Love Roses Gold

Memories, Magic and Metal

[loverosesgold]

Today I’m talking about prong setting. Prong setting is probably what you usually think of if you think about stones set in jewellery. This setting lets the most amount of light to enter the stone which then reflects back out to the viewer, giving a stone it’s ‘fire’. In a prong setting posts are spaced around the stone and the setter cuts a notch in each one matching the profile of the stone. The prongs are then pushed towards the stone to lock it in place. There are lots of different ways to set prongs: only a few posts or as many as will fit around. They can be decorative or simple, meet in the middle like a claw or around a central circle like a crown. Prong settings can be very secure when done right, but if the prong is too thin for the stone or the cut too deep or there aren’t enough of them, it can be damaged. . . #memoriesmagicmetal #lovemejewellery #stonesetting #prongsetting https://www.instagram.com/p/B8CAXJ6hsP1/?igshid=zomplpesldda

[loverosesgold]

Today I’m talking about channel setting. It’s a beautiful setting and can be so effective in design. Two walls of metal run parallel. A channel is cut into the walls to exactly fit the profile of the stones. The stones slide in and the metal is pushed over to keep them in place. . . #memoriesmagicmetal #lovemejewellery #stonesetting #channelsetting https://www.instagram.com/p/B7luRdJhI7p/?igshid=nq1fmg6yqfud

[loverosesgold]

I wanna talk about stone settings! 💎 One of my goals for 2020 is to really hone my stone setting skills so it’s on my brain. Today I’m talking bezel setting. It’s one of the most simple and secure settings for stones. The stone rests on a lip inside the bezel. A small wall surrounds the stone and is gently pushed over the girdle(outer edge) of the stone to secure it in place. This type of setting protects the stone from all sides and is very secure. The bottom can be closed or open. They can be very simple or decorative, and are good for any shape. #memoriesmagicmetal #lovemejewellery #stonesetting #bezelsetting https://www.instagram.com/p/B7MN9HKhiqV/?igshid=4gm55tuk07wu

[loverosesgold]

💙Classic💙 Pantone colour of the year 2020 is called classic blue. It’s a calm, comforting, familiar kind of colour. The colour of sapphires, iolite, lapis, sodalite not to mention the blues in a lovely labradorite or moonstone. . . #memoriesmagicmetal #2020classicblue #iolite https://www.instagram.com/p/B66SXHLBofm/?igshid=915kqz5tp9xj

[loverosesgold]

A very special Diamond and spinel engagement ring. For @sdorfi @nightmair_music . . . #canadiandiamond #pinkspinel #handmadejewellery #memoriesmagicmetal #ovalengagementring #pinkengagementring https://www.instagram.com/p/B6WpZSPh-uW/?igshid=74gs4vvqjlpv

[loverosesgold]

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This stunning oval Canadian Diamond sparkles like literally nothing else! 💎✨ It’s new home is a very special project 🤫 more on that to come. https://www.instagram.com/p/B5xbfcvn0W3/?igshid=1t5rt9wf5wj45

[loverosesgold]

Some of my most used tools. If you ignore the torch that couldn’t fit in the frame 🤷‍♀️ he’s the real goldsmithing hero here! . . . #jewellersbench #goldsmithing #toolsofthetrade #memoriesmagicmetal #handcraftedjewellery #handmade https://www.instagram.com/p/B5f2vqfHwQh/?igshid=1471tn94c5nai

[loverosesgold]

Little bumblebee jasper earrings all finished up! and a quick preview of something to come 💛🖤. . . #memoriesmagicmetal #bees #beejewellery #sterlingsilverjewellery #handcraftedjewellery #handmade #jewelleryinprogress https://www.instagram.com/p/B5N64g2hTcw/?igshid=13x9xf1dxoj4o

[loverosesgold]

Sometimes I like to take a pause and just watch the light filtering through the trees. It’s like a dance with light and soft rustling wind.

They say silver winks at you from across the room and you can totally believe that when this silver and CZ pendant catches pockets of light.

[loverosesgold]

I wanna talk about lemon chrysoprase 💛

This is another case where the stone trade as a whole just confuses me. Lemon/Citron chrysoprase is also- and more accurately- called lemon magnesite. Because it is... magnesite that is. Deposits of this mineral are often found in similar conditions as actual chrysoprase. Sometimes they’re even in the same nodule where one grows on top of the other. Sometimes you’ll get cut stones with a little bit of both. You can see where the name comes from.

