What's New? Gold, Bangles, Ankles, and Coral

May is not just my birthday month, but the month of weddings, it seems, and I have been busy which has delayed some putting some pieces of jewelry online. I am very fond of gold; in fact, for years, I really did not wear silver at all or rarely until my son gave me a multi-strand liquid silver necklace that I fell in love with and my husband gave me a Yurman cable bracelet with only touches of gold. Silver became a major part of my jewelry wardrobe although I've never banished gold completely. I make many sterling silver bangle bracelets, and now I am adding a page of gold bangle bracelets to the website. The butterfly bracelet above is made with Golden Shadow Swarovski crystal butterflies and 14 karat goldfilled curved tube beads. Does it sparkle! The lapis bangle bracelet is also part of the new gold collection of bangles that I hope to get back to soon.

I've also started a page of gold ankle bracelets; here are two ankle bracelets that are gold and gorgeous and will show off those tanned legs. The first one is very simple: a 14 karat goldfilled chain with a single faceted genuine ruby rondelle hanging beside the clasp. With a red bikini...very sexy (but take it off before you go into the water: chlorine and saltwater are not good for sterling silver or for gold filled metals). The next ankle bracelet has little aquamarines dangling at intervals from the gold filled chain.

The exquisite lampwork beads of Lynn Nurge of Laffingull lampwork were the impetus for this coral necklace featuring one of her focal lampwork beads in the shape of a flower.
Finally, a citrine necklace features some of my favorite faceted citrine nuggets and gold lampwork beads in an interesting nugget shape. Summer is a wonderful time to wear jewelry with all the bare skin showing! And skin is the most beautiful backdrop for any jewelry piece - whether it's an ankle bracelet, necklace, or bracelet. This summer keep cool - wear more jewelry than clothes!

All of the jewelry here and much, much more can be seen on the Cluny Grey Jewelry website.

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Earrings: Neglected But Necessary

There are a couple of things that I will not leave my house without; one of them is lipstick, and the other is a pair of earrings. However, while I am always wearing a bracelet, I feel totally naked without earrings. When it comes to making jewelry though, I have to force myself to remember to make earrings! Funny, when I love to wear them so much!
I love to design and make bracelets as much as I love to wear them; I also like to do necklaces although I do not make as many as I do bracelets. But when it comes to earrings. . . maybe it's because I see them as necessary rather than something "special". I've been working on them lately though!
The first pair of earrings are made with genuine rubies and 14 karat goldfilled accents. I really like these ruby earrings quite a bit. The next pair are amethyst earrings made with Karen Hill Tribes sterling silver and the neatest posts with a cabochon amethyst bezel-set in the middle. The faceted nuggets make these earrings special because they have a lush and lavish look. They are a pretty dark purple colour, but not so purple that they look black. The amethyst earrings below feature the circle look that is so in style. The gemstones here are amethysts also, and the earwires have a cabochon amethyst set in them.
The last earrings are amazonite earrings created with some great amazonite that I recently received. It is the lovely light teal blue colour that very good amazonite is and fairly even throughout. I can't wait to make a bracelet with some of it!


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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.

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