padparadscha sapphire – The Gemstone Project

TGP Updates

Posted on April 25, 2016April 24, 2016 by grayspinel

It has been far too long since I managed to get a post up! In the last few weeks, I’ve had a family emergency, found myself terribly sick and even had a birthday.

Bright Yellow Sapphire

In more jewelry related news, I managed to get some new gems up on etsy, got a few custom projects underway, and am anxiously waiting for a few items in production.

Pastel Green Aquamarine

I’m really sad that I haven’t been able to get more jewelry into production so far this year, but things have been distracting me, and I am hoping that as soon as I get moved into the new studio, things will take a turn for the better. I have a bunch of custom projects in the works, including a step cut halo, some cluster type rings, another halo, and some others including a fancy colored diamond ring.

Medium Gray Spinel Pair

Speaking of the studio, I have a new drafting table, and I’m so excited to be able to draw without getting instant neck strain! I also have a big south facing window with incredible natural light (except during those pesky storms that make it over the Cascades from Seattle) that has been working quite well for photographing stones and jewelry. I didn’t realize when I started planning this new space just how many functions I need it for – drawing, photography, computer, writing, storage, shipping, etc. And all of those tasks need different lighting (say, for instance, color shifting stones!) and suddenly office planning is incredibly complicated.

Lavender Spinel

Now, as for decorating the studio, I already have one print up from Angie Crabtree – the Elle modern asscher, and my wonderful husband surprised me with a new print for my birthday – the Dominique antique pear! This complicates things though – I had just figured out my wall configuration with the decor, so I will have to redo it once it is framed.

Barry Bridgestock Tourmaline

I hope that you have taken the opportunity to take a minute to check out my Repertoire page – I have many of the items I have designed up there, both stock items as well as custom items. I am going to be writing another Inside The Industry blog coming up soon – I just need to be able to spend some time writing, instead of spending it on random non-jewelry related items. And I will be sharing a couple new items to go with the Vivant necklace as well – they should be coming out of production very shortly!

Peter Torraca Tourmaline

In other updates, I have stones at AGL for certification/testing, and I will have a new small padparadscha sapphire as well as a gorgeous blue sapphire here soon as well!

Inside the Industry: Engagement Rings

Posted on April 4, 2016April 3, 2016 by grayspinel

I originally was thinking of the “Real Housewives of _____” series when I had this idea for the blog. I’ve never actually watched even an episode of any of the shows, but their jewelry seems to have a prominent presence in the show, as I will occasionally hear about various huge diamond engagement rings from news outlets.

Engagement rings are deeply personal items, sometimes they have hidden messages, birthstones, special secrets that just the couple knows about. Every engagement ring is a promise and a symbol of a union, and are often the most important piece of jewelry a couple will share.

So I decided to reach out to some gem cutters and dealers to see what people wear who are surrounded by stunning gems and jewelry all of the time.

All photography within this post is the property of person whose ring it is, and their images and stories are being used with permission.

Dan and Cynthia Stair of Custom Gemstones met when Cynthia started collecting the gemstones that Dan was cutting.

What is Cindi’s engagement ring?
About a four carat pink sapphire in a platinum and diamond halo. The funny thing is, I bought the ring to take the stone out and recut it, but was told “no”. I figure if it ever gets a little scuffed, I’ll “fix” it.

Roger and Ginger Dery of Spectral Gems

What is Ginger’s engagement ring?
Blue sapphire, Sri Lankan, a piece I reconditioned with a final weight of 6.33ct. It is heated, and has an AGL report, of course.

Geoffrey and Alexandra Watt of Mayer & Watt

What is Alexandra’s engagement ring?
3.50cts 8.5mm square cushion peach no heat Padparadscha Ceylon sapphire with white gold shank … Rose gold head … Platinum filigree down the side with 3mm round Alex’s. Her anniversary band is rose gold with diamonds, and the ring was designed so the band would fit inside it.

Why Alexandrites?

