bezel – The Gemstone Project

Gem Blast: Holiday Edition

Posted on November 28, 2016November 27, 2016 by grayspinel

It has been a crazy week, with a family birthday plus Thanksgiving and then ten completed projects when I was expecting 5, plus a bunch of gems. I have more on the way, and with the holidays gearing up, things are just bound to get crazier!

So this week, I’m just going to post a handful of my favorite pictures that I’ve been taking in the past couple of weeks! Some of this will be a preview for new items to come – some will probably hit etsy before they get to the website, due to holiday shopping demands

Be on the lookout for new things to come! For additional pictures of some of these pieces, check out my Repertoire page. And don’t forget to check out Facebook for all of my etsy promo codes.(Hint: there is one for today! After all, it’s Cyber Monday!)

Ombré du Soleil

Posted on November 7, 2016November 6, 2016 by grayspinel

They just wanted to be made. – Elle

I had posted these on instagram the other day, just a small macro shot, and immediately got requests to see more. Well, the thing about that is that these are ridiculously difficult to photograph for one simple fact – they are huge.

A couple years ago, when we were still in California, I had an overseas collector send me a great number of stones to sell on consignment. That’s the reason my etsy shop was initially opened. There were a handful of stones that I knew immediately that I didn’t want to sell – I wanted to create something with them.

My starting point in this particular project was the largest pair of spessartites. They just glowed, in an almost unearthly way, with this ridiculous neon orange that photos don’t really do justice, as orange is one of the hardest colors to photograph accurately.

Now, this collector had sent along literally about 40 carats of spessartites, including a handful of smaller round oranges with fantastic color, and a pair of bezeled round spessartite earrings.

Spessartite, as with most gemstones and colors, goes through bursts here and there of popularity and trendiness. Unfortunately, just as I got this package, spessartite was hitting a slow spot, so most of the loose gems that I had never even hit the market. Instead I started to have big dreams for them, all brought upon by the incredible color of that large pair. I created a sketch of the initial idea, which included using the bezeled studs as is and then later amended it to add a few details, involving a change to the stud.

About six months ago I went to visit my favorite gem shop and one of the first things on my mind to pick up were gems that would fit the ombré color scheme I had dreamed up. I needed to find exactly the right graduation of color and size to match cohesively with the overall concept. Luckily I was able to find that in some sapphires from Madagascar.

As soon as I had all of the stones collected, I sent the picture to a friend.

And a couple months later, she asked me when I was going to make the earrings? Why hadn’t I made them already? I had all of these beautiful stones, why not make use of them already? So I turned around that week, and sent them off to the jeweler, along with a picture of the sketch.

As I mentioned before, the sketch went through a couple of revisions. The final version ended up being so large that the entire thing wouldn’t fit on one page of my sketch book, so I had to improvise a little bit, and drew the stud separately from the rest of the earring. A quick note: I draw everything at 5x scale.

So, lets talk specifics of the finished product.

The bottom 5 stones are spessartites, the top three in the bottom section are sapphires. The top stone (the stud) is a spessartite and then the rest (second stone in the stud and then the little connecting section) are all fancy yellow diamonds.

These are definitely more hefty than I usually make, but the one thing I wanted out of these is that I wanted to have that heft, and I didn’t want them to feel cheap. I feel like they easily could have gone the costume jewelry route, but the setter managed to avoid it, keeping the walls between the stones quite thin, and the edges from stone to outside rim thin in most areas . The largest stones are 7mm and very deep so we really had to have a lot of metal to hold them all in place.

The settings are open in the back to let in a ton of light, even though they are bezeled. The emphasis for this project was really on the stones, the ombré effect and the concept of light. Seeing as how it took about two years to find the right stones in the right sizes, tones and saturation to I really wanted to not detract from the concept as a whole and keep the ombré effect in the metal that’s holding the stones together. As you will see in the images below, the color of the stones change from one image to another – the most accurate devices for color viewing are Apple products, iphone, ipad, Mac computers, and images with the brightest colors and least amount of brown are the closest to real life.

