January’s birthstone is the beautiful garnet! I wanted to show you 3 amazing, unique rings I’ve designed with garnets, followed by some interesting garnet facts.

This is a coin ring like no other! It was such an honor to be commissioned to make this special ring. The coin is from Camp Waldemar in Hunt, Texas. Camp Waldemar is an all girl’s camp that was founded in 1926.
We set her beautiful yellow gold coin with a delicate halo of diamonds and accented with tsavorite garnets descending down the shank of her ring. The gallery has open petals that make this ring truly one-of-a-kind!

This second ring has a beautiful garnet surrounded by a delicate halo of baguettes. It’s such a pretty and wearable right hand ring! 

This last ring features a Tsavorite garnet that is flanked by a matching pair of round brilliant cut diamonds. It’s a sophisticated way to wear your birth stone as a right hand ring!

Alright friends. Let's talk s little bit about some garnet facts!

Not all garnets are red! Although garnets are more commonly in the red color range, there are also green, orange, and other colors.

Garnets score a 6.5- 7.5 on the Mohh's Scale of Hardness.

The term 'garnet' comes from an old word for pomegranate.

Low-grade garnet is used as an abrasive. When mixed with water, it has the ability to cut through materials like steel.

Tsavorite, a green variety of garnet, was first discovered in Tanzania.

Garnets are the suggested gift for the 2nd wedding anniversary.

If you’ve got a January birthday or know someone that does, shoot me an email to order a custom piece of birthstone jewelry!

Can you believe 2020 is practically halfway over? The past couple of months have definitely been unpredictable and unchartered, and I’m so grateful to have wonderful and understanding clients who have supported me and my business throughout it all.

Without further ado, I’d love to talk about one of my favorite gems to work with- pearls! It’s 1 of 3 June birthstones, with the others being moonstone and alexandrite. A quick couple of facts about the latter before I begin chatting about pearls:

Alexandrite:

1. Alexandrite was originally discovered in Russia, 1834.

2. Alexandrite is known as “Emerald by Day / Ruby by Night” because of its color change phenomenon.

3. Alexandrite is relatively hard—8.5 on the Mohs Hardness Scale.

Moonstone:

1. Moonstone ranks between 6 and 6.5 on the Mohs Hardness Scale.

2. Moonstone is a member of the orthoclase feldspar mineral family.

3. Moonstones are translucent with a blue sheen that is a result of the phenomenon “Adularescence”, which is the light that appears to billow across a gemstone, giving its surface a glowing appearance.

Now onto one of my favorite materials to work with. PEARLS. If you follow me on Instagram or have visited my online shop, you’ve seen my love for pearls shine through some of the pieces I design. I use a variety of pearls, including Tahitian, Keshi, and South Sea, that come in a variety of colors. Here are some current favorites:

Here is some wonderful pearl information from my alma mater, GIA.

This enchanting June birthstone originates from oceans, lakes and rivers around the world. It is a timeless wardrobe staple, beloved by women of all ages. The origin of pearls fascinated our forebears. Ancients from the Middle East believed that pearls were teardrops fallen from heaven. The Chinese fancied that the June birthstone came from the brain of a dragon. Christopher Columbus and his contemporaries thought that mollusks formed pearls from dew drops.

Pearls are organic gems that grow inside the tissue of a living saltwater or freshwater mollusk (either an oyster or a mussel). Natural pearls form when the mollusk secretes a substance called nacre around an irritant such as a piece of sand or a parasite that has invaded its shell. Cultured pearls are a product of human intervention. Technicians implant a piece of mantle tissue alone (common for freshwater cultured pearls) or with a mother-of-pearl shell bead (all saltwater) into a host mollusk. The mollusk covers the irritant with nacre, just like a natural pearl. Cultured pearls are raised in pearl farms – saltwater or freshwater operations where the mollusks are cleaned, protected from predators and eventually harvested. Thousands of years of pearl fishing have decimated the natural pearl beds, so cultured pearls account for the vast majority of pearl sales today. These cultured pearl birthstones come in a dazzling array of sizes, colors and shapes.

Pearls have long been associated with purity, humility and innocence. So it may be said that the June birthstone meaning is "sweet simplicity." As such, pearls were traditionally given as a wedding gift.

If you’re looking for some of your very own pearl or June birthstone jewelry, send me an email. I’d love to visit with you and hear all about your jewelry needs!

