More Tourmaline

New stones available for custom orders...

Afghan blue tourmaline, 5.5mm (.63ct)

Afghan blue tourmaline, 5mm (.47ct)

Afghan blue tourmaline, 5mm (.44ct)

Afghan blue tourmaline, 4.5mm (.31ct)

Afghan tourmaline, 2.5mm

New Work

Afghan tourmaline, recycled 14k yellow gold, and recycled palladium sterling silver ring
{ custom order; sold }

Moissanite, recycled 14k white gold, and recycled palladium sterling silver ring
{ custom order; sold }

Afghan tourmaline, recycled 14k yellow gold, and recycled sterling silver ring
{ custom order; sold }

Moissanite, fair trade garnet, and recycled 14k white gold band
{ custom order; sold }

And I was finally able to get some better shots of these two rings, which I finished a couple of weeks ago -

Fair trade fancy sapphire and recycled 18k palladium white gold ring, size 6.5

Moissanite and recycled 18k palladium white gold ring, size 7 or made to order in your size

Boxes!

I'm hoping you guys will chime in with some advice for me here... for a while now, I've been sending out all of my wedding- and engagement- style rings (which these days is about 90% of my work) in these very traditional (and to be honest, slightly boring) velvet flip-top boxes -


I chose them because I wanted something pretty traditional, and I thought that my customers would appreciate the flip-top action that is so ingrained in our culture when it comes to wedding proposals. (Mine are a little more unique because they do have my logo embossed in silver on the inside of the lid.)

However, in my ongoing quest to make my business as ethical and eco-friendly as possible, I've been giving these boxes some serious thought lately, and I think they have to go. Nothing about them is environmentally friendly - plastic innards, foam and velvet, and they are likely a one-use item, destined to either sit forever in someone's jewelry box, or more likely, in the landfill. Plus, they're made in China, which I'm guessing means horrid labor conditions.

The problem is that I have not been able to source a box that meets all of my goals: (1) a fairly traditional/recognizably 'engagement' design (i.e. flip-top), (2) less plastic/foam; more recycled materials, and (3) manufactured as ethically as possible. But I think I can at least do better than what I'm doing now.

Here are the options. I'm hoping you guys will comment and let me know your thoughts on this issue. I want to be sensitive to my customers' needs while still honoring the environment as much as possible...

These are the only paper (non-plastic) boxes I can find that incorporate a flip-top design. However, they are not made from recycled paper, and they are also made in China. Blerg.

These are a little better - made from recycled paper (both the inner box and the black paper outer), and made in the USA. But they lack the traditional flip-top design. And they do still contain a foam pad for holding the ring (I think anything I find is going to have that, unfortunately).

This is the same design in silver foil. The inner box is made from recycled materials but I don't think the outer silver paper is.

And finally, the same design in white.

So what do you think???
Anyone know of a source with better options?

New Work

Fair trade sapphire and recycled 18k palladium white gold ring, size 6.5

{ to be listed soon in my Etsy shop }

Moissanite and recycled 18k palladium white gold ring, size 6.5

{ to be listed soon in my Etsy shop }

Moissanite and recycled 14k yellow gold rings

{ custom order; sold }

Fair trade green tourmaline and recycled sterling silver ring

{ custom order; sold }

Recycled palladium sterling silver and recycled 14k yellow gold ring

{ custom order; sold }

They're Here!!!

I have several customers who have patiently been waiting for these little beauties to arrive! All I can say is WOW!!!

Afghan tourmaline, 5mm (.48 carat)

Afghan tourmaline, 5mm (.49 carat)

Afghan tourmaline, 5mm (.51 carat)

Afghan tourmaline, 5mm (.52 carat)

Afghan tourmaline, 5mm (.53 carat)

Afghan tourmaline, 5.5mm (.58 carat)

Afghan tourmaline, 5.5mm (.63 carat)

Afghan tourmaline, 5.5mm (.67 carat)

Afghan tourmaline, 5.5mm (.68 carat)

Afghan tourmaline, 5.5mm (.68 carat)

Afghan tourmaline, 6.5mm (.91 carat)

New Fair Trade Activism Blog

I've started another blog dedicated to fair trade activism, and I'm kicking things off with a fair trade chocolate giveaway! Check it out.

New Turkeys!

Look who arrived today at our little farm! (BTW, I think we need a name for this operation - any suggestions?) Two new turkeys - Sunny (the white one) and Wendy (the dark one). Tinkerbell (our existing turkey, also white) is very interested, especially in Sunny. I'm keeping them separated by a fence for a while so they can get used to each other, but when Sunny and Wendy got here, Tinkerbell and Sunny spent a looooong time making some pretty awesome noises at each other through the fence, and doing some interesting things with their feathers and necks. Too cute.

That's Tinkerbell on the upper left, Sunny on the upper right, and Wendy in front.

Gobble gobble!

I like this one because of the ducks in the background.

Isn't she gorgeous?

New Sapphires

Inspired by the colored rough sapphires I mentioned in my previous post, I set out to find something similar to play with. Here's what I found -



I'm not sure what I'm going to do with them, but I like them! I think I'm going to set some of them as-is, and maybe look into getting some of the others cut into faceted stones...

Gems at the LA Natural History Museum

I thought you might all be interested in seeing some photos I took at the gemstone exhibit at the Los Angeles Natural History Museum last week. The exhibit was huge and totally amazing - I highly recommend it to anyone interested in shiny pretty rocks! I took way more pictures, but not all of them turned out too well since the lighting was kind of weird in there...

I thought it was neat to see the Chatham lab-created stones in crystal form; they also had some Chatham sapphires and rubies there.

I fell so in love with these amazing sapphires that I had to go online today and find some for myself - mine aren't quite as intensely colored as these, but still really gorgeous. I'm hoping to set them as natural stones, like these (ie unfaceted). Looking forward to experimenting!

How cool is this?

We are so lucky in California - just look at this amazing wealth of material right here in our own backyard!

I thought these opals were pretty awesome! And they photographed well, unlike many others...

Here I am with a big old chunk of Wyoming jade. Matt took this picture so we could send it to Don Francisco back in Guatemala. :-)

Jewelry For Charity Update

Hi all, just a quick note to let you know I'm back in the studio after a lovely week-long vacation, and to give you an update on my charity program...

With your generous support of my work, I was able to raise $709.00 for Ocean Conservancy during the month of October, bringing my total donations since this program's inception in May 2007 to $22,070.00!!!

For November, I've decided to feature Farm Sanctuary, in honor of my sweet Blossom who passed away recently, and who was adopted from Farm Sanctuary two years ago this month. 5% of any purchases made during the month of November will go directly to Farm Sanctuary's life saving work.