June’s birthstone is the pearl, so what a fabulous opportunity to talk about my favourite gemstone! Cool to the touch and warm to wear, pearls are nature’s gift to the jeweller. Representing purity and devotion, and a firm favourite of the Royals from Elizabeth I to The Duchess of Cambridge, pearls can be fashioned into many different styles. Pearls are never out of the limelight – available in long ropes to delicate pendants, there is a style to suit everyone. Dyed pearls mean they are also in myriad colours too and modern farming techniques mean freshwater cultured pearls are keenly...

  May’s birthstone is Emerald, that fabulous beryl gemstone, named from the Greek for ‘green’. It is one of the original ‘precious gemstones’, famed for its rich green colour, first mined in Egypt from 330BC, but nowadays there are two main sources – Columbia and Zambia. The availability of fine quality emeralds is limited and treatments such as glass filling are widespread, in order to produce enough commercially viable stones. Legend has it that emeralds have the power to make the wearer more intelligent and quick-witted. It was once also believed to cure diseases such as malaria and cholera. Its...

Well, Spring is finally on us and it’s time to take a long hard look in the wardrobe.  I’m totally fed up with all my Winter clothes – mainly greys and navy – and looking forward to finer weather and digging out my Summer wardrobe.  Just like every other year, there will be clothes I’d forgotten about and old favourites I can’t bear to part with.  So now I do the cull at the end of the season, so I’ll be ditching the winter clothes now, while I’m properly fed up with them all!     And with the change...

This month’s birthstone is aquamarine, a beautiful subtle pale blue gemstone, named after the colour of seawater.  The deeper blue stones, which I prefer, put them outside my price bracket, as generally speaking the deeper colours comes in the larger stones.  But if you love sky blue topaz then you’ll love the paler shades of aquamarine too, especially if you get a well cut stone with plenty of sparkle as this is a much cleaner stone with plenty of clarity.  We don’t generally hear much about the beautiful aquamarine, but since Meghan started wearing Diana’s famous aquamarine ring – a...

  February Blog Amethyst is the birthstone this month, famed for its rich purple tones, this semi precious gemstone has a long history.  It was named by the Greeks, from the word for ‘intoxication’, as they believed the colour to be like wine or grapes.  Personally, I’d have thought garnets were more red wine in colour.  Others believed that amethysts keep you clear headed in battle and in business, bestowing wisdom on the wearer too.  The Crown jewels are glittering with deep purple African amethysts, but thanks to various heat treatments, amethysts are also now available in a beautiful pale...