Luna

Here's a special gem. Upon turning, one can see broad flashes or shimmers of blue light. This light phenomena is called "adularescence". Adularia or Adular is moonstone. Therefore "adularescence" is the light that comes from a moonstone. The moonstone closely resembled the various phases of the moon as you turned it, hence the name. Theoretically.

Indian lore states that moonstones provide the wearer beautiful visions during sleep. They were sewn into clothes, unseen, to induce fertility. And it is reputed to have calming effects and positive energy.

Most common varieties of moonstones are white, milky and translucent. They also come in orange, green and brown and have a soft sheen at best. But most exceptional quality moonstones are transparent with intense blue color flashes. There's quite a bit of difference in prices of "milky" and "colored" moonstones versus the "classical" fine blue specimens. With the transparent variety becoming more and more rare.

One word to describe it, though, is tantalizing. It just draws you in. Like gravity.


-Inset are earrings of fine blue moonstones with seed pearls and diamond pave in white gold.

bespoke

Here's a piece largely inspired by a person. Originally, I was supposed to design a cuff; but that turned out to be a spiritless effort. In the end, I had this light bulb moment and sketched out something in an instant. The result was this:


A large heavy ring of fine silver in comfort fit with distressed finish and some oxidation. Set with dark multi-colored tourmalines on top.


And here's the owner wearing it.

What first inspired me was his platinum hair. So I represented that in textured silver. He likes wearing earth tones and has this organic style. Which I represented with dark multi-colored tourmalines arranged in this amoeba/paisley/kidney like shape. Industrial and free-form. I think it suits the wearer just fine.

hot rocks!

It's February again. The so called season of love. To which i never understood why the birthstone originally assigned for February is the amethyst. Amethysts were believed to protect its wearer against seduction and drunkenness. Which is totally the antithesis to the "wining and dining", and so on and so forth activities during the love month.... don't you think? I find nothing wrong with the stone per se; in fact i love purple. But for February I propose a more fitting example of passion through Fire Opals. Whereas the most recognizable white and black opals are found in Australia, it is in Mexico where fire opals' only significant deposits in the world lie. They were the preferred symbols of fervent love by the Indians, Persians and Central Americans long before diamonds became popular. Obviously due to its fiery warm glow! Below is a Mexican Fire Opal pendant with orange sapphires and diamonds in yellow gold.



They're really just fascinating to look at. And I didn't really need to design anything so elaborate for it as the gems stand out on their own.