Frekkel Designing

Fall colours are beautiful for their differences. I once flew east over Canada at this time of the year.  The steady red sea of fiery maples was breathtaking, but for the most part, I enjoy how the yellows, greens, reds and oranges vibrate together along autumn country roads. The stones of October have similar traits - modest hues, variety, and gorgeous, breathtaking beauty. Traditionally, Opal has been the October stone.  Its silica and 10 percentage of water brings out lovely colours the way a good rain before a sunny day brings out a rainbow over a Fall feast of foliage.  We know White Opal, but there are also the deep greens and blues of Black Opal, and NOTHING does red or orange like Fire Opal. In modern times, we also consider Tourmaline an October stone.  Most birthstone displays will show a pale pink sparkler, but Tourmaline can show an array of pinks, browns, greens, yellows, blues, and even combinations within a stone. Which of these gorgeous gems says...

I could end it right there.  There is enough going on, why not space aliens?  But let me explain... August is the month of heat, and last hurrah's, lions, dried grass, earlier evenings, and the stone that sums it all up - peridot.  I say "pear-ih-doh", but some people say "pear-ih-dot", and google translate agrees with them.   There are only 2 green birthstones.  One is Emerald, which is famous, and has ties to other stones in its Beryl family, like Aquamarine.  The other is peridot, sometimes called "the evening emerald" because it keeps its glowy green essence in low lighting, like an... alien?  No, not yet.  Stay with me.   Peridot gets its green from its iron content, which is unique in stones.  It comes in many shades, but no other colour, and is linked to no other gems.  It is a loner, a maverick, an outsider.  The world used to get its peridot from the Red Sea, but now peridot is mined from Pakistan to Arizona....

  I have a truth to tell. The best-smelling, cleanest, most beautiful, put-together people you can imagine, usually have the grimiest jewellery repairs.   Without getting too graphic, let me remind you of what the tops of sunblock bottles, hand lotion tubes, and jars of face creams look like, right around the edges, where air dries out the build-up.  You got it.   These same products get up under watchstraps, diamond settings, earring backs, and absolutely everywhere.  The oil that makes them so great for moisturizing, also makes them great for sticking.  To  jewellery.  And for collecting every speck of dust, dander or dna to form enough layers, that one may wonder if the wearer had taken a pottery class recently.  But it's not recent at all.  Much the same as the the product containers I've mentioned, the buildup is slow.  If people realise at all, it's usually not until they are getting a piece back from their jeweller,...

“Is this real or fake?” is a big question in jewellery.  There are a number of answers, and without a little knowledge about how gemstones are made and sold, you can feel like you are being taken for a ride. Jewellers use terms like Genuine, Mined, Imitation, Simulated, Synthetic, Lab-grown, and Enhanced. Once you have a general understanding of the choices available for gems in the market, you will be able to make the best choice for yourself.  I have been thinking about this a lot, and have decided to break down the terminology using popstars. Imagine one of the biggest stars of all time is called “Sapphire”. They’ve also had success as “Ruby”, but their real name, given at birth, is “Corundum”. So, it’s Corundum on their driver’s license, but Sapphire on some albums, and Ruby on other albums. Same popstar. People cannot get enough, so Sapphire/Ruby is EVERYWHERE. Concerts sell out, streams are prolific, and even impersonators make a good living at tribute shows. ...