marquise – The Gemstone Project

Updates and an Announcement

Posted on January 2, 2017January 1, 2017 by grayspinel

I feel like it’s been a while since I blogged. And there are a lot of good reasons for that. But I’ll get to that in a bit.

I recently nabbed a trio of gray spinel asschers. I’m thinking about making a three stone with them, if they match well enough and look good together. I will see once they arrive! If I don’t love them together, they will probably go into the etsy shop.

I did several earring design sketches for a client, and I’m considering turning some of the unused ones into designs to go into the etsy shop. Especially since I have a ton of green garnets that really should be used for something fabulous.

Upcoming projects: a necklace for a friend, a Rubellite ring, a smattering of three stone rings, a five stone ring, a couple of fancy halos, and a handful of solitaire rings. Plus who knows what else will pop up in the next few weeks. I have several ideas for necklaces that I’d like to make, but those may take a while to bring into fruition.

The biggest announcement is that I have taken an outside opportunity, and as a result, I won’t be able to devote as much time as I have been to my own jewelry design. There won’t be a ton of changes that stem from this change, my website will stay the same, my stock designs will remain available, the Etsy shop will remain open, and I will still be available to do custom design.

The big changes are going to be: I won’t be able to devote as much time to hunting down gemstones and I’m going to have to be stricter about custom projects that I take on. I will still have accounts with Gem2000, Mayer & Watt and Pala International/Gems, and their stones will be available for purchase through me. Shipping will only happen once a week, probably Mondays or Tuesdays. Unfortunately, blogging will have to take more of a backseat, and will likely turn into a once a month occurrence. I will still try to respond to emails within 24 hours, but I may not be as swift as I was before.

Incoming Gemstones

Posted on October 17, 2016October 16, 2016 by grayspinel

Whoa! Gemstones ahoy!

I got a couple of packages from a couple of collectors looking to consign items, and there are some really awesome gems, and a couple of finished jewelry pieces.

Some of the stand outs include:

40+ carats of green garnets: tsavorite, demantoid, mint, including melee!
2+ carat blue spinel pear
1.89 carat neon pink spinel
Green zircon
6+ carat blue zircon
Light teal-blue tourmaline
Pink Vietnamese spinel
Ruby studs
Handful of diamonds, rounds and cushions
Precision cut Mahenge garnets
Lavender tourmaline

Plus more!

Also expected this week, a precision cut gray spinel antique cushion with a certification from AGL.

And I still have more incoming in the next couple weeks!

All of these will be listed to my etsy shop in the coming weeks, while I’m hoping to have everything up by Thanksgiving, but that just depends on how things go, and how much sun I get for photographs! If you are looking for anything in particular or if any of the above sound interesting, please reach out to be added to the interest list!

If you haven’t found my coupon code on my Facebook page yet, you should go check it out because it expires October 31!

Also I have accounts with some wholesale dealers, so if you’re looking for anything in particular, let me know!

We are getting very close to the holiday season. I will be releasing deadlines for holiday ordering within the next week – where has this year gone?! I cannot believe the holiday season is upon us!

So many custom projects going into production right now, I am so excited to see them come to fruition!

A Diamond Papillon

Posted on July 11, 2016May 29, 2016 by grayspinel

The Papillon was my first official foray into creating a stock jewelry line. I spent so many hours agonizing over slight details and figuring out the best way to make those details come together in a cohesive manner. The Papillon was the result and I am still quite proud of it.

So I wasn’t surprised to get a message asking if I would be amenable to adapting it to a marquise shape and turning it into an engagement ring.

Due to it’s split shank style, it was a simple adaptation from an oval to a marquise, and one that worked out wonderfully.

Yellow gold was chosen and it was just a matter of getting it set.

C & J, I hope that this ring is shared through many incredibly happy years, and that you enjoy it for a long time to come. I am so delighted that you asked me to adapt a design to your stone and so lucky to have shared a small piece of your history together!

Gem Blast: Imperial Garnet Voeu

Posted on June 27, 2016June 21, 2016 by grayspinel

Oh Voeu…one of my first stock designs, the Voeu is always going to have a special role in my life.

You’ve seen the padparadascha sapphire version already, and if you’re following me on social media, you might have seen a hint of another one that came into my life recently.

In case you haven’t seen it before, here is a quick refresher course – stunning in white gold with rose gold accents, the center sapphire shines as the centerpiece of a composition.

While I originally thought that this stone wasn’t terribly different from the padparadscha sapphire in color, boy was I wrong! The color of the stone is almost the same as rose gold, and as a result, I decided I wanted to contrast it just a bit with the metal color while still keeping the warmth of colored gold.

18kt yellow gold can appear brassy sometimes, and I felt like it had the potential to overwhelm the delicate balance of brown and peach in the garnet, so instead I chose to go with 14kt yellow gold – something a bit more subtle.

And of course I had to keep up with my unexpected touches – a surprise diamond hidden on either side of the gallery of the setting.

Look at the warmth of that gold with the light shining through it! Reminds me of sunshine…

Metal Color and Flow

Posted on June 15, 2015June 14, 2015 by grayspinel

This is sort of a random topic, but because I’ve recently been working on two stones where the metal color has really been dictated by the center stone, I have been wanting to talk about it because I’ve been thinking about it so freaking much!

I don’t like to have a lot of contrast in the pieces I create, and would prefer that they flow together and use a metal that works best for the stone. Stones that don’t have a single hue or that color shift take extra special consideration, because metal color can clash with the various different colors of the stone.

The two stones I’ve been working with are padparadscha sapphires, one that is more pink and one that is more orange. So there isn’t one way to approach both stones, because while they are from the same color family, they are really more like cousins than siblings due to how they react in different lighting. Therefore different colors of metal suits each stone’s mood in a distinctive way.

