Tag: #gems #bigbluehouse #jewelenvy #artjewelry

Mokume Gane (wood grain metal)

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Mokume Gane is a Japanese metalworking procedure. What you see is a mixed-metal laminate with distinctive layered patterns like the photo above. (Cufflinks made by Gillian Batcher).

Mokume Gane looks like wood grain and is closely translated from Japanese as “wood grain metal”. It has the appearance of natural wood grain.

With Mokume-gane, you fuse several layers of differently coloured precious metals together to form a sandwich of alloys called a “billet.” Then the billet is manipulated in such a way that a pattern resembling wood grain emerges over its surface. There are many many ways of working mokume gane to create diverse patterns.

I thought i’d share what mokume gane is today as two customers came in and were really admiring the patterns on the different rings using Mokume gane.

Stacking Up!

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I love a good stacking ring. They’re smallish, and each one can be a bit different, letting you put them together in different ways. Here’s my pick for today:

Rings by Robin (House of Cassady) in sterling silver with: Pearl, hammered texture bands, blue topaz and amethyst).

How do you like to wear yours rings? Leave us a comment, or visit us in studio for a chat :).

Enjoy your Saturday!

Spring curation for a Saturday

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In honour of the spring-like temperatures we’ve had this week, here’s my curated collection of things that are making me feel spring-like!

Are you feeling it? Clockwise from top left: Flower earrings with stones (Frekkeldesigns), stone stacking rings (3; Glaciale Goldsmith), Circles ring (Winfield Design), Tulip clutch pin (Edna Milevsky), M clutch pin (House of Cassady), Shell Flower earrings (Pash Jewellery Designs), filigree Flower earrings (Shafiq’s Jewelry), Butterfly kiss earrings (Eunice L Designs)

Come see them in person in the shop, and discover some other new designs, perfect to lift you up with that spring feeling!

Enjoy Saturday, whatever you’re doing.

–Robin.

It’s the countdown!

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We have about 7 more days of shopping opportunities until the studio is closed for the holidays! Never fear, though, there’s still time to bag a beautiful, handmade piece of jewellery for someone special (including yourself 🙂 from the studio. We have a great range of styles and price points from 15 designers, and there’s some exciting new work that has gone out just before the holidays to tempt you! Come in and browse for your last minute gifts. And we love it when you stop in and say hello too!

A (very) small selection (teaser) of what you can find at the studio.

starting top left: folded sterling silver with pearls, small bead studs, hammered sterling silver circle pendant with lapis beads, 14kt yellow gold pendant with two colours of sapphire, sterling silver circle flower bracelet

Don’t forget, we’re open Sunday 12-6pm, then Tuesday/Wednesday 10-6pm, Thursday-Saturday 11- 7pm, and we’ll be open our regular hours (12-6pm) on Christmas Eve. Then we too will be taking a break until January 2nd, when we’ll be open our regular hours again.

Transforming Old into New

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We all have pieces that we like some aspect of, but often wish for something new, right? We love working with clients to re-invigorate their jewellery, whether to restore it to its original (or close to original!) glory, or to re-imagine it into a new piece altogether. One recent project is this brooch:

gold brooch, with sapphire and diamond halo.

It has pretty big sentimental value, but the client wasn’t happy with the yellow gold, and decided she wanted to split it into two pieces. She loves white gold, and was enamored with the echo of the “Princess Diana” ring, so wanted to try for a modern take that fit with her personal style. So, we removed the sapphire (which is a spectacular colour!) and the diamonds, and made a new, truly unique ring.

14kt palladium white gold, central sapphire, with a “broken” halo on different levels.

We’re not stopping there! The original brooch will get a bit of a makeover too, but that’s something for the future.

Have something lurking around your jewellery box that you wish you would wear more often? Bring it in, and we’ll help you figure out how to make it your own again!

Enjoy the weather, and we hope to see you soon in the studio!

Spring is almost here and brings gemstones and more with it!

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We are more than prepared to say goodbye to the winter and welcome a warmer season full of plants and animals, but that’s not all for us here at the studio; Spring is bringing us new Goldsmiths, new awesome gemstone events (more on that will be addressed on the monthly email) and new classes.

New jewelers will be joining our family soon, and  we cant wait to have their work available on the store for you.

There are also plenty of events to come, but those will be unveiled when the time is right, so I will not ruin the surprise. 
Last but not least, our gemstone setting course is running and personally has me excited, after months and months of planning, sketching, writing and thinking, the course has a starting date and will be running, if you ever wanted to learn about gem setting, this is your opportunity. The course will require previous experience with jewellery, but good news, you can take fabrication courses here at the studio and be ready to take the course. go to https://jewelenvy.ca or give us a call at the studio to learn more about the courses.

That is it for now,

Mauricio



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