In the early days of blogging, I had fun campaigning for online contests, but this time I’m conflicted. It’s been eight years since the vast reach and power of Poodle made that tech company my personal Voldemort. I never imagined that the social-media company that I will now refer to as Spacenook would become even…
birthstone
More About the Garnet Man Brooch
I already wrote about the garnet man brooch that is January’s Jewel of the Month on Monday, but here it is again! I can’t resist, because Monica Stephenson — ANZA Gems founder, garnet provider, and customer — shared the brooch on Instagram, and I’m amused by her caption. Shhh! Can you keep a secret? We…
Jewel of the Month: Garnet Man Brooch for January
January’s birthstone is the garnet, so this is the perfect time to unveil my latest creation for ANZA Gems: a 20.36-carat rhodolite garnet “man brooch” accented with seven rose-cut diamonds and set in 18K yellow gold. All of my ANZA designs are special because I get to work with ethically mined gemstones that give back…
Wednesday’s Video: ANZA PURE x Wendy Brandes
I introduced my new ANZA PURE x Wendy Brandes collaboration in a blog post just before the holidays. A post shared by Wendy Brandes Jewelry PR (@wendybrandesjewelry) on Dec 21, 2017 at 10:08am PST Now I’m talking about the collection, ANZA Gems, and ANZA founder Monica Stephenson in this week’s YouTube video. Continuing 2017’s slow-fashion…
Year in Review: Jewels of the Month for 2017
At the end of the year, I tend to feel like I didn’t do as many new designs as I wanted to … via GIPHY … so it’s good to take a look back and appreciate everything that has been accomplished! While my Jewel of the Month posts usually feature my newest designs, I also…
New Collection: ANZA PURE by Wendy Brandes
I’m excited and honored to announce my new collection for ANZA Gems: ANZA PURE! Click through the three slides below to see the first styles: asymmetric dangle earrings, single stud earrings, and a necklace — all created with glowing pink spinel and electrifying green garnet. A post shared by idazzle (@idazzle) on Dec 20, 2017…
Heart-Shaped Gems Can Be Lovable
Jewelry expert Jennifer Heebner has written about the increasing popularity of heart-shaped gems. As Jennifer points out, hearts in jewelry tend to be a love ’em or hate ’em kind of thing. I used to fall into the latter camp, because I had only seen poorly cut or poorly set stones that looked more like…
October’s Other Birthstone: Tourmaline
October has two birthstones: opal and tourmaline. I’ve already done two posts about opal jewelry, so it’s time to give tourmaline some love. Tourmaline comes in a variety of colors, and I have two on display in the toi et moi ring I recently created for my friend Monica Stephenson’s ANZA Gems project. Can't get…
Jewels of the Month: Your Own Opal Designs
September’s Jewels of the Month post featured one of October’s birthstones, the opal. Because the ring, necklace and earring designs I was showing have to be made to order, I figured I’d give people shopping for an October birthday a little bit of a head start. While I was working on that post, I kept…
Jewels of the Month: Order Your Opals for October
Can you believe September is almost over? That means it’s a good time for the official debut of my opal birthstone jewelry, now available by special order for October birthdays and beyond. I’ve been working on this little suite of designs all year. You’ve had glimpses of the collection since March when I started wearing…