Shadow & Light Artisan Jewelry

I have an nstagram friend that is an amazing lapidary and I try to get to her IG sales whenever I can.  I can remember the second I saw this stunning Tiffany Stone pop up in her feed.  I didn't have anything else like it let alone any other Tiffany Stones.  I had to get it so I madly typed "me" in the comments and prayed until I saw the winner's name pop up in the comments and it was me! I couldn't believe it.  I don't know about you but for me, I've always had a feeling when things were meant to be and this stone was meant to be mine, at least for a little while.

This stone has three distinct patterns that divide it into thirds pretty evenly.  I didn't feel right trying to gussy up the setting since this stone can't help but stand out- it doesn't need the help or the competition- so a plain silver bezel it was.  I decided on a heavy looking cast silver succulent blossom to balance out the heavy looking pattern at the bottom of the stone.  My signature loop bail balances out the curve at the bottom of the stone nicely.  

She's rustic and elegant at the same time... that's my specialty.

I bought this stone at a gem and jewelry show quite a few years ago.  It was in a box of random cabochons that were probably the last stonex\s left in their trays so they were all put together so new trays could be put on the table.  There were all kinds of stones in that tray but this one stood out right away.  I'm a total sucker for turquoise and this had the color but I knew it wasn't turquoise.  I bought it and did research after getting home. The stone is too big for a ring which is good since chryscolla is pretty soft.  Like turquoise, shattuckite and chryscolla get their color from copper so I decided that this piece needed to have some copper accents.  The stone is large so a plain bezel seemed best with the copper balls in the three "corners".  I offset the bail to balance the pendant but the loop that I normally use didn't fit with this pendant so I gave it some angles.

It's rustic and elegant at the same time... that's my specialty.

I often find variscite when shopping for turquoise online.  This gorgeous cabochon of green apple and caramel brown Australian Variscite caught my eye right away.  The colors were stunning and it was the perfect size for a ring.  Since I was buying from a reputable US lapidary, I knew the stone would be as pictured.

I saw this stone in a feminine ring from the start despite the bright green color.  I knew that I wanted to use a floral patterned double ring shank so I very carefully lined up the pattern so that it matched between the two pieces of wire before I soldered them and soldered painstakingly slow so that NOTHING moved.  That wasn't enough to get the look I wanted.  Something was missing.  I looked through all of my wire looking for something fancy to use for my bezel wire and nothing felt right. Then I stumbled onto my large berry flower wire- which was too big for this stone.  Right away I went to my silver company's website to see what other sizes they had this wire in because this was the missing piece.  I found the wire in the correct size, ordered it, and a week later, the ring was finished!

It's rustic and elegant at the same time... that's my specialty.