Tiny Castles, Forts and even the Temptation of Adam & Eve – Made in GOLD

Gorgeous jewelry can’t be ignored.  I recently came across the unforgettable work of jeweler Theo Fennell.

For starters, let’s check out his wardrobe ring.  It cracks open to reveal hand painted enamel scenes of Narnia.
On the top of the wardrobe are a gun case, a hat box and a suitcase that also opens up to reveal a tiny, detailed spider.

In the fantastical genre, check out Fennell’s Castle Ring.  The mount has been formed into a delicately etched brick castle with a functioning draw bridge — complete with a working chain mechanism, to allow you to spy on the tiny castle’s insides.
Fennell’s website says it took six different sets of skills to create this stunning one of a kind piece. The jewels you see here are made by Fennell’s own team of craftsmen, many of whom have worked with him for decades.

Maybe fantasy isn’t your thing?  How about the Desert Fort ring topped with a 9 carat black diamond?  This miniature architectural masterpiece made of 18 carat yellow gold is beautifully intricate and detailed beyond compare.

For the more biblically inclined, there’s the  Adam & Eve ring.  It of course is inspired by the story of temptation and lust laid out in the good book.
The snake has been hand carved from petrified lignum vitae, the wood of life,.  The serpent has golden eyes and surrounded by pave diamonds.  Hidden underneath, a red enamelled apple of temptation. Lift up the delicately fashioned fig-leaves on the side to reveal the miniature enamel paintings of Adam and Eve, naked and being expelled from the Garden.

What inspired such exquisite and detailed jewels?  ”I have two different ways of working,” explains Fennell’s website, “Sometimes I choose the materials and techniques and then have a stone cut to fit the design, but as often a stone suggests a theme to me occasionally I see a stone and just fall in love with it and know exactly what I want to do with it. Paraiba tourmalines, for example, have an irrelevant South Sea Islands, fathomless-blue-sea feel to them, so an underwater story might come to mind. The allusions can be less obvious, of course, but they all resonate and pull out different feelings.”

Want to see more? Check out Theo Fennell’s website.

Why are Diamond Measures called “Carats”?

The carat is the  standard unit of weight for diamonds and other gemstones, and it comes from Carob seeds, which used to be used to weigh diamonds.   Carob seeds are small and had a fairly uniform weight, so that led early gem traders to drop them into their balance scales as  counterweights.  Today, we’re much more precise, and a carat is broken down into 100 “points” which represent smaller units; the pennies to a carat’s dollar, if you will.  A metric carat equals 0.200  or 1/5th g.  The USA adopted the carat as its standard in 1913.