Well I love Alexandrites and so my wife by default likes them too, and wanted a big one but we can’t afford it! So I promised she would eventually get one…and I put them secretly in her ring. She designed it but I snuck them in. Plus her name is Alexandra, so it has double meaning behind it being in her ring.

Jaimeen and Nattalie Shah of Prima Gems

What is Nattalie’s engagement ring?
A 1.5ct round tsavorite and diamond ring. The center measures 6.6mm.

Nattalie and Jaimeen’s engagement ring story is so wonderful, I just had to let her share it in her own words:
Almost six years ago, my husband (who was obviously my boyfriend at the time) called his mother in India and asked her to design and make a ring for me. He asked her to make a ring with a Tsavorite because this stone holds a lot of significance to him. He knew that I had teased him that I would love any engagement ring as long as it wouldn’t turn my finger green (haha). I love my engagement ring and I really feel that it’s so special to know that this ring was made just for me.

If you’re in the business and would like me to share a photo of your/your partner’s engagement ring please reach out to me!

Thank you so much to all of you for sharing such a special piece of your history together!

What’s in a Name?

Posted on February 15, 2016February 14, 2016 by grayspinel

What’s in a name?

I get a lot of questions about why I name jewelry what I do, so I thought I should explain a bit more as to how I came to the defining theme in the names of my collection.

Vivant – Vivacious

I feel like so many designers out there have chosen names that are ladies given names, and I really wanted to express concepts that would mean something to me, that represented something that I felt, or something that inspired me while I was working on a piece, whether that be something descriptive of the actual piece itself (there could not be another name for Feuilles Dorées) or a name that had some quality that I felt the piece represented. I also try to keep each item upbeat, often thinking of qualities I would like my daughter to possess, or traits that inspirational women in my life embody. Every once in a while I even let a client name a piece themselves.

Résistance – Strength

I actually put a lot of time into picking a name for each piece, taking into account every element of the item and every thought, word and feeling that ended up becoming that item. Unless inspiration hits and I fully flesh out an item within a few minutes, many hours of brainstorming, writing down words, drawing, thinking and sometimes staring at a blank piece of paper goes into each item. Often the name for a piece shows up somewhere from the beginning, as one of the defining concepts or an errant thought I have while trying to put a vision into words.

Aurore – Dawn

Now, I chose French because of my background in pastry and culinary arts. French is basically the unofficial language of fine dining restaurants (though it could be debated that it should be Spanish) and as a result, I have a decent repertoire of French vocabulary terms floating around in my brain, though they are mostly related to cooking and food! No, I am not French (as far as I know), but I have two close friends that speak it fluently, and when I have questions about correct and accurate language usage, I have people to ask. Besides, French is the language of love, and while it may sound somewhat cliche, I love what I do.

Papillon – Butterfly

French is not a super popular language within the United States, I realize that people may struggle with pronunciation, which is why I added what the English translation alongside the French on each piece’s page. Please don’t feel bad about not being able to pronounce the names – I have struggled with languages my entire life (lets not talk about how I have had years and years of formal Spanish education and can barely speak any of it) and still mangle words at times!

Voeu – Wish

So if you have ever wondered, that’s why I have a bunch of French words as the names of my jewelry!

As is par for the course, renovations are not done yet, though there is light at the end of the tunnel! Painting is getting closer and closer to being done, and I should have a new studio by March 1!

In the meantime, I’m working on some custom projects, including some more pear shapes, one of the most challenging but interesting shapes, in my humble opinion. Also included in that is a large project, or parcel of projects that has so many stones, I have been having a hard time figuring out where to start!

I’ve received requests for a new page to be added to my website, one page that has all of my custom work and designs together. Hopefully soon I can put some time into adding that. I will also put another jewelry item to the site in the next couple weeks – the Espoir ring.

New items were added to the etsy shop this past week – a yellow diamond ring and a red spinel and diamond ring among them!

The Gallery

Posted on September 7, 2015September 4, 2015 by grayspinel

Can we talk about galleries for a minute?

So, what is a gallery?

The gallery is the part of the ring, when the ring is facing down, that is facing back up at you. It’s behind or underneath a stone, depending on how you want to look at it.

