of the resolutions that I have had on my list for many years now (at least 20) is to be more organized. Obviously since I am not the most organized person in the world, I am progressing slowly, tortoise-slowly, where that goal is concerned. But I still think that it helps to me every year to resolve to get better. And usually in some (little) ways I do.

Pearl Bracelets and below, Pearl Necklace

I will be doing an inventory this month and re-organizing my office/studio (and it does need it!). Some of the pieces that you see on this page are newer pieces that are in our inventory as of today although they may not all have the proper information on our site yet. Stop by and see us as we spruce up the Cluny Grey Jewelry site. And make those resolutions; after all, it can't hurt and may help!
Below, Apatite Bracelet