Both stones pop against white metal, but not every light situation suits the stones, and in those, the white metal can end up detracting rather than enhancing. They ended up looking great in all lighting situations, both complemented best with yellow gold, but blended in the most with rose gold.

I approach choosing metal colors for each stone very carefully. Deliberation and studying the stone in various lighting situations and against the metals is key. I don’t often like to have a strong contrast between metal and stone, preferring instead to harmonize between the stone and the metal. I often will post stones against a certain color of metal to instagram to get a feel for what other people enjoy and I’m often surprised at the opinions.

These sapphires will be set in settings from the ring part of my jewelry line. So unfortunately that means I can’t quite share them just yet. I’m currently aiming for an early 2016 launch date, but that could change since it’s still 6 months out!

I decided to go with an image of a sketch instead of the usual gemstone photo. Here’s a marquise in a halo. I should probably see if this stone (a green garnet) is still for sale, so I can make this come to life!

Gem Blast: Amethyst

Posted on February 9, 2015February 9, 2015 by grayspinel

Apparently I have decided to do birthstone posts every month. Why not, right?

Anyway, February gets amethyst. Purple is traditionally a color of royalty, and generally a sought after gemstone for jewelry stores, because it is popular, and it’s relatively inexpensive since it’s pretty common to find in nice colors with good clarity. So I’m used to seeing lots of amethyst in jewelry stores, and it’s typically pretty “meh”. There are lots of windowed stones out there, I typically stay away from those. Why buy a stone that doesn’t sparkle, when you can spend a little bit more and get a super sparkly stone?

Here are some of the amethysts I have in my possession right now.

An asscher.

The glorious and enormous Kotlowski cut cushion.

It might be a good size to serve two purposes: piece of jewelry and a paper weight.

A couple hand shots for size reference.

An interesting marquise-oval shaped stone. The little pieces of fuzz on each stone is making me crazy. They are so tiny you can’t see them on the stones except under magnification.

A pretty lighter purple emerald.

I’ve never been a huge amethyst lover, even though I like purple quite a bit, so I’ve never really gotten into learning much about it. I know that there are pale Rose de France amethysts that are usually a pale pink-purple, and amethysts in deeper purples, that depending on locale may have red flashes or blue flashes, or even a combination.

I think that it’s simultaneously overrated and underrated as a gemstone. The general public sees it as being abundant, and inexpensive for a bright purple, so overrated. But the really nice colors aren’t widely known by the public, unless you really start digging around and educating yourself as to the differences between materials and location of origin. Amethyst is kind of underrated by the trade, precisely because the public doesn’t know the difference between really fine material and the stuff that is so widely available. So you can get high quality amethyst for comparatively lower prices than high quality in other gemstones.

There is not a more vibrant and saturated purple than an amethyst, although some stones may try! Looking at all of these amethysts makes me want to set some of it!

Gem Blast: Tiny Diamonds

Posted on November 21, 2014November 17, 2014 by grayspinel

I recently got 6 small marquise cut diamonds from a good friend of mine. I actually have a small marquise left over from another project, but it’s a little bit bigger than these are. Anyway, I just wanted to post a few pictures I took of these little guys. They look huge in the pictures, but in reality, they are tiny, at less than 2x4mm, and the total weight of the smallest 6 of them is less than .50ctw.

You might notice in the picture above that it shows a little bit of a bowtie. Marquise cuts are pretty notorious for doing this. For this particular project, I don’t mind them, but for others, I probably wouldn’t be so lenient.

You might remember a stone that will be involved in this project from a previous post. Look for a post with a design that might include these stones in a few weeks!

Feature: Lang Antique & Estate Jewelry Inside

Posted on September 16, 2014September 4, 2014 by grayspinel

The Lang interior consists of about 3 larger cases of diamond rings. When we finally got inside, they were full of customers, so we waited our turn while chatting with the salesperson assigned to us. She told us that they will be moving just down the street to a new larger location, but that they don’t know when construction will be finished. She also told us that lately they haven’t been able to keep any blue zircons in the cases. We hypothesized that it may be due to the popularity of Paraiba tourmaline and teal colors in general being very popular right now. I wonder if buyers are educating themselves more and discovering that zircon is not the same thing as cubic zirconia.

Anyway, we tried on some diamonds, and my friend particularly fell in love with this cushion. I think her boyfriend might be getting a link or two in his email…

We were on the side with the larger diamonds, but nothing quite like the honkers in the store windows.

This was only part of one case.

Beautiful profile view of a ring. The dark stones are actually bright blue sapphires. My white balance got screwed up when I was snapping the picture, but the other pictures were blurry.

A beautifully patterned OEC ring.

A massive ball of step cuts. even though I love step cuts, this one didn’t really do anything for me. I think the proportions of the sidestones bothered me. I like to have more of an extreme taper. I think the trapezoids compete with the center stone.

A large marquise cut stone, the profile was gorgeous, and looked a bit like a boat.

Both my friend and the salesperson really liked this ring on me, but I always see an eyeball when I see rings like this. I can’t help it!

I don’t particularly like fishtail prongs, but between the beautiful center stone and the french cut sides, this ring really wanted to come home with me.

I have to say though, I was disappointed to hear that they will not sell any stones loose. Nor do they sell settings separately. Also, the prices are astronomical, compared to other retailers of fine antique jewelry.

That about sums it up for the visit to Lang. I’m so glad I got to go! I saw so many beautiful jewels, and had a fantastic time with a very good friend! I wish we had been able to spend more time looking around and trying things on, but their little store was completely packed and neither of us was going to be buying that day. It was really fun to see what different size diamonds look like, and to judge the cut quality on so many different stones at once. I would highly recommend it if you’re going to be visiting San Francisco and want to get a good antique jewelry fix!