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It tickles me that most of the gemstones in the crown, St. Edward's Crown, which will be used at Charles III's coronation, are not precious gemstones in today's usage. They would be emerald, ruby, sapphire and diamond. The crown includes rubies and sapphires. But no...

Lovers of purple gemstones (amethyst anyone?) will fall in love with this purple rock. Like lapis lazuli, a jewelry quality rock, charoite has an intense color, purple rather than cobalt blue, but it isn’t a gemstone. Rocks are two or...

If you’ve grown frustrated with the limited time you have to enjoy gold-plated jewelry, you need to look for pieces that won’t lose their golden shine, exposing the underlying base metal. I love to work with those base metals but covering them with a thin layer of 14k gold doesn’t work. At least not for long.

Keshi pearls come in many shapes and sizes as you can see in the image accompanying this post. As with all things pearly how the term is used is a little complicated. 

Like granite, rhyolite is used for landscaping and ground fill. It’s not a good stone for construction however, so buildings would never be constructed of rhyolite as they are in granite. Some rhyolite is good for jewelry cabochons and beads. Rich in silicon, it is often glassy and either fine grained or containing larger crystals.

Peridot is a gem quality olivine that is always olive green, varying in shade from yellow green to an intense green to a brownish or muddied green due to the amount of iron a given sample contains. That middle green color is most sought after, as are larger gem quality stones. Large peridot is rare and costly.

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Jewelry clasps come in many shapes, some designed for greater security and others as a focal point for the necklace or bracelet you're making. Let's talk ordinary jewelry clasps. These are the workhorses, the clasps you'll find on most of the pieces you wear regularly. 

Fossil coral isn’t an endangered coral. In the gemstone industry they have shortened agatized fossil coral to fossil coral. Price alone tells you it’s not something that comes from a threatened species. It is coral in a way, but ancient coral, found in the ground after being inundated by silt or something else, not an expert here, some 20 million years ago. Agate replaced the coral. So it's no longer coral.

Caribbean-blue waters lapping the sunny island shores find their duplicate in a unique stone found only in the Dominican Republic. Larimar is a light blue type of pectolite, a stone that comes in other colors and from other parts of the world. But most pectolite is not amenable to cutting for jewelry. 

Adularescence or schiller as it is commonly called creates a cat's eye when the band is clearly distinct and a silky luster of chatoyance when the band is indistinct.

Ruby in fuchsite is a pretty combination gemstone with ruby scattered through it. Although not all fuchsite has ruby in it. When it does, it's pretty amazing. 

Warm, nature-made, amber is lovely and lightweight to wear. Try it once and you’ll want to slip it around your wrist or neck again and again. It comes in so many colors and even has claims made in its name to health benefits.

I'll focus on the metals we use in our designs. My chief concern is to use metals that are free of contaminants like lead and cadmium. 

Nothing is yummier than gemstones and beads from India. Shopping at the wholesale shows in Tucson every year, I’m hard pressed not to buy everything in sight, but especially Indian stones in the jewel colors of ripe fruit. 

The Beauty in Darkness collection was formed around the work of artisan Marc Griffith. The pendants and links he creates from found objects, stones, and beads are wrapped in tin, soldered, and oxidized so the tin turns black. Components for...

Properly cared for, precious metal jewelry can last for a lifetime. Plated jewelry won’t last as long, but it will be around a few extra years if you treat it with lovingkindness.

Amber comes in a variety of colors ranging from bone white to black. 

Let’s Talk Jewelry Welcome to the À Clef Blog. I'm Beverly Krueger, the chief designer here at À Clef. I'm glad you found us. One of the best things about attending the gemstone shows in Tucson is the sheer number of...