Boulder Opal for Helen

I have been a member on my favorite author´s discussion forum for some time now and I have made wonderful friends there. I wanted to show them how much I appreciate it and offered them the opportunity to own a handmade jewelery that I would make with each one in mind. Some of my friends liked the idea and took me up on my offer.

When Helen asked me if I could make something for her I went to my “treasure chest” (the box I keep my gemstones, I like calling it my treasure chest because my boys have shown interest in pirates and I like the idea of having one ). The first stone I picked up was a beautiful Boulder Opal and even if I went through the box, this stone interested me the most. It´s a real Opal with the boulder that it has formed on underneath and if you look closely you can see the boulder and the Opal fused together.

The Opal has a very beautiful blue color and tiny specks of green. On the boulder you can also see some black specks and yellow and white (the black, yellow and white is not an Opal, but some other stone formations, probably jasper and onyx).

I bought this stone in Hatton Garden in London a few years ago. I´m not sure if this Opal comes from Australia or not but I just loved the idea of owning a real Opal (so ofcourse I bought two of them ).

When I had picked the stone (it´s a big one) I wanted to make a grand necklace for Helen. So I made a silver setting for the stone and then the silver is hammered up to the stone so it won´t fall out of the silver setting. The edges of the silver are high enough to protect the stone (Opals are very fragile and need edges of metal to protect them from fracturing). I put a silver tube on top of the setting and in it I put a black rubber cord.

I really like how this necklace looks and I think it is one of the bigger and nicer things I´ve made.

Helen if you read this…. I hope you enjoy your necklace and wear it often!

This is the view of the stone:

And here you can see it from the side:

Gold earrings with Diamonds

I was thinking of making something for myself and I´ve been having this idea swimming around in my mind for a few months. So I made the earrings and than I ordered the diamonds to fit the earrings. It took a few weeks to get the diamonds but it was worth the wait. I love the movement of the earrings and the sparkle of the diamonds. I have for years been facinated with stones and when I got my first diamond ring at the age of 20 I didn´t have a clue what makes great diamonds. Now I know and I know exactly what I want. These earrings have each a 10 point white round cut diamond in a VS clarity and have G,H or I color ( I don´t have a grading system at home but I know I bought stones in this color batch).

I think they look absolutely gorgeous!

I will post a picture of them with the necklace that goes with them but for now I just post a picture of one of them in my ear.

Anna – name necklace

My very lovely co worker Unnur has a daughter in law named Anna. Unnur is going to give her the necklace when she travels in August. I was very pleased and honoured when she asked me to do the necklace because Unnur is in a family that ownes and runs a few jewellery stores. And still she asked me to make the necklace for her daughter in law. Ofcourse I was very happy to make it and I hope that Anna will like her necklace a lot

I love the shape of the letter A in this necklace. It´s so flowing somehow!

Silver necklace with Amethyst

I was melting this silver sheet and wanted to make something with it. It started out as a brooch but then I broke the back of it and it ended up as a necklace. The Amethyst is strung up on a wire that is welded to the sheet so it won´t fall off.

Not a usual piece of mine but in a way I like it, even if it´s not a thing I do much (the melting and having stone pearls on wires).