Opal jewelry
Opal is an hydrated silicum dioxide which reveals rainbow colours which change according to the angle of view. Opals exist in many colours : colorless, white, yellow, orange, red, yellowish brown, greenish, blue, gray, black and violet.
Pippa Small jewelry
The London-based jewelry designer Pippa Small creates beautiful “organic, ethnic and ethical” jewels. The shapes are unregular because she works on the original shape of the stones. Respecting the organic nature of the stones characterizes her work. Very careful to the details, each stone is personally chosen by Pippa Small. Each piece of jewelry is…
The jewelry designer Alice Cicolini
Alice Cicolini is a British jewelry designer inspired by Indian designs and using the Meenakari traditions. She had been Director Arts & Culture for the British Council in India. She used the sacred architecture and patterns of the Silk Route as an inpiration for her jewelry. All the jewels are handmade in India ; the…
Morganite
Morganite is a variety of beryl (an aluminum beryllium silicate) like emerald and aquamarine. Its colour is pink and varies from light pink to violet-pink, peach, peachy-pink, or salmon color. That’s why, it is sometimes called “pink emerald”. Morganite is found mainly in Brazil and Madagascar but also in Afghanistan, China, Mozambique, Namibia, Russia, Zimbabwe…
Iolite jewelry
Iolite is a magnesium aluminium silicate and has a blue-violet colour. This fine gemstone is found in Brazil, India, Madagascar, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and in the United States. Furthermore, the name comes from the greec word “ios” meaning “purple”. The Viking sailors used the iolite as a polarizing filter in order to find the sun…
Emerald jewelry
Emerald is a precious stone belonging to the beryl group of minerals. Emeralds are green with different shades (medium green, darker green, blue-green or yellowish-green). “Emerald” comes from the old French word “esmeralde” deriving from the Greek word “smaragdos” meaning “green stone”. This gemstone is found mostly in Colombia but also in South America, Africa,…
Amethyst jewelry
Amethyst belongs to the macrocrystalline branch of the quartz group of minerals. The amethyst’s colour varries from purple and violet to pale red-violet. Its colour comes from the iron and aluminium impurities. Furthermore, this fine gemstone is found mainly in Brazil but also “in Bolivia, Canada, India, Madagascar, Mexico, Myanmar (Burma), Namibia, Russia, Sri Lanka, United…
Pink tourmaline
Tourmaline is an important group of complex gem-quality boron silicate minerals. This fine stone can be found in a multitude of colours : “from black to bluish-black, dark brown, yellow, medium brown, blue to neon blue, lime to dark forest green, red and reddish purple, yellow, pink, and colorless”. Most of the tourmalines are natural,…
Lapis Lazuli jewelry
Lazurite is a feldspathoid silicate and belongs to sodalite group of minerals. It is a blue stone which can vary from “greenish blue to violetish, from medium to dark and from low to highly saturated”. This fine stone is found mainly in Afghanistan but is also found in Angola, Argentina, Canada, Chile (North of Santiago),…
Blue topaz jewelry
Topaz is an aluminium silicate containing fluorine and hydroxyl. Purely, it is colourless (white) ; it is the impurities which cause the variations of colour. “Topaz ranges from colourless to yellow, orange, red-brown, light to dark-blue, pink to red, violet and light-green.” Furthermore, Topaz is distinguished by its hardness and its perfect cleavage. This fine…
Peridot jewelry
Peridot is a transparent variety of Olivine and belongs to the forsterite-fayalite mineral series. It is an idiochromatic gem (single colour gem) : peridot is only found in green. But there are shades of green depending of the amount of iron it contains : from light yellowish to dark brownish-green. The more there is iron, the…
Tanzanite jewelry
Tanzanite is a variety of Zoisite (calcium aluminum silicate ) and has a colour varying from blue to violet. This stone is Heat treatments enhance the Tanzanite’s colours. This gemstone is named “Tanzanite” because a deposit was found in 1967 in Tanzania, East African country. Tanzanite is distinguished by a perfect cleavage (it cleaves “without…
Amazonite jewelry
The Amazonite (also named Microcline) is a variety of potassium feldspar (like moonstone). The name “Amazonite” comes from the Amazon River in Brazil. The colour varies from green to blue-green. This fine gemstone can be confused with Turquoise and Jade. Amazonite is found mainly in Colorado, Brazil, India, Kenya, Madagascar, Namibie, Russia and Zimbabwe. Jacquie…
Moonstone jewelry
Moonstone is a fine gemstone belonging to the silicate group and the feldspar family of minerals. Jean Claude Delamétherie discovered this stone in 1801. The moonstone is characterized by the adularescence : an optical phenomenum constiting in “a milky, bluish luster or glow originating from below the surface of the gemstone.” The moonstone is colorless…
