Pretty in Pink and Blue!

Pantone declared that the colours of the year for 2016 are "Rose Quartz" and "Serenity" - pink and blue. Colour-crazy Leatrice Eiseman - whose mother loved colour so much she once painted the stove - which was fine till someone used it! and her team picked the colours based on - wait - some of you have guessed it already - hydrangeas! And I have picked these stones, so that if you find the soft pinks and blues of hydrangeas inspiring too - then voila!

Rose Quartz for Rose Quartz was something of a no-brainer - but most of the rose quartz we see these days is more of an approximately pink colour. In the neighbourhood of pink. Hanging around the edges waiting to be asked in sort of a pink. Not for nothing is it usually strung on pink lines - a sort of cosmetic face lift to help strengthen the colour. This Rose Quartz, however, has been matted - it has a silky, matte finish that is helping it to look a lot pinker than when it is polished and clear. I think the effect is very pretty and more dramatic than the regular rose quartz.

For the blue - Serenity - I chose Angelite. Actually - it chose me - It fairly leapt off the pile of beads and into my consciousness. It is a soft blue, very calming and, dare I say, Serene? It is hard to find, and we don't have a lot of it, but I'm sure that many pretty and elegant pieces will come from this!

If this has put you into a dither of indecision, how about some pink and blue Impression Jasper? This Powder Blue Impression Jasper - with its blue translucent stone and floating islands of pinky-brownish matrix might be just the combo you are looking for!
We have a number of new items of Impression Jasper in various colours and shapes, as a matter of fact. We have these rather wonderful Nested Pendant Sets - which consist of 5 pieces, cut to nestle into each other like a litter of baby bunnies.

We have other shapes too, like this Shield Pendant Set.

Or these Flame Pendant Sets?







And these full Collar Sets.

So many lovely choices!










But wait - that's not all! Check out these Ammonite pendants! Ammonites swam in the warm seas of our planet for 175 million years - they succumbed to extinction along with the dinosaurs - but their descendants are with us still as the Nautilus.


We have a series of these - fossilized and preserved and most extraordinary. You can see the chambers that the creature inside the shell lives in, and added as they grew. We understand that they added chambers at the rate of approximately one per month, so you can count the chambers and make an educated guess at how old it was when it died, and sank into the mud and began the amazing process of mineralization and fossilization that brings it forward through time for you to hold in your hand.


Each has been sliced and polished on the cut surface, with the back of the piece retaining the curve and shape of the original shell. You can even, on some, see the "suture marks" - the edges of the growth plates of the original shell. What an amazing slice of time these are!


Well - if the wonder of that doesn't do it for you, I don't know what will, so I leave you to check out all the new items here or click on a link above! Go forth and create and be happy!