The past week was a blur in the studio. Friday saw my bench covered in five separate projects all at various stages of being finished. Three of the projects where ones I was getting paid for so the two 'January Design' projects did not get finished! I almost finished the peridot ring. It just needs one last polish and clean up then it is ready for the photo. I'll be back in the studio February 14!
The week is flying by and I have a couple of projects I am still hoping to finish by Friday afternoon. I'm off to Phoenix and then Tucson on Saturday, so the clock is ticking. I just finished a ring for my niece's 16th birthday and carved a wax model for the peridot I took a picture of last week- it is going to be a gorgeous ring. I made sure it fits one of my fingers in case no one else likes it...
I use blue topaz quite a bit in my work, but usually a round stone, not an oval. This 5X7mm oval has been hidden in a plastic bag at the bottom of my stone drawer for quite awhile. I made a friend a very classic ring with a marquis cut aquamarine set in gold. I think this oval topaz would look great in that design with a claw setting.
I liked the green tourmaline ring so much that I decided to make another one in the same design, but used an orange sapphire and accented it with 14k yellow gold. The orange really pops!
Green tourmaline is another one of my favorite stones. Tourmaline comes in a range of greens from lime to blue/green to an amazing turquoise and then in the pink range from pale to bright to a watermelon pink. This 5mm round stone is a rich blue/green. I bought two of them hoping to make a pair of earrings, but they were just different enough of color that I needed to use them separately. That is the difficult thing about tourmalines- trying to match up color! This one is going into a ring.
The photo does not do this stone justice. It has a delicate blue iridescence across the top of the stone which is a milky white in color. I seem to be drawn to this shape of faceted stone. I hadn't realized it until I started going through all of them! This one will be in a ring for sure.
I have had this stone for so long that is it almost embarrassing to say! It is half amethyst and half citrine that has a color blend in the middle of the stone as it changes. Really cool! Maybe a ring, maybe a pendant. I'll decide sometime in the next couple of days.
I purchased this stone last year after drooling over a ring that was made by Atelier Munsteiner in Germany. I could not afford the ring or any of their cut stones, but figured I could use this interesting peridot and make a ring that was influenced by what I saw. I think I will make this ring to fit on one of my fingers in case it doesn't sell.....!
When I saw these aquamarines I knew I just had to have them. The color is just amazing! I always thought aquamarines came in a light blue, but like most gemstones, they come in different colors and then shades of those. These are the actual aquamarine crystals that are drilled through like a bead and then polished lightly. I think that they should be kept together for the most impact instead of used individually or in pairs for earrings. I guess I'm making a necklace!
I have one more of the beautiful pink rubellite stones. I thought that a garnet compliments the richness of the rubellite and would look great together in a ring. They are just different enough- the garnet is darker and is a faceted round stone compared to the brighter oval tourmaline. Should be nice!
I bought a small pair of lemon quartz the same time that I got the two big ones that are now in rings. These one scream out earring just because of the size and the fact that I have two. I'm going to try and keep it a simple, clean design.
This aquamarine cabachon is a larger cab- it measures about 14 X 10mm. It has a lot of visible inclusions but that is what attracted me to it in the first place. It reminds me of winter and seems like a beautiful piece of ice. Aquamarines can be rather pale and lifeless, but not this one.
This little stone happens to be my birthstone too. A rubellite is a beautiful dark pink tourmaline. Usually we see the bright pink version of the October birthstone, but I prefer this one. It has a rich color similar to a ruby, but more pink than red.
I've had this cool stone hidden away in a drawer for several years now. I had never see or heard of it before my stone dealer came into the shop on a selling trip in 2007. Between Alex and my trips to Tucson, I have a lot of impulse buys to use up! 
