News — Amethyst RSS

In January, I chose an exquisite small square amethyst cabochon to use in a new design. By the end of January, the piece was almost complete although I hadn't actually set the stone in place - this is the part where the bezel is pushed over the stone, anchoring it in place. And so, last week, I finally set the beautiful amethyst cabochon into the dragonfly pendant and gave it the final polish to complete. I really enjoyed incorporating the leaf texture onto the wings of the dragonfly, the texture is on both front and back of the wings. There is also a subtle hammered texture on the body of the dragonfly, which was forged by hand from a single...

Full of new year optimism, I decided to set myself a creative project for this year. As many jewellers do, I have a collection of beautiful gemstones, some of which I have had for years, and I decided this was the year I would start to use some of them. I chose 12 gemstones from my collection and hid them inside 12 little envelopes, to be opened on the first of each month. As luck would have it, both the January and February gemstones were amethyst! I'll be sharing some of the ideas and development as well as the finished pieces I make with the gemstones each month. I hope you'll enjoy following along as each design emerges. For January...