This is one of my favourites of the lot. The varying shades of teal green coming together in rough wavy patterns, all in a pear-shaped stone, were impossible to resist. Highly polished with beautiful banding reminiscent of stormy seas, this ocean wave jasper needed nothing more than a simple, coiled loop bail and oxidised sterling silver components.


Ocean wave jasper, like its sister ocean jasper - and discovered not too long ago near the main ocean jasper mine in Madagascar - comes in a multitude of colours like white, brown, green, blue (rarest), pink and red. Not all together of course, usually in combination. For me, the easiest way to tell them apart is that the patterns on ocean wave jasper resemble, well, ocean waves, and the orbicular patterns on its sibling look like something you might see under a microscope. Apart from that, I guess it just a technicality depending on the part of the Madagascan coastline from whence they came.

Jasper in general is fine-grained, opaque quartz from the large family of chalcedonies. Then again, there are a whole range of jaspers that came about depending on the way silica minerals permeated the sedimentary base rock - the part my inner geologist finds most fascinating. Broad groups include the dendritic, brecciated, orbicular and scenic varieties, commonly given locality or descriptive names, each type and each specimen a testament to the diversity of nature.

The name "jasper" comes from old Anglo-French "jaspre" or spotted rock. These so-called spots or speckles usually come about as a result of geological processes on the base sediment: tectonic forces could produce fissures that break up the rock and allow different mineral solutions to seep through, while wind or ocean waves could produce gentle undulating patterns. Much like what we see on ocean wave jasper here :)


Jasper is known as the "supreme nurturer" and is said to bring calm in times of stress. Ocean wave jasper is apparently useful for balancing, healing and renewing, and has detoxifying properties.

O, chrysoprase. You're another one of those things whose colour a digital camera usually has problems reproducing.

The latest addition to the ANIMA | MUNDI line is the Ferngully necklace featuring a large asymmetrical Australian chrysoprase pendant and oxidised sterling silver components, which always work so well with the bright minty green. The paler feathery inclusions here add a bit of texture and organic appeal.


The most valuable of the chalcedony minerals (which include carnelian, bloodstone and the wide variety of jaspers and agates), this stone gets its characteristic colour from traces of nickel in its cryptocrystalline structure. It is also this extra fine crystal structure that gives good quality chrysoprase a smooth gel-like translucency.

Although Queensland, Australia is the major source of quality chrysoprase, it's also found in Brazil, Germany, Poland, Tanzania and the USA. I should also point out that if you come across "lemon chrysoprase", it's a trade name for magnesite, a completely different mineral.


Depending on the exact shade of green, I think chrysoprase can feel either quite soothing (watery paler greens) or refreshing (vibrant apple greens). As a crystal, it's said to be excellent for relaxation, induce meditative states, calm compulsive behaviour, promote hope, unleash inner talent and stimulate creativity.

So much work for a little green stone!

This second piece in the ANIMA | MUNDI collection is a delightful play of contrasts: check out the unusual rectangle shape, elongated but with banding going along the short side. And what banding it is - translucent shades from the deepest royal purple to lavender and palest white, arranged by mother nature a distinctive chevron pattern. Quite scrumptious.

Much has already been said about amethyst as it has been used and treasured since antiquity. I've seen a couple of variations on its legend, but I like this one best: one fine day, a lowly mortal angered Dionysus, the god of the grape harvest, wine and winemaking, who vowed death by tigers on the next human who crossed his path. But this unfortunate victim happened to be a beautiful young maiden named Amethyst, who happened to be on her way to worship the goddess Artemis. Artemis turned Amethyst into a pillar of clear crystal quartz to protect her from the violent attack. Dionysus was moved to tearful remorse and wept wine over the statue, staining it purple. But whichever it was, the Greek origin of the word ["amethystos" means "not intoxicated"] probably played a historical part in its being considered an antidote to drunkenness and plastered all over wine goblets. Or maybe it was the other way round, who knows.


The birthstone for February, amethyst is found in alluvial deposits or geodes (the sight of a large open one glittering with purple crystals inside always has me in awe), with major sources in Brazil, Zambia, Uruguay and Madagascar. It comes in violet, purple, lilac, mauve and pink varieties and is the highest prized form of quartz (silicon dioxide), a large family that also includes citrine (yellow), ametrine (purple and yellow), rose quartz (pink), rock crystal (clear), smoky quartz (brown), tiger eye (chatoyant) and even aventurine (aventurescent).

