Turquoise for December...

We have lots of stunning turquoise jewellery in the shops, including plenty of one off and unique pieces, as well as some beautiful simple classics on the website. This vibrant stone also has the added benefit of suiting almost all colourings so makes a great choice as a gift whether it is a birthstone or not.

Turquoise forms in a range of colours from sky blue to green grey. The brighter blue colour is due to a higher quantity of copper, while iron gives a deeper green hue. Brown and black veins in the stone can occur during its formation known as matrix. Turquoise is a valuable mineral, and possibly the most valuable opaque mineral in the jewellery trade, the best quality being a pure, sky blue, with or without its matrix.

Turquoise deposits can be found in Iran, from where the most beautiful turquoise comes, Kazakhstan, China, Australia, Tibet, China, Mexico, Brazil and Egypt. The states of Nevada, Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and California are also producers of light coloured turquoise.

The name turquoise comes from the old French word turquoise meaning "Turkish Stone" as turquoise originally found its way to Europe from Persia (Iran) via Turkey. It is one of the world’s earliest used gemstones and has been revered for thousands of years. It was worn by Pharaohs of early Egypt. In Iran, turquoise was the national gemstone. The Incas crafted beads and figurines out of it, and the Aztecs in Mexico made pendants and decorated their ceremonial masks with the stone. Turquoise also has a rich history in the American southwest, with Native Americans using the stone to create stunning jewellery and ornaments for around 3000 years.

Turquoise is regarded as the protective stone of pilots, aircrews and any other people who have a high level of risk in their work. Turquoise is often given as a stone of friendship and affection, as it is said to be responsible for faithfulness and consistency in relationships.

Turquoise is the birthstone for December and for the zodiac sign of Sagittarius (November 22 – December 21). It is can also be given as a gift to celebrate the 5th and 11th wedding anniversary.

Citrine-This Month's Birthstone

Bring some sunshine to a grey November day...


Citrine is a member of the macro-crystalline quartz group of minerals and and ranges in colour from light yellow to golden brown. Names such as Brandy or Madeira Citrine are used for the darker varieties.

The name 'Citrine' is derived from the French 'citron' meaning lemon. From the middle of the 18th Century, many Amethyst and Smoky Quartz were subject to heat treatment as it was found that the purple and brown would disappear and be replaced by yellow. Today heat treatment of these stones is completely accepted in the trade and most Citrines on the market are heat treated. Natural Citrine is very rare and is usually a pale yellow colour. Citrine has a hardness of 7 on the Moh's scale.

Citrine occurs in igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic rocks, and is found in Brazil, Spain, France, Russia, Scotland and the USA.

For a very long time Citrine has been considered to have magical powers. it was thought to protect against the plague, snake and spider bites and evil people. It was also thought to improve the functioning of some organs sunch as the liver, heart, kidneys and digestive system. Given as a present Citrine is a symbol of hope and strength.

If you want to give Citrine to somebody special this November take a look at our mixed stone Iris pendant (above). Available on the website, it combines Citrine with a collection of other semi-precious beauties-a perfect pendant for the party season.

Calling all bargain hunters…

Just a quick post to let you all know about our autumn sale. In our Epsom showroom only we have a sale on, the whole shop is full of lovely one off pieces, samples and some of our classic zigzag designs. It is well worth popping over to have a look, pick up some treats for yourself or lovely little gifts.

I had a quick look round and picked out some of my favourite bits that you simply shouldn’t miss out on, but be warned some of these are one offs so you better get in quickly if you want to snap them up.

Firstly there is this lovely Lapis and Gold Vermeil Necklace, it’s a real wow piece and the Lapis beads are truly beautiful. It was £895 and had been cut to £450. It’s also a great colour for the party season with all the rich peacock tones in the shops it’s a good wardrobe staple as well as being right on trend at the moment.

I also spotted some of these ‘Nathalie’ bracelets lighting up a shelf. These were originally £130 and are now £75. These are a great buy because they are a true classic.

I couldn’t count all of the earrings I fell in love with but I can tell you there were various beautiful pearl studs and hooks and some stunning gold vermeil chandelier styles with pretty, glittery Cubic Zirconia nestling inside that made me want to take them dancing immediately.

I can only urge you to have a look for yourself before its all snapped up.

October's Birthstone

We can hardly believe its October already but it here so you might like to know a little bit about Aquamarine-the birthstone for the month.

