Rebecca Zemans Jewelry Blog — Earrings

One of the birthstones for the month of August is jade, a stone often known for its intense green color. Jade has been known for more than 7000 years, and while one might assume it has mainly been used in ornaments, it started out as a very practical stone used for tools because of its extreme toughness. Jade consists of two separate minerals known as jadeite and nephrite. Jadeite is very tough and resistant because of its tight growth of tiny interlocking grains. Nephrite, a variety of the mineral actinolite, is even tougher, due to its composition of fibrous crystals...

Considered the “Universal Crystal” all over the world because of its transparent and colorless nature, Crystal Quartz is the perfect alternative to the diamond, the traditional birthstone of April. The word "crystal" comes from the Greek word "krustallos", meaning ice. Quartz was believed to be ice formed by the Gods. Since the Middle Ages, crystal balls made of clear quartz have been used to predict the future. The English word "quartz" comes from the German word "Quarz". Another theory, by Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder, was that quartz is ice that has been permanently frozen after a great length of time....

In addition to all the gallery shows lately, I wanted to share my most recent custom work: caption] On the left is the most recent engagement ring I made. It is 14K white gold with a 1/2 ct diamond in the middle and a garnet on the side. I made this ring with the help of the fiance, who was given 5 images of rings that his girlfriend liked. I combined elements of the pictures into this piece. While she gave us direction, she had no idea that we were busy creating this stunning ring... Luckily she more than approved of...