Pronounced “peh-ree-doh”, it is widely mined throughout the world, including in USA, Australia, Brazil, China, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan. It is a variety of Olivine, and is commonly found in deposits brought to the surface by lava. Gem-quality peridot nearly always mined, and is rarely found at surface level.

Peridot is a protective stone, traditionally used to keep evil sprits away. It is excellent in releasing guilt or obsessions, alleviating jealousy and spite and the stresses they create. It is also effective in sharpening the mind.

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Here’s a little peak at one project that’s just about done:

I’m all excited about fusing again so there has been lots of fun with torches and hammers! More to come soon.

I know, I can’t believe CNN didn’t cover it either. To help you get over that shocking failure of the mainstream media, get 25% off today only by using code: birthday

Sale ends tonight, July 20th at midnight Pacific Time, so start shopping.

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It’s the height of wedding season, which means all the unwed ladies have stars in their eyes and are starting to leave engagement ring advertisements littered around the house as less-than-subtle hints to their men.

If you aren’t aware of the destruction and death caused by the diamond industry by now, you must have been living under a rock. Ever since Blood Diamond became such a talking point, society has become more and more aware of the deadly trail that the industry leaves behind. Striking these gems is a death sentence for small nations, with civil war, slavery and gang violence ripping apart lives.

It’s no secret, so why on earth do people insist on buying these gemstones? Marilyn Monroe may have proclaimed that “diamonds are a girl’s best friend”, but wouldn’t you host an intervention if your best friend was doing harm to others?

It’s a debate that has been played out ad nauseum, so I will only say this: given the information you have about diamond trade, why do you insist on diamond studs for your birthday, and why won’t you settle for anything less than a diamond engagement ring?

It comes down to this: we look at the shocking images and read the terrifying stories of these people and sadly declare that the problem is too big. It is not too big. This is one of those issues where the trite “change starts at home” concept applies 100%.

We bought my engagement ring without knowing the problems of diamonds. As much as I love my ring, I would never, ever buy it again if I could go back. Lab-grown diamonds are absolutely perfect, and the abundance of precious, colored stones means we should have more environmentally friendly options open to us, so the insistence on buying diamonds that may have cost lives is purely desire driven.

I’ll add to that the fact that I find clear diamonds completely boring. Wow, you found a stone with no discernible qualities beyond the fact that it’s clear. Congratulations. Does clear water impress you too? The only reason people want them is because we’ve been told for years and years that this is what we should want. They’re not particularly rare, they have no interesting characteristics beyond their hardness level, and the high prices are completely manufactured.

Stop following the herd, find a stone that speaks to your character and help end the atrocities. Find jewelers who refuse to carry natural diamonds and buy from war-free zones. Accept that there is chemically no difference between the lab-grown and the real, and tell your boyfriend that you’d rather a ring in sapphire or topaz that doesn’t carry the same history of blood-shed.

Here endeth the rant.

Now, go and find earrings with no diamonds, that are all the prettier for it.

It’s always flattering to have your work recognized, so I thought I’d feature a couple of Polyvore users who chose to include my jewelry in their pieces.

Lunch date by neeny

Those are my moonstone earrings up in the top right. I love the idea of combining them with a green outfit – it’s not a combo I’d thought of and it looks so fresh and crisp!

Dress like Selena by DancerluvJB(Taking Requests)

My blue tiger’s eye necklace joins this Get-the-Look creation.

Campus Life Rocks! by phatelara

Here’s one for the guys with a college wear-theme, including my silver and copper men’s bracelet.

I’ve found a few more of these, which I’ll post in a later entry. Do you use Polyvore? You can see some of my items here.

I had some old fabric left over from a project I never got around to, so I used craft glue to cover the open sides. The fabric is thin enough that light will pass through it easily, creating the perfect tent cover.

Here it is completed. I added a curve of cardboard to the back to act as a white background for the base and back. I have a really good lamp that I found at a hardware store for about $5 with a nicely diffuse light bulb, and on the left top I have a slave flash that fires along with the ring flash I have on the camera.

For my last box I had my husband make me a set of stands out of Lego to support a wire for earrings. That worked pretty well, but I wanted something more permanent since I mostly make earrings now. Using craft wire, I attached a length of Beadalon and weighted it with some heavy beads. It’s not pretty, but it works! The beads are heavy enough to keep the beading wire nicely taut so the earrings stay separated instead of drooping to the center like an old couch.

Never one to say no to a bit of Lego, I now have a much smaller, single stand with a plastic tube attached to the top. The tube is the perfect size to clip an ear cuff, making a quickly adjustable modification to the setup.

As delightfully home-brewed as it looks the results are fantastic. Here’s the test shot I took using the box. No Photoshop, and lots of beautifully highlighted silver, with preserved depth and texture.

When I was teaching classes at The Bead Shop one of my popular sessions was hand-making small amounts of jump rings in different sizes to make a pair of spiral earrings. This pendant is the same technique, using a larger variety of rings and finished with a large ametrine drop.

Ametrine is a form of quartz and it’s labeled as such when the elements that create the colors of citrine and amethyst form in the same stone. This results in a beautiful purple and orange gem, and this one has a unique fracture through the center which gives it a green tint.

The bail is a Peruvian handmade silver piece. I like how the shape reflects the shape of the stone, and it has gorgeous etching that picks up the look of the chain.

Finally the necklace part of the design is a simple rope weave, one which I’ll feature soon in a video. It’s super dense and feels great on.

See the Sterling Silver and Ametrine Necklace here.

Ever since my sister read Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes, by Eleanor Coerr, she has collected pretty origami papers and made paper cranes. I’ve always loved everything Japanese, and even took four years of the language in high school (I don’t remember more than about three words, sadly).

For my birthday last year she sent me a pair of lacquered bowls and chop sticks decorated in silvery blue. Never one to do things simply, Laura filled the box with cranes of all sizes made from the most beautiful paper I’ve seen. I strung all but two of them up and now they hang in my window.

Once Laura’s birthday rolled around I turned the remaining pair into earrings by adding sterling silver chain and tiny sapphires. I’ve seen similar earrings before but with her gorgeous choice of paper and my love of gemstones and silver I think they turned into something really special. If I had time to practice with the paper I’d start a line of these.

It’s a good idea to develop a collection of “starter sets” – keep about an inch of each weave in a standard size on a paper clip. Each time you want to make chain you can continue on from what you have, then remove the starter amount. It’s so much quicker and less frustrating than trying to start from scratch each time.

Once completed, Full Persian makes a beautifully silky rope of chain that is super-flexible. Full Persian (also known as Foxtail) is what I used to make my favorite Persian Knot necklace.

Again we’re looking at adjusting what you already know, so go take a look at Byzantine and Queen’s Link first. I’ll show you how to make another tiny adjustment to product a whole new look.

Check out the archives, or get started with Full Persian Chain Maille.

Ruby is wonderful for energy, and stimulates and balances the heart. It also acts as a powerful protector against psychic attack, and aids in retaining wealth and passion.

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