Jewelry Making Forum June Prize

Each month at the Jewelry Making Forum on About.com one member hosts a drawing for a prize to be given to another member.  NH Bead Lady was the host in June and I was one of the two winners. Thank you Linda for the fantastic sets of beads and the aventurine stone.  I looked for some time at the stone and tried to decide how to use it.  I thought about wire wrapping it.  I thought about making a bezel setting for it.  My fine silver bezel wire isn't wide enough to make the bezel, I could not see me cutting silver sheet wide enough to make a bezel, and then it would cover most of the stone.  The stone shape made me think of an asymmetric bead to use as a focal in a necklace.  The red rectangular beads (RUBY) would compliment this stone with the juxtaposition of green and red, so I continued this and made the clasp end complete the necklace with some of the green Tourmaline beads.  So the necklace was strung of silver colored wire with Sterling Silver findings and lobster claw clasp.

Just click on the thumbnail to see large version of the picture. 

I could not let this necklace be alone in life, so I used some more of the Tourmaline chips to make two 2 inch drop earrings on surgical steel ear wires.  Thus when you leave the aventurine focal and travel up the necklace you then jump to the ears where the dark green is continued.  So here are the earrings:


Thanks for looking. Looking forward to seeing what other winners do in the future.

John

Rubies

Among gemstones the ruby is considered to be the most powerful and is associated with the astrological signs, Leo, Scorpio and Cancer.

Prior to 1800 all red gemstones were thought to be rubies, many have since been found to be spinel or garnet. Rubies are from the Corundum mineral family and are the red variety of that family, other colors being sapphires, thus all rubies are sapphires but only red sapphires are rubies.

Corundum are notable for their hardness and rubies have a Mohs scale hardness rating of 9 making them one of the hardest gemstones, only moissanite and diamond are harder. Corundum can be literally defined as ruby, the origins of the name coming from the Sanskrit word kuruvinda and the Tamil word kuruntam.

Some famous rubies include the 137 carat Rosser Reeves Star Ruby, the 100 carat Edith Haggin de Long Star Ruby, the 167 carat Edward Ruby.There is also the Peace Ruby that upon discovery was 43 carats, cut to a finished 24 carats. The Peace Ruby, another interesting ruby, was unearthed in the Mogok valley on June 30, 1919 and gained it's name because it was discovered two days after signing of the Treaty of Versailles on June 28, 1919 at the end of World War I.

Metaphysically rubies are said to be able to reduce negative thoughts, bring love of self and of spirit, and inspire courage, confidence and loyalty. People who own or wear rubies are said to be peaceful and content and rubies are notably given as gifts in friendship.

Rubies are also very prominent in religious history as well as Greek mythology.