Charmed, I’m Sure

Source Unknown

Mary Drysdale

Branwen Bed by Ironies

I recently took out my little stash of Tanzanite gemstones and decided it was time to make up a new necklace design.  Usually, my next obvious step is to see what scrumptious interiors images include that color as a spring board for the design of the jewelry.  Trouble is. . .exactly what do you call the color of the tanzanite stone - periwinkle, blue, violet, lavender?

James Merrell

Phoebe Howard via Brook Gianette

Southern Accents via Porterhouse Designs

In the end, I decided that tanzanite crosses such a wide range of colors that it could be classified as almost any of the mentioned colors.  Based on the inspiring interior designs I came up with - I further decided it would be lovely mixed with a whisper blush pearl stationed along the chain to enhance the unique color.  Since I had all differing values of the above mentioned colors already out  on the tray for comparison, I then decided that I should use them all to some degree in the design.

The first item that came to mind was the unique slice of amethyst stalactite with it’s Alexandrite colored “eye” and the soft violet colored spiny crystals.  This unique textural explosion would became the focal point of the necklace.  The plump pink amethyst “kiss” dangling just above the prickly stalactite would repeat the violet colors of the outer crystals while a deeper amethyst briolette could add the deeper dimension that was needed for contrast.  Throw in an amulet of the Alexandrite green colored prasiolite to accent the eye of the stalactite and a whisper blush baroque pearl to marry the accent colors of the hand linked chain and we seem to have covered all the possible choices of the defining names that could be used to describe  the color of Tanzanite.

Charmed, I'm Sure Necklace

After everything was placed on the tray, the key to all of this (no pun intended) was a happy marriage of unique shapes, texture and colors that all play nicely together in a meaningful way.  And. . .there you have it - the idea for Charmed, I’m Sure was conceived.