|
|
Garnet Jewelry
 Garnets are one of the most common gemstones used in semi-precious jewelry. They range from a 7-7.5 on the Mohs scale of hardness where a diamond is a 10. The most common garnet throughout the ages is the deep ruby red variety, although garnets come in ever color except blue, and there is even a green variety called Demantoid Garnet that has more brilliance and is rarer than most diamonds. While we unfortunately don't use this type in any if our pieces we do use lots of the red, orange, and some of the green varieties. Garnets have a history dating back several thousand years to the Bronze Age where they were used as gemstones and as an abrasive, when ground to a powder due to their hardness they make a great abrasive and are even used today in modern tools that combined with a powerful water jet stream can effortlessly cut steel. The word garnet comes from the Latin term, granatus and most likely from the term punica granatus, meaning pomegranate, a fruit that contains a deep red seed that is often the same size and naturally found garnet crystals. Throughout history many gemstones have taken on different meanings and properties depending on culture and availability of the gemstones within the region. However garnets has generally carried on the same meanings and ideals 5,000 years ago that they do today. Chunks of deep red garnets were found in tombs dating back to 3,000 BC. Garnet is said to offer protection both in this life and the next. Many early explorers would carry garnets with them for protection from evil and disaster, it was believed that at night it would glow with power, and in fact it may seem to glow as it has a very high refractive index creating a brilliant luster even under marginal lighting conditions. Here are a few of our favorite pieces that use garnets in them:
Opal Jewelry
 Between summer vacations and upgrades to our website and servers we've had little time to blog. Everything is going well, we've got several new pieces to add to our line many of which are using Peruvian Opal, so today we'd like to give you a brief look at the history and types of opal that exist. Opal is considered to be a mineraloid gel that is created under fairly low temperatures, overall this makes most types of opal a bit softer than your average semi-precious gemstones, generally rated 5.5-6.5 on the Mohrs scale of hardness. So you will want to take a little extra care for any jewelry that has opals in it. Opals have a lot of water in them compared to other gemstones, this means they love to be worn a lot as they can maintain their proper humidity from the wearers skin. There are generally two types of opal, common opals and precious opal, the latter is only named precious because of its atomic build that contains a very predictable crystalline structure that creates that famous opalescent sheen usually in a rainbow of milky colors, however just because of the name it doesn't represent rarity of value compared to some forms of the "common opal". Opals history is almost as colorful as the stones themselves. For most of history they have been associated with good luck, calmness, and mental clarity. Australian aboriginals believed that the creator of the human race came to earth riding a rainbow and that when he landed his footsteps left the color of the rainbow and thus created the opal stone. To this day opal is the official gemstone for Southern Australia. Opal is the birthstone of October. In our most recent batch of new jewelry we obtained a small stock of Peruvian opal beads and stones. This opal is relatively rare and is only found in the Andes Mountains near San Patricio, Peru. It is also the national stone of Peru. Here are our newest opal pieces.
Dorje
 We've had a few questions about the Dorje symbol that we use on several of our pieces. So here is a brief background on the symbol and its meaning. The Dorje in Tibetan literally means indestructible. The Dorje or Vajra (Hindu word for the Dorje) is a ritual tool used in ceremonies. The scepter often contains diamonds inside of the spokes, this represents the idea of absolute as a diamond can cut anything but cannot be cut itself. Often times it is represented as two scepters crossed over each other this is the symbol of Amoghshiddhi, the fifth Dhyani Buddha. The symbolism has many meanings depending on the religion or area in which it is used. In Hindu mythology the Varja/Dorje is the weapon for their god or war, Indra, bringing great spiritual power and enlightenment to he who uses it. It is often referred to as the weapon that destroys all ignorance. In Jainism the symbol is associated as the mark of the Thirthankars, a human who has achieved total enlightenment. In Buddhism it is the symbol of Vajrayana, also known as Tantric Buddhism, the symbol signifies thunderbolt enlightenment, that sudden moment in one's life that they realize the nature of all reality. We combine this symbolism with that of the OM, the symbol for spiritual perfection, to create some powerful jewelry pieces that reminds us of these great spiritual ideals. For now we have two pieces using these symbols combined, and we are working on more that will be showcased soon.