It’s confusing and annoying but it’s hardly the first time a stone was given a confusing name 🙄 and side by side they really couldn’t be confused for one another.

Despite all that, this really is one of my most favourite stones. I love the colour variations: more yellow to more green- very colourful to very pale- perfectly uniform to heavily included. It’s one of those colours that looks like it should be created in a lab rather than by nature. It’s both incredibly colourful and somehow subtle in jewellery.

I’m not saying I could pull it off as a shirt, but as a ring or string of beads even my pale face can rock it 👻

[loverosesgold]

I’ve been really sad and possibly burnt out this past few weeks. I have so many projects and ideas that I want to work on but finding the energy for them was getting harder and harder. So I stopped beating myself up for not doing all the things and gave myself permission to calm down. To do what was necessary but not push to do more. Not everyone can afford a ‘proper vacation’ but even allowing yourself to do just what NEEDS to get done and let yourself off the hook for everything else feels like a vacation when you’re stressed and depressed. Now if only it hadn’t taken me three weeks to figure that out ... 🤦‍♀️ This ring is a reminder to take the time you need. Calm the crazy that sometimes bubbles up in your chest and look at your situation with detachment. Figure out a plan from there. The first step is to be calm. . . #memoriesandmagicinmetal #jewellery #jewelry #rings #handmadejewellery #sterlingsilverjewellery #intentionrings #calm #mindfulness #meditationrings https://www.instagram.com/p/Byc7rc8g2ts/?igshid=tctzk0zia8jz

[loverosesgold]

So while I was rifling through my gem drawers last week to find cool amethysts I also discovered some old projects from when I was in school. Not sure if these are of interest to anybody but I enjoy the nostalgia.

Projects include: laminating stones into patterns, steel printing plates that didn’t etch fully, my “brilliant totally original idea” to chase copper pipes into a copper plate 🙄, various attempts to carve stones before I fully grasped how to do the basics, failed enamelling attempts and super heavy water castings, a cool but somewhat useless agate triceratops, and my tiger eye zebra wood brush project. What was I thinking?!

I had decided to cast screws in sterling silver and loop them through huge tiger eye beads (I had never made beads before-or since) the idea was to screw the soft silver into the zebra wood without splitting the wood or damaging the silver while making sure the beads were secure... 🤦🏻‍♀️ and I think I had also decided to make the brush part itself from scratch as well? Getting the brush fibres to line up in the profile I wanted and stay securely together in a silver cone was a headache and a half. Though I remember the other sets I made did work out. 🤷🏻‍♀️

[loverosesgold]

I wanna talk about amethyst 💜

Amethyst is a quartz that gets its purple colour from iron impurities. It is a favourite stone for jewellery makers and wearers. It’s tough, easily available, and comes in lovely shades from deep purple to very pale lavender.

You can get gem-quality perfectly clear stones, stones with inclusions, stripes, ametrine (purple and yellow) and they can be heat treated or exposed to X-ray radiation to change the colour (deeper purple, yellow citrine, green prasiolite). I have a few stones from thunder bay that are really cool crystal points with a red coating from hematite.

I’ve often thought (and probably said) that if any stone has magic to it, it’s amethyst. There’s something so deep and mysterious about the dark purpled and hexagonal crystals. And something mesmerizing and eerie about light reflecting off a pale stone.

I think it’s a beautiful stone that gets more interesting the more you look into it.

[loverosesgold]

[loverosesgold]

Somebody desperately wants to hang out in the studio! But perhaps my chair isn’t the MOST appropriate place... not the most.

And realistically I don’t let her in here most of the time. A goldsmith studio is full of hammers, loud noises, torches and a few chemicals. It’s not super safe for cats. Even bored cats that want to play!

[loverosesgold]

Sterling silver and black onyx trillion earrings 🖤

This design is pretty special to me. Trillions are basically my signature stone and the shape I just connect with best (if that makes any sense) There is so much symbolism in triangles and things that come in threes. Trillion stones can easily slot into whatever you need at any point in your life. Past-present-future, child-adult-elder, fight-flight-freeze, positive-negative-neutral. Whatever you need it to mean when you need it.

[loverosesgold]

Can you find where the bunny is hiding this Easter?? Lol sometimes I think I’m clever 😅 but I actually love this colourful druzy bunny ring.