Amethyst for your mind

Amethyst – the emotion balancer

What do you feel when you see the color of violet or purple? Would it increase your imagination, bring peace and combat shock and fear or balance your mind? In color psychology, purple or violet were believed to posses not only the above said characteristics but also the power to suppress hunger and balance the body’s metabolism. Besides, a gemstone of violet purple is beautiful and attractive.

Amethyst is a member of the quartz family and is composed of Silicone Oxide in form of crystallized tetrahedral 3-dimensional structure. Amethyst was used as gemstone in ancient Egyptian and was considered to have the magic power to control evils, to calm the thoughts, and to make the wearer more intelligent and powerful. Wine goblets were commonly craved from amethyst. Amethyst was used in the cardinal up to 18th century. Since the 18th century, amethyst had been valued as precious as diamond, sapphire, ruby and emerald. Amethyst is abundantly supplied from Brazil, India, South Korea, United States, Russia, and Uruguay.

The fun of Amethyst

Amethyst is one of the family members of quartz; it shared the hardness of “7” on the Mohs scale as other quartz and is suitable for a wide variety of cut in jewelry design. Color of amethyst ranged from medium to medium dart purple, reddish purple, bluish purple, light pinkish purple and transparent to translucent violet. The most valuable color of Amethyst is medium to medium dark in tone because of its scarcity, and also the purple color is traditionally considered as color of royalty that represent the rich and powerful monarchs and rulers.

Nowadays, a wide variety of amethyst jewelry is available in an affordable price. We can enjoy the beauty of amethyst and possess one, especially if you are born in February, as amethyst is the Birthstone for February. I am sure there must be some that you want to keep for yourself or as gifts to your friends or love ones. With time to build your interest and knowledge, you will find its fun to have your own collections of Gemstone.

Ear Piercing

Ear piercing

I’ve struggled for ear piercing for many years because I was worried about the abnormal scaring. I saw a girl who had attend a clinic with a large and red lump on the earlobe. I was curious about that and learnt that was the hypertrophic scar resulted from ear piercing. After several years observation to make sure my body did not easily produce hypertrophic scaring. I had my ear piercing finally and now I can wear all sorts of earrings.

Formation of a nice hole from ear piercing is a long process. It’s not just the quick punch. Our body needs time to allow the wound to heal and to leave a hole as we desired. Nowadays, people mainly use piercing gun to fire the ear piercing stud through the earlobe. The ear stud can be beautifully set with gemstones in stainless steel surgical metal in 20 gauges.

Stages

The formation of a hole or tunnel on the earlobe goes through 3 main stages.

1. The inflammatory stage
After piercing the earlobe, an open wound is induced. Inflammation and tenderness are the common consequences.

2. The growth stage

Our body produces cells and protein to heal the puncture and the edges of the hole contract around the piercing, forming a scar tissue around the post of the stud. Therefore, to have a nice hole formed, we needed to turn the studs slowly and regularly. Otherwise, the scaring tissue would contract around the post and introduced new problems. This stage takes 6 to 8 weeks.

3. The maturation or remodeling stage
Cells lining the piercing strengthen and stabilize. This stage takes months or years to complete.
After the hole nicely formed and matured. You can wear any kind of earrings.

Gemstone Storage

Gemstone is commonly in hardness level of 5 to 8 in Mohs scale. No matter how hard is the material, scratches can easily be induced if they are rubbed with other gemstones. Normally gemstones are not hundred percent pure. There are at least small amount of impurities or foreign incursion. Storage of gemstone in separate compartment is highly recommended. Plastic box with separate compartment and transparent cover is excellent for storage. But make sure to put it into a light screened cabinet. Small plastic bag with zipper is good for storage of gemstone jewelry.

Chemical should not be allowed to touch the gemstone. The reason is chemical, in particular acidic in nature, can easily react with and corrode the gemstone. This will discolor the gemstone. Therefore, do not use chemical to clear the metal part of the jewelry that contain gemstone. Besides, never expose gemstone to sunlight or heat when the gemstone is not in used. Heat and Ultra Violet of sunlight can discolor the gemstone.

