The Portland stone which I am using is extremely good stuff, but so bloody hard. It is the hardest carving-quality Portland I have ever used. You cannot chisel it without it plucking, so I am having to use nothing but diamond abrasive wheels to cut it into segments small enough to break off with that air-hammer you can see at the top. When I told Step-Daughter that I was using diamonds on her fire-surround she was childishly excited. She loves diamonds.
How do you feel about pearls? I have never seen the attraction of big, round pearls. After all, what are they other than a piece of grit surrounded by the protective secretions of a bi-valve mollusc? Having said that, I do like those little misshapen seed pearls that look so pretty strung in delicate lines around the neck or headband of a young woman. I say 'young' woman because I believe the huge, fat ones should be adorning the older women who can afford them. Seed pearls are appropriate for youth.
I love amber. I love everything about it, with or without trapped insects. Semi-fossilised tree resin which gives off my favourite incense when burned or just rubbed until warm, conjuring up the atmosphere of a High Anglican mass and a high level of static electricity.
I love opals, aquamarines, rubies, sapphires and emeralds, but diamonds I can take or leave. They make good tools, they sparkle nicely when cut and I wouldn't say no to the Koh-i-Noor, but - maybe for economic reasons - I prefer the semi-precious.
I was so excited to get a velvet lined box with a strand of nice looking pearls from my aunt after my grandmother passed away, only to be disappointed when I saw the certificate that came with them calling them a "genuine reproduction" of the pearls worn by Jackie Kennedy at some event or other! I should have known that my aunt would have kept any truly valuable jewelry for herself. The "certificate of authenticity" for fake pearls did make me laugh, though.
ReplyDeleteThere's reproduction, and there's cultured. Only the cultured need certificates I think...
DeleteThe fireplace mantel will be beautiful. Your step-daughter must be thrilled to see it coming together. Have you seen Mikimoto pearls? These are the pearls to buy especially if you travel to Hong Kong. I like nicely sized rubies and Ceylon sapphires. When paired with diamonds in an emerald cut they are even more beautiful.
ReplyDeleteAre Mikimoto cultured? Like Zircon 'diamonds'?
DeleteI won't say the obvious about ' a string of pearls ' ..... Oh dear, I just said it !!!!!
ReplyDeleteI have said before that my husband made industrial diamond cutters ... he bought from De Beers which isn't something one wants to admit nowadays ! XXXX
A friend of mine's brother bought all of his bridesmaids a pearl necklace for the wedding, just so that he could say he had. I said that he must have splashed-out on them.
DeleteHahahaha ! XXXX
DeleteScience lessons were fun in the days of Amber Rods and Mercury. My lovely pearls were stolen several years ago and I've never replaced them. Back in the day of my WRAF service pearls around the throat and earings were 'allowed' to be worn with Mess Dress uniform.
ReplyDeleteYou were WRAF? men had moustaches and you had pearl necklaces?
DeleteI used to have poppit pearl beads. They were a certain plastic that looked like real pearls. They were popular in the 1950s and 60s. You could make them any length you wanted. Thst hard Portland stone sounds like hard work to me.
ReplyDeleteGawd I suddenly remembered by granny who had the same
DeleteJackie@ just emailed me to say she did too!
DeleteSo did I!
DeleteMy sisters had those. About 10 years ago there was a fashion for young girls to have necklaces of giant pearls about an inch in diameter.
DeleteCrickey, that's me told! I love my BIG round pearls that I wear round my scraggy old neck. I also love opals, turquoise and aquamarines, but the thief stole those.
ReplyDeleteAre they genuine Cher, or is that an impertinent question?
DeleteThey are. I bought them with insurance money to console myself after the theft of my grandmother's beautiful three strand and my 21st birthday single strand from a much loved uncle. They are so big I don't think anyone will imagine they are real, but I know, which is what matters.
DeleteI like semi precious stones; especially ones I have collected myself. I have one of my amethysts in my tray of stones, and a moonstone. I lost the emerald.
ReplyDeleteMoonstones are good.
DeleteFrom the first day of my marriage I got every month(!) on the day-date of our marriage a fat real sea-pearl by my husband (the jeweller had reserved a double string - but we had not the money to buy it at once) - till it was a big double string-pearl necklace - so beautiful.
ReplyDeletePearls must be worn, otherwise their lustre dies - and I did - very, very young than - those fat pearls - and added them to Jeans and jumper - that looked phantastic.
Many years later they were stolen (oh - while writing I see the double meaning) - real salt sea-pearls are quite valuable now. I got another string (yes, now not again pearl by pearl) by him - and when he went with our little son before one Christmas to buy a second string, he put the casket on the top of the car in the public garage and drove off - and we never got it back.
A third string (of fine seawater pearls) I still have, and wear them often. Though my mother in the beginning told me: "Pearls mean tears."
Well - maybe - but they feel, when warm, very good, and they glow, when warm, from the inside out.
Third time lucky?
DeleteI think my favorite stone is opal. Amber is very nice too though. I like the translucence of it.
ReplyDeleteI had an Australian opal miner friend. Horrible job.
DeleteI agree re diamonds, their beauty seems so cold. The north of the state I live in has a longish history of diamonds and pearls. The pearling industry is highly romanticised but was rife with all the usual abuses. I once bought a belt at a second hand shop that had fake pearls sewn into it. At least I thought they were fake until I experimented on them with a hammer. The hammer bounced off them. $2 for about thirty pearls ... winning!
ReplyDeleteThat's the sort of purchase that I am always looking out for.
DeleteOpals are my birth stones and squamarines are my favourite stones, pearls I don;t care for at all and diamonds I can take or leave.
ReplyDeleteVery similar to my taste Weave.
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