Amethyst is purportedly an extremely powerful and protective stone with a high spiritual vibration. Extremely beneficial to the mind, it can be calming or stimulating as appropriate. It helps one feel more focused and in control of their faculties, facilitating the decision-making process. Amethyst also aids in enhancing memory and improving motivation, and is helpful for insomnia, bringing about restful sleep and promoting dream retention and understanding.


Which finally brings me to the OOAK Dreamtime necklace, chevron amethyst on oxidised sterling silver, only in my Artfire studio :)

And so I launched my ANIMA | MUNDI collection with the long Waverider necklace last week, without really having time to blog about the first piece here.

Amazonite is really one of my favourite stones to use. It's a variety of microcline (or potassium aluminium silicate for you nerds like me), a feldspar mineral that may come in white, yellow, pink, grey, green, blue-green or colourless. I find it weird that it's named after the Amazon River although it hasn't even been found there; most significant deposits are in India, Canada, USA, Brazil, Russia, Madagascar, Tanzania and Namibia.

As beads for jewellery and accessories, I've seen amazonite in various shades of aqua, green and even yellow and pink, some with white to brown or black inclusions, with the more saturated colours being more desirable I guess. But really, when you say amazonite, the opaque, aqua colour, perhaps with wispy paler inclusions, is the type that most readily comes to mind... like this giant specimen below:


As you can see, it's got a more muted and subtle hue than turquoise, and in my humble opinion, goes just fine with about any type of metal. However, amazonite is not a very hard mineral (rates 6 on Mohs scale), so care should be taken when wearing it. Best to be used in earrings or necklaces where there's minimal contact with anything else.

In the Waverider necklace, a 48x48x7mm flat heart briolette of amazonite has been paired with gunmetal-toned oxidised sterling silver. I particularly love how the inclusions resemble frothy waves in a churning sea, pounding towards the shore (of some fantasy tropical beach, where else). It's a bold-sized piece, paired with suitably larger-link sterling silver chain - so if you have it on and fail to elicit even a single comment, I will give you a refund! No, I'm just kidding, but I might just smack everyone you meet that day and then buy you a drink :P



Now for some hokey metaphysical info you might be interested in (or not). Amazonite:
- is known as the stone of self-expression
- acts as a filter against geopathic stress
- has soothing and calming properties
- is most protective against microwaves and other electromagnetic pollution

Betcha never knew!

OK, so I finally cut my strand of black rutilated (not to be confused with the tourmalinated variety which contains different mineral deposits) quartz today. It wasn't traumatic... in fact I intend to cut into a few more strands soon. Picked out one with some coppery tinges and paired it with my last faceted olive topaz brio for a simple lariat in 14K goldfill (pictured left below). This 3-footer is the longest lariat I've ever made, but it can be worn in so many different ways. And well, if you know me, you know I love any kind of contrast or asymmetry - these gems exhibit precisely that.


As for the earrings, I've had the London blue topaz brios for a long time and this was my last pair. LBT is, I think, one of those few gemstones that actually work well with either white or yellow metal and just manages to always look expensive. So here's a set in 14K goldfill, something I've not made before.

Both items are now available in my Etsy shop (only one piece each).

After several years of making and selling jewellery, and especially now that the holiday season looms again, I marvel again at how de Beers, Tiffany and other mega retailers have transformed the humble element carbon (ok, an allotrope of) into cut, polished and overmarketed items of adornment that most consumers now disturbingly equate to love, romance and all that shit. Or at least that's what we're being told it means... all the damn time. If you think about it, doesn't it sound ridiculous? Such taglines abound, beseeching the hapless guy to shower his woman with affection by forking out 3x his monthly salary for a tiny bit of sparkle. Single girl, modern and credit-rich? Just pamper yourself with a bit of luxury then, you "deserve it", you're "worth it", so why let a man to go into debt for you when you can achieve that yourself?