Pierce or Clip-on earrings

Body modification is popular nowadays. Ear piercing is the commonest type of body modifications all over the world. When traced back, ear piercing has the history for over 5000 years. This had been confirmed by the mummified body in Austrian Glacier area.

In the past, wearing earrings had been considers as the status of wealth and richness. For quite a long time, people had to pierce their ear to wear earrings. Until the clip-on type earrings produced, people can wear earrings without ear pierce. Nowadays, earrings are available in two basic types, pierced and non-pierced, and from there they branch out into a wide variety of shapes and styles.

Of pierced earrings, popular styles include simple stud earrings, hoop earrings, dangle earrings and the slave earrings. Many pierced earrings attach to the ear with a wire running through the earlobe rather than a post. Non-piercing earrings include the clip-on type earrings, ear cuff, magnetic earrings, stick-on earrings and spring hoop earrings. The clip-on type earring is the most popular among other non-piercing earrings.

To me, piercing earrings are still more attractive for several reasons. First of all, there is more trendy and fashionable design. Also, it’s more secure to wear the piercing earring as the spring of the clip-on is easily loosened. The spring attachment or screw in post would make the earlobe aching for prolonged wearing.

The most important drawback for piercing earring is the risk of infection or having abnormal scaring for ear piercing.

Quartz – the Energy Balancer

Quartz is another magic gemstone. It is colorful and is in affordable price to ordinary person. Quartz is composed of Silicon Oxide in crystallized form. It is in tetrahedral 3-dimensional structure. It has been saying since the ancient time that quartz has a very unique healing power - an energy balancer. What is energy balancer?



Quartz is the only gemstone which has a very special characteristic – the pseudo-electric property. Whenever an electric potential is applied, the atoms are in a stressful condition and is being compressed. The reverse is also true. Whenever a mechanical stress is applied, an electrical potential is developed. Whenever a person is under stress, an electrical energy is released, which if not correct will be harmful to body. By having a piece of quartz nearby you, or if you have a quartz jewelry, the quartz can help balance the negative energy and make one feels comfortable and relax. Try it out! Enjoy the beauty of quartz and the unique property of it as an energy balancer.

Gemstone - Glass Beads, the Ancient Memories

Ownership of glass products shows the social status of a person in the ancient time. Only rich people or those with high social level can own glass products. You will be surprised that only a few people know the glass making technology. The technology is inherited from father to son, and very rare that one person can learn the technology from the person who has no family connection with. You can never see a skillful technician makes glass in public. By now, you can learn glass making in school book, internet and different means.

Coloration of glass is normally done in 2 stages. Pigment is mixed with glass granules before they are heated or when the glass is in molten stage. Alternative, colors are applied after the glass is formed. The color is more stable and permanent for the first method. For the second method, since the paint is applied in the final stage and the paint is normally relatively unstable and will discolor with time. However, either method can produce very colorful glass beads and jewelry products.

Have fun!

Jewelry collection - Don’t miss the charm of plastic beads

Plastic beads are in all shapes and colors. It will be a big loss if they are not included in you jewelry collections.

Why?

Plastic beads are mainly produced by 2 methods – extrusion and injection molding. By extrusion, plastic in molten state is squeezed into a die. The tube-shaped plastics rod is then cooled down and cut into the needed sizes. By injection, molten plastic is then squeezed into a mold with multiple cavities. The molten plastic is then cool down inside the mould, and then released. The advantage the injection molding over extrusion is you can have plastic beads in whatever forms you preferred. For plastic bead produced from extrusion, the shape is very restricted. The reason that plastic beads are rich in colors is mainly due to the fact that plastic beads are normally colored after the formation of beads. This means you can have plastic beads in whatever shapes and in whatever colors.

