Tura Mali: Stone of Mixed Colors
Many areas in the world have tourmaline deposits including the United States, Russia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Africa, and, most plentifully in Brazil. In the early 1500s, a Portuguese explorer searching Brazil for emerald found an abundant deep green stone there. For 300 years, people thought these were emeralds until modern mineralogists (around 1800) learned to isolate…
Seeing Red
Many of you already love colored gems but for those who are unfamiliar with Nature’s gem bounty, I introduce the Fire Opal. This gem material is mined primarily, but not exclusively in Mexico, giving it the name “Mexican ” Fire Opal. Unlike its cousin, the Australian opals with play of color, Mexican Fire Opals are solid…
Di Sua Mano (By His Hand)
Di Sua Mano (By His Hand): Michelangelo and His Early Works The Italians call him “Il Divino” for good reason. A recent show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City offered an astounding look into the early works of this Renaissance Master, including a sampling of early sculpture, blueprints for the Laurentian Library,…
The Beauty in a Flaw
Star sapphires and rubies take their place among fine gems due to mineral inclusions that, when cut properly from a raw crystal, form a visible star on top of a domed, cabochon gem when viewed in overhead light. The mineral inclusions include rutile, which is a mineral silk common in sapphires and rubies, along with…
Put Your Look Together
We want to look and feel put together. But we are pressed for time, easily distracted triple-taskers, and whatever we can toss into the backseat goes there without a second thought. When I decided to begin a jewelry career 15 years ago, I realized that every woman I knew loved wearing jewelry but most of them hadn’t…
Game . . . Set . . . Match
The tennis bracelet got its name from Chris Evert, whose bracelet of diamonds set side by side in matching prongs, fell off when she was playing at the US Open in 1987. She requested that the match be stopped until the bracelet was found. It was, and the rest is history. Originally called an eternity…
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