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\u00a0 \u00a0home<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0 \t\t\t\t Pendants<\/a> \t\t\t Agate Birthstones Pearls Most cultured pearls are produced in Japan. In the warmer waters of the\u00a0South Pacific, larger oysters produce South Sea cultured pearls and Tahitian\u00a0black cultured pearls, which are larger in size. Freshwater pearls are cultured\u00a0in mussels, mostly in China. The quality of pearls is judged by their soft iridescence caused by the refraction of light by the layers of nacre, and luster, the reflectivity and shine of the surface. Factors which affect value are the regularity of the shape, size, and color.<\/p>\n Spessartite Garnet Sphene Spinel Tanzanite Tourmaline Turquoise Precious Metals Fabrication is the way jewelry was made long before the process of metal\u00a0casting was developed. It is a demanding method that employs a few simple\u00a0tools, like saws, files, pliers and hammers, to shape the component pieces,\u00a0which are then soldered together with a torch. Jewelry fabrication is the only\u00a0way to create original, one-of-a-kind pieces. Casting jewelry, by comparison,\u00a0gives the jeweler the ability to replicate the same piece as many times as\u00a0desired.<\/p>\n home\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0home\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0meet the artist\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0jewelry\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0creative process\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0leather\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0video\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0contact Pendants Rings Earrings Stones & Metals Visit our Online Store Agate No gemstone is more beautifully striped by nature than agate, chalcedony quartz that forms in concentric layers in a wide variety of colors and textures. Each individual agate forms by filling a cavity in a host rock. As a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-221","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.theverdevalley.com\/GK\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.theverdevalley.com\/GK\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.theverdevalley.com\/GK\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.theverdevalley.com\/GK\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.theverdevalley.com\/GK\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/www.theverdevalley.com\/GK\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/221\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":310,"href":"http:\/\/www.theverdevalley.com\/GK\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/221\/revisions\/310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.theverdevalley.com\/GK\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.theverdevalley.com\/GK\/html\/images\/bullet.jpg\")
\u00a0\u00a0meet the artist<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0jewelry<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0creative process<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0leather<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0video<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0contact<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Headers-GK_10\"](\"http:\/\/www.theverdevalley.com\/GK\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Headers-GK_10.gif\" "\\"Headers-GK_10\\"")
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\nRings<\/a>
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\nNo gemstone is more beautifully striped by nature than agate, chalcedony quartz that forms in concentric layers in a wide variety of colors and textures. Each individual agate forms by filling a cavity in a host rock. As a result, agate is often found as a round nodule, with concentric bands like the rings of a tree trunk. The bands sometimes look like eyes, fanciful scallops, or even a landscape with trees. Although agates may be found in various kinds of rock, they are generally associated with volcanic rock and can also be found in certain metamorphic rocks. When cut transversely, agate exhibits a succession of parallel lines that give a banded appearance to the section. Such stones are known as banded agate, riband agate and striped agate.<\/p>\n
\nJanuary: Garnet
\nFebruary: Amethyst
\nMarch: Aquamarine
\nApril: Diamond
\nMay: Emerald
\nJune: Moonstone or Alexandrite
\nJuly: Ruby
\nAugust: Peridot
\nSeptember: Sapphire
\nOctober: Opal or Tourmaline
\nNovember: Topaz or Citrine
\nDecember: Turquoise or Blue Topaz or Tanzanite<\/p>\n
\nPearls are organic gems, created when an oyster covers a foreign object with\u00a0beautiful layers of nacre. Today most pearls are cultured by man. Shell beads\u00a0are placed inside an oyster and the oyster is returned to the water. When the\u00a0pearls are later harvested, the oyster has covered the bead with layers of nacre.<\/p>\n
\nSpessartite belongs to the large and varied mineral group of garnet. The fiery\u00a0sunny-orange stone is popular for its hardness, 7.5 on the Mohs scale. Its brilliance is due to its high refractive index. Until recently, spessartite garnet was rarely seen in jewelry. Gems with the highest spessartite content are a light orange. Those with almandine content are reddish to red brown in hue. Like most garnets spessartite garnet is not artificially enhanced in any way.<\/p>\n