Lapis Lazuli
 We use so many different gemstones it is hard to pick ones to write about. While we eventually hope to have a blog on every gemstone we use for now we are concentrating on the ones that have a long history and cultural significance, mostly because they are just more interesting to research and write about, and will eventually be linked together with all of our jewelry to help you the customer make a better decision about what jewelry is right for them or their loved ones. Lapis Lazuli is usually just abbreviated to be called Lapis. Lapis is unique as a gemstone as it is technically a rock and not a mineral as many other gemstones are. Don't be fooled though just because it is considered a rock, it has a long history dating back to Predynastic Egyptian sites where it has been found to adorn the graves of high officials and commoners alike. It has also been recorded that Cleopatra herself used a powdered version as eye shadow as it is incredibly brilliant. It is on the record as being mined in Afghanistan for over 6,500 years and still comes from this area today. Lapis is made up of calcite (white), sodalite (blue), and pyrite (gold). The most valued Lapis is that that doesn't have any white or calcite in it just solid blue with flakes or viens of pyrite. Up until the early 1900's Lapis was used in the making of Ultramarine blue as a paint pigment, one of the most sought after paints by the old masters as it was the most brilliant of any blue ever created. A synthetic material has since been discovered and is now used for the pigment of ultramarine blue. The ancient Romans believe that it was a powerful aphrodisiac and also had many healing properties, it was often ground down to a powder and used to treat skin irritations and mixed with milk to help with ulcers. Written about in the Egyptian book of the dead, lapis set in gold in the shape of an eye was considered to bring great power, and was often pictured on the heads of supreme beings for this reason. We make use of lapis in several of our pieces and love its brilliant color. Here are a two of our favorites:
Mother of Pearl
 Today we'd like to give you some information of nacre, pronounced "nay- ker", or more commonly called mother of pearl. In fact it truly is a pearl, while it may not be the typical round pearls we think of when it comes to pearls it is made by the same organisms that makes pearls, instead of forming around a piece of material the pearls forms on the interior of the shell of the organism, which includes pearl oysters, freshwater pearl mussels, abalone, and several families of mollusks. Today they use mother of pearls as the material for culturing pearls, it is cut into squares, then rounded by a machine and finally inserted into the oysters as the seed for a pearl. You can read more about the world of pearls in our previous blog. The use of nacre has been dated back to the ancient Egyptians at almost 4000 BC, far out dating the use of traditional pearls by several thousand years. Today mother of pearl is used in everything from buttons and musical instruments to jewelry and decorative wall hangings. Mother of pearl has a beautiful iridescent quality to it that can range from pure white to the fabulous multi-color varieties from the abalone, which is one of the most popular as well ranging from pink to green to silver and orange. We use mother of pearl as small highlights as well as larger full pendants, we hope to use it more often but for now here are a few of our favorites that use this wonderful jewel.
Buri Beads
 As designers we are always looking for new and interesting materials to use. We came across buri beads in our searching and thought they were an interesting product. They are actually nuts that come from the buri tree in the Philippines and are hand shaped. The great thing about them is their versatility. They can stand alone in a design or can be paired with some of the "earthy" looking stones in our collection, particularly jasper. Another nice thing is their price point. We can create nice looking jewelry at a competitive price. The buri tree is the most common palm tree within the Philippines and has a variety of uses from the buds as vegetables to the stalk used for creating a common alcohol used by locals called tuba. The fiber from the tree is also used in the creating of the famous hats called Baliuag and Lacban seen throughout the Philippines. We have created one new necklace style using buri beads and it is available in dark teal and plum. Of course, as our customers, we value your input on the products we create. Let us know what you think by leaving a comment on this blog.
Quartz Jewelry
 Today we'd like to provide some information on the common gemstone quartz, and common it is. Quartz is the most abundant mineral found in the earth's crust. There are so many types of quartz that often people don't even realize that the gemstone they are wearing is actually a form of quartz. Some examples include Amethyst, Citrine, Carnelian, Onyx, Agates, and Tiger's Eye. While it may be the most abundant mineral on the planet it can be difficult to mine varieties that are of good enough quality to be used in jewelry making. Quartz is ranked a 7 on the Mohs scale of hardness where a diamond is 10 and sapphires are a 9, this makes quartz a very strong and durable material for jewelry. Quartz in its purest form is clear as water and generally grows in a crystal based formation. When the quartz is crossed or twinned with other minerals you get all of the color variations you see today, usually given their own name such as amethyst, but also named simply after their color, such as smoky quartz, rose quartz, etc. Another interesting note is that some forms of quartz such as citrine and carnelian are amethyst that has been heat treated, naturally or mechanically. Besides being a beautiful stone for jewelry, quartz has what they call piezoelectric properties. You have probably heard of quartz timepieces. When mechanical stress is applied to quartz crystals they become electrically charged. It is this unique property that is likely why crystals are frequently used in healing ceremonies and have different healing attributes associated with various quartz gemstones. Almost all of our jewelry uses quartz in one form or another. You can use this link to see all our pieces that make use of quartz, usually in the form of smoky quartz, amethyst, citrine, and carnelian. It's clear and shiny brilliance make wonderful accent beads and faceted stones that highlight pieces very well, here are a few of our favorites:
