intoxicate yourself.

I love this ring and how Simona Canino has managed to blend amethyst, mirror mosaic and smalti here. What else can I say other than PERFECT. And some info about the meaning of the word *amethyst* from Wikipedia:

Amethyst is a violet variety of quartz often used in jewelry. The name comes from the Ancient Greek ἀ a- ("not") and μέθυστος methustos ("intoxicated"), a reference to the belief that the stone protected its owner from drunkenness. The ancient Greeks and Romans wore amethyst and made drinking vessels of it in the belief that it would prevent intoxication. 

Interesting, right?

To buy the ring click HERE.

Malachite Box

Malachite clear lucite box by Eduardo Garza on www.couturelab.com.

The designer is bravissimo for knowing how to blend materials and achieve great results.

Lapis lazuli seahorse cufflinks

 

Sea Horse CufflinksHandcrafted in Italy
Villa
couturelab.com
£2,890

I am ready to dive in!!..into the sea, I mean..Thinking of spending 3 days in Tuscany.
Where would you like to go for a short holiday?
Do you prefer sea or mountain?

More cufflinks, more blue - handcrafted in Italy

Remember my recent post on lapis lazuli ? There I featured some cufflinks from Villa available on couturelab.com. In the new email I got from them, what stood out was these hexagonal lapis cufflinks. Apparently the "lapis lazuli concept" is working.!
And by the way ..on Mosaicology we have "switched into blue mode" if you consider that my last post was dominated by blue!!!

Hexagonal Lapis Cufflinks
Handcrafted in Italy
Villa
£835
Size: U

Villa cufflinks
Handcrafted
18k yellow gold
Lapis lazuli
Deep blue
L2cm

lapis lazuli (some blue loving)

Yellow sapphires and lapis lazuli set in 18K gold

Lapis lazuli and emerald cabochons with 18K gold settings

Lapis lazuli and painted-snail shells with 18K gold settings

First, a warm welcome to my new followers! (Καλωσορίσατε ! )

I love cufflinks! If I was a guy it would be something I would love to wear and possibly be fussy about or start a collection. The above three pairs from Villa Collection lapis lazuli cufflinks are available on www.couturelab.com where all things are possible.

Lapis lazuli was often used in prestigious and priceless Byzantine mosaic icons but the earliest examples are from Mesopotamia and Egypt.

 let's go through some images of this spectacular masterpiece of nature.

Boucheron watch s/s 2011

lapis lazuli vase at the hermitage museum, Russia

lapis lazuli box

wonderful mosaic tie tack!..I lost the link here..

medallion from Greece, via

Some ancient masterpieces...

Standard of Ur, Mesopotamia

King Tut's Solid Gold Mask, Ancient Egypt

 

Gold Vessel in the Form of an Ostrich Egg (Mesopotamian, ca. 2550-2400 B.C.

St Theodore, Stratilates
(featured previously on this blog here)

Some interesting main facts from Wikipedia, whole article here

Description
Lapis lazuli is a rock, largely formed from the mineral lazurite.....Lapis lazuli usually occurs in crystalline marble as a result of contact metamorphism.
Etymology
Lapis is the Latin for "stone" and lazuli the genitive form of the Medieval Latin lazulum, which is from the Arabic لازورد lāzaward, which is ultimately from the Persian لاژورد lāzhward, the name of a place where lapis lazuli was mined.^[5][6] Taken as a whole, lapis lazuli means "stone of Lāzhward". The name of the place came to be associated with the stone mined there and, eventually, with its color. The English word azure, the French azur, the Italian azzurro, the Polish lazur and the Spanish and Portuguese azul are cognates.
Uses
Lapis takes an excellent polish and can be made into jewelry, carvings, boxes, mosaics, ornaments, and vases. It was also ground and processed to make the pigment ultramarine for tempera paint and, more rarely, oil paint. Its usage as a pigment in oil paint ended in the early 19th century when a chemically identical synthetic variety, often called French ultramarine, became available.

The Fabergé mosaic egg

The Mosaic egg is a jewelled enameled Easter egg made under the supervision of the Russian jeweller Peter Carl Fabergé in 1914. The egg was made for Nicholas II of Russia, who presented it to his wife, the Empress Alexandra Feodorovna.

The Egg was crafted by Albert Holmström (1876–1925) under the supervision of Peter Carl Fabergé and is made of yellow gold, platinum, brilliant diamonds, rose-cut diamonds, ruby, emerald, topaz, sapphire, garnet, half-pearls, moonstone, white enamel and opaque pink enamel. It consists of a series of yellow gold belts which are pave-set with diamonds and a variety of gems in a floral pattern, providing a look of petit point tapestry work. The pattern contains five oval panels bordered by half-pearls set in enamel, with brilliant diamonds placed at each intersection. At the apex of the egg is a moonstone through which can be seen Empress Alexandra's initials in Russian characters. The floral tapestry pattern was designed by Alma Pihl, who was inspired by needlework fire screens found in aristocratic sitting rooms of the time.

 

image and text via

Kinect limited edition studded with swarovski and dance central with Kylie's autograph

Beautifully decorated gadgets to win on the internet and great marketing for Kylie's Aphrodite Tour. Apparently she is coming to Italy. However, I am having trouble to understand the Aphrodite concept.

What is miraculous about this surely talented girl is that (as I have known from the 80s) she did not know how to dance. I consider dancing to be something natural and spontaneous. You either have it or you don't. How did she learn how to dance and how did she transform like that? I guess hard work pays off.

Here's the MSN link. It's the Italian version.

Crystals, a quiz, Marilyn and Jackie...

 
The idea for this post comes from a post appearing on the simply luxurious life blog - featuring a book by Pamela Keogh - addressing the personalities of Marilyn M and Jackie O and how we women relate to them and find ourselves to associate with them in part or to a greater extent. The blog post is interesting and the author writes all her blog posts with a lot of insight, thoroughness and meticulousness.

She gives a link to a quiz on whether you are more Marilyn or rather Jackie or both. Here's the quiz here.

I could not help but publish a mosaic with Marilyn, exactly the type that embodies sumptuousness and lavishness that best describe her roles. Mosaic made with precious stones, in the specific case they are Swarovski crystals. Made by Gemstone Creative.

Go the their website and watch the introduction video. In the beginning it features wonderful ancient mosaics.

My comment is very simple and straightforward. Mosaic as we know it is precious on its own even without the precious stones. Marble, stones, pebbles, broken china, seeds are all we need to construct "luxurious enough" artworks. Mosaics are costly because of the patience, the skill and a long list of traits that the mosaicist has to possess. In fact making a mosaic with crystal does not even require cutting (I think!!) at least not with the hammer or the nippers. I would not enter into the merits of a work that I know nothing of. Just random thoughts.