Diamonds are not functional. They do not appreciate in value. There are, frankly, loads of substitutes both natural and manmade that give you the same (or similar, as you can't really tell from a distance) dazzle. What diamonds offer is a romanticised fairytale that A&M suits came up with decades ago. And with clever product placement amongst celebrities and royalty, diamond jewellery has become one of those ironically mass consumer, luxury status symbols that I love to hate because everyone wants it for vanity reasons.

But back to gift giving. Eons ago (read: when I had money but no time), I was trying to rationalise this thing about blowing wads of cash on your loved ones. People do it all the time: the more painfully expensive a gift is, the greater the affection is conveyed because it means that the giver would have less to spend on him/herself - a kind of sacrifice perhaps. That is, until I realised that this sort of thinking condenses money into the basic unit of currency for everything else like time, fun and love. And because the trappings of a modern lifestyle leave less of those things for us to give, we tend to offer the only equivalent we have left.

Of course this is not a must, and not everyone does it. But I'm sure you'd agree that there are lots of thing money cannot replace (and jewellery is unfortunately not one of them). So often when we shop for others we do it based on a budget in mind. Money provides a convenient excuse not to think about what we can do for the recipient. Such as using each gifting occasion as a potential way to better their life, inspire them to try something new or different, or even just to cheer them up with the simplest idea possible - because that's how we can show that we really do care. All you need to do is put some thought into it. And if you really have to give jewellery (or any other frivolous accessories - and I'm shooting myself in the foot here but I really don't care any more), do it because you sincerely want to share some art that moved you with the intricacy of its creation, the flawlessness of the design, or because you think the recipient will be enthralled with how the piece expresses their personality. Not because it is THE thing to do. Or am I being idealistic again?

I'm 90% certain I will be spending a considerably large sum on a new toy very soon. It is not going to be sparkly, but I think I will have a lot of fun with it. Merry Christmas to myself ;)

Some of the new arrivals... with lovely faceting :) Had no idea I was buying that much pink (and I'm so not a pink person but it seems to be one of my life's challenges to find pink beads that are worth getting) until I started taking some photos.


Not sure what to do with them yet but I guess I'll figure something out...

Sorry, just practising with the macro lens here (seeing as I haven't taken much non-work photos lately). And it's obviously not as good as those professional ones but hey... I have a noob camera, zero setup and shaky hands when hungry. Please ignore the specks of dust for these rings are not very frequently used or cleaned - but can you tell which is the natural rock here? The other 2 are man-made :) The different cuts and sizes might influence your guess though.


Shot in late morning daylight. I think diamonds tend to sparkle best under artificial lighting. They just look terribly cold here.