14 grams of 18kt yellow gold

.16 carats of yellow diamonds
.41 carats of yellow sapphires
14.13 carats of orange garnets

14.7 total carats

They measure just over 2.5 inches long.

Everyone keeps asking me, “why did you make these? Are they for yourself, or to sell?” and my answer has been, “They just wanted to be made.”

At the moment, I don’t know what the future holds for them. But absolutely something bright.

Overthinking

Posted on October 12, 2015October 6, 2015 by grayspinel

I have one particular client-friend who will tell you just how much I overthink pieces. She has listened to me, more than once, go on and on and on about how much time I put into designs, and how ridiculous all of the thought I put in before I even start sketching out what is going through my mind. Of course, once I start sketching is when the pieces all fall into place and I can see, granted in a 2D representation, how everything fits and flows together, what works and what doesn’t. I feel like a lot of jewelry out there doesn’t take every angle and every single element into consideration, which is so sad to me.

For instance, why is the basket so enclosed?

Two reasons, it’s highly polished to reflect the stone’s color back at the wearer and in a stone that isn’t cut perfectly, it helps camouflage any windowing.

I have just spent the morning and early afternoon rough sketching a design that has been plaguing me for weeks. Part of the reason it’s been plaguing me for so long is the fact that I was writing descriptions, taking photos and actually doing the legwork myself to get my collection onto the site, but also, I’ve been seriously stuck with where I wanted to go with the design. Today I finally had a bit of a breakthrough, and I finally put the pieces together. The structure of what needs to be there to hold the stones down has been holding me down, but I finally feel like I got it today. The pieces started to finally come together.

Basket detail? Not just pretty, it also provides structure and support for the halo.

So much of jewelry design is holding stones. Lately I’ve been taking note of designers who don’t use prongs. Polly Wales, for instance, just casts the stones directly into her items. It is a really cool look. Bezeling is popular too. But I feel like most people work around prongs, and don’t incorporate them into the design. I think it was in my beloved architecture book, a quote about how a design element should have at least two uses, otherwise it shouldn’t be there. I will have to go look it up. My point there is that I think and think and think about those design elements.

It’s not just a prong. It should never be considered just a prong. What ELSE can the prong be? What else does the prong WANT to be?

It wants to be a mermaid, but will settle for being part of the split shank.

And with that, I’m starting to sound like a slightly deranged philosopher. But these are the things I think of when I design a piece of jewelry. It’s not just something to be worn – it’s wearable sculpture. Each element should be practical AND beautiful. Otherwise, what is it doing there?

Ok, well, sometimes I add things that are just pretty…like that design element on the end of the stone.

Gem Blast: A Variety

Posted on July 27, 2015July 27, 2015 by grayspinel

So, I’ve been super busy. I currently have two ring setting prototypes heading towards production, and a necklace prototype I’m looking towards production on (trying to get the ring setting collection out first!), and about a dozen and a half other designs in my head/in the sketchbook that want to be made sooner rather than later.

Plus I’m attempting to try to come up with some stock product ideas for a jeweler I work with, several other custom projects for various clients, and that’s not touching on my interstate move.

I don’t really have a ton of time for a lot of blogging right now, but I’ve still been taking a lot of gem and jewelry photos. I figured I could post some of my recent favorites as a blog entry.

A vintage blue sapphire and diamond ring.

A couple of citrines against a blue rhinestone background.

Some spessartite garnet earrings. I keep considering repurposing these, but I haven’t quite decided yet.

An ideal cut diamond showing off a little bit of arrow action.

Some rose and yellow gold rings in my personal collection. I need to flesh this collection out some more!

Playing with light and a green garnet.

This Star 80 cut in a lavender spinel never fails to be interesting.

A Jeff White asscher spinel. A bevy of step cuts.

A trio of colorful haloed rings.

