The amazing thing is in this world of advanced technology we are able to create a controlled environment to allow us to grown crystals. In nature, gemstones are created over millions of years and are flawed by the earth's formation process. That is how jewelers can tell the difference between natural gemstones and lab grown gemstones. The wonderful thing is that lab grown gemstones are 100% the same chemical composition, same physical properties and score the same on the Mohs scale as natural mined gemstones. So if we take a lab grown blue sapphire and set it next to a mined natural sapphire, the only difference is the lab grown is going to be the more desired color and clarity then the natural gemstone.
Now are laboratory grown gemstones as valuable? Yes, they are valuable but also slightly less expensive then natural mined gemstones. These values can be slightly different depending on the family of gemstones we are looking at. But a laboratory grown ruby is a wonderful option to a natural ruby that maybe extremely expensive and not as clear visually.
]]>International Women's Day is a day we celebrate every year at BeJeweled. We are a business that is owned by married couple with respect of each other's talent and artistry. The team that we are, partners with women artists everyday to bring in the most beautiful and unique jewelry as well as greeting cards and gifts. Though we work as an equal partners ourselves, we note that the world is not a perfect place and there are gender inequalities that need to be addressed. So we will be celebrating women's achievements but also we hope to shed light on the work that still needs to be done. The theme this year for Women's History Month is "Women who advocate for equality, diversity and inclusion." We hope one day we will see an end to discrimination.
This month we will highlight some of our women artists and share some things that inspire us on social platforms and even have a flash sale to celebrate. You will find these posts highlighted in purple. Why do we use the color purple for International Women’s Day? Purple signifies dignity and justice. We also use green for hope and white to represent purity. These colors were established in 1908 during the Women’s Suffrage Movement in the UK.
"Investing in women and championing gender equality turbocharges a future where everyone in society can thrive, creating a world of boundless opportunity and empowerment for all." ~ UN Women
Learn more at https://www.unwomen.org/en/get-involved/international-womens-day
]]>Why do we love gold fill jewelry? It is a premium alternative to solid gold jewelry that does not compromise quality. We carry both 14k gold fill and 18k gold fill jewelry were the industry standard is that 1/20th, or 5% is pure gold by weight. It is a strictly regulated process that involves pressure bonding multiple layers of solid gold with extreme heat over a core of high quality jeweler's brass. Gold fill jewelry will not tarnish. These pieces are 100% hypoallergenic and considered water resistant.
]]>Spoken by our second American president, John Adams, in a letter to his wife on July 2nd, 1776, this was a day to be celebrated in a great anniversary festival with pomp and parade and illuminations. And we as a free United States have done so.
So let us all enjoy being American and put the politics aside and become united again to celebrate being the Untied States of America. We here at our BeJeweled shop family will be celebrating with neighbors in a traditional neighborhood parade and picnic. Our shop will open from 10 am to 5 pm on July 4th. We hope you all will be busy celebrating and taking the time to enjoy family and friends.
]]>Treasure. Connection to Nature. Talisman.
There is a rich history for each gemstone we have discovered in time. One of those organic gems, amber, was found in artifacts from the Stone Ages over 13,000 years ago. This warm organic gem was formed 30 to 90 million years ago when sap from ancient trees hardened and fossilized. The Baltic coast is the world’s most important and largest source of fine gem quality amber. Thought by different cultures to be some form of hardened liquid rays from the sun, this gem was traded between the Baltic Sea to the Mediterranean Sea along a trade route called the Amber Road. It was an important raw material called the “gold of the north.” From the Mediterranean and farther south it made it’s way to Italy, Greece, the Black Sea and Egypt from at least the sixteenth century and farther back. From the Black Sea, this gem found it’s way onto other trade routes to continue on into Asia.
Unique Treasure from the Beyond. Connections to the Sun.
