Oregon Sunstone and Moonstone beaded earrings

Here's some of the cutest little dangle earrings I've made. Simple, elegant, affordable. A larger 8mm champagne Oregon Sunstone faceted bead, topped by a cute little pinkish schiller bead and a tiny silver one. All set in sterling silver. Pretty, fashionable and able to go easily from office, to a night out at a moments notice.

I'm calling these earrings "Oregon Neopolitan" because of the colors of the stones. All three stones are Oregon natives. The first is "Vanilla" (or clear) Oregon Sunstone. The second is a "Chocolate" Oregon Fire Opal from Opal Butte near John Day. The third pink stone, you may not be familiar with. It's a pink common opal, also found near Opal Butte from the Pink Lady mine. This one, I call "Strawberry" pink opal. It's rounded out by another sweet "Vanilla" Oregon Sunstone bead. All set on sterling silver wire, hand fashioned and micro welded together.

This Oregon Sunstone pendant features a bicolor mostly green with pink and champagne, concave cut stone. It weighs 7.8ct and would retail for over $700 for the stone alone. The stone in this pendant is special, not only because of the rare green/pink bicolor aspect but also because of the special "concave cut." Concave refers to the surface of the facet. Rather than being flat, the facet is curved in a concave direction. The cutting process is similar to traditional faceting except that rather than cutting on a flat disk, a smaller cylinder is used. This cuts the curved facet. These curved facets work like lenses and create a more dramatic difference in light and dark area''s in the stone, and give the illusion that there are a lot more facets than there really are. The most noticeable effects come from facets on the pavilion of the stone. Oregon Sunstone is the official state gemstone, and it's so easy to see why. The colors are just amazing, and this one is no exception. It's set in a pretty sterling silver setting with a nice 18" chain included.