Month: August 2026

Our goldsmiths Patrycja Zwierzynska and Jamie Rosario will be showing and selling their jewellery at the Cabbagetown Art & Craft Show at Riverdale Park West this September 11th to 13th.

Patrycja will be at Booth 79 and Jamie will be at Booth 50.

Learn more about their work here!

Patrycja: https://gallery.cabbagetownartandcraft.org/artist/y2026_YDrJU7LawxXkZogNywIk4KkzDez2

Jamie: https://gallery.cabbagetownartandcraft.org/artist/y2026_k9L3SnxSPvWObyzZu7P8hXxEmlx2

Work by Patrycja Zwierzynska (above).

Work by Jamie Rosario (above).

The Basics of Jewellery Cleaning – Caring for Pearl and Opal Jewellery

Pearls are one of the few gems that benefit from wear and touch.

The oils from your skin help pearls keep their lustrous appearance. Even if you do not wear your pearls often you should hold them on a regular basis to transfer the unseen oil from your skin to onto them. If their oils dry out, pearls begin to crack and will break.

You must take the utmost care when cleaning jewellery with pearls in it. They cannot be exposed to many chemicals or heat. Chemical solutions will eat away at the lustrous finish and can eat through the layers of nacre that a pearl is made up of. A gentle plain cloth is the best way to polish pieces with pearls. This means they require regular care to minimize tarnish and ensure surface oils are present.

Opals are considered an unstable gemstone but are valued for the vibrant colours that are produced inside of them. The colours are a result of water held within the stone. Opals should never be exposed to extreme temperature changes or chemicals. When the water inside the opal dries out, the stone cracks and loses its fire. Chemicals use for cleaning, which would not affect harder stones, can leach into opals and change their colours.

’20 Tips on maintaining our Jewellery’, Gillian E. Batcher, 2013

When admiring all of the beautiful pieces in our store, I got to thinking about stones and the various meanings behind them. Where did the idea of a birthstone come from? Why do we have a particular one assigned to each month? After some digging, I learned that the concept of birthstones originated from the biblical breastplate of Aaron. This breastplate contained 12 stones representing the 12 tribes of Israel.

Over the centuries these 12 stones became associated with the 12 months of the calendar year and the 12 astrological signs by 1st and 5th century scholars. Initially people owned all 12 stones and wore them to harness the power of the month that they represented. During the 18th century it became popular in Germany and Poland to wear the corresponding stone for your month of birth. It wasn’t until 1912 that the stones became standardized by the American National Retail Jewelers Association (now the Jewelers of America) to become the commercial list we know today.