Have funs to have your collection of plastic beads and the jewelries.

Stud Earring Transformation

Stud earring is one of my favorite earrings. Stud consists of a post and an ornament such as diamond, gemstones, pearl and metal etc. It is piercing type of earring that passes through a hold in the ear lobe and secured by a fastener that attaches behind the ear.

From daily observation, more and more male wear earrings. It seems that male prefers diamonds studs. For female, they wear earrings of all sizes and types. The choice types is basically personal choice. I love studs very much because they can be transformed to very different style easily.

With a pair of studs, I can modify it easily to a different look and that save me money. Here’s one of my project. Hope my project give you an idea to transform your studs to other lovely jewelry

Stud Earrings and Ear piercing

How do people have their ear pierced in the past? Before the invention of the ear piercing gun, people are using needle to pierce the hole on the earlobe. They use ice cube to cool down and paralyzed the pain sensation of the earlobe. With the numbness sensation, the technician to sterilized the needle by fire and pierced the earlobe as quick as possible.

How do people have their ear pierced without the ice? It’s simple. People use ginger to rub against the earlobe till it turned red and hot. Then follow the common piercing process.

Stud earring is not only jewelry but it is part of the ear piercing tool. Starter stud is slightly different from common stud in the way that they have sharp point that is designed to penetrate the earlobe. The starter stud is usually made of surgical steel, titanium, 24kt. Gold plated steel, 14kt. Gold etc to avoid any allergy. By using the piercing gun, the prepackaged and pre-sterilized stud is fired through the earlobe with the clasp attached in a very shot time. The process is said to be painless as the speed of the firing is much shorter than the time for our nerve to recognize the pain sensation.

No matter which type of ear piercing was chosen, the pain cannot be avoided after the piercing process as infection is common especially if the aftercare is not taken properly.

Small Diamond Stud Earrings is Perfect

Diamond is naturally existing element of carbon. With the special atomic structure, it became the hardest known natural element in the world. It is one of the most precious and attractive gemstones from pass to present. The high optical dispersion makes diamond a beautiful luster, “fire” like sparking. That makes diamond so attractive.

Diamond is usually sold in carat. 1 carat is equal to 200mg (0.2g). For the size, a round cut diamond of 0.03 carat is equal to 2mm in diameter. Somebody may think 0.03 carat is nothing. But that’s a wonderful size to buy as their price is much cheaper and it still looks wonderful. The diamond stud earring shown with 0.03 carat set in 925 Sterling Silver cost only US30.00.




I loved to combine the gemstone flowers with the small diamond stud earrings. They look perfect and are good for matching different outfit.


Each year there are around 60,000 pounds of diamond mined. Not all diamond mined can be used for jewelry production. Because of the rareness and difficulty to synthesize large pieces of diamond, price for diamond are usually very high.

Bracelet and earring set is perfect for matching

Do you like the citrine bracelet we introduced earlier?

It is good to have a matched set of necklace with earrings or bracelet with earrings. The bracelet and earring set can save your time in matching your outfit.

However, do not match for more than 2 items, otherwise, you appearance would be too robot or too rigid.

Let’s see a pair of earring matched well with the citrine bracelet. They are made up of 925-sterling silver.

Bracelet - good matches for your outfit

Bracelet

Bracelets can be made from a wide variety of material such as leather, cloth, rope, shells, hemp, plastic, metal and nearly all sorts of material that you can think of etc.
Bracelets are perfectly matched with strapless, three-quarter-length sleeves or shorter. If you wear a shirt with you sleeves roll up.
Here, we introduce a bracelet with citrine, clear quartz and shell for you. The design is unique but the skill is simple.
You can make similar one with alternative stones and material.

Bracelets and bangles

Bracelet is one of the big categories of jewelry. They are also part of the fashion wear around the wrist. With careful matching with our outfits, it can improve our appearance, outstand our personality in different occasion. Bracelet and bangle seems to be interchangeable terms. Actually, they are quite different. Bangles are circular in shape while bracelets are flexible.

