New Shangri-La Jewelry Shines at Mardon
April 30th, 2011 by James L. Sweaney, CGA, FGA. GG
Black Opals in 18K Gold
These gorgeous perfectly matched solid black opal earrings illustrate the global reach of the gem trade. We acquired the stones a few years back from an Aussie opal cutter in Lightning Ridge, Australia, then sent them to Nepal last year. Each leg of their journey was about 8,000 miles, so these opals have traveled the circumference of the earth, flashing their their electric blue play-of-color to the far corners, west to east, east to west, then west to east again.
Our intrepid world traveling friend and gemologist Michael invited us to send him gems to take along on his annual trek to Nepal. Michael produces Shangri-La Sterling with stones for which he has a steady supply. You can see the entire Shangri-La collection at this website, http://www.shangrilasterling.com/index.php–give us a call for the password.
We thought it would be great to make up some unique one-of-a-kind pieces with stones that are more unusual, so we sent several gems that you don’t often see, like the simmering fire engine red Burma Spinel, the vivid grass green Chrome Diopside and the velvety violet-blue Spinel shown below. Just to make things really interesting, we included gems that show unusual optical phenomena, like Cat’s Eye Chrysoberyl, Cat’s Eye Spectrolite, Star Sapphire, and of course, Opal. We think the results are outstanding and well worth the six months wait–here are a few samples.
A really nice thing about our one-of-a-kind and beautifully intricate hand made Shangri-La pieces is their outstanding value–for example, the beautiful Chrome Diopside ring is only $175, while the stunning Tanzanite ring in 18K gold is $1495. Hurry down to the shop to see the entire new collection of rings, pendants and earrings–these choice pieces won’t last.
.47 ct Red Spinel in Silver
.88 ct. Chrome Diopside in Silver
1.30 ct. Blue-Violet Spinel in Silver
1.67 ct Mexican Fire Opal in 18K Gold
.50 ct Tanzanite in 18K Gold.
3.57 ct. Black Star Sapphire
Tags: black opal, blue spinel, cat's eye chrysoberyl, chrome diopside, fire opal, Himalaya mountains, Kathmandu, Nepal, red spinel, spectrolite, star sapphire, Tanzanite