Some spinel rough. Not really facetable, but I like to keep it around because the colors are nice and I love the natural texture. It’s fun to play with.

A couple of spinels. The top is from Mahenge Tanzania, and the bottom is from Burma. The top is more reddish pink, the bottom is more pinkish red. Both have the neon glow that is considered ideal in the industry.

And last, but certainly not least, though uploading lost a lot of it’s beauty, the cut of this unheated aquamarine reminded me of the way water ripples.

Many of these will be available back in my etsy shop as soon as I’m back up and running.

You can likely look forward to another photo-heavy post next week, as I will be completely entrenched in my move (probably driving somewhere in Northern California) when the next blog posts, as I do typically try to plan most blog posts in advance.

Also, I’m hoping to post on August 9th – it’ll be my blog’s first birthday! Kind of amazing to me that I’ve kept it up for almost a year already.

Gem Blast: Fancy Yellow Diamond

Posted on April 27, 2015April 27, 2015 by grayspinel

Once upon a time I really wanted a trillion shaped engagement ring. That was back when I was a teenager if I remember correctly. I ended up with a round brilliant that I basically picked out for myself, so obviously teenage dreams of a trillion didn’t exactly happen. But since then, I’ve always been cautious about trillions, because they were asymmetrical and I have weird issues with asymmetry. Until I met this Fancy Light Yellow diamond.

Here is a relatively simple fancy light yellow (FLY) diamond with blue fluorescence. Now, believe it or not, this diamond is only .64cts, but almost seems to face up at the size of a 1 carat diamond (6.5mm for a round).

I had it set in a 18kt yellow gold bezel to enhance the color as much as possible. I wanted something simple, and adding a halo of white diamonds (how I think yellow diamonds are usually set) took attention away from the richness of the color. Plus, for items that end up in my personal collection, I prefer to stay away from halos.

It lights up when sunlight hits it just right!

I’ve never been a huge yellow person, but my bedroom growing up was a pale buttery yellow. It wasn’t until I saw this diamond that I really wanted a yellow gemstone to add to the collection. Diffused sunlight.

Looking almost greenish/brownish, though it doesn’t really look this way in real life. Both of these photos are inside.

Back in January I asked if people on Facebook thought I should do yellow gold or white metal for this particular stone. It was pretty overwhelming for yellow gold. For good reason.

And the stone on a white background before being set:

After setting, on an almost identical background:

The less exciting views:

See, even diamonds show tilt windows!

Really, when it comes down to choosing metal colors, even though I don’t wear a lot of yellow gold, it’s all about doing the best you can to compliment the stone. On this one I wanted to enhance the yellow as much as possible, and I think my goal was accomplished, since it looks far more vibrant now that it’s set than it did before when it was loose.

I haven’t taken this off since I got it, and for me, that’s saying a lot because I actually rarely wear jewelry in general!

This concludes our month of (mostly) diamond posts! I had to go out with a big yellow bang!

Gem Blast: Fancy Pinkish Brown Diamond

Posted on April 16, 2015March 31, 2015 by grayspinel

I remember years ago reading Pricescope.com and watching as a poster went searching for a brownish-pinkish-orangeish diamond – she told the jeweler that she was searching for “bandaid colored”. And that’s exactly what I thought of when I laid eyes on this diamond.

This diamond is .58cts, so not exactly big, but it packs a lot of punch for a little guy.

In some lighting situations the color shifts to a more cognac color:

It’s almost the exact same color as this pendant I have that’s 10kt rose gold (shout out to my husband who bought it for me – it’s the best thing I have for testing out how a stone would look against rose gold!)

I mean, look at that! It looks like it belongs there!

With some lower colored/champagne diamond melee:

This are a couple of the ideas I was playing with in my head for it, giving it a bezel to give it a oomph in the size department:

In rose gold, of course!

A bit short on the content today, and very picture heavy – lots of things are in the works over here at Casa de TGP, so stay tuned!