by Victoria Finlay

~~~~~ very long post ahead ~~~~~

As with all non-fiction books, I took a while to finish this one, going through several others while this languished in the pile of reads-in-progress. It truly didn't deserve this treatment. You'd expect non-fiction to be dry and textbook-like, but the way Finlay introduces the stories behind different gemstones with travels to the miness and weaves in her own quest to discover the origin of her own rings reads like an anthology through time, treasure and Moh's scale of hardness.

Here are some lesser-known bits about the various gems that I thought were interesting:


Amber [Moh's 2-2.5]

The word "electricity" comes from the Greek name for amber, elektron, which means the sun. Indeed, if amber is rubbed it becomes charged with static electricity.

Amber comes from the resin of conifers that grew in great forests millions of years ago. We do not know why those trees went into overdrive; only theories like global warming, natural evolution and defence against disease exist.

The largest creatures ever found preserved in Baltic amber are lizards - and only three complete examples of these have been found. If the species in the amber is still living today, the specimen is a forgery - species last only 5 million years, so true amber fossils are at least 9 generations of evolution from the organisms we know today.


Jet [Moh's 2.5-4]

Most gems have mineral or resin origins, but jet was, once upon a time, pure wood. It comes from forests of a peculiar type of conifer that existed 170 million years ago.

Jet has been found to have been worn from Roman to medieval times, but it reached the height of fashion in the 19th century when Queen Victoria wore it in mourning, sparking a national obssession.


Pearl [Moh's 2.5-4]

According to Julius Caesar's biographer, it was not only Britain's mineral or slave resources that had persuaded him to move across the channel in the summer of 55BC. It was her pearls. Pearls were associated with Venus, the goddess of love, and were a Roman girl's best friend.

Until the 18th century, the English called pearls "margaritas" or "unions". A few theories exist for the origin of the shell Margaritifera margaritifera: the word comes from (via Greek) the Sanskrit manjari which means bud; it could be related to "marine" because pearls come from the water; or the word comes from the Persian murwari, meaning "child of the light". Our relatively new word for them comes from the Latin perna, meaning ham or "pig leg", a reference to how the shells most likely to contain pearls would appear.

Few people are aware that the making of cultured pearls (first devised by Kokichi Mikimoto) involves forcing a piece of polished shell into an oyster's reproductive organs. It takes only a few seconds but the oyster needs at least 3 months to recover from the trauma. Many die :(


Opal [Moh's 5-6.5]

Opals consist of silica and a varying amount of water. The water may form 5-10% of a stone's volume and is one of the many ingredients contributing to the opal's spectacular display of colour. This water content also means that opals can be detected by dowsing.

Cheaper opals called doublets and triplets are being sold: doublets are made of thin strips of opal glued to darkened glass or potch (colourless, fireless opal) to make them thicker and more vivid, while triplets essentially sandwich the thin strip of opal between potch at the back and glass in the front.

In the 1890s, an old miner put the dead body of his pet cat in a felt hat and buried it in his mine. The mine was left empty for 60 years or more, but when someone else took over the claim, the cat was still in there. What should have been just a skeleton had metamorphosed into scintillating rose opals. It is hard to summarise here but Len Cram, a former miner, started investigating this and other stories of how opals were being formed that were contrary to the old theory, and hit on a new theory based on ion exchange. He was then able to grow opals in his garden shed that sparkled like children's glitter.


Peridot [Moh's 6.5-7]

Peridot was known for centuries as "the evening emerald" because it holds its brilliant green hue at dusk better than true emeralds do.

Peridot is the only gemstone, apart from diamonds, that forms below the earth's crust and usually reaches the surface via volcanic eruptions. But sometimes peridot falls to earth from outer space on a meteorite called "pallasite", which is made of peridot crystals held together in a filigree of nickel and iron. In addition, peridot is the first gemstone to have been discovered on another planet (Mars).

The San Carlos Apache Reservation in Arizona has the world's most abundant (90%) peridot deposit. Unfortunately, the deposits have not made the inhabitants rich and many still live from hand to mouth.


Emerald [Moh's 7.5-8]

Emeralds are so commonly flawed that they are almost always oiled for clarity enhancement, and it is usually assumed that they have been treated unless accompanied by a laboratory report stating otherwise.

Two thousand years ago, emeralds were among the most expensive jewels of the Roman and Ptolemaic world, the equivalent of the flashiest diamonds today; they were synonymous with Egypt and Cleopatra.

While most Egyptian emeralds were pale, flawed and rather small, the deposits in Colombia had gone through a unique geological process in the Andes ranges and as such, Columbian emeralds are often larger and clearer and are the most desirable today.


Sapphire [Moh's 9]