Now, when you turn over most of your rings, you might notice a trend – no one does anything with the gallery. Sure, a ring might have a nice basket or a cool shoulder design, but the gallery is often one of the most neglected parts of the ring. It has recently come to my attention that, especially when getting a custom ring, they want it to be special, they want cool little details, and you know what? The gallery is a great place to start with that.

This is the gallery piece in wax form from my design for the Voeu ring.

I have had clients say to be before, “well, who cares? You can’t see it when you’re wearing it!” To them I say, “You know how you will sometimes put on your favorite pair of underwear and or bra, and you suddenly feel sexier or more positive – just because of what you’re wearing under your clothes?” No one (well, you know, maybe not no one) sees it but you. But it still elevates your mood. It’s for you. So think of it like it’s your ring’s fancy lingerie.

I want my rings to have fabulous views from every angle. I don’t want my pieces to be completely one dimensional. So I always give thought to the gallery, even if I don’t end up doing anything with it. You can guarantee that I have still thought about it and decided what is best for the overall ring design.

Your ring’s sexy knickers.

I want you to pick out a ring I have designed from your jewelry box, and take a look at the secret view that no one else can see just before you slip it on your finger, and cherish that private detail until the next time you take off your ring.

Maybe it will even add some oomph to your step.

The Debut of Voeu

Posted on August 20, 2015August 19, 2015 by grayspinel

Ok, so I’ve been dropping hints all over the place for months about this project I’ve been working on. I have a good friend who is also a gemstone collector, and she had the good sense to ask me to design some ring settings for her. This is a friend that I’ve known for a very long time, and we talk every day, so I know her taste exceptionally well. I have actually used her as inspiration for designs before (for instance, an upcoming prototype in my ring collection), and probably will again since our tastes are so different, she makes me think outside my normal design box.

One of her stones that she wanted to set ASAP was a gorgeous mostly pink, some peach pad sapphire. But being rather small, she didn’t just want to halo it. She has a love affair with leaf shapes, and loves to have as much sparkle and finger coverage as possible. With a 7.5×5.5 stone, we had a task in front of us, even though her finger size is a relatively small size 5.

The stone was originally purchased through Wink Jones of WinkCZ and High Performance Diamonds at JCK 2014.

A truly horrible picture of a gorgeous stone.

This ring was originally supposed to be in yellow gold, and has gone through quite the journey to get us to where we are now, which is a completely different place from where we started. The original intended design for it is an upcoming setting from my collection, and this was intended to be the prototype for it, but for various reasons, the whole project did not work out.

So we started over, basically from scratch, putting the whole thing on hold for a while and regrouping.

Here is the resulting sketch, and as you’ll see, the setting ended up deviating quite a bit from the original, through the CAD process and constant re-evaluation.

I really need to start drawing facets on all of my sketches. Makes the whole thing look more complete.

The stone involved is a 7.5×5.5 padparadascha sapphire, leaning more pink than peach, but definitely containing that peach component. The above picture was taken on my brief trip to DTLA to visit with my bench and discuss upcoming projects, and scope out what they have going on (a lot!).

I also took some pictures of the wax, promptly before destroying it. For the record, it was destined for destruction anyway!

So once the wax was done, it came down to what metals to use. As I mentioned above, the original intent was to use yellow gold as the primary metal color. As the project wore on, we weighed the options and decided to go with white gold for most of the ring, to really enhance the diamonds and bring out their shapes and the shapes in the metal, and still allowing the stone to stand out.

My client and I also discussed what color to make the prongs. After being torn for a week, I offered to make the decision for her, so she didn’t have to worry about it anymore. This topic was the inspiration for an earlier blog post, Metal Color and Flow. As a result of considering all of the options (really, with this stone, there were no bad options) and decided that I wanted to allow the rose gold to flow in with the stone, and felt that the yellow gold might be too much of a distraction from the stone and the setting itself – both of which were unwanted.

One thing I really wanted to concentrate on was keeping the look as dainty as possible, and preventing anything from detracting from what was going on with the delicate color of the stone. I chose to make it a knife edge for this reason – and luckily, the shank almost disappears because it’s too busy reflecting skin!

