Lovely Lapis

One of my hobbies is making jewelry. I love how relaxing it can be to let my creative juices flow after a busy and hectic week at work. Plus, I get to wear lots of different types of jewelry to accessorize my outfits. Occasionally I will sell some of my pieces. I am not actively trying by doing shows or anything, but I do have a section here on the blog where I have some listed in the shop. It is exciting to get an email from someone wanting to buy a piece that I have made!

Recently, some of the more popular gemstones that have sold have been Lapis Lazuli. Lapis is a beautiful blue stone that most often will have pyrite mixed in, causing it to have a slightly sparkly appearance at times. Most lapis comes from Afghanistan, where it has been mined for thousands of years. Lapis has always been a highly sought after stone because of it’s color – it was used on the funeral mask of King Tut and has been ground into pigment that was prized during the Renaissance period for painting the blue of angel robes and the Virgin Mary’s garments. And when you see it, you understand why it is so popular.

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So, Keith and I decided we needed to make some more pieces with lapis. Keith designed this necklace with a lapis pendant, lapis rounded diamond shaped beads and paired it with black banded onyx and Tibetan silver spacers.

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Here you can see the different variations of lapis and how different it can look depending on the amount of pyrite included in the stone. Lapis can also include calcite or sodalite.

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Keith found the lapis pendants and some of the round lapis beads on eBay and I found the other lapis stones at a gem show last Thanksgiving with my Mom. Lapis is not one of those stones you come across very often at your local craft store.

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This necklace has a Tibetan silver S-Clasp.

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As I mentioned above, Keith found the pendants (two of them) so we made another necklace similar to the first one. I have been wearing the first one quite a bit and this way if I need to I can sell one and keep one.

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He used a more oval shaped lapis stone with different Tibetan silver spacers and more of the black banded onyx beads.

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And we used some large round lapis beads that he found on eBay.

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This necklace has a Tibetan silver toggle clasp. Keith really likes designing with the lapis beads. I think they are his favorite. A lot of times he will lay out the beads and I will string them or put them together into a necklace for him. He has a good eye and is a big help.

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This is the last lapis necklace I made. It uses more of the black banded onyx beads and Tibetan silver but as you can see, it doesn’t take much of that blue lapis to really make a statement.