Author: Jewel Envy

Hello Sunday Readers,

Jewellery (British English) or jewelry (American English; see spelling differences) consists of small decorative items worn for personal adornment, such as brooches, rings, necklaces, earrings, pendants, bracelets, and cuff-links. Jewelry may be attached to the body or the clothes. From a western perspective, the term is restricted to durable ornaments, excluding flowers for example. For many centuries metal, often combined with gemstones, has been the normal material for jewelry, but other materials such as shells and other plant materials can be used too.

Among the many traditional jewelry, the Indian jewelry is one of the most ornamental and meaningful.

The use of jewellery in India goes back to more than 5000 years ago, touching the eras when the great epics of Mahabharata and Ramayana took place. The physical traces of some ancient Indian jewellery are found from the Indus Valley civilization.

Indian jewellery is enchanting, captivating the hearts of people globally by its ornate varieties, heavy embellishments, and diverse design and materials. The use of jewellery in the Indian subcontinent traces back to a long history.

Over time the use of jewellery, its making, modes of creation, have been influenced by socio-cultural and political factors. So, it’s absolutely not surprising that the present-day varieties of Indian jewellery and its legacy has charmed the world, igniting new ideas of creative fusions between western and Indian trends.

India had always held a high status in the imperial world for being a leading exporter of gems. India was the first to mine diamonds. The first mines were at the Godavari Riverbanks near Hyderabad.  The use of diamonds too had much diversity. Sometimes it had been used as royal gifts for appeasement, regaining trust and also for gaining immortality.

Among the most traditional Indian Jewellery, we have the Maangtika a traditional head piece worm most often at weeding by the Hindu bride. It consists of a metallic string, with an attractive pendant attached at one end, which may be if any shape and adorned with precious stones. The Maangtika is worn at the middle parting of the hair.

The Bajuband and Vanki, are armlets worm on the upper arm. They often have to be secured in place with a gold string. Some common designs on them include creepers or snakes entwining.

The Nath, a nose ring, most commonly worm on the left nostril.

We are celebrating at Jewel Envy our 13^th anniversary the 6^th of December, and the same day we will hosting our Christmas Party. You are very welcome to joying us from 5 pm to 10 pm. We will be serving light refreshments and we have just for you a 10% discount on jewellery currently in display!

Have a nice Sunday!

Helena

Some of the information was taken from Wikipedia.

Well …. its one month and counting until Christmas Eve, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and many other cultural events – where does the time go!? Not to worry, we have got you and your jewellery lovers covered this Holiday season 🙂

For ONE NIGHT only, Jewel Envy will be offering 10% off of our featured jewellery – a rare event! On Friday December 6th between 5pm and 10pm, we are opening our doors to you for some holiday refreshments and one of a kind shopping!

Friends and family are welcome, come one and come all – our doors will be open. Now off I go to my bench to fill my display case with pieces that might come to the rescue for someone.

Lots of love, Jess 🙂

Do you know that different gemstones have their special inclusions? Do you know how to differentiate natural, synthetic and treated gemstones? Here are some fun pictures help you to know your gemstones!

The curved colour bands are the evidence tells you the sapphire is synthetic. Natural sapphire would show straight colour bands.

This sapphire was treated by a method called surface diffusion to produce or increase the colour of natural sapphire. After this treatment, some stones would show colour concentrations on the bottom facet junctions under the water.

Normally, glass topped doublet would show a red rim under the LED light. This is one way to test your stone to see if it is doublet or not.

This inclusion is called horsetail (a form of asbestos). This kind of inclusion only can be seen in demantoid.

The tiny rough surface is called natural. It is a portion of the original surface of a rough diamond left on a fashioned stone. Usually on or near the girdle. This is the proof of natural diamond.

Now it’s time to check your gemstones!

Classes are a great gift certificate idea for the creative person in your life. And if you have already taken classes with us we have Open Classes listed for the 16th/17th of November to create gifts yourself!

I have been organizing class photos today and wanted to share a few. We’re gearing up for the holidays and although our class schedule slows down this time of year we already have our first 2020 classes listed online

I started organizing pics by class, so I figured I would group them together that way below, enjoy! – Alexis

8 week Introductory Casting

Casting starts with carving pieces from wax or natural materials. If you are artistic you can flex your skills in this class. In the Intro Casting students create a ring, a cuttlefish casting, and one final piece using the carving skills we teach along the way. Check out pics I selected created by different students:

8 week Introductory Fabrication

In fabrication you are starting from sheet and wire to build pieces. These are the basic skills that take time and patience to learn and develop. In the Intro Fabrication class you create a band ring, a textured piece, and one final piece using the fabrication skills we teach you along the way. Check out some of the pics I found of student created pieces:

Hello Saturday browsers! Hallowe’en is over, and we’re well into November, so, if you’re like me, you’re probably thinking about Christmas (or your holiday of choice, of course!) and gifts. Alexis has done an awesome job on our new windows display (which, as usual, have to be seen in person to be fully appreciated!). The window displays are slightly different this month (and running up to the holidays): it’s all about our customers, and the wonderful pieces they’ve commissioned from the goldsmiths here at Jewel Envy.

The windows show the diverse range of requests that we get and the amazing synergy in creativity between our customers and the goldsmiths at the studio.

Rings, cuff bracelets, pendants, earrings, cufflinks, if you can think of it, we can realise it, starting from the kernel of an idea to a well-defined idea.

