Jewelry time!

Alexandrite is wonderful, and I'm not just saying that because it's my birthstone. Here are three neat things about it:

1. It can look very different colors in different lighting. The range of the color change depends on the stone, but the best alexandrite stones can go all the way from green to red when the light dims.

2. It's one of the most durable gemstones out there. Its hardness (resistance to scratching) is near diamond, and its toughness (resistance to cracking) is better than diamond. This makes it a very good stone for rings.

3. It is extraordinarily rare. The best mines of alexandrite are all used up already. Good natural stones are hard to find, and a large, high-quality natural alexandrite with a good range of color change is one of the most expensive gems you can buy.

My usual sources for jewelry supplies didn't sell alexandrite-- not even lab grown, just "simulated." So it was really cool when I found some little tiny ones on Etsy for $8: a set of seven 2-3mm natural cat's eye cabochons.

The stones are varied, and have have a small but nice range of color change. The pictures in the listing showed them all looking dark blue with no flash and then looking pink with flash... obviously in normal lighting the color change is subtler, a range including brownish-green, gray-green, sea-green and deep blue-green (it varies depending on the individual stone, too). Better yet, they're cat's eye stones, which means there's a nice glowy stripe visible across the stone sometimes.

I decided to make some jewelry. After much practice making rings, here's the one I like best:










The pictures aren't all that faithful to the color. In real life, the stone on that ring appears brownish-gray-green in bright artificial light, and blue-green in bright natural light, with some range in between. The four stones I haven't made into jewelry yet range from green to blue-green in natural light, and green to dark blackish-blue in artificial light.

Then there are two that I decided to make into earrings, which change from deep blue-green to a brownish-blue that's almost black. This is how they look in photos:








The earrings are for my mother-in-law, and I think I'll wear the ring often. It's a new design that I hadn't used before. My previous rings have all been very delicate and easily bent out of shape, but this one has held up to several days of everyday life, including some work in the stockroom at Target.