Posted by Monica on June 10, 2016 -
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I’ve been following Kat Florence for a while on social media. I’ve been fascinated by her truly extraordinary jewelry designs and her passion for gems. When I found out about this project — an auction in Hong Kong to benefit victims of the…
Posted by Monica on February 10, 2016 -
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It is a good thing it’s sunny in Seattle today (yes, that actually happens about 12 days a year), or my post-Tucson funk would be so much worse. After five days of non-stop gem overload in the sunny Sagauro-land of Tucson, it’s hard enough to adjust my eyes…
Posted by Monica on February 9, 2015 -
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Tourmaline, tsavorite, Paraiba, beryl. Druzy, rutile, slabs of agate. Specimens as big as a couch. Jewelry designers in tshirts and sunglasses, spending their entire budget in their first 5 hours at the show. Famous jewelry personalities eating tacos from food trucks…
Posted by Monica on November 4, 2014 -
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We need to ditch the semi-precious phrase. Stat.
In our overwhelming human need to stratify and rank, the jewelry industry ended up with a few arbitrary jewels crowned as the pinnacle. “Precious” gemstones: ruby, sapphire, and emerald. The rest: lumped…
Posted by Monica on February 13, 2014 -
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I spent a whirlwind couple of days in Tucson, AZ, home to the Tucson Gem Shows. I spent most of my time at the AGTA GemFair, which is the crowning jewel, so to speak, of the whole Tucson gemstone circus…
Posted by Monica on August 24, 2009 -
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This will give you some essentials you need to know before you splurge on a colored gemstone piece of jewelry. All the variables mean that a colored stone purchase…