Aquamarine is the pale blue variety of the mineral beryl, with a wonderful shine and is almost completely free of inclusions. Aquamarine has a hardness of 7.5 – 8.0 on Moh's scale, which makes it extremely durable for jewellery. The intensity of the blue colour depends on the quantity of iron within the mineral. The most valuable aquamarines are those with an intense blue colour. Some aquamarines can even have a light green hue.
The most predominant deposits of Aquamarine crystals are found in Brazil but can also be found in Namibia, Kenya, Madagascar, Burma, the Ural mountains in Russia, Sri-Lanka, Nigeria, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

The name aquamarine is derived from the Latin ‘aqua’ for water and ‘mare’ for sea, due to the colour. Since ancient times, aquamarine has been seen as a gemstone of vision and aquamarine crystals were often used for eyes in statues, to symbolize power and wisdom. According to legend, any person that looked at the statues became wise and gained the ability to see into the future. These statues were often placed in strategic positions on the coast where they could calm the wrath of Poseidon, thus ensuring the safe return of ships. It is perhaps from this myth that aquamarine has been regarded as the sailors’ lucky stone. With its association with the ocean, aquamarine is considered to be a gemstone of purification that cleanses the mind with fresh and positive thoughts and is used by those who meditate, due it its calming effect. It is also believed to eradicate fears and phobias. Additionally, wearing an aquamarine is said to ensure a good marriage and to bring the wearer happiness and good fortune.

Aquamarine is the birthstone for March and October. It can also be given to celebrate nineteen years of marriage. We have some very pretty Aquamarine pendants in the shops, starting from £19 and beautiful beaded necklaces in a variety lengths and styles, we can also make bespoke pieces especially for you if you would like us to.

However, Aquamarine can be a very expensive stone so we also have our 'Solitaire' pendant in Blue Topaz as an alternative. The Pendant is £25 and the studs are £15 so at just £40 for the whole set it makes a really lovely gift.

Taste of Epsom

Come and see us in action..
As part of Taste of Epsom today Wednesday the 16th of September we will be demonstrating beading in Epsom’s Town Square from 11am-3pm.

Join Lucy Ellor FGA our stone expert and Jeweller Hannah Goodall for an informal jewellery demo. Come along to see what we do, what we are making, get some stone info, and if you have a difficult outfit you need a piece of jewellery to match come and have a chat to see if we could make a unique bespoke piece especially for you.

Looking forward to seeing you there.

Modern Times

I like to keep myself up to date with all the current fashion trends and was looking through Vogue when I came across a piece by Lauren Milligan. She was commenting on all of the frivolity in fashion at the moment-big shoulders, big hair, fabulous platform shoes, she used the phrase ‘Laissez-faire jewellery excess’ and it struck a bit of a chord. Elaborate exciting confident looks are really appealing, particularly after a lot of heavy and depressing news a chance to wear large pieces, bright colours, cheer yourself up and have a bit of fun with fashion seems brilliant to me!

I have always been a believer that if you are wearing jewellery it should be fab, it should be bold, and most importantly it should make you feel great. We are still all being a bit careful with how we spend our money, beautifully designed, quality, timeless pieces have always been our speciality so I have picked out some of my favourite one offs and limited pieces that could update a simple black dress or work suit in a very current and very wearable way.


These beauties are all available on the website…and I defy you not to look and feel great in them!

The Birthstone Feature - September Sapphires

For all those with a September birthday lucky you! Pretty Blue Sapphire is your birthstone.

Here is the science bit; Sapphire is a variety of the mineral Corundum and is an aluminium oxide. Sapphires range in colour from pale blue to a deep indigo, the intensity of the colour depends on the amount of titanium and iron within the crystal.

Sapphire also forms in a range of other colours, including colourless, pink, orange, green, yellow, violet and brown, these are called ‘fancy sapphires’. The different colour forms are due to some impurities within the mineral. Sapphire, having a hardness of 9 on the Moh's scale, is a very durable gemstone for jewellery.

Sapphires are mainly mined in Australia, particularly New South Wales and Queensland, occurring in alluvial deposits. The most desirable cornflower blue sapphires are found in Kashmir, in India. Sapphires are also found in Sri Lanka, Thailand, China, Tanzania and Kenya.

According to legend, Sapphires were said to protect against snakes - if a Sapphire was placed in a jar with serpents, they would die at once. During the Middle Ages, priests wore sapphires as protection from impure thoughts and warriors gave their young wives sapphire necklaces to ensure fidelity. In the 13th Century, the French thought that sapphire transformed stupidity to wisdom and irritability to good temper.

One of the most well known sapphires is in the Imperial State Crown, worn by Queen Victoria in 1838, and is now housed in the Tower of London. The gem is called the St Edward’s Sapphire, as it belonged to Edward the Confessor, who wore the stone in a ring during his coronation in 1042.