Now imagine finding crystals of amethyst with a rich purple color around 3,000 BC and imagining what this gems power was. A color that is relatively rare in nature that no wonder it was associated with royalty, magic and mystery. The ancient Egyptians believed amethyst could keep a person from being poisoned. Empowered by advances in technology with access to gemstones and precious metals like gold, the Egyptian culture of royalty had admiration for luxury. The ancient Egyptians valued personal adornments and jewelry was worn by men and women of all social classes except the slaves. They crafted bracelets, earrings, neck collars, anklets, rings and armbands. Even the deceased were adorned with jewelry. They inlaid gems of lapis lazuli, garnet, peridot, emeralds and pearls into their jewelry designs. Jewelry reflected social status and warded off evil spirits.
Rarity. Mystery. Luxury.
Much like the Egyptians, jewelry in Greece was a symbol of social status, power, celebration for the Gods and also protected against evil spirits. Greece mass produced jewelry made of gold, silver and bronze. Unlike the Greeks, Romans manufactured jewelry in molds and casting techniques. This enabled more people to afford jewelry. Women in Roman culture especially loved wearing jewelry and it was considered to be their property, meaning independently from their husband’s wealth. They had the right to barter, buy or sell their own jewelry. Jewelry for children was an aid to protect them from illness and to ward off evil forces. Just like the Greeks, they to offered jewelry to the Gods.
Status. Wealth. Protection.
Jewelry already has a rich history. Gems are being discovered the more humankind travels. The more humankind travels the more we trade and the more metal smithing techniques are shared. Within every culture there is a rich history of jewelry making and it is being adorned for several different meanings. Some of the simplest reasons is we love the craft. It is a profession that can bring income into a family or community. The craft of making jewelry from handmade techniques to casting and making beads and forming glass has created wide variety of jewelry styles. With style is fashion. So low and behold, jewelry making is getting finer with the nobility of England, France, Spain and beyond.
Style. Fashion. Beauty.
We are very fortunate to be in a time where we can buy jewelry from all over the world. Gemstones are still being discovered like the brilliant fiery opals of Ethiopian in the early 1990s. Opals have been called the most powerful gemstone because opals contain the colors for all the precious gems: blue of sapphire, red of ruby, green of emerald and purple of amethyst. We can buy handmade jewelry from the artists from Bali and Nepal to Native Americans in America’s Southwest to Mexico. We can buy mass produced jewelry from Thailand and China. We can buy an amazing variety of gemstones and each gem speaks to us differently. Maybe they evoke mysteries from our past, enlighten our souls from beyond and speak from within our spirit. And possibly they help maintain our health and speak to our chakras. Jewelry is still something that is a way for us to show how creative humankind can be and how wearing jewelry can make us creative.
Creativity. Art. Love.
]]>This exciting collaboration between the floral artistry of Anne Bond with Rifle Paper Company and the fine quality of pillow products from Dallas based company Loloi is sure to be a hit. Loli has been a home decor leader since 2004. Pillows come in hand embroidered with bead embellishments or a soft velvet. We have several designs to select from in our Hilltop store.
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This new collection of handmade copper bracelets from California for three generations. Copper has been found to be beneficial to our bodies and can help aid things like arthritis. The beauty of these bracelets also is the tricolor metals used. The copper tone is pure copper, the jewelers' brass (gold tone) in composed of 85% copper and 15% zinc, and the German silver is also primary 65% copper with zinc and nickel.
Sergio Lub is an American artist of Russian descent, born in Argentina in 1953. Trained as an architect in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Sergio realized his creativity could be more freely expressed as a jewelry designer. With access to an abundance of silver, Sergio’s introduction to copper began when he started adding copper into his work for color.
We also have a large array of Charles' amazing sterling silver jewelry that is crafted in Taxco, Mexico with his collection of alchemia. We will be adding these new items to our web store for purchase in the coming weeks.
]]>This is an ancient technique of decorating metal objects. The art of cloisonné is done by soldering thin gold or silver wires to create compartments and edges on an object. Then the object is painted to leave the decorative wires visible. The enamel is worked on with an enamel powder made into a paste and then fired in a kiln. This technique of cloisonné has evolved over centuries since it first appeared in Ancient Egypt. Byzantine art perfected this style of cloisonné by using finer wires and using more decorative elements like gemstones into the art. During the 18th century, China's Kangxi Emperor had a cloisonné workshop and during the Fall of Constantinople in 1453, China benefited from skilled Byzantine refugees fleeing. Chinese cloisonné is amongst the best known enamel cloisonné in the world.
