Hand-carved morning glory tapered band, this time a little wider than before at around 12mm width up top. It is cast into 14K rose gold and set with little purplish-pink diamond accents.
I love how this ring turned out.
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A pair of 18K white gold tentacled drop earrings holding a pair of insane Tahitian baroque pearls. More pics below: Continue reading
Hooray for more snake rings! This was a fun one: two snakes in white gold flanking a center Montana cabochon sapphire. The stone was clear with a pale lavender tinge and a flash of orange across it; very unique. Two very small 1mm diamonds are set in the eyes of the snakes. I think I need to start making larger snakes because 1mm is not my flush-setting comfort zone…
I carved in scale texture for one of the snake’s bodies and left the other smooth for contrast.
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Lilacs in rose gold! The center stone is a lovely heart-shaped lilac sapphire, and the smaller guys are little light green diamonds.
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Mermaid ring revisited! This time the ring is a bit more organic and free-form in styling. She’s also in my Etsy shop as a customizable piece: choose your metal + stones & I’ll make you one in your size.
Lots more photos around the band after the click: Continue reading
Calla Lily ring in 14K rose gold with a really cool blue-green Montana Sapphire. Annoyingly, my photo light box made this stone look really boring. Here is a video of it outside in the shade where it looks awesome and lively. The stone did, however, change color dramatically depending upon the lighting: sometimes more greenish/aqua, and other times more smoky blue. More pics after the click! Continue reading
Another year’s gem show is in the bag. I managed to break out of my usual AGTA/GJX “rut” and see some new venues. I spent close to three solid days on my feet from open to close, running on manic fumes the entire time, dismissing lunch (that’s for amateurs!), and sustaining myself with furtive bites of Lara bars. By the end of each day I would be a glazy-eyed dehydrated spazz. YAY! Man, I love this show.
The above lovelies are from a Holidome vendor. That is a vast and confusing venue with 5-ish ginormous football field-sized tents filled to overstuffed with largely gem beads and costume jewelry, though there were some good loose stone vendors for sure. I’ll make a post of what I DID actually buy soon. (Spoiler: I got one of those emeralds!)
Natural color Japanese Akoya pearl strands. I typically ignore Akoyas because I find the classic white “Mikimoto” style pearls a bit of a yawn, but these silvery blue-ish baroque guys were totally my speed. Please someone, give me a reason to call this guy up and order one of these strands!
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It has been really fun to see how this ring transforms with each new and totally different stone I make it with. I’ve been lucky enough to get to try it with the original boulder opal of course, this glossy and awesome smoky semi-black Lightning Ridge opal, an insanely gorgeous carnelian that looked like jelly candy, and a gorgeous white opal with a flash of turquoise running through it. I love the different vibes each stone lends this ring. I’m ready to make more!
This is the nicest carnelian I’ve ever seen; it is all natural color and actually the original stone was larger and I had it cut down to fit this setting. The diamonds in this and the smoky black opal above are both antique Old European Cut diamonds.
Pairing a bright green-blue paraiba tourmaline with this opal was a brilliant idea. It looked so good against the yellow gold and really brought the blue and green flashes out of the opal.
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Giant oval Tanzanite set in an 18K white gold bezel solitaire carved with poppies! I gave this solitaire a nice prominent height, and carved poppies all the way around the bezel. I’m always up for carving my favorite flower, and this ring turned out so nicely.
Tanzanite is a cool stone: it shows slightly different body colors depending upon the type of light you view it in; sometimes more purplish violet, sometimes more blue. When it comes out of the ground, it shows three distinct body colors depending upon the axis from which you view it: blue, purple, and a reddish brown. The rough crystals are then heated to remove the reddish/brown color and you are left with a blue/purple stone that is what you typically see in jewelry.
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Hello!
I’m headed *very* soon to the Tucson Gem Show, where I will have the opportunity to purchase special and unusual stones for custom pieces. I have a number of you on my to-shop-for list, but I feel like I am forgetting someone! Please check in with me if you have not corresponded with me very recently regarding shopping @ the gem show for your piece.
If you are a new client and are interested in having a piece made using something unusual (unique rose-cut diamonds, colored stones, pearl, etc.), now is a really good time to get things cooking. I do have a lot of contacts for many of the stones I use, but nothing beats me being able to see everything at once in person and pick individual stones out of thousands.
Contact me at my email address: cheyenneweil@gmail.com and we’ll talk!