Fresh stock

Yesterday I was at the gem and jewelry show and came home with a slew of new beads and supplies. I have aquamarine, aventurine, amazonite, quartz, chalcedony, serpentine, green amethyst, smoky quartz, pearls, tourmaline, and a lot more. There were some really gorgeous AAA quality green amethyst gemstones imported from India that I was salivating over. I kept going back again and again to the vendor to look at them and agonize over whether I should get them (they were very expensive). In the end, I couldn't justify the expense since using them in my designs would mean going to a way higher price point than what I'm currently selling my jewelry for. Maybe someday...

New shop item: aquamarine clusters

This new item is an aquamarine cluster necklace called "Nikki", named after my very cool cousin whose birthstone is aquamarine. The stones are really pretty - translucent and pearly, in varying shades of white, brown, blue, and light green, carefully hand-wrapped in sterling silver. The cluster is approximately 2" long. As you can probably tell, the cluster design is quickly becoming my favorite.

Nikki is up at the shop now so check her out!

A NOTE ON CUSTOM ORDERS

I've had several people ask about items that have already been sold, so I think this is a good time to put an announcement up here and at the shop about custom orders. If you guys see stuff that you like that are already in the 'Sold' section of the shop, just send me an email or a "conversation" on Etsy about it. If I have the supplies, I will gladly make another one for you. And since everything is handcrafted, no two necklace will be exactly alike, but they will be similar in style and color so you can still claim your individual piece as unique! Some of the beads were found in bead shows so those won't be repeatable, but some will be, so just let me know and I will check if I can repeat the design.

I've had requests for another order of Abigail and Celia, two styles that seem to be very popular, so yay! I've also had a request for a style similar to Sophie, except a silver chain in place of the blue ribbon. I also will be posting some more earrings just as soon as I fix a couple of pictures that didn't come out right.

Aquamarines and a butterfly

I finally finished this piece and I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out. Made up of aquamarine nuggets and a painted bone pendant, the strand is approximately 18" long (without the pendant) and the pendant itself is 1.5" x 1" decorated with a picture of a delicate butterfly.

As I mentioned before, the aquamarine nuggets were really tricky to work with because of how they are all shaped so organically, sloping on one side and angling on the other. The stones themselves are interesting because of their wide range of colors, from blue to green to brown.

Aquamarines originally got their name from the Latin words meaning "water of the sea", which I think is a wonderful derivation. It is a variety of the stone beryl, and it usually has a delicate blue or turquoise color that is suggestive of seawater. The colors of the stones I have in this necklace could probably range from the color of seawater to the color of a river after it rains. Aquamarine is also the birthstone of the March babies, including that of my cousin.

Gerber daisies

I am simultaneously working on two different pieces right now, and the one made up of aquamarines is giving me a little bit of a problem because the gemstones are shaped very organically - not perfect rounds or squares like some stones. Because of this organic unevenness, it has been a little tricky making my wrapped loops, so I am going at it more slowly than usual. Coupled with other things going on, the end result is that I am a bit behind on completing these two pieces and updating here.

So I thought I would post a picture of these pretty Gerber daisies that I received today to tide you over until I get my new stuff completed. Aren't they lovely?