Sapphires and rubies are essentially the same type of corundum (aluminium oxide) - from the Sanskrit kuruvindam which means ruby. Sapphires exist in all kinds of colours - blue, brown, yellow, white, purple, pink, green, orange, tricolour (yellow-green-blue) or colour-change (eg green in the daytime, violet-blue at night). But only the red ones, containing chromium, the same element that makes emeralds green, are called rubies.

Sapphire is the only precious stone ever to have been found in Britain, in the 1980s on the island of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides.

A treatment developed in Thailand called beryllium bulk diffusion involves cooking low-quality pink sapphires with beryllium oxide to make them appear a delicate padparadscha (the most prized colour of all fancy sapphires) orange.

According to Greek legend, the world's first ring contained a blue sapphire and was worn by Prometheus, who stole the secret of fire from the gods. Heat treatment has been employed for thousands of years to improve or change the colour of sapphires. It is basically a chemical process that manipulates the iron and titanium impurities, transforming the ferric ions to ferrous ions and making a pale or colourless gem a vibrant blue.


Ruby [Moh's 9]

Mogok, in Myanmar, is the centre for rubies. Military roadblocks and strict government control mean that it's virtually impossible for foreigners to get in at all. The gem market takes place under pink umbrellas - the light that filters through these shades makes rubies appear brighter than they really are. Burmese rubies look at their best between 10am and 4pm, and also look better under brilliant tropical sunlight than subdued northern skies, which is one of the reasons why they have always been more prized in the East. The best rubies are actually fluorescent in natural sunlight, and Mogok's rubies tend to fluoresce more than any others.

Ancient writers and scholars in the East had varied descriptions for ruby colours, which were red like the China rose, the seeds of a pomegranate, a red lotus, the eyes of the Greek partridge or Indian crane, or the interior of the half-blown red water lily. Strangely, the two ancient English names for rubies sound incredibly ugly. In Shakespeare's time, they were called carbuncles, from the Latin root carbon because they contained the sense of being on fire. Today the metaphor has been extended to boils. The Greeks called them anthrax, which also means coal, but when we hear the term today we think of a deadly disease contained in a white powder used by terrorists.


Diamond [Moh's 10]

It is the hardest mineral found on earth, but it is certainly not indestructible. "A diamond is forever" is only a neat marketing catchphrase devised by De Beers, the Mikimoto of diamonds, to create demand for diamond engagement rings. If burned with oxygen, a diamond, which is essentially pure carbon, can be vaporised. Diamonds are hard, but they are not that tough. Take a hammer to a diamond and it would shatter; a piece of nephrite jade would scarcely be destroyed.

Diamonds are not as rare as we think. Once it was discovered that lots of them were to be found in Africa, prices plummeted and it took cartels and strategic marketing to transform them into the coveted baubles they are today.

We all know about lab-created gems, but since diamond is carbon, and carbon is found in organic material, you can actually create memorial diamonds from the ashes of loved ones. Check out LifeGem. Some find it amazing, some find it creepy.

Kyanite comes in many colours, most commonly in blue or green, sometimes pink or yellow. It usually has icy needle-like inclusions, sometimes flecked with spots, which remind me of glaciers (which are not always clean anyway!). Kyanite crystals have an interesting property: different hardness values parallel (5) and perpendicular (7) to the cleavage. Gem-quality stones are rare, but when you can get hold of them, they sport an astonishingly clear shade of cornflower blue, it's like scoring high-end sapphires at a fraction of the cost :P

Here, I'm sure you can spot the opaque (but still pretty) gems right away:

Alright, so I lied when I said yesterday was cleaning day. I didn't get anything done, of course, and will have to make up for it today. I'm so not looking forward to it because a) it's been a long time since it was last cleaned, us being sick and all, and b) it's a hot, stuffy and generally icky day today.

I leave you now to a great weekend, and another reshoot of an older item - the Petite Posy earrings. I realised I have a growing number of pearl earrings in my shop now. Which is nice, because they are an elegant wardrobe classic and really seem to go with everything. They're not really for me though, I have a phobia of getting them scratched from rough handling, and I'm the kind who prefers to have just one plain pair of earrings that I can leave in and forget about for weeks.

Pearls are kind of hard to photograph, even more so than labradorite, I feel. They have this annoying inbuilt soft-focus surface which goes against your own camera's focusing, and yet almost always reliably reflect your lens! I don't use a lightbox and can't be bothered to touch up, so... reflections it is. It's especially funny when you can see it on multiple surfaces here... like frogspawn. Omg.

This is what happens when I'm not really inspired. I've been distracted and not doing much in the way of new designs for my shop. Besides, I think people would've finished their holiday shopping ages ago, so production has been slowing down. I'm not one for loud colour mixes (to me, they're not very wearable), so I did a couple of clustery type earrings in monochromatics:


Ho hum. Even the photo backgrounds are dull. But what I wanted to point out was the amount of wastage that went into these earrings...