We have several cloisonné ornaments available but not all of them are available online since colors can vary in some designs. We also started carrying this collection of glass ball ornaments with cloisonné work that are beautiful with light coming through the design.
]]>Peridot is the birthstone for August and the 15th anniversary gemstone. The Egyptians called it the “gem of the sun.” Peridot is thought to protect its owner from nightmares. This gem is also thought to bring its wearer power, influence, and a wonderful year. Peridot is the gem variety of the mineral olivine. Its chemical composition includes iron and magnesium, and iron is the cause of its attractive yellowish green colors. The gem often occurs in volcanic rocks called basalts, which are rich in these two elements. Happy Birthday to all our August's babies! We wish you a happy and joy filled day.
Shop our collection of genuine peridot gemstone jewelry set with sterling silver. Each piece is handcrafted and comes in a jewelry gift box. Shop our peridot collection today.
]]>New genuine aquamarine jewelry has arrived! To a light blue of the sky to the deep blue of the sea, aquamarine is the birthstone for March. The name “aquamarine” is derived from two Latin words: aqua, meaning “water,” and marina, meaning “of the sea.” Aquamarine is the 19th anniversary stone and thought to enhance the happiness of marriages. According to legend, aquamarine has been regarded by sailors’ as a lucky stone because it originated in the treasure chest of fabulous mermaids. It is said to calm waves and bring sailors safely back home.
]]>Michael Hopko founded his studio in 1996 after working as an apprentice glass blower with several different artists in California. Before that he studied art at Shasta College where he took his first college course in glass in 1990. Michael is an avid outdoors man near his home in the Northern California Mountains which inspires his glass works. He has been using hot, molten glass to mold his interest in nature with stunning and intricate details. His sculptures include a variety of Octopi, Trout, Bass and Salmon, as well as, Yellow Fin Tuna and Mahi-Mahi.
See more of Michael's work online at http://shopbejeweled.com/collections/michael-hopko.
]]>Jenny Byrne designs a new mermaid each year as an expression of the freedom and joy of time spent in or by the ocean. Her mystical mermaids are carved from ancient mammoth ivory and set in sterling silver enhanced with gemstones and pearls. The mermaid above features a facet cut rainbow moonstone and is available online.
Her intricate designs incorporates prehistoric fossilized wooly mammoth ivory. Now extinct, the mammoth roamed the earth until about 10,000 years ago. Mammoth ivory is found as a consequence of gold mining in Canada, Alaska and Siberia and is found in the layer just above the gold. It can also be found in deposits after a violent winter storm have revealed a portion of the material sticking up out of the permafrost near ancient lake beds. The grain pattern of spirals running clockwise and counter clockwise over one another proves it is pre-Ice Age mammoth ivory.
More of this collection is available in our collection of Fossilized Ivory Jewelry.
]]>Created by Sharon McNamara and Paul Palango, these glass cats using fused glass are each hand cut, hand colored with crusted glass and adorned with images or splashes of dichroic glass. Kiln Art Studio is located in Chester Basin, Nova Scotia.
]]>Dichroic glass is made when multiple ultra-thin layers of different metals such as gold or silver, and metal oxides such as titanium, chromium, aluminum, zirconium, or magnesium, or silica are vaporized by an electron beam in a vacuum chamber. The array of brilliant colors are produced from light being reflected just like what occurs in a rainbow or a dragonfly wing. There’s an amazing amount of steps in creating every single piece of jewelry. Each piece of glass is handled many times and there is no machine that can make dichroic glass. The glass is fired in a kiln at over 1400 degrees several times in order to achieve the right effect. And each firing can take up to 12 hours from start to finish. When the sheet of glass is cool enough, then they cut the shapes with diamond tools and polish the glass before wrapping them with silver plated wire.
]]>How did the Vikings navigate their way safely to the New World and back?