\nAlso known as Titanite, sphene is a brilliant yellowish-green, green or brown\u00a0gemstone of high luster, unique color shades and, with a brilliant cut, an intensive fire that can approximate diamond. While in demand for a long time,\u00a0sphene has been a rare gem on the market. New deposits have now increased\u00a0market quantities. Sphene is named from the Greek word for “wedge”, because\u00a0of its typical wedge shaped crystal formation. The mineralogical name\u00a0“Titanite” derives from its titanium contents. With a hardness rating of 5-5.5\u00a0on the Mohs scale, sphene is a relatively soft gemstone that needs care and\u00a0qualifies best for pendants, earrings or brooches. Sphene color can be changed\u00a0to red or orange through heating, but most sphene is untreated. Crystals of\u00a0sphene are fairly small and typically don’t exceed the two carat range.<\/p>\n
\nSpinel was recognized as a separate gem species as early as 1587. Now treasured for its own sake, spinel is a favorite of gem dealers and collectors on\u00a0account of its brilliance, hardness of 8 on the Mohs scale and wide range of\u00a0spectacular colors. In addition to beautiful rich reds, spinel can be found in\u00a0a range of pastel shades of pink and purple and in beautiful blue tones called\u00a0cobalt spinel, but these are very, very rare. The main factor preventing the\u00a0spinel from achieving greater recognition is its rarity; fine spinels are rarer than the rubies they used to imitate. Spinel is a durable gemstone, perfect for\u00a0all jewellery uses and most often faceted in oval, round, or cushion shapes.<\/p>\n
\nTanzanite, a blue variety of the gemstone zoisite, is named after the East\u00a0African state of Tanzania, the only place in the world where it has been found.\u00a0Upon its discovery in 1967, it was enthusiastically celebrated by the specialists as the “gemstone of the 20th century.” Its deep blue with the slightly purple\u00a0tinge is one of the most extravagant gemstone colors.Tanzanite consists of calcium aluminium silicate and has a value of 6.5 to 7 on the Mohs scale. For that reason, it should always be\u00a0 worn carefully and never placed in an ultrasonic bath for cleaning or brought into contact with acids.<\/p>\n
\nTourmalines are gems with an incomparable variety of colors. This gemstone\u00a0has excellent wearing qualities and is easy to look after, for all tourmalines\u00a0have a good hardness of 7 to 7.5 on the Mohs scale. Tourmalines are found almost all over the world with major deposits in Brazil, Sri Lanka and South and\u00a0South-West Africa. Tourmalines are also found in the USA, mainly in California\u00a0and Maine. Although there are plenty of gemstone deposits which contain\u00a0tourmalines, good qualities and fine colors are not often discovered among\u00a0them. For this reason, the price spectrum of the tourmaline is almost as broad\u00a0as that of its color. Its high availability and its glorious, incomparable color\u00a0spectrum make it one of the most popular gemstones.<\/p>\n
\nTurquoise is an ancient stone that has once again found itself back in fashion.\u00a0In many cultures it has been esteemed for thousands of years as a holy\u00a0stone, a bringer of good fortune or a talisman. Turquoise, a copper aluminum\u00a0phosphate with a hardness of 6 on the Mohrs scale, occurs in a range of hues\u00a0from sky blue to grey-green. The blue color is created by copper, the green by\u00a0bivalent iron and a certain amount of chrome. Often, turquoise has veins or\u00a0blotches running through it, which are brown, light grey or black depending\u00a0on the location where it was found. These lively patterns are known as “turquoise matrix”. The most well-known deposits are in the USA, Mexico, Israel, Iran, Afghanistan and China. Because of their sensitivity, turquoises are almost always subjected to a preparatory treatment of one kind or another. For this reason, turquoises which have a good natural color and are simply hardened with colorless wax or synthetic resin have a much higher value than stones whose color has been “improved” artificially. So it is more advisable to purchase valuable turquoise jewelery from a jeweler.<\/p>\n
\nPrecious metals are rare metals that have been used in making jewelry for\u00a0several thousand years. Because of their luster, malleability and resistance to
\noxidation, they have been prized by all civilizations. Once used as currency,\u00a0they are now used mainly for investment and adornment.\u00a0At George Kelly we primarily work with 14K and\u00a0 18K gold, platinum and silver\u00a0for our designs, but have now moved heavily into working with palladium\u00a0as well. We often combine some metals together for the look and in consideration of the melting temperatures that are important in the fabrication\u00a0process.<\/p>\n\u00a0\u00a0meet the artist<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0jewelry<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0creative process<\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0contact<\/a>
\nrings<\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0pendants\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0earrings<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0leather<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"