Foray into Luxury

Usually, I shoot for a balance between cost and splendor.  It's a tough economy, money is tight, and people without large pocketbooks should have fun jewelry, too. Lately, though, I've been dipping my toes into the pool of luxury jewelry. Not AAA-grade faceted rubies embedded in gold, but finer components and pricier stones, and I think the higher quality of the materials shows!

Prehnite and Silver Bracelet

I nabbed these luminous nuggets of prehnite at the bead and gem show I went to in August. I'd never used anything like them, but they were so juicy and delightful to hold and look at that I couldn't resist. I've wrapped them on fine silver ballpins that I made myself and hung them on a sterling cable chain.  To add color and texture, I interspersed the prehnite nuggets with tiny cultured pearls and spheres of azurite-malachite and jade-colored quartz (known as Malaysia Jade), also on handmade fine silver ballpins. The clasp is an ornate pewter S-hook.

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Amazonite Teardrops

I've been holding onto these amazonite teardrops for months, waiting for the right use to present itself. Here, I've hung them on intricate sterling floral bails threaded on twisted sterling rings. The earrings hang on fine silver earwires accented with tiny cultured pearls on handmade fine silver ballpins.

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