Update: My jewelry line

Posted on January 12, 2015January 2, 2015 by grayspinel

I’ve been working on sketches for quite a while on items for my new line. Of course, this is not the easiest thing since there are so many amazing designs out there, and it’s hard to be innovative when it feels like everything has been done. Some of these are influenced by the custom projects I’m working on with people, and some are just things that I would like to see or wear myself.

Sometimes the stones “speak” to me, and I have to do what they say. Ok, not really, but that’s sort of how it feels sometimes when I’ve had a stone for a long time without any inspiration and suddenly one day I look at the stone and it’s a total Eureka moment. And then I’m scrambling for my sketchbook, which is why I have four located in random areas of my house and one that goes with me in my purse. You never know when inspiration will hit!

Because this is more of a hobby instead of a full time career (for the moment!) I typically wait until the designs find me, rather than trying to wrangle them out of hiding.

Now, having said that, sometimes I will just sit down with a sketchbook and draw whatever comes to mind. Sometimes, that thing ends up being a sketch of my ear. Hah!

I’ve mentioned before that I’ve been working on a green garnet mini-parure of sorts, and that has been extremely challenging because of the complexities of the project and using several hundred (not joking!) green garnets and turning them into a cohesive necklace, earring and bracelet set. But it has been great for me because I’ll be thinking about that project, and several ideas that won’t work for the garnets will work for something in my line that I haven’t been able to nail down.

Luckily there are several similarities between the green garnet project, the custom rings project (there are many rings and I’m in the process of trying to build a cohesive collection rather than a gathering of multiple different rings) and where I’d like to go on a few of my pieces for the line.

As of right now I’d like to come up with the following items, and I’m already several in:
1. 3 solitaire type rings
2. 1 halo ring
3. 1 dinner/multi-stone type ring
4. 2 necklaces
5. 1 earring
6. 2 bands

Gosh, writing up that list makes me realize just how much work I have to do! Back to the grind!

In the meantime though, here are a couple pictures of a yellow diamond I’m trying to decide what to do with. Right now I’m leaning towards a milgrain bezel in brushed yellow gold and keeping it for myself!

It reminds me of lemonade!

Feature: willajunejewelry

Posted on November 7, 2014November 7, 2014 by grayspinel

As promised, I have an exclusive feature on Erin of willajunejewelry. If you haven’t bought all of your holiday presents yet, I highly suggest you pay close attention to this post! (And pay special consideration to the contents of it, because there is something in it for you!) Most of the pieces seen in this post are for sale.

Fluorite cabochon ring

I have had the great pleasure of knowing Erin since before willajunejewelry was even conceptualized. She has been a friend of mine since 2007 when she became a colleague of my husband’s.

Something that you wouldn’t necessarily expect from a jewelry designer/maker, is that she has a Masters degree in Sociology/Criminology. Cool, right? Her Masters thesis examined female criminals and, specifically, the role that children can play in stopping a criminal career.

Broken Arrow Turquoise Ring (this one has already been sold)

Erin started willajunejewelry in 2009, while working on her Masters degree. She had already been taking various jewelry fabrication classes in a variety of mediums as a way to express her creativity and as a stress outlet. Willajunejewelry was inspired by her grandmother, who was a rockhound and gemstone buyer and had huge impact on Erin and was the namesake for her business.

Shakespeare Quote Necklace

Erin is one of a very select few of my friends and family members that actually knows just how passionate I am about jewelry and gemstones. I figure at some point I will have to let others in on that secret. As a result, she’s my favorite gemstone shopping partner and is incredibly patient and never pressures me to hurry up!

Oval Apatite Cabochon Ring

Another fun fact about Erin is that she loves shoes. We have bonded many times over shoes, especially of the high heeled variety, and that will continue until we are old and gray. Hah!

I personally own several pieces of jewelry that Erin has made, both customized items as well as items I fell in love with that were in her shop (or on her Facebook page) but I will put them in a future post, since I’d rather let her photos shine!

