Platinum Moonstone Earrings

Platinum Moonstone Earrings

One of the more technically challenging projects, these new platinum moonstone earrings are quite the showpiece. The inspiration for these earrings began with the main gemstones involved – watery blue custom cut moonstones. I found them while browsing the Tucson gem show in 2015 and couldn’t pass them up. The cut on them were like something I haven’t seen before which played off of the moonstone’s adularescence perfectly. They have a smooth undulation giving the blue a lot of movement, as if you’re looking into water.

The 33.5ct moonstones matched very well leading them to fit perfectly as a pair of earrings. Since the cut on them were so unique, the setting required a creative approach. We knew we wanted to incorporate accent sapphires and diamonds so we began designing. After a few renditions, we developed a “rustic halo” effect so the moonstones would look as if they were floating in the center of a very natural looking border. We handcarved platinum caps to set on either end of the gems and to allow a space to attach the halo sections. After laying out the accents, we handset the sapphire and diamonds in a shared prong setting. We decided to use this technique to use the least amount of metal possible, showcasing the accents to their full potential of cut and color. You’ll notice the sapphires are varied in color to maintain the natural look to the overall design.

The earrings hang from a hinge to allow movement from the top section. We swapped the top halos to show off mainly diamonds surrounding larger bezel set sapphires in the center.

These one of a kind earrings showcase the 33.5ct total weight moonstones in a platinum setting weighing 15.7 dwt. They are surrounded by a total of 64 sapphires weighing 2.2ct and 58 diamonds weighing 0.70ct. The two larger sapphires in the top section are bezel set in platinum and weight a total of 0.89ct.

The earrings are currently out being judged for the international jewelry design competition, “SPECTRUM”.

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deJonghe Original Jewelry