Peridot Jewelry

Having just released a new line of Birthstone Jewelry, we've had many gemstones on our mind and continue to learn and expand our knowledge of these beautiful stones.

One that really stood out as we were designing our new pieces was Peridot. Peridot Jewelry has been around and dated as far back as the 2nd millennium BC found in several ancient Egyptian sites. While very popular in the ancient world it was also very rare and the few areas that were minable were quickly exhausted and the stone more or less fell into oblivion.

In the 1990s a large deposit was discovered in the hills of Pakistan, so large that all demand could easily be met and then some even though the mine is only capable of being worked in the summer months. After this Peridot was in nearly every gem show around the world and a lot of hype was building due to its fantastic olivine green brilliance. Today Peridot is mined all over the US as well as Australia, Brazil, China, and Mexico.

Peridot is actually a mineral called Olivine, when Olivine is of gemstone quality is then considered and called Peridot. Olivine is one of the most common mineral on earth and has even been found in meteorites, on the moon, and on Mars. It is the birthstone for August. Also unlike most other gemstones, Peridot in its pure form doesn't vary in color at all; it is a rich olive green. Although it does vary in shade due to the amount of iron in it from yellowish green to a deep olive green.

We use Peridot in several of our pieces and love its clarity and shine. Here are some of our favorites:

• Chakra Bracelet
• Chakra Spiral Necklace
• Quan Yin Necklace
• Birthstone Bracelets

Handmade Jewelry

We'd like to provide you with some insight into our jewelry making process. All of our jewelry is designed and assembled in our studio right here in San Diego, California. We have two designers, Lourdes Mustain and Dawn Ellis, you can read more about them in our Meet the Designers section.

Our designers will start with a simple concept such as an OM symbol and a circular stone pendant; from there they will build and expand on this concept using a variety of gemstones, pendants, metals, etc. Usually only one or two of these ideas actually make it to our main line that we offer here on our website. Occasionally many of them work out together, for example our stone circular pendant pieces.

Many of our silver and vermeil pendants are true originals that we have hand casted by local metal smiths in small to medium sized runs. We do also buy and import handcrafted charms from artisans worldwide such as our Hill Tribe pendants which are made by the people of Northern Thailand.

While we try to keep our inventory up we often can't keep up and many of our pieces are handmade once the order comes in, even down to the very tedious wire wrapping of each individual bead, you can see this in the photo in this blog and you can see a finished product that makes use of the wire wrapping in our Coral Mala Bracelet.

We hope you enjoy our handmade jewelry and as always we are open to ideas and suggestions on anything and everything about our jewelry, if there is something you want and don't see, let us know, we can create that special custom piece that you may be looking for.