The Sacred Lotus Blossom
 Today we'd like to give a little history and background information on the lotus blossom. Having symbolic meaning in eastern religions it has become an icon in the west as well that represents ideas about purity, elegance, and spiritual growth and maturation. We love the ideas and symbolism behind the blossom so much that it is represented in our logo. The Hindu religion probably uses the symbol of the lotus most heavily, it is associated with their gods Vishnu and Brahma and goddesses Lakshmi and Sarasvati as well as their creation mythology. In both Hinduism and Buddhism much of their artwork depicts various gods and goddesses perched on or holding and wearing the sacred lotus blossoms. The most revered quality of the lotus blossom is the fact that it comes from a seed planted deep within mud below a pond, and it grows through the mud and water and comes out perfectly clean and pristine as a blossom high above the water, almost as though it has transcended to the spiritual plane. The Bahá'í Faith which is a faith based on the unity of all major world religions and has approximately 5-6 million followers adopted the lotus from the Hindu and Buddhist beliefs and built one of their largest temples located in New Delhi, India in the form of a lotus, " The Lotus Temple", a marvelous structure that closely resembles the blossom. The sacred lotus is one of the world's most celebrated flowers and we have used its symbolism in several of our pieces, here is a list of our favorite lotus blossom jewelry:
The World of Pearls
 Pearls have been a part of jewelry for centuries. Initially all pearls were natural and formed without any human intervention, this is why in the early days they were so valuable and rare, a naturally formed pearl is very hard to find, and one of good quality even harder. Today there value is still extremely high. Today most pearls are cultured on pearl farms where a piece of material is inserted into each oyster or mussel in order to create a pearl. This technique can be done for both salt water and fresh water varieties. While they may look similar, salt water and fresh water pearls are very different in the chemical structure. Also the salt water varieties because of the delicate balance of salt water ecosystems are often times harder to grow and need to be done in protected lagoons. Fresh water pearls on the other hand are easier to culture outside of the natural environment and for this reason don't have any chance of creating imbalances in natural habitats. All of our jewelry uses fresh water pearls.
Here are a few interesting pearl facts:
- Cultured pearls can take 2-5yrs to mature.
- The saltwater pearls do not come from any clam or oyster that we eat; in fact they are quite inedible.
- A natural matching strand of found pearls can fetch upwards of $100,000.
- Pearl culturing was not invented until 1916 by a group of Japanese scientists.
- Pearls come in many different shapes and sizes from round, oval, flat, oblong, and teardrop.
- Pearls are the birthstone for June.
We love pearls and a lot of our jewelry makes use of them, occasionally as a full strand but usually just to highlight and enhance the piece with that wonderful luster that pearls create. Here are a few of our favorites:
Mandala Charms & Jewelry
 Today we'd like to provide some information about the mandala, its meaning, history, and properties. Mandala is a Sanskrit word meaning, circle or completion. The idea and meanings of the mandala mostly originate in eastern religions but definitely hold meaning and value around the globe in almost all religious and spiritual beliefs. In its most generic translation the mandala has come to represent the universe itself both physically and spiritually, it is the human expression of the cosmos. The mandala is often used as an aid in meditation. The Tibetan Monks will spend days possibly weeks creating intricate sand paintings of mandalas, after a brief moment of pondering they will brush all the sand into a container and dump it into a river or stream as an offering to the universe to help live and realize the idea of impermanence . The creation of these mandalas can be a long and detailed process. Before one is even allowed to begin such a work of art in the Buddhist religion they must learn the meaning of every symbol and practice its design years before they actually form all the elements into a mandala. Some students have been known to create up to 100,000 pieces on their spiritual path to enlightenment. The mandala is used in a wide variety of uses from paintings and meditation aids to floor plans for Hindu temples. It can represent the entire universe to one of many gods and deities. As a piece of artwork the mandala is used in many types of offerings, from a purely spiritual point to a physical offering to ones guru or lama in appreciation of their teachings. We have several mandala charm based necklaces that we've designed to help create a balanced energy that you can use in meditation, yoga, or just your everyday routine. Our mandala charms are all pure sterling silver combined with quality gemstones of various styles.
|
Garnets are one of the most common gemstones used in semi-precious jewelry. They range from a 7-7.5 on the Mohs scale of hardness where a diamond is a 10. The most common garnet throughout the ages is the deep ruby red variety, although garnets come in ever color except blue, and there is even a green variety called Demantoid Garnet that has more brilliance and is rarer than most diamonds. While we unfortunately don't use this type in any if our pieces we do use lots of the red, orange, and some of the green varieties.