And as a surprise for my client, I had my bench put in a surprise stone on the gallery of the ring. I absolutely love galleries on stones, they are one of my favorite parts of any ring, and you can guarantee that I have put thought into any ring gallery that I design. I should also mention that it was also a surprise to her that the gallery was done in rose gold. I hadn’t informed her of that until she saw the finished images.

The end result is a graceful setting that seems to float on the wearer’s finger, lending a flattering elongated silhouette and enhancing the size of the gem.

She and I chose the name “Voeu” for this particular setting. Voeu in French means “vow” “desire” and “wish”, and was inspired by the slightly star shaped outline. She woke up the morning it was to be delivered and thought “make a wish”. Being a romantic at heart, the term rang true for such a lovely feminine ring.

Thank you m’dear for allowing me to create this incredible ring for you! I hope that you love it for many years to come! (I can’t wait for the next one!)

Gem Blast: Blue Sapphire

Posted on August 17, 2015August 17, 2015 by grayspinel

A Gem Blast for one of the most popular gemstones!

One thing I have to say is please, don’t ever settle for one of those dark navy blue sapphires! There are so many beautiful blues out there that are waiting to be loved. Most of these are medium toned, but none of them are dark and dead like most brick & mortar stones.

A precision cut Montana sapphire with a slight green secondary and a few inclusions is above. A heated blue cushion below.

Two blue sapphires from my favorite gem store, a wide pear and a velvety cushion.

Two heated blue sapphire cushions, below being precision cut, but both are fantastic examples.

The same heated precision cut sapphire is above, and a heated blue heart below.

A vivid silky blue sapphire alone, above, and below with a friend.

Not a lot of content today! I have been really busy getting things ready to go to do a gem special every day for the month of September. Loose stones, gemstone jewelry items, a whole variety of things will be sold at highly discounted prices, up to 50% discount! Keep an eye on my Instagram for details.

I also just got my biggie bright green garnet back from an expert in the business, so that will be hitting the market soon!

A custom setting just came out of production, with a padparadascha sapphire. It’s pretty fantastic, if I say so myself. Perhaps I will post about it in a couple weeks…

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!

Design: Padparadscha Sapphire Setting

Posted on December 12, 2014October 12, 2014 by grayspinel

I haven’t had this stone for that long, but it became a quick favorite. I am not a big orange person, but even as a little girl, I was into peach colors. Which is what the padparadscha should have in spades. You might recognize this stone from a previous post.

So, as you can see, this particular sapphire has a bit of a depth issue, which results in a larger window. Because of the wonderful color, I decided I didn’t care about the window, but wanted to preserve the beauty of the stone as much as possible.

This stone seems to possess some smoke like inclusions, which would lead me to think it’s probably Beryllium infused, but I don’t really care because I love the color that much. If I were going to sell it, I’d probably get it tested by AGL.

I could potentially have someone recut it to get rid of the window, but that would probably diminish the stone size to maybe 4mm if I was lucky, and it’s 5x7mm now. I’ve still considered it, but ultimately decided to embrace it as it is, flaws and all.

I love how much the color shifts, depending on the lighting situations.

I tried it against several color of metal, such as 18kt yellow gold:

14kt rose gold:

10kt white gold, which kills the color of the stone:

So, here are a rough few sketches of what I started thinking of for it.

First I wanted to address some of the stone’s issues, for instance disguising the window as much as possible. So I wanted to put a detailed relatively solid gallery. I think that designing for stones that have problems is a lot more fun than perfectly cut stones, if I’m totally honest.

So underneath the stone, I plan to put rose gold since it resembles the color the closest and will disguise the window the most. The shank and the surround/halo (?) will be yellow gold, but I haven’t quite decided what design to go with. This was the most promising idea, but I think I want to go a different direction, so this project is still undergoing revisions and probably will be for a while.

By the way, in case anyone is interested, drawing irregular shapes, especially to scale, is really quite difficult. I should probably use a pencil more often, rather than ink!