I thought I would share a story with you about one of the pieces I recently made, a pendant carrier. What’s that you ask? Well, we had a customer come in with a set of lovely torsional multi-stranded pearls. She told me she loved them because they had been given to her by her children, but she rarely wore them because she felt they were a bit dated in style. She also had a large amber pendant she thought would look well on them. So, my brief was to design something that could be worn on the pearls by itself, or with a pendant. This required some thought, as with the pearls being all-in-one (so, no clasp!), some creativity was required to make something that would fit over them without it being permanently attached. This was the final piece:

This sleek and elegant contemporary design hides a more complicated backing and hardware that allow it to be attached:

And here it is fulfilling its functions!

With the holiday season approaching, why not have that something special you’ve been thinking about made-either for yourself or as a special gift for someone else? We’re here, we’re ready and we love custom work! Whether it’s redesigning a piece you already have, recycling sentimental jewellery into a more contemporary design, or just the wonderful thing you thought of last week in the shower, we can work with you to realise something truly special.

In any case, we hope to welcome you to the studio soon, and enjoy the grey, chilly Saturday (Winter is coming! Winter is coming!).

-Robin

While re-watching Jurassic Park recently I made a mental note to track down some pictures of insects trapped in amber to share, take a gander at what I came across!

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One of the best things about working in the arts is how creativity and fun always comes with the job. Here at Jewel Envy we love to play and experiment with metal and stone, and sometimes pumpkins.

With Halloween around the corner it’s time to get the decorations out, and what’s more symbolic of the Halloween season than carving pumpkins. OK maybe collecting free candy is better but pumpkin carving will always be a classic past time.

Here we are “working” to help bring the season alive, and very excited about it too. It all stars with a blank pumpkin. Then we “work” out the designs. We have the classic Jack

A witches shelf ready for sale. I mean, who wouldn’t want Unicorn Tears.

And of course we saved the seeds for roasting later. Also why not a little shameless free publicity when the kids show up. They may only be interested in the sugary candy but I know us big kids LOVE glittery eye candy.

Happy Halloween from all of us at Jewel Envy!

Peter van Walraven

Whether your taste in jewelry is classic and expensive or trendy and affordable, there’s a lot of new ideas from jewelry experts nowadays.

The trends shifts  from season to season and year to year. I can almost rely on the fact that you have an assortment of jewelry, both fine and costume, that you keep on a tight rotation. But there’s always room for a few new pieces to freshen up your go-to selection.

Among the new trend are the pearls. This trend toward modern ‘cool-girl’ pearls is only getting bigger, you can wear them short or long, only one string or several ones, they can be fine or costume, white or in any other color, just pearls! Big pearl earrings are more trending than ever, do not be scare, you can wear a big display of pearls all at the same time! this Christmas the more you wear the better. 

Vintage pieces are very trendy, be them signed or unsigned. I love the history of these pieces and the exceptional quality in which fine jewelry was made decades ago. A lot of the interest is also driven by the limited availability and the fact that many of these pieces are one of a kind. You can wear your grandmother Bakelite bracelet, they were made in neon colors, go for it, you will feel fabulous!

Hearts are back, in any size, only one or more, even rings with hearts are trendy now, if you wear a chain with hearts and a string of pearls in New Year’s Day you will be the queen of the party!

Color is back, lovely bands full of colors, the rainbow is trendy, I know you remember the bracelet with charms, those gorgeous charms big and colored, the ones with enamel, yes, the apples, the clowns, the cars, go back to your jewellery box and find the one you have since 1990! and wear it!

Come to us if your treasures are broken, if you need new desings for your old pieces, if you want something new and unique, come to see us and enjoy our display, everything is made thinking of you! you are the only reason we are here, to make you feel fabulous!

Have a nice Sunday!

Helena

October’s birthstones are a two of my favourite stones-opal and tourmaline. Interestingly, both of them come in multiple colours. Opals are particularly known for their fire, and are mostly white or black with a variety of flash colours.

Finished opal is often, although not always, finished as a cabochon, so not faceted. Opal tends to be soft and brittle, so not always the best everyday option to wear in a ring, but it’s great in earrings or a pendant, or some other jewellery where you’re less likely to knock it into something. It also works well in settings where the edges are more protected from impact as well!

Tourmaline is a bit different. A crystalline boronsilicate, it has various metal ions, including aluminium, iron, magnesium, sodium, lithium and potassiu, leading it to have a variety of colours from deep forest green to a vivid pink.

My favourite is a really nice deep green. If I’d remembered, I would have taken some pictures of my favourite personal tourmaline pieces, featuring some beautiful, deep green stones, but sadly, I didn’t. I’ll have to show you some other time! Instead, here’s a cool picture of some watermelon tourmaline, instead. I don’t really go in for pink, but this combination always somehow appeals to me.

How about you? Do you like opals or tourmalines? What appeals to you about them? I’m always interested in what people think!

That’s it for me today! Enjoy the beautiful day, and hope to see you in the studio sometime soon!

Robin.

I was perusing my image folder for a class I teach, and I decided I would share some of my favourite interesting settings on here!

First up we have this wonderful ring by Toronto artist Pasha Moezzi! I love this simple bezel solution to an unusually shaped stone!

This ring by Polly Wales is a cast in place piece, the stones were put into the wax and then the metal was cast around the stones!

This crystal nestled inside an 18k gold frame by artist Devon Thom is another great solution to a tricky situation.

An absolutely gorgeous ring by Atelier Munsteiner using a very crisp partial bezel and hand cut beryl.

That’s all for now!

Alex