Bangles are originated from India. They are made of different material such as platinum, gold, silver, glass, jade, wood, plastic and other ferrous metal. Bangles made from gold and diamonds are considered the most expensive ones. Traditionally, India women preferred to wear in pairs. There are cylinder and split open type.

Bracelets are also made of different material such as cloth, hemp, plastic, metal and rope and contain gems, rocks, shell and wood etc. Bracelets are also used for identification tag in many different situations, e.g. in hospital and some training camp.


Tips for matching your outfit

• If you have a top with 3/4 sleeve, a bangle or bracelet is perfect.
• If you have long sleeve shirt and skirt, you can just roll your sleeve and have a bangle or bracelet
• If you wear a strapless, several bangles makes you outstanding, sometimes you may try a bangle on your arm
  

Just try and have fun!

More excitement for Office dress

Office dress is undoubtedly more formal and boring. You must be kin to find ways to modify it to make yourselves more charming and energetic. You should have thought of the matching of the color and design of tops and skirt or pants, shoes and handbags.

How about accessories, such as necklaces, earrings, bangles, rings and brooches, they are commonly used to improve our appearance.

Here is an important tip. Do not wear more than 5 accessories at the same time. Otherwise, you will just look like a Christmas tree.

Let’s see some of the famous ladies how they energize themselves from the boring office dress. A necklace and a pair of earring are the basic.

OK! You got some idea now.
How about the following lady? We can help this lady to look bright and attractive. I would suggest a sharp chocker with bright and large beads. A pair of short dangling earrings matches well with short hair.

Gold price reaches the record high

The recent economic instability in Europe triggered turbulence in the world stock markets and currency market. Euro exchange rate drops. Investors continued to adjust their investment portfolios. The recent takeover of CajaSur Bank by Bank of Spain made the investors to cut risk, sell Euro and buy USD. These reinforced the concept to invest in gold as a safe store of value. Price of Gold is now in record high of around 1,200 USD an ounce. Such economic disturbance has hurt the jewelry demand. Jewelry lovers lower their interest to buy luxury commodities such as Gold jewelries because of the record high prices as well as for fear of losing jobs. Silver price is in the record high of USD17.85 an ounce.


Do you still interest to buy silver and gold jewelries?

Jewelry with better quality

Copper Jewelry - Jewelry with Health Effects

If you are worrying about toxic material in the jewelry like cadmium, you may consider the copper jewelry.

Copper is a very ductile metal that was known from the oldest civilizations. It has been used for jewelry making 8700BC. Pure copper has a pinkish or peachy color with the freshly-exposed surface. Jewelry with the special color of copper possessed very unique appearance and attraction.


Because of the high thermal and electrical conductivity and comparatively low price, copper has also been used to make enamel jewelry. Enameling is usually to use heat to melt the glass powder to fuse with copper.



You can have the better quality jewelry of copper but of affordable price.

Careful! Buy Quality Jewelries

Wal-Mart has pulled out a line of Miley Cyrus jewelry from the shelves after the test results shown that the commodities contained high level of Toxic Metal namely Cadmium.

Have you heard about Cadmium? It is bluish-white metal that has been widely used in the rechargeable batteries, the nickel-cadmium battery. It is also used as pigment and for corrosion resistant plating on steel.

In normal conditioon, the necklaces and bracelets with cadmium are safe to be worn as the transmission of the metal through the skin is very minimal. Concerns are when people have the habit to bite, suck or swallow the ornaments especially for children as Cadmium is considered as a carcinogen. Exposure to high level of Cadmium can lead to kidney failure and bone softening. Cadmium can hinder the brain development of children.

Necklace - good matches with strapless gown

Necklace – Matching with Occasion

Necklace is a small gimmick to make your personality prominent, stand out your personal taste, and make you look outstanding and charming. If you have to attend a special occasion, you may like to wear a strapless gown. Do you think your collar bones are your best accessories? Just have a look on these models.

