Pret-TY stoked!

I love doing things that are bit different, so I'm am excited to be working with different stones from my usual (diamonds).  I have a three orders right now that I will be making using unique stones.  One is with a natural silver-gray diamond.  It's gorgeous!  Even better than I expected, I almost squeaked a bit when I opened the package.  Gorgeous!  Almost opalescent, a light glittery fog.  I LOVE IT.  If I can get a good picture of it I will share it here.

The next project is with a lovely, blue-green Montana sapphire:

Lovely!  And I will use a blue diamond with this project as well, so I'm excited about that.  I really love colored stones.  You can't really tell from my Etsy shop, but I do really love the colored stones.  It is just a bit harder to work with them since they really vary from stone to stone, so it's hard to guarantee someone that you can get something exactly like they see in the photos.  Does that make sense?  But I would really like to see some more color in my shop, so I'm going to gradually add some in.  I am really digging on Montana sapphires at the moment, especially oval cut ones, so I think I might have to also make an oval ring to add to my shop.  I've been wanting to branch out in terms of stone shapes for a while now.  I think I'll start with oval and then add cushion.

And the last special project with a colored stone will be using a purple-blue sapphire that I have yet to pick out from my dealer, but I plan on doing that next week.  It is going to be lovely.  This is the same guy I blogged about earlier and he is fabulous, so helpful.  While I'm there I might pick up those smaller padparadscha I'm in love with.  I still need to make my wedding band, so maybe they will show up in that!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Sapphires Sapphires!

I've had a few requests lately  for unusually colored sapphires, so I made a treck downtown to see this stone guy who buys everything himself in Asia and brings them back to Portland.  I was looking for a greenish blue sapphire and a purple sapphire.  It was a big NOPE on the greenish blue, apparently he tries to avoid them since no one requests them.  Which makes me think he is selling to an entirely different group of people than I am.  Probably older, more traditional people.  He told me no one is interested because you can't get a true emerald like green from a sapphire.  I was thinking, that's exactly why I like them.  They are unique and more earthy.  Oh well.  There were some really pretty forest green oval stones that I might go back for, and some LOVELY light yellow round sapphires.  And some orange-pink ones that I think I want for a new eternity ring.  No pictures on any of those.  But I do have some of the lovely purples I am thinking of for a special project.

I'm also loving these lighter ceylon sapphires.

And he also had these gorgeous zircons, but they are too soft for wedding jewelry, unfortunately.

Absolutely LOVE the color though.  

And finally, these two tiny pugs that work at the studio with me want to say hello:

Have I mentioned

how much I love it when people send me photos of their rings/weddings/engagement?  I particularly loved this one:

How fun is that?  I would never have thought to stage rings this way, but I think it is lovely.  Maybe I should go out looking for a pine tree (although they are sort of scarce around the studio.  Industrial areas tend to be low on lovely trees).

I also love this one.  Nature and the woods seem to be a theme here.  Just lovely!

(p.s. I've been a little preoccupied with my new hobby.  Let's just say it involves a new machine and lots of gorgeous cotton fabric!)