Violet Bloom Earrings

One mineral, worked two entirely different ways, with a single point of warmth between them.

At the ear, an amethyst carved as a rose seen from above, ten millimetres across, petals spiralling inward to a dark heart. The stone shades from near-colourless at the outer petals to deep purple at the centre, and that is the carver’s doing: amethyst commonly grows in colour bands, and here the darkest part of the crystal has been placed exactly where the spiral closes. The decision is made before the first cut, reading the zoning in the rough and orienting the flower to it. It is what separates a carved stone from a beautifully carved one.

Beneath, a pink sapphire bezelled in rose gold — a strong magenta, and the only stone in the earring that is not amethyst. It marks the point where the colour turns from cool violet to warm pink, and it is the one place the metal is visible at all.

Below that, amethyst again, now as a faceted pear of 20 by 15 millimetres set point-up in six claws. Where the carved flower gathers light in its folds, this stone returns it in broad, clean planes. The pear is deliberately the paler of the two, so the drop lightens as it falls.

Close to thirty-one carats of amethyst across the pair, in 14-karat rose gold that appears only as claws and that single bezel. Against violet the warm metal lifts the stone; against the pink sapphire it slips away entirely.

A drop of 37 by 15 millimetres.

Please enquire for certification and viewing.