The Gemstone Detective

Melissa sulks.  Glass blowing professionals are mad.   Ivan is irritated.  Vanessa visits with Rachel in her booth and then Rachel visits with Tessa in hers.   The other day, Tessa massaged one of her body care emollients into Rachel’s curls.  The artist vendors await buyers at the American Made Show in Dallas.   The wholesale buyers are not here in the droves that we were expecting and those who are here buy from other vendors who have cheaply made stuff from China or elsewhere. This is not a good show.   One sale for Rachel does not equal a...

Please check out the new  selection of pieces using reticulated silver, pink tourmalines, white coin pearls, Swarovski crystals and rhodolite garnets.   Please enter Valentines into the search function to see them all.

  Have you ever walked into a Goodwill store and seen all the jewelry for sale?  Most of the jewelry will be of two varieties: junk, which is to say Mardi Gras beads and other manmade material or pieces that are no longer consider trendy or in style.    Some bargains are to be had for sure, especially for jewelry designers who are seeking raw materials to remake into new pieces.  Just the other day, my studio partner found some beautiful glass Czechoslovakian beads that have been reinvented into beautiful earrings with sterling silver accents that will soon have new...

What will scratch a diamond? Well, only another diamond. Diamonds are the hardest of all gemstones registering a 10 on the Moh’s Scale of Hardness. What can a diamond scratch? Well, only another diamond plus all the other gemstones in the mineral world. What is the Moh’s Scale of Hardness and what do gemologists mean when we say a gemstone’s hardness?The Moh’s scale of hardness was developed in 1822 by Frederich Mohs. This scale is a chart of relative hardness of the various minerals with 1 being the softest up to 10, the hardest. Succinctly put, Moh’s scale is a...