Shopping Options…

Wow, it’s that time of the year again….. Before you head off for some holiday shopping, I thought I’d pass on some observations about your options. Not that I am encouraging anyone to overspend on an overly-commercialized holiday, but knowing your...

What’s in a Name? Would a Rose…

By any other name smell so sweet? Apologies to the Bard, but someone asked a great question the other day, so I am going to take a break from talking about gemstone rainbows and try to answer it. What is the difference between natural, synthetic, enhanced, &...

Ghosts of Halloween Past

Since I can’t think of anything Halloween-y that is really jewelry related (I gave up working with plastic spiders a while back), I will entertain you with my favorite photo of a past Halloween. Since Red only dresses up about once a decade, this rare event...

Affordable Rainbows — Colors of Quartz

While tourmalines can be pricey, most color variations of quartz are quite affordable & often come in large sizes with minimal inclusions, making for satisfying jewels on a budget. Quartz is a relatively hard mineral with a Mohs scale of 7, so it makes for...