Garnet Cabochon Flower Necklace

She primarily works in Precious Metal Clay, which is a really cool product that has so many uses and applications. She also does wire wrapping, beading, traditional metalsmithing and is constantly experimenting with new techniques and finishes.

She does some amazing custom projects and is always excited for new ideas and challenges.

Bi-colored Tourmaline cabochon ring

Lately, it seems as though Erin’s popularity and achievements have just exploded. In September she took home second place in the Metal Clay division of the New Mexico Jewelers Association All that Glitters competition. She has also just completed teaching her first Craft Entrepreneurship Program class on the topic of setting up and selling on etsy (link here, and a sample of her student’s work here). She also applied for Greek licensing to make jewelry for sororities, as she was in a sorority herself. She has been granted licensing for six sororities so far, and I am sure more will soon follow suit.

Gold Sheen Obsidian with lab Rubies, 2nd place winner in the Metal Clay division of the NMJA ATG competition. This is on display at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science until the end of November, which is when it will be going up for sale.

Now, how to get in touch with Erin and have her make you something amazing! Luckily she has a big social media presence so you can find her at any one of the following places:

willajunejewelry etsy
willajunejewelry website
willajunejewelry instagram
willajunejewelry twitter
willajunejewelry facebook

Gold Druzy Quartz Necklace

So, the best part about this post is that Erin is offering my readers an exclusive coupon code for 15% off for her etsy store: “THEGEMSTONEPROJECT”
This coupon will be good through the end of the year, so please take advantage of this offer!

Disclaimer: The above images belong to Erin of willajunejewelry and I am publishing them with her permission! These particular images were chosen by Erin because they are some of her favorite pieces.

October: Opal and Tourmaline Estate Rings

Posted on October 3, 2014September 4, 2014 by grayspinel

My mother was an October baby. So as a result, I grew up enjoying a couple rings in particular, and I had to share them, even though I don’t really know much of the history behind them or any of the details about the stones or the pieces themselves.

First up is a beautiful opal and onyx ring that was gifted to my mother from my grandmother – my father’s mother. The timeline of their relationship makes me think that it was given to her in the 1970s, but I feel like the ring looks like it was made in the 1950s or 1960s.

It’s a very small ring size, and only fits our pinkies, so I would guess that it’s around a size 3.

I’ve never been a huge opal fan, despite growing up with this ring, because I tend to like gems that sparkle more, but there is something to be said for the colorplay in opals.

I love how the circles are repeated everywhere in the ring, with the round doughnut at the base of the head, and the semicircles under the onyx.

It is 14kt gold, but as you may have noticed, it is not quite yellow and it is not quite rose gold, but something between.

Unfortunately, there is a chip in the onyx:

This ring is a pink tourmaline, and it was given to my mother by her mother, as a birthstone ring, when my mother was about 13 years old. I’m sure that she wore it a lot, as the prongs are paper thin, the milgrain on the side engraving detail is almost worn away, and the shoulder detail is not as fine as it probably once was. This ring is especially important to me because my mother’s family was very poor, and this ring would have been a major stretch for them financially.

The stone seems to be scissor cut, and has a nice big window in the middle, but I don’t particularly care about the cut quality of the stone for this one. The color is beautiful and the complete piece is enchanting, so I can overlook the flaws, especially considering it’s sentimentality.

I really wish I could have seen it when it was new before the details were blurred.

I think that part of the draw for sentimental jewelry items is knowing that your loved one wore it and loved it too. But also, for most people, heirlooms might be the only taste they ever get of antique jewelry. That is terrible in my opinion, because I think there is a lot of great beauty to be found in antique jewelry and it’s horrible to think about how much of it has been melted down and destroyed.

So, I suggest keeping an eye out for beautiful antique pieces! Jewelry stores often have “estate” sections with used items, or if you ask, sometimes they might have things that other people have sold for scrap. It’s always worth asking about!