Quartz formations with titanium coating. Stones and photo courtesy Bill Gangi Multisensory Arts.

Nature's Hand

In an industry focused on gem cutting, some designers choose to celebrate nature's artistry instead.

By Suzanne Wade

Most gemstones are improved by the hand of man, even if only through the simple act of cutting. While Mother Nature produces some spectacular gem materials, most don't exhibit their true beauty until they acquire the sparkle and brilliance of good faceting. Sometimes, though, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. For a number of jewelry designers, gems are at their best when left just as they came out of the ground. These designers are featuring uncut gems ranging from tourmaline crystals to agate geode slices to drusy stones in their own unique creations.

"I like putting rough kinds of materials [in my designs]," says Barbara Heinrich of Barbara Heinrich Studio LLC in Pittsford, New York, who incorporates rough tourmaline and aquamarine crystals into her one-of-a-kind necklaces. "I think it's interesting to show the gemstone the way it's created in the earth, and then put it next to something that is a contrast. [For instance], I often put [a natural crystal] with very round, perfect pearls."

A 22K gold pin with green zincite, pink tourmaline, and peridot rondelle beads from Shellie David.

Natural crystals add unique texture and color to one-of-a-kind pieces. Because no two stones are alike, unaltered crystals give a piece its own unique charm, while the bright colors and rough surfaces attract the attention of customers looking for something they won't find in a mall jewelry store.

"The galleries I work with are always looking for a good conversation point," says Heinrich. "If there's a natural tourmaline crystal [incorporated into the piece], it makes for a good conversation tool. There's a story [the salespeople] can talk about."

The irregular shapes of natural crystals also offer exciting design challenges. "When I'm using natural crystals, they're so outside the regular forms, it's easy to be creative. It's so easy to get outside the typical box of designing," says Wyoming jewelry designer Katherine Palochak. "It's a lot more trouble [to set them], but that's part of the appeal. The settings look so different, there's no way you can be conventional designing with these."

Although most crystals and natural surface stones are set using bezels - a traditional stone-setting technique - the bezels required to secure natural stones are as individual as the stones themselves. Each bezel must be carefully crafted to follow the contours of the natural surface, since any variation will leave the stone loose and prone to loss or breakage.

Following those contours can be particularly challenging in uncut stones, since they are rarely perfectly symmetrical and do not normally conform to standard sizes. For example, drusy stones and other natural-surface gems are often much thicker than conventional cabochons, requiring a higher bezel. The unusual bezel dimensions mean the designer must exercise creativity in both the design of the piece, which must take into account the oddly-shaped stone, and in the choice of materials used in setting, since commercially-produced bezel wire may not be readily available in the necessary width.

A 22K gold pendant with rhodolite and aquamarine cabochons and golden topaz ans watermelon tourmaline crystals from Shellie David.

The jewelry design must also protect the crystals from damage. "You can't get a long, thin crystal and put it into something where it's not supported very well," says Palochak. "It could easily be snapped in the middle."

Such individual attention means natural crystals are normally suitable only for one-of-a-kind design work. Many designers find their best pieces arise when they allow the stones to dictate the design, rather than trying to find a stone to fit an image in their minds.

"When I'm working, I usually start with the crystal," says Palochak. "I'll start by laying out [a bunch of crystals] and playing with the shapes and compositions. Then I'll start putting in little pieces of metal."

"I'll find things in Tucson, then design a piece for those specific crystals," says Heinrich, who notes that she'll also sometimes head to the shows with a particular design in mind. "I design the piece and then try to find crystals that would enhance it," she explains.

Because most work with natural crystals is one-of-a-kind, jewelry designers commonly purchase their stones individually at shows. Most designers enjoy sorting through a wide selection of mineral specimens, drusies, and other offerings to find a gem that speaks directly to their creative impulse. They frequently find these selections at the gem shows in Tucson and Denver and at local rock and mineral shows near their studios.

"I need to pick out [crystals] individually, because a stone dealer is usually dealing in a higher grade and they're looking for different things," says Shellie David of Saugerties, New York, who incorporates chrysocolla drusy and aquamarine, golden topaz, and tourmaline crystals into her 22K gold designs. "I don't care if [a crystal] has some imperfections in it or chips, as long as I can see it and it really appeals to me."

"When I go to a rock show, I pick out the weird stones no one else wants," says Palochak. "I like the ones that are too irregular to use or the small crystals that got snapped off in shipping. I usually buy at shows because the ones that are sold for production have a tendency to be too regular."

Triangular tourmaline slice. Photo by Lee-Carraher.

Perfection may not be important to designers, but color is. "I don't choose stones for their perfection at all, but if they've got some life, some fire and color, they appeal to me," says David. "The more color and texture I can get into my work, the happier I am."

"Color is always number one," says Bill Gangi of Bill Gangi Multisensory Arts, a dealer specializing in natural surface stones. "Blue chrysocolla is a vivid robin's-egg blue, and its [current popularity] is definitely driven by color. The surface is the newest look, but the color is always primary in gemstones."

Even for designers who prefer their stones au naturel, most crystals will require a little help to show their greatest beauty. Common techniques include a careful flattening of the back of the crystal with a Mizzy wheel, a wash with oxalic or hydrochloric acid, or cutting the rough to make the most of the natural surface.

"If it's a geode, there's a lot of work [needed] to present it in a way that traditional jewelry techniques can be used," says Gangi. "[Cutting natural-surface cabochons] is not harder than cutting any other stone, but you have to be very careful not to touch the surface at all." Accidental marring of the surface isn't easily remedied, since the stone won't be polished.

On the other hand, some designers are just as happy with a stone that has imperfections. "They find the mixture of different textures just as interesting as a pure, perfect surface," says Gangi. "And that's made my life easier, because it's opened up all these possibilities on a large piece of stone that has defects. You can cut several pieces instead of isolating one pure, perfect spot."

Flawed or not, natural surface gems have developed a loyal following among consumers. New Age believers first made natural crystals a phenomenon, and they continue to fuel interest in such stones. But there are also a growing number of consumers who are simply attracted to the beauty of Mother Nature's untouched handiwork. "I'm not big into the mystical part, but a lot of people who do buy my jewelry are. They'll pick it up in their hands and see if they have an affinity for the crystal," says Palochak. "But a lot of people buy because they think it's pretty. They like the shapes and colors and the way they're combined with other stones and metal."

While they'll never take the place of more traditional faceted gems, natural crystals and surfaces seem to be here to stay in jewelry design. "I'll go out in the mountains and dig rocks that have a natural drusy surface, and we'll cut the edge and the back so it can be set like a cab," says Gangi. "And we just can't keep up with demand. I might have agreed it was a fad 10 years ago, but I'm 22 years into this, and it's bigger than ever."

< A necklace suite of petrified wood bark and bicolor druzy agate. Stones and photo courtesy Bill Gangi Multisensory Arts.