It seems that besides the earrings, they need something else.

Necklace!
Yes! A stylish necklace can make your appearance outstanding.

Undoubtedly, a short one is perfect.


Sometimes we may think of a long one. Choose a long and thin necklace would be good.

Ring - Multi-purpose Jewelry

Ring – Multi-purpose

When you search for ring, it has over 30 usages just in the category of jewelry.
Apparently, ring seems to be a very small part in fashion consideration. If you have such interpretation, you might have overlooked the importance of matching rings in the fashion world.

Ring is a good complement to earrings, necklaces, outfits, and handbag. Rings can enrich your character when they are carefully matched with other fashion dresses. Ring with the handbag can intensify your tastes. Imagine you have a pendant and a ring of black onyx set with small diamond and you are wearing a floor length gown. You have a complement color match (like with like) and a mysterious feeling or taste. While the match with a ring with white colored gemstone can bring out a bright and summer look. Which one you like? It depends upon the nature of the occasion you are attending. As well, it depends on the nature of outlook you want to express.



Undoubtedly, when choosing the ring, you need to consider the nature and color of the outfits, the necklace, the earrings and the types and color of the bags you want to carry etc. This needs a very sensitive mind and the color matches knowhow. A big contrast gives a feeling of wild and energetic.

Have a look on the following rings and find out which ring has better matches.

Necklace – jewelry to make you charming

Undoubtedly, good matched of necklace with the outfit, your hair style and the occasion can make your personality prominent, stand out your personal taste, and make you look outstanding and charming.

Since stone-age, people already use shell and mollusk as necklace to decorate themselves.

There are many considerations for a good match. Match of the necklace needs to match with the style and color of outfit. Length of the necklace is another consideration. You can see how the socialites choose their necklace.

Long or short depends very much of the style and trend and fashion. You can have diamond, precious stone, pearls, gemstones or glass beads in your necklace which have to match with the outfits. V-neck, boat-neck, scoop neck shirts fit perfectly with different types and length of necklace. Here is not only talking about the matches of the necklace color or gemstone color with the outfit, this also implies the necessity to match the color of necklace with outfit, but also the complementary with the skin color. Dark skin matches with white color pearl for instance is a perfect match. While lighter skin color should match with more colorful gemstones to make it looks sharp with better contrast. Other than this, do not forget your earrings.

Jewelry - choice of earrings

Paris Hilton’s Matches of Earrings

Paris Hilton, she is an American socialite, heiress, singer, model, actress and fashion designer. Paris is known for her appearance in sex tape in 2003, and the DUI arrest and driving violations in 2007, besides her high profile personal life.

No matter you liked her or not, here, we are more interested on the jewelry and accessories she wore in different occasions. From the photo collections from internet, you can have an idea on her choice of jewelry and accessories. She had her jewelry matches well with her hair style, dress code and the occasion. I guess nobody has the objection that the styles of earrings need to match with the dress code and hair style.

Do you find any hint for the style of earring she had chosen?
Here are the tips:
Short hairstyle with small earrings.
Long hairstyle with larger earrings.

See how Paris Hilton dress and wear at the Chopard 150th anniversary part at Cannes – floor length gown vs hair style and earrings.

How to choose the gemstone

If you search the jewelry and their trend, you will properly find that the majority are designed with precious or semi-precious stone. Diamond, jade, ruby, emerald and sapphire are considered as precious stones. They are mainly set in a more sophisticated way and of course they are more expensive. If you like the richness of color, with more trendy design as in the costume jewelry and less expensive, the semi-precious stones such as aquamarine, amethyst, aventurine, moonstone, lapis lazuli, rose quartz, turquoise, tourmaline and many others.

You can choose jewelry by their design and the color of gemstone. One more thing you can consider, the stone related to your birth, i.e. “Birthstone”. Do you know which stone is you’re “Birthstone”? he following table gives you a quick reference.