Birthstones and their vivid colors connect rare and unique gemstones with the months of the year. They can be a meaningful gift for those celebrating a birthday or birth when that month's stone is incorporated into handcrafted, one-of-a-kind jewelry that tells a unique story.
Read below to learn about this month's birthstone and jewelry pieces in the Original Eve collection that feature this beautiful gem.
February Birthstone: Amethyst
This month we celebrate February's birthstone Amethyst!
Amethyst is the most prized and valuable member of the quartz gemstone family. With a color range from pale lilac to a deep purple, the finest color amethyst has a rich reddish overtone. This rich shade of purple has long been associated with royalty.
Amethyst owes its name to the Greek word 'amethystos', which translates to "not drunken". Folklore and mythology dictate that this wine-colored gemstone is an antidote to drunkenness.
There are many reasons to love this purple powerhouse, including the belief that it is able to protects your physical environment from negative energy. This may have something to do with the fact that a Quartz crystal is a piezoelectric material.
"Piezoelectric" is a property that means it produces and accumulates electric charge when subjected to mechanical stress (by applying pressure to the stone) causing it to vibrate at a consistent rate. This is how quartz batteries work in your watch. The battery creates strain on a thin sheet of quartz, causing the quartz to oscillate at a consistent rate of 32,768 times each second. This makes the mechanism of the watch tick.
Original Eve has several amethyst pieces in the collection. Take a look at some of our favorites below and shoot me a message if any of them catch your eye!
Carving into amethyst can create a magical dance of light and pattern.
The carved dome of the Berry Amethyst Earrings, causing a beautiful dance of light and pattern within the earrings.
The Carved Amethyst Trapeze Earrings (below) are suspended from the trapeze component, which allows the briolettes to move freely below the earlobe. The rippled carving the circles the gemstones creating motion as light moves across and through the gems.
As amethyst grows in its hexagonal format, various conditions in the environment may interrupt the growth, causing unique geometric lines of color, crystals forming within the crystal, and other beautiful signs that tell the tale of its creation.
Each gemstone in this series displays a unique pattern of color and internal crystal forms and have been cut into silhouettes of mesmerizing beauty.
To the left, Natural Amethyst has been cut into rose-cut gems, punctuated by gold and diamonds.
The Amethyst Formation Hexagon Earrings and the The Amethyst Formation Necklace feature unique amethyst gemstones that displays spoke-patterns in a range of purple.
Amethyst can also grow as small crystals, such as they do within geodes. Cross sections of geodes show this type of amethyst crystal growth.
Below, columns of amethyst crystals have been cut from a cross section of a geode to show the unique matrix from which the amethyst naturally grows. Each gemstone displays a unique pattern of color and form.
Amethyst can also grow in large formats, allowing for large decorative objects and larger beads to be created. In the Amethyst Faceted Pebble Strand, amethyst gems have been chiseled into beautifully faceted beads with an 18k yellow gold Azores Clasp.
When it comes to Original Eve's jewelry designs, there is always more than meets the eye. If you have questions about any of the designs, crafting processes, gemstones, or materials used in the items you see in any of our jewelry, please feel free to reach out: eve@originaleve.com