This week I have a pearl pendant for you to enjoy with sapphires and aquamarine.

When the client contacted me she had a pretty specific idea of what she wanted. She wanted a simple pendant with a fairly large pearl surrounded by sapphires. She also thought it would be neat to use slightly larger stones at the 4 cardinal points. I put together what I thought would fit with what she had described but to further accentuate the corners, I used nice dark sapphires for the larger stones and lighter aquamarine stones in between.

She loved the lighter stones with the sapphires! She decided to go with 14K white gold for the metal and all natural stones. Once the decision was made, I went ahead and got the casting done.

Once I had collected the pearl and all of the sapphires and aquamarines, I sent those and the casting to my jeweler.

The finished pieces was gorgeous! The light and dark stones really set each other off. I hope she loves it!

He really liked the trillion fire opal ring I have on my site but didn’t want any diamonds at all. He had seen some engagement rings with pearls and really liked the look of those, so I decided to try to combine the 2 ideas. Below is the original render that I came up with:

He really loved the top piece (I knew he would) and after moving the pearl over a little bit and rounding off the shank, we ended up with this:

He decided to use palladium for the metal to keep the price down and we started manufacturing.
Here are the raw casting and the pearl…


The finished piece turned out amazing! I hope she loves it!

I’m not usually someone to think ANYTHING is lucky but if I did, my lucky piece of jewelry would be a pearl ring.

When my grandmother died a few years ago, I inherited a bunch of her jewelry. The favorite piece of hers that I have now is a pearl and diamond ring. It is like nothing I have seen in stores and it has proven to be lucky for me.

I don’t think the ring has any actual special qualities, but when I wear it I feel sexy and pretty and like I can do anything–for me that feeling creates good luck.

My friend and his wife had gone to Hawaii I think and she had bought some black pearls that he wanted to set for her in earrings that should could wear. He knew he wanted white metal but other than he didn’t have a lot of direction. He sent me the pearls in the mail so I could see how big they were and maybe get some ideas.

I decided that silver would fit this project really well since he kind of wanted something dangle-y and I can buy a lot of fun silver pieces that are pre-made and put them together which keeps the cost down a little and makes for really fun pieces.

I came up with a few ideas like these.

and from those designs, we tweaked the idea on the left a little and came up with these.

I actually liked the idea so much and I made a pair with white pearls for my dad to give my mom for her birthday.

The textured silver ring and the plain silver rings and the pearls make a really fun earring that swings and is fun but is classy and could be worn out also!

I went down this year to renew some contacts, make some new, and to see what was cool in the business this year. I attended both the AGTA and GJX shows. I know that means I missed way more than I saw, but at least I wasn’t tempted to buy anymore then I did at the 2 shows I went to. It is a recession after all.

Unfortunately the effects of the recession could definitly be seen. There were fewer booths and fewer buyers then in previous years. The technology pavilion at the AGTA show was at least 1/2 of what it usually is, for example. Despite this, there was still plenty to see and do.

Paraiba Tourmaline

Every year there seems be the ‘in’ stone that everyone is pushing. The last show I went to the popular stone was Tanzanite. While tanzanite is still a popular stone, it was easy to see that this years ‘in’ stone is Paraiba Tourmaline. Paraibas are a very, very rare blue-green colored stone that come from Brazil and Africa. It is so rare to find 1 karat Paraibas that the ones that are mined cost 5 digits per carat! I have to wonder, because they are so rare, if some of the stones that were shown as Paraiba, were actually a blue tourmaline that was close in color, but not actually a Paraiba.

Turquoise in a pearl

Another interesting idea I saw was in the Galatea booth. They have a new line with turquoise beads inside pearls. They get them by placing a turquoise bead in an oyster and waiting a year. After the oyster has had the time to make a pearl over the turquoise, they take it out and carve designs into the pearl so the turquoise shows through. They can also set a diamond into the pearl to create something I have never seen before.

Overall it was a great show. I had an excellent time seeing all the sites, made some great business connections, and got some great deals on stones to use in some design ideas I have. Stay tuned to see what I come up with!