Who knew gray could be so colorful? Yes, gray. Boring? Neutral? Depressing as a heavy autumn sky? The uniform of dystopian conformity? None of the above! Those using gray as a symbol of everything dull have obviously never seen the confounding beauty of a gray spinel.

The custom design process usually provides plenty of inspiration, constraint and collaborative exchange for me to produce thoughtful designs that delight my clients.  There are times, however, when this magical combination is lacking and the clarity to move a design-forward is absent.  When realistic ivy vines compete with hammered scrollwork or domed minimalism, I take a break and do some “creative cross-training.”

When shopping for gold, you’ll always see it spoken of in terms of karats: 24k, 18k, 12k, and so on. But what exactly is a karat? What does it measure, and how does it compare to the confusingly similar “carat”?

In my last blog, I talked a little about tsavorite, one of the rarest gemstones on Earth, mined in only a small corner of Kenya and Tanzania. Tanzanite is another rare beauty from East Africa, perhaps even rarer than tsavorite. If you’re looking for tanzanite, you’ll find it only in an eight-square-kilometer region that lies in the shadow of Mount Kilimanjaro.