Another month has come and gone. Life seems like such a blur these days with limited access to normalcy like running errands, kids at school, and big changes to everyday life. A new month means a new birthstone! I’m excited to talk to you today about emeralds! I love colored gemstones, and this is one of my favorites!

Some quick, easy facts about emeralds:

• Emerald is one of the four recognized precious gemstones. The others are ruby, sapphire, and diamond.

• Emerald is the birthstone of May and is the traditional gift for the 20th, 35th and 55th wedding anniversary in the US. 

• Emerald is made from beryl just like the gemstone aquamarine.Emerald gets its green coloring from trace amounts of chromium and/or vanadium.

• A 1-carat emerald appears larger than a 1-carat diamond because of its lower density.

• Emerald measures between 7.5 to 8 on the Mohs Scale of Hardness. Though they are durable stones, emeralds are susceptible to chipping and cracking. This makes emeralds more expensive to set into jewelry due to the risk involved. 

• Colombia yields the largest amount of emeralds, contributing to more than 50 percent of all emerald production worldwide. -The Spruce Facts

For extensive articles and much more information on emeralds, you can visit my alma mater, GIA’s, website.

I also wanted to talk to you today about a specific pair of emerald earrings I designed for a client, pictured below.

The fan shape emeralds in the earrings are from the Muzo mine in Columbia. Columbia produces up to 2/3 of the world’s emeralds in their mines. You can read all about the Muzo mines by clicking here.

These earrings were an anniversary gift for a very special woman! Her husband wanted an earring that was simple yet very special… I think these turned out perfect! I paired them with beautiful matching pair of pear shape diamonds as a simple delicate stud earring. 

If you have any questions or would like your own emerald jewelry, please reach out and email me!

October Birthstones

Emily Sole Jewelry

We are in one of the months of the year that possesses multiple birthstones! October’s birthstones are tourmaline and opal. Let’s take a minute to talk about the interesting qualities of these gemstones, along with some of my favorite jewelry I’ve created using tourmaline + opal.

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Tourmaline

Tourmaline is one of the most popular gemstones because it occurs in every color of the spectrum. The intense saturation of the tourmaline makes the gemstone more valuable.

Many tourmaline color varieties have inspired their own trade names:

• Rubellite is a name for pink, red, purplish red, orangy red, or brownish red tourmaline, although some in the trade argue that the term shouldn’t apply to pink tourmaline.

• Indicolite is dark violetish blue, blue, or greenish blue tourmaline.

• Paraíba is an intense violetish blue, greenish blue, or blue tourmaline from the state of Paraíba, Brazil.

• Chrome tourmaline is intense green. In spite of its name, it’s colored mostly by vanadium, the same element that colors many Brazilian and African emeralds.

• Parti-colored tourmaline displays more than one color. One of the most common combinations is green and pink, but many others are possible.

• Watermelon tourmaline is pink in the center and green around the outside. Crystals of this material are typically cut in slices to display this special arrangement.

The following are photos of tourmaline pieces I have made.

Opal

Opal is the product of seasonal rains that drenched dry ground in regions such as Australia’s semi-desert “outback.” The showers soaked deep into ancient underground rock, carrying dissolved silica (a compound of silicon and oxygen) downward.

During dry periods, much of the water evaporated, leaving solid deposits of silica in the cracks and between the layers of underground sedimentary rock. The silica deposits formed opal.

Within the opal family, there are many different varieties of opal. Each has their own unique color combinations and character traits. Although experts divide gem opals into many different categories, five of the main types are:

• White or light opal: Translucent to semitranslucent, with play-of-color against a white or light gray background color, called bodycolor.

• Black opal: Translucent to opaque, with play-of-color against a black or other dark background.

• Fire opal: Transparent to translucent, with brown, yellow, orange, or red bodycolor. This material—which often doesn’t show play-of-color—is also known as “Mexican opal.”

• Boulder opal: Translucent to opaque, with play-of-color against a light to dark background. Fragments of the surrounding rock, called matrix, become part of the finished gem.

• Crystal or water opal: Transparent to semitransparent, with a clear background. This type shows exceptional play-of-color.

The following are photos of opal pieces I have made.

All info from Gemological Institute of America

Thank you for reading through this week’s post! If you’d like any birthstone jewelry of your own, feel to reach out using the contact tab below!