Bracelets

I spent six years in a grading lab staring through a loupe, and if there is one thing I learned, it is that people love to make simple things complicated just to sell you a specialized solution. You don’t need a “proprietary gemstone elixir” or a high-tech ultrasonic bath to handle the grime of real … Read more

I spent six years in a grading lab, staring through a loupe until my eyes felt like they were full of sand, and if there is one thing I’ve learned, it’s that the jewelry industry loves to overcomplicate the simple things. You’ll see people spending a fortune on “bespoke” gold mounts for a sapphire, only … Read more

I remember sitting in a cramped, fluorescent-lit grading lab in Bergen, staring through a loupe at a tray of “high-grade” diamonds that looked more like cloudy sea glass than anything precious. A client had come in, distraught because she’d lost half her jewelry in a single afternoon, complaining about the “bad luck” surrounding her new … Read more

I was sitting on a cold pier in Bergen last autumn, my fingers numb from a quick dip in the North Sea, when I heard that unmistakable clatter-clatter-clatter of stones hitting the wood. I looked down to see a beautiful strand of labradorite—the kind that looks like deep ocean water caught in a storm—scattered across … Read more

I spent six years hunched over a microscope in a grading lab, looking at the internal fractures and inclusions of stones that people called “miraculous.” I’ve learned that most jewelry marketing is just expensive noise designed to make you feel like you’re buying a piece of the cosmos rather than a mineral with a specific … Read more