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Birthstone month: MarchColor: Varies from pale, watery blue to intense greenish blueFamily: BerylMoh's Hardness: 7.5 - 8.0Transparency: Transparent Aquamarines range from blue to greenish blue, with intensity ranging from pale, watery colors through more intense blues. Smaller stones, particularly under five carats, typically lean towards the paler end of the spectrum. Larger, deeper stones are more likely to exhibit a more intense blue color.     Just like emeralds, aquamarines come from the beryl family. Aquas often grow in large, eye-clean crystals that are excellent for creating gem-quality gemstones.Aqua is the traditional birthstone for March, and is also the gemstone...

My newest design is the Protea Marquise Earrings. They're small, lightweight marquise-shaped earrings with a raised pattern based on the sharp leaves and ribbed anthers of a King Protea flower. Dark oxidation in the recessed areas helps highlight all of these minute details.

This week, I've been preparing for the Navona Handmade photo shoot for our fourth collection, the Mid-Century Modern Collection. What's Navona Handmade, you might ask? It's a small business I started with two other female artists. We go on group outings to gather inspiration, then collectively brainstorm color palettes, patterns, and textures that will guide our collection. Each artist makes their own work, but throughout the creation process we make sure to check in with each other for support, guidance, and critique. Here's a peek behind the scenes at our photo shoot this week. The new collection launches on March...

I designed a one-of-a-kind crow pendant for Lancaster County's "Something to Crow About" Festival. First, I did some research on crows to get an idea of what their distinguishing features look like, especially their feet and beaks.   I laid out the pendant in Rhino, and spent a lot of time nudging around the feathers to get them to lay and overlap properly to resemble a crow's feathers. Then I milled the pendant in two parts: the body, and the head.  That way I could get more detail on the head.   Once the head and body were milled, I...

Birthstone month: JanuaryColor: Red, orange, pinkish orange, purplish red, green, gray, black, blueFamily: GarnetMoh's Hardness: 6.5-7.5Transparency: Transparent to semi-translucent (there are opaque varieties, though these are generally not considered gem quality)Garnet is a transparent to semi-translucent gemstone that comes in a wide range of colors, though it's most recognizable as a dark, brownish red. Rather than being a single, cohesive mineral, the garnet family is actually comprised of several types of closely related minerals. Red garnets are the most recognizable of their family, but color variations include orange, pinkish orange, purplish red, green, gray, black, and even blue! The garnet...