opals Archives

Colored gemstone heaven: AGTA GemFair 2019.

March 5, 2019

I have returned from the desert where I wandered for only four days but had my mind utterly blown by the glorious colored gemstone bonanza that is the AGTA GemFair™.

AGTA stands for American Gemstone Trade Association. Widely acknowledged as the world’s authority in color, AGTA and its members lead the industry in educational resources, ethical practices, and the finest colored gemstones and cultured pearls.

AGTA’s trade shows – especially the legendary annual Tucson GemFair™ – brings together the most spectacular colored gemstone and pearl dealers, while maintaining ethical standards that mean every business there is one you can feel good about supporting.

This was the third year I had the honor of serving as one of AGTA’s designated GemFair™ Gembassadors, charged with the sacred duty of sharing all the colored gemstone magic with those of you who couldn’t be there in person.

AGTA GemFair™ is a closed event, only open to the jewelry industry…but its treasures are Not To Be Missed. And that’s exactly why I made sure to take SO MANY pictures.

Colored gemstone heaven: AGTA GemFair 2019.

Brooch by Paula Crevoshay, with birds in colored gemstones, diamonds, and pearls.

It’s beyond inspiring to walk around AGTA GemFair™ Tucson and see the difference between finished designer jewelry and the abstract beauty loose colored gemstones and pearls. I will never be able to adequately express how impressive I think it is that jewelry designers can take a pile of rocks and turn them into an exquisite piece of wearable art.

Speaking of exquisite wearable art, the brooch above is a masterpiece by the one and only Paula Crevoshay, a designer who is quite rightfully famous for her colored gemstone designs.

No heat sapphires from Kimberly Collins Colored Gems.

There’s something mesmerizing about a well-organized colored gemstone display. This rainbow-themed box of luscious sapphires at Kimberly Collins Colored Gems stopped me in my tracks. I don’t even want to turn them into jewelry when I see them like this, I just want to own them so that I can have a little box of happiness to look at when I’m sad.

Also: how cool are sapphires that they come in all of these colors?!?

Belle Brooke Designs necklace with recycled gold and a pink tourmaline.

This year, for the first time, AGTA gathered the designers showing finished colored gemstone jewelry and put them together in the bright, airy Grand Ballroom upstairs at the Tucson Convention Center. I loved this, because it made it super easy for me to wander around and see all of the designers – which allowed me to discover and love new-to-me brands like Belle Brooke Designs!

Belle Brooke’s style aesthetic is very fresh and appealing. This kind of delicate, circle-ish detailing is her signature, and I loved seeing it in this necklace with the mixed metal and powerful pop of color from the tourmaline.

A beautiful tourmaline, sapphire, and diamond ring by Campbellian Collection. Spotted at AGTA GemFair 2019.

A tourmaline, sapphire, and diamond ring by Campbellian Collection.

This ring by Campbellian Collection is a perfect visual representation of everything I love about colored gemstone jewelry.

Just look how utterly spectacular those colors are together – the green tourmaline, bright diamonds, and purpley pink sapphires positively sing in combination with each other. They glow, they come alive! I feel joy when I look at this ring.

Dragon egg opals from Amali Jewelry.

September 4, 2018

I originally had these Amali Jewelry opal necklaces as part of my Vegas wrap up post, but they’re so magical that I decided they needed to stand on their own.

Do you see what I mean? Have you ever seen an opal like this??

Opals are often mesmerizing, but this thing looks like straight-up magic. It doesn’t look like something that’s supposed to exist…and yet it grew naturally in the earth.

If you want your jaw to drop even further, think about this: Sarah of Amali Jewelry told me that when she works with a stone like this, she has to polish down their plain outside one tiny layer at a time to try to figure out what will reveal the most of the iridescent spectacle within. Such an incredible collaboration of geology and art!

I think this piece looks like a dragon egg, don’t you?

You can see a video of this piece here.

Here are some baby dragon eggs! I mean, some more Mexican opal necklaces from Amali Jewelry.

I love how some of the smaller ones show you the more pedestrian material from the outside of the stone with the crystalline opal magic peeking through. It really drives home the fact that these are rocks from the ground that just happened to contain something incredibly special. The textured settings and delicate golden chains enhance, rather than interrupt, the stones’ natural beauty.

What do you think of these Mexican opal necklaces from Amali Jewelry, my dears?

Do you see dragon eggs too, or do you think I’m being excessively fanciful? Or do you think they look more like some kind of fairy artifact; or perhaps some kind of gorgeous extraterrestrial object? Let’s hear your theories.

See more from the Las Vegas trade shows here.

More jewelry trade show favorites from Vegas!

August 7, 2018

Good morning, my darlings!

My sister is married and enjoying her glamorous Italian honeymoon and I am returned from my dreamily relaxed beach vacay with Mr. DitL. It was a very exciting and successful July for all.

Now it is time to get back to business! I promised you more Las Vegas jewelry trade show photos and I intend to deliver.

Hello, lovers.

I met these word-endingly incredible earrings at Fred Leighton, of course. Who else could offer such a treasure? The diamonds are 20 carats EACH and are accentuated by one row each of delicate, dancing diamond briolettes.

It’s hard for anything to follow THOSE babies, but this sapphire and diamond stunner from Omi Prive is still pretty hard to resist.

It’s such a glorious blend of classic (the giant sapphire) and unexpected (that sexy, unexpected halo and those wicked sapphire studded corner prongs. This is the kind of subtle, mind-blowing exquisiteness that I’ve learned to expect from Omi…alongside world class stones, of course.

Props also to Omi for giving me the best scotch I had in Vegas…I’m not going to forget that glass of Hibiki 17 year anytime soon.

Glorious opal rings by Wwake! The delicate, dainty aesthetic is the classic Wwake look, while the large-but-minimalist opal ring is one of their newest pieces. I love both, and I thoroughly enjoyed my time at the Couture show chatting with Wwake designer Wing Yau, who I had a lovely unplanned lunch with.

Wwake is a brand that is special to me because I got to know them as a consumer first and a blogger second. The lovely Mr. DitL bought me a pair of their earrings a few years ago for my birthday and they immediately became one of my most frequently worn pieces.

They’re so pretty and versatile, especially for multi-stud earring looks. If you ever watch my jewels of the day Instastories, you’ve seen them.

These Suzanne Kalan diamond chokers are almost unbelievably luxe. They’re each one of a kind and all diamonds: white diamonds and colored diamonds. One’s pure yellow, the rest are a mix of yellow and colors.

These take my breath away utterly. It’s a stack of four separate pieces, by the way, not a massive quadruple choker. But they’re each extremely impressive individually: if you know much about jewelry, you know how opulent it is to have this many colored diamonds together on one piece.

I have to confess: I personally do not wear chokers. I can’t stand the feeling of something that high on my neck – it makes me feel like I’m being actually choked. I don’t wear turtlenecks either. You’ll have to wear all the pretty chokers for me!

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Colored gemstone heaven: AGTA GemFair 2019.

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