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 Greek jewelry designer Ilias Lalaounis creates exquisite gold and antique inspired jewels. He is the fourth generation of a family of goldsmiths and watchmakers from Delphi in Greece. The gold is magnificent and luminous. Passionate by art and history, he creates jewelry inspired from different times and lands (Hellenistic, Paleolithic, Neolithic, Amerindian, Arabesques, Celtic,…
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…
Fascinated with the Antique jewelry of the Etruscans, Greeks and Romans, Elizabeth Locke creates neo-classical hand-made 19k gold jewelry. Each stone and design are made by herself. Her gold jewels are decorated with gemstones or Venetian glass intaglios. The centuries old goldsmithing techniques are used to realize the Elizabeth Locke’s jewelry. The website : http://www.elizabethlocke.com
This jewelry house was found in 1986 by Temple St. Clair Carr in Florence, Italy. Collaborating with the finest goldsmiths, she creates gold jewels decorated with colored gemstones (blue moonstones, sapphires, tourmalines, colombian emeralds, rubies…). Her jewelry is also characterised by the crystal amulets, the ancient jewelry’s inspiration, the triple granulation and the archer’s granule.…
The Turkish jewelry designer Gurhan Orhan studied the craft of the ancient goldsmiths and namely the use of pure gold. In refining these techniques, he creates marvellous pure 24 karat gold jewels. His touch comes from the fingerprints in the marks of hand-hammering (“Gurhan’s fingerprints”). It gives an unique aspect to gold and shows that…
Coral is organic like amber ; it is formed by living organisms (corals). “When the coral polyps die, the hardened skeleton remains, and this material is what is used as a gemstone”. The coral has several colours: white (mostly), orange , red, grey and black. Coral is found in “Red Sea, the Midway Islands, the…
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 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…
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,…
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),…
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…
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…
Turquoise is a hydrated copper and aluminium phosphate. The colour varies from blue to blue-green. Turquoise is often mottled with cream or brown veins. Furthermore, the name “turquoise” comes from a confusion : when Venitian merchants brought this stone in France, it was called “Turkish stone”, from Turkey whereas it was from Persia. Besides, the…
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 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…
Andrea Fohrman is inspired by celestial objects such as moons and stars. The sky is reinterpretred by this talented designer. It is a lovely independant jewelry brand based in Los Angeles. I love the feminity and the cuteness of her jewels. There are also ravishing rainbows pendants. The website : http://www.andreafohrman.com/