Apatite is a relatively soft stone, measuring only 5 on Moh's scale. Some of the holes in these rondelles were too small for 26ga wire to fit through (which is annoying because the rondelles are about 4.5mm, not that tiny), so I managed to break a number of beads while trying to enlarge the holes while working on Andaman. I hate using a reamer on soft stones; I've also broken some tanzanite this way. But I had no choice. I finally ordered some 28ga pins but have been waiting forever for them to arrive!

As for Pleiades, one of the crystal quartz marquises I was using had been drilled a little too close to the top point. As such, the tip was quite weak, and after a couple of chips, completely broke off, leaving me with yet another unusable bead. However, I was really pleased at how they turned out in the end. Maybe I should keep a pair for myself. Then again, I'm not a big earring person. Literally.

There is something totally delicate and magical about bunches of shiny little gemstones tipped with shiny metal clustered together though... I have received some cool new supplies, so will be probably doing more of these in the near future... :)

Remember how I was drooling over larimar and some larimar rings? Well, I did try to order the Marah Lago ones but they wouldn't ship to Singapore. Some stupid USPS regulation that prohibits jewellery from being sent here via post. So I ordered 2 rings direct from a Dominican Republic seller late August - and they took a darned long time to arrive. I thought they'd been lost and had already emailed the seller to report that I hadn't received them after a month. But the postman finally rang my doorbell with them yesterday morning and I immediately wore one out when I went to do my hair!

Here's a pic - the 2 rings I got are actually the same design anyway, just different sizes so I can wear them on different fingers. Yes, I am that crazy about it. The out-of-this-world colour is something like I've never seen, not even on the prettiest Sleeping Beauty turquoise (which tends to look flat anyway). There are subtle markings on the stone that give it a mysterious depth and an unexpected organic feel. I'm seriously considering buying a strand to make stuff with but, apart from being quite costly, it's not a very well-known stone. I don't know how it would be received. It's definitely harder, though not impossible, to sell pricier items. I could always keep the pieces for myself though. LOL. I need to have job benefits too, right?

See, this is something I struggle with sometimes. I normally buy stones I like and make things that I like from them. I don't really bother much about what people might or might not buy, or whether they have the same taste as I do. (That's why each person who tells me they like my work is giving me a little self-esteem boost, and I'm especially grateful for that!) I'm afraid I don't make a very good businessperson after all. I mean, I can separate very clearly what my head and heart are telling me, but usually the head consciously lets the heart win. I wouldn't be able to answer to myself otherwise. Am I even making sense??

So I'm supposed to be working... but I can't help myself. I've been sourcing for gemstones for some custom work, and have become obsessed with kyanite (especially green) and larimar lately. Larimar is an absolutely breathtaking stone found at only one source - Los Chupaderos in the Dominican Republic. Even rarer than tanzanite! Check out this humongous necklace (it is not mine though if I had it I wouldn't sell it!) from Larimarket:


Marah Lago is a designer who works solely with larimar. The quality of her gemstones has to be seen to be believed. OH GAWD I wantsssss one of her rings so bad but my sizes are sold out!

A pretty stone, notoriously difficult to photograph.

In addition to displaying varying amounts of flash at different angles, the quality of light hitting the stone also subtly affects the shade. I discovered to my surprise that quite a few pieces I've shot look aqua in natural daylight, but at night under fluorescent lamps, the flash seems more gold-ish.

Tricksssssssy.

I've got several other things to blog about, but later.

Of course, I HAD to do this quiz. But... why amethyst? If you're reading, do this and tell me what yours is by leaving a comment!

Your Gemstone is Amethyst

Dignified, impressive, and wise. You have a deeply spiritual soul.

My broadband connection is FRUSTRATINGLY slow tonight. I can't even browse or finish an Etsy listing without getting the "Internet Explorer cannot display..." page. And it's not just Etsy - other sites as well. WTF, I feel like I'm on 9.6kbps dialup. I guess I'll try again tomorrow morning.

Most of today was spent finishing earrings and necklaces I oxidised last night, and taking photos of them. This time, instead of just buffing them with steel wool for a matte finish, I wet-sanded them with superfine sandpaper and polished them with a cloth. Took me a while to get through everything but now they have this distressed, weathered look that I think contrasts nicely with the faceted gems I used them with.

Some of the supplies I mentioned earlier also arrived today! Check out these pretty freshwater pearl strands:


I love freshwater pearls but so far have not been too adventurous with colours because I felt they look fake, so I stuck mainly with white, ivory, peach, mauve, silver and grey. But there are great colours (well, to me at least!) out there if you look around enough; I just couldn't resist these and am really pleased at how they turned out. Can't wait to use them!

Because I'm a geek. Here are some new lovelies that arrived today:



Edit: Gawd, now my blog looks like a bead shop...