I’m a collector.  One of the many things I collect is remembrance jewelry from the Georgian and Victorian eras. Often, these pieces contain the hair of a loved one that passed, or the hair of a secret lover as a token and are constructed as lockets so people were able to add the lock of hair. Our sealed gemstone collection was a marriage of inspiration between the remembrance jewelry and a beautiful case of glass seals that I have that were made in the mid 1800’s. Instead of hair, I wanted to include our symbol lexicon and initials inside these gemstones.

 

So starting in spring 2019 we experimented with how best to show the most light and facets of the stones but still have clear visibility of the symbols and initials.  We developed a new method that I’ve never seen before that was based on our experience with enamel: the faceted stones are cut to be matched pairs, like the slices of bread, and then we build little gemstone sandwiches with symbols “sealed’ inside.  All openings are sealed completely with clear enamel to keep moisture from entering and then the gold bezel around the edge tucks away any sign of the join line so the sealed gemstones look like frozen time capsules.

 

 

Love & Light, 

Beth