SPECIAL OFFER OF SEPTEMBER SAPPHIRES

If you want one for yourself or know someone with a birthday head down to one of our shops. We currently have a very limited number of these Sapphire pendants from £25 (that’s upto 50% off) They are a really nice casual way to wear real Sapphire, and look just as lovely with jeans as they do with a dress in the evening.

CONGRATULATIONS!

Well done to Sally who was Monday's winner, Nathalie our winner on Tuesday and Bron - Wednesday's girl. One of our brand new designs will be making its way to each of you very soon!

New Limited Edition Bangles

We have been able to get our hands on five of these lovely chunky Gold Vermeil Sterling Silver handmade bangles, we are rather pleased with them and we wanted to give you a first look! They are going to be £350 each and as there are only five and we can't get any more, just email customercare@zigzagjewels.com if you would like to reserve one of the beauties.

From Design to Finished Piece

We thought you would like to see one of our talented designers in action, so here is a series showing a design from initial idea to a finished piece.

Here is the man in action; drawing book, bits of silver, tools and a lot of imagination result in a beautiful new earring design.

so off to the workshop where component parts are soldered together

cleaned up and polished

stones can be set

the silver earrings are stripped, dipped and plated

then we get to have a look.

the only problem is they are so lovely we want them all for ourselves!

Win New Jewels

We would really like to hear from you, get some feedback on new ideas, jewellery, our pictures, and find out from you what you want to see. So...every day his week we will be giving away a piece of jewellery from our brand new selection (before it hits our shops) for our favorite comment.

Just click on 'comments' below any picture and drop us a line.

A Trip Around City Palace

We had a day of exploring the city, this is City Palace. The two flags you can see flying at the top of the picture originate from Raja Jai Singh II. He was given the title of "Sawai" meaning "The One-and-a-Quarter" by Emperor Aurangzeb for his above average intelligence. Since then the rulers of Jaipur have flown two flags, one full and one quarter-sized to symbolize this title.

For anyone who has ever tried to raise a silver bowl...

This is one of a pair of silver urns at the City Palace, it was made from melting silver coins into a sheet and it took two men two years to form it, there are no solder joins they are just silver sheet hammered into shape. They were made to carry water from the Gangees 1902 when Maharaja Madho Singh II went to England for King Edward's coronation, he had them made so he could carry enough sacred Ganges water with him to bathe every day for four months! The urns measure five feet high and are considered to be the largest silver objects in the world

The Making Process

We went to see some of our makers' workshops today, we thought you might be interested to see how lovely and clean everything was, and the journey your jewellery goes through from pure silver to beautiful finished pieces.
so here is the casting process...


First a handmade master copy of the finished ring is used to make a latex mould. The mould is filled with pink wax then the wax pieces are individually touched up by hand to make sure they are perfect.

The wax pieces are then set like little branches on wax tree and placed in a metal tube over which plaster is poured.

The wax is melted out in a kiln and the plaster gets completely dry and throughly hot. It is removed from the kiln then very quickly molten silver is poured into the hot mould.

The silver starts off as pure silver and an alloy is added so it is hard enough for jewellery. The alloy makes it 925 or Sterling Silver.

The trees come out of the plaster and the component jewellery parts are all ready to be snipped off, soldered together and polished up.

Then they go off to the highly skilled setters and with the beautiful gemstones all in place they get a final polish and are ready to go to new homes!

Getting from A to B

These colourful little vehicles will take you wherever you need to go.

nothing is wasted

Here, if it is possible to mend something, it is repaired and not thrown away.

outdoor living.

Everything is done outside.You can have you ironing done on the street by a very cheerful man with a beautiful old iron..

Choosing Stones

We spent much of today choosing lovely new stones to be made into pendants - here is Julie checking out the Amethysts. This lovely rich colour and quality comes from Africa in the rough, and is cut and polished in Jaipur.

We’ve arrived...

We have arrived in a hot, dry Jaipur. Here is a flavour of the varied and colourful city:

busy roads, beautiful patterns.
and moments of peace and calm.The gardener is keeping the hotel plants lush and beautiful, but there has been very little rain here - the monsoon has not yet arrived and the surrounding city is looking dusty and dry We have fitted in some work on the lawn too and visited a few of our makers. We have found some really wonderful pieces. It’s all very exciting, Jaipur is an amazing place, very difficult to take in, a little overwhelming. Full of warm and welcoming people and a constant murmur of life and a buzz of activity. We will get some pictures up of new jewellery very soon and will be running a daily competition for you to get your hands on some new pieces so keep checking back and please keep in touch by leaving a comment.