Iolite, once called a “water sapphire,” has a strong pleochroism ability meaning that from one direction iolite can appear blue violet and from another direction it can appear clear as water. The name iolite originates from the Greek word ‘ios’ meaning 'violet’. “Dichroite” is another synonym for iolite in reference to its pleochroic properties. “Dichroite” is a Greek word, which broadly translates as “two-colored rock.” Iolite is also known as “the Viking stone” because according to Norse legend, Vikings used iolite as a thin polarizing lens to help them find the exact position of the sun. The Vikings probably discovered and mined their iolite deposits in Norway and Greenland.
Shop our collection of iolite jewelry at http://shopbejeweled.com/collections/iolite-jewelry.
]]>Handmade in Seattle, Washington, Glass Eye is a team of glassblowing artists that intensely make and create new designs every 6 months. Their glass ornaments are the most collectible with new designs and limited edition pieces, you can add new pieces to a collection every year. They are well known studio and are most remembered of the use of ash in there pieces from the Mount St. Helen’s eruption in 1980. Seattle is an epicenter of glass work since artist Dale Chihuly co-founded the Pilchuck Glass School in 1971. The Northwest also provides cooler temperatures in which to work with the tremendous heat that comes from working with molten glass.
Browse other objects of art by the Glass Eye Studio at http://shopbejeweled.com/collections/glass-eye-studio.
]]>Lapis lazuli mined since the 3rd millennium BC, has been traded and made into jewelry since ancient Mesopotamia by the Sumerians, Akkadians, Assyrians and Babylonians. Lapis jewelry has been found in Predynastic Egyptian site of Naqada (3300-3100 BC). And not only was it used in jewelry during that time but also for eye shadow by Cleopatra. Lapis is mainly composed of lazurite but also has calcite (white), sodalite (blue) and pyrite, or fool’s gold (metallic), minerals in its formation. This beautiful blue mineral has been crushed and used it paints by artists like Johannes Vermeer’s The Girl with a Pearl Earrings painting done it 1665.
]]>Druzy is a geological term for the fine miniature crystal surface found on a rock’s surface. Mostly you see druzy from agate and chalcedony volcanic rocks and quartz but it can be found on a variety of minerals. Many of the druzy stones you see have also been coated with a layer of titanium to create beautiful colors of iridescent blues, purples and “opal.” Other druzy agate stones are dyed to create different colors, though these are not as iridescent. Platinum druzy stones are coated with aluminum to create their platinum color. Druzy agate is a great way to add a bit of sparkle to your attire.
Browse our collection of druzy jewelry at http://shopbejeweled.com/collections/druzy-jewelry
]]>The first Navajo silversmiths created buckles, buttons, rings, earrings, bracelets, crescent shape pendants called "najas" and much more. The Squash Blossom necklace is the most important and most identifiable form in Navajo and Southwestern Native American jewelry. The design consists of handmade round silver beads copied from Spanish buttons that is interspersed with "squash blossom," or flower-like elongated beads, and featured a "naja" pendant in the center, similar to an upside down horseshoe. Both Navajo and Zuni artists create this style of necklace.
Turquoise was not used in Native American jewelry until later in the 1880s even though the stone was mined over a thousand years ago by ancient Native American tribes. Turquoise is mined throughout America's southwest though many mines have been closed and depleted. Turquoise signifies success, it is the "fallen sky stone" hidden in Mother Earth, and is worn for good fortune, protection and good health.
Even though Zuni jewelry did not include silver until the 1890s, Zuni jewelry dates back to Ancestral Pueblo prehistory. Zuni lapidaries carved stone and shell fetishes using stone and antler tools and strung them with fiber cords. Zuni jewelers are credited for combining turquoise and silver. They became known for the intricate cluster work and small stone techniques like needlepoint and petit point.
See our whole Southwestern Collection at http://shopbejeweled.com/collections/southwestern-jewelry.
]]>What is Shiva Shell? Shiva Shell is the protective covering at the opening of the Turban snail shell. Towards the end of the snail’s natural life this protective door detaches and sinks to the seabed. On one side of the Shiva eye shell is a beautiful spiral. The spiral symbolizes an energy force of power and strength. The third eye in the middle of the forehead of the Hindu God Shiva represents wisdom and it is thought to have the ability to look beyond the obvious. It is a symbol of creation, preservation and destruction of everything, the constant change of the universe and the flow of life.
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