April 05, 2021
4 Earthy Gems To Inspire Personalised Jewellery
The world of bespoke and personalised jewellery is extensive with endless possibilities and throughout our blog posts we intend to inspire and explain about more of the possibilities open to you. Here we wanted to focus on alternative earthy coloured gemstones that aren’t as common within jewellery design, the stones are; carnelian, jade, jasper, and moss agate.
Carnelian Key Features
- The Gemstone; Carnelian ranges from yellow to orange to a dark red-brown, and can range from opaque to completely translucent. The red in carnelian is caused by iron inside the stone, which darkens in direct sunlight over the years, or through being artificially heat treated.
- Meanings: This stone represents creativity, individuality, and courage, and has been worn over the years for protection and bravery. It is also thought to assist in healing, both mental and physical.
- Personalised Jewellery: Carnelian can look great in gothic layered necklaces or vintage-style jewellery designs such as bracelets, as well as more contemporary, fun and statement pieces. It can also be a flattering colour to wear in earrings, and is offset well by both silver and gold-toned metals if wanted in bespoke jewellery.
Jade Key features:
- The Gemstone; Jadeite Jade is a light to medium or sea-green stone often with different tones running through it, and an almost matt appearance at times, pictured above. The more apple green jade is called nephrite jade as seen in the main picture.
- Meanings: Jade has been particularly prized in history by the Chinese, Maori and Meso-American cultures. It is thought to represent harmony, longevity and virtue. These qualities are also linked to its musical properties – when you hit a piece of jade, it rings like a bell, rather than breaking!
- Personalised Jewellery: Jade has a beautiful green colour which varies in its richness. It has classically been used to create bracelets of pure stone, worn to symbolise wealth. Jade also looks great in more casual, beachy pieces of ethical jewellery designs, its colour being reminiscent of the sea and warmer, Eastern climes which could be used as a concept within bespoke jewellery .
Jasper Key Features;
- The Gemstone; Closely related to carnelian, jasper is similar in appearance, but with a more ‘dense’ look to it, with a more muted colour and sheen. Often red, jasper varies in colour, and can be found in shades ranging from black, to dalmation, to green, and even to a shade known as ‘leopard-skin’ with interesting colour banding or colour patterns.
- Meanings: Jasper gives physical strength and energy, which is also thought to bring courage to its wearer in facing difficult situations. It’s particularly associated in Eastern cultures with increasing life force and vitality, even believed by some cultures to protect from scorpion bites and diseases! Nowadays, jasper is seen as a stone which brings grounding and closeness with nature.
- Jewellery: The jewellery designs you sketch with jasper often depends on the colour and shape of this varied stone, but more often than not it’s better to let the jasper do the talking. Nature-inspired simple pieces such as long pendants compliment this stone. As these stones are often available in baroque shapes you will see more often this stone in handmade one of a kind bespoke jewellery.
Moss Agate Key Features
- The Gemstone; Finally, moss agate is a lime green and white coloured gemstone which is probably one of the most unusual out there. As its namesake suggests, it often carries a moss-like pattern.
- Meanings: Moss agate is normally related to physical healing and strength, eliminating toxins inside the body and helping the wearer to cultivate and express inner peace. It’s a good stress reliever, assisting with relaxation and calming tempers when they flare.
- Personalised Jewellery: Why not go along with moss-agate’s name and create a piece of bespoke jewellery inspired by the forest or nature? Alternately, this more eccentric stone can be used in edgy and modern jewellery designs, which will draw comments and compliments from every angle. In many cases as a jewellery designer we get inspired when gemstones are in front of us, what an easy stone to get inspired with.
Ultimately, creating the ideal piece of contemporary jewellery with any of these earthy hued gemstones is down to your own tastes. You may be after more water inspired gems or such like, as we mentioned the inspiration and possibilities open within bespoke and personalised jewellery are never ending and completely down to personal preference.
To get more inspiration for your personalised jewellery have a look at these pieces;