{"id":44180,"date":"2019-12-23T10:32:59","date_gmt":"2019-12-23T15:32:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/?p=44180"},"modified":"2019-12-23T10:32:59","modified_gmt":"2019-12-23T15:32:59","slug":"jewel-of-the-month-padparadscha-paraiba-for-anza","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/2019\/12\/jewel-of-the-month-padparadscha-paraiba-for-anza\/","title":{"rendered":"Jewel of the Month: Padparadscha & Paraiba for ANZA"},"content":{"rendered":"

I wanted to save this ring’s blog debut until I had its official portrait taken, but the piece was whisked off to the Kristen Farrell Gallery<\/a> before I could get it to a photographer! So here is a casual snapshot of my latest creation for ANZA Gems<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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This one-of-a-kind 18K rose gold ring features a rare, orange-y pink\u00a0Padparadscha sapphire weighing 1.54 carats. The sapphire is surrounded by equally exotic cabochon-cut Paraiba tourmaline<\/a>. I added some diamond accents because … why not?<\/p>\n

As I\u2019ve written before<\/a>, ANZA Gems was founded in 2014 by Monica Stephenson of the jewelry blog iDazzle. ANZA offers a completely transparent journey from the gem mine to the customer. Monica travels to Tanzania and Kenya where she personally sources ethically mined, colored-gemstone rough. She brings the 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 East African schools. I especially appreciate the fact that ANZA and its partners work with women miners<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Many of ANZA’s gems are such a stunning color that they don’t need to be altered in any way to be worthy of beautiful jewelry designs. In 2018, I spoke about working with ANZA’s rough gems.<\/p>\n