Because the rough-gemstone jewelry of my ANZA PURE x Wendy Brandes collection generated a bit of excitement recently, I’ve decided that my newest ANZA PURE piece should be April’s Jewel of the Month. It’s an 18K yellow gold charm ring set with a large, rough grossular garnet, modeled by ANZA Gems founder Monica Stephenson in the photo below.
As I’ve mentioned before, Monica founded ANZA Gems in 2014 to offer a jewelry with a transparent journey from the gem mine to the customer. She personally sources ethically mined, colored-gemstone rough from Tanzania and Kenya; brings uncut stones back to the U.S. to be faceted by gem cutters here; and then has them incorporated into fine jewelry by designers with whom she collaborates. At least 10% of the proceeds from every sale goes back to schools in the gem-mining districts. I’ve worked with ANZA’s faceted stones for the company’s main collection.
Two rings adorned with a total of five ANZA Gems. Click this photo by Amy Roseveare for more information.
Last year, Monica and I decided to create a new line — ANZA PURE x Wendy Brandes — with smaller pieces of gemstone rough that have been left untouched by a gem cutter. The first round of designs featured single stud earrings; asymmetric drop earrings; and pendants.
There are five more charm rings coming up. Two of those will be set with green garnet and three with pink spinel. If you’d like to get pricing information for the finished ring shown in this post — or make a ring size and gem request for one of the rings that are in the works — contact Monica through ANZA’s website and she’ll be happy to help you out.
After the rings are completed, I’ll be working on new necklace and earring designs for the ANZA PURE collection, so stay tuned for those! In the meantime, if you haven’t seen my YouTube video about ANZA PURE, you can check it out right now.