Sapphire Swallowtail

Tags

butterfly, colors, insect, jewelry, museum, necklace, rainbow, sapphire, silver, swallowtail, wedding

I recently got in a rainbow of sapphire cabochons and plan to use all of them in a series of individual pieces I dubbed “The Court of Sapphires.”  The stones are a bit included, but I am having a lot of fun with the bright colors.

Here is the first piece, which will be in the etsy shop soon, based on the wing of a Swallowtail butterfly.

Butterflies were a big part of my teenage years, since I worked in an Insectarium and Butterfly House for most of high school.  I got to do everything…unpackage and hang up the chrysalises shipped from the farms in South America and Africa, manage hoards of screaming children, cover my apron in the drowsy and inebriated owl butterflies, the list goes on.  Early in the mornings, I would try not to trample the tropical foliage as I’d gather up the Morphos, Longwings, and other butterflies that had spent their short lifetimes for storage in the specimen collection, disposal, or sale, and then enjoy the few minutes of quiet before the doors opened.  I memorized each species we carried, and in all those years I never grew tired of the place.  We also had butterflies on our wedding cake :-).

I used 2mm-3mm sapphires transitioning from yellow to red, and I just need to put this long charm on a necklace to have it ready for sale.

Gemstone of the Week: Garnet

Tags

ancient, Asheville, Asia, birthstone, colors, garnet, gemstone, Greece, January, love, North Carolina, Rhodolite, Tsavorite

            Assortment of rough garnets.  Image from                    http://www.neweragems.com/world_of_garnets.asp

I started researching garnets because they are January’s birthstone, but now that I have seen their beautiful colors, these previously “Plain Jane” gems are now some of my favorites.  Garnets are a group of related minerals with slightly different chemical compositions.  The six main classifications are Almandine, Pyrope, Spessartite, Grossular, Andradite, and Uvarovite, and within each of these groups are stones with fun names like Gooseberry (a light green), and Mandarin (a bright orange).  There are even pretty black Melanite garnets, and I just purchased a nice set of bright green Tsavorite garnets that I hope to use soon.  Garnets can have varying hardness (6.5-8.5 Mohs), but luckily for me, they can be fired in silver clay pieces.

Almandine is the most common garnet type (chemical formula Fe₃Al₂Si₃O₁₂), though it is usually cloudy and rarely used in jewelry.  Pyrope garnets are the classic blood red gems, and have been worn by men and women for thousands of years.  Hessonite garnet has a tawny, reddish brown color that reminds me of whiskey.  Rhodolite garnet is a pretty pinkish purple and the name was coined in the late 19^th century after its discovery in my home state of North Carolina for the rhododendron flowers that grow wild in the same mountains.

Rhododendron flowers in Asheville, NC.  Photo by the talented BlueRidgeKitties at  http://www.flickr.com/photos/blueridgekitties/4687504392

Rough NC Mason Mine rhodolite garnet.  Image by Dean Nasco at DJ gems. http://www.djgems.net/rhodoliteminepage.htm

Garnets are abundant and found worldwide, which is why they are so common in folklore.  Most of the gem-grade material today comes out of Arizona, Sri Lanka, India, and regions of Africa.  Garnets are not enhanced (probably because they already tend to grow under high heat and pressure), and so what you see is their natural color.  There are synthetic garnets made mainly for industrial use, along with low-quality natural material ground like sand.  You can find garnets in abrasives and water filtration systems, and they are used in the building of planes, cars, and ships because of their ability to sand and cut metal.

In the Far East, garnets instilled cheerfulness and were a protection against poisons and disease.  In ancient Europe, garnets were believed to reduce inflammation of the skin and were wrapped in bandages or sent to protect soldiers going into battle.  Garnets were also given to friends and lovers as a sign that they would meet again soon.