birthstones

Because July’s birthstones are a motley crew (see the end of this post), I’m picking out just one of them to feature, since there’s so much to know about turquoise!

July’s featured birthstone: turquoise

Turquoise is the modern, more often seen replacement for the traditional July “Foundation stone”, sardonyx. I’d like to start out by showing you some of the affordable genuine turquoise beads that are available. (I’ll try to show similar-sized beads to make comparison easier.)

• For the highest-quality birthstone jewelry, use AA-grade turquoise (natural turquoise) like these delicate 2mm rounds:
• Also excelling in their class are A- to B-grade turquoise (stabilized turquoise) beads such as these nice Kingman heishi:
  
• Good Mexican turquoise is also sometimes available. It’s often in nugget forms, like these extra-small beads:
• Another variety of genuine turquoise, which is available reasonable prices, is stabilized Chinese turquoise. To illustrate this type, let’s look at some 2-3mm rounds:
  
  For even greater economy, and a wider color range to work with, try some other stones that are called turquoise.
• There’s African turquoise (actually a kind of jasper!), like these 3x5mm tubes:
  
• Yellow turquoise (more likely a jasper or serpentine) is a pleasingly-colored stone often imported from China, like these 4mm rounds:
• Block turquoise is manmade from plastic resins and dyes. So it’s often one of the more affordable varieties, like these low-priced 2mm rounds:
• You might also be interested in our economically-priced “turquoise” magnesite. It’s a thrifty alternative and still looks pretty, like these 4mm rounds:
  

Finally, consider some other stones in the turquoise family (which you can read about in our Gemstone Beads Index). There’s apple-green turquoise and lime turquoise, for example. You can often find specially purchased, special-priced strands of these and similar stones at Rings & Things’ BeadTour bead shows…another great reason to attend when we’re in your town!

Other July birthstones run the gamut: ruby (also Summer’s birthstone), synthetic corundum, emerald (for Cancer), onyx (for Leo), and topaz (St. Matthew’s stone).Thanks once again to Bruce G. Knuths’ “Jeweler’s Resource” book for all of this information!

We took a look ahead to find out the what June’s birthstones are. There’s a jumble of gems to work with!

Pearl is one of the most widely recognized June stones. It’s nice that recent years have brought countless new styles and shapes of affordable freshwater pearls, including the ones you see here. Have fun picking out a pearl that fits the personality of your June baby (or client!).

Agate is the other commonly used birthstone for June. It’s also the birthstone for Gemini, May 21 through June 20. Are you aware of the huge variety of agate beads available? This is another great browsing opportunity.

For a more unique touch, we’ve also found these stones used for June:

• Emerald (also the Spring gemstone, and Cancer’s birthstone, June 21 to July 22) — a popular color of glass beads
• Ruby (which is the Summer gemstone too, i.e. June 21 onwards) — there are lots of ruby-colored glass beads as well!
• Moonstone (also famous for going so great with a basic black dress!)
• Alexandrite — remember you can use glass beads in this color too
• Beryl (St. Thomas)

You can learn about the physical & metaphysical properties of gemstones like these in the new edition of our popular Gemstone Beads Index!

Have you seen other great birthday-jewelry ideas for June? Post them here in the Comments!

Have you planned ahead to make February birthstone jewelry? Next month is almost upon us! But if you have a rush job, consider this:

Rings & Things can supply your need for the February birthstone,
amethyst.

We have the real McCoy in a variety of grades (qualities), plus
lavender amethyst
and exquisite lab-grown amethyst.
But your options expand when you think about amethyst equivalents:
Have you looked at that color of Swarovski® crystal lately?

There are endless ways to play with amethyst hues in our line of glass beads, too. A popular new item is our
Calypso Beads™ (European-style silver-lined lampwork charms):

There are hundreds of other amethyst glass beads in our online store, ready for your browsing. How to use them? Have a peek at Rings & Things’ Design Gallery for great project ideas like the appropriately-named
Amy-thyst earrings and
bracelet.

So don’t wait till you’re old to start designing with purple!??