Briolette crystal drops are stunningly beautiful and add such a vintage elegance to a piece of jewellery. Briolette is the name of the cut of the gemstone, which means that it is a 3-D tear drop shape, this can be smooth or faceted. Both smooth and faceted enhance the natural beauty in the gemstone - for a banded or multi-coloured gemstone like malachite or lapis lazuli, a smooth finish is stunning as you see the surface with all the detail. For a translucent gemstone like a quartz or sapphire, a faceted finish will be exceptional as the gemstone will reflect off the highly polished facets and really showcase a high quality clean gemstone!
The briolette crystals I search for are of the highest quality gemstone. Most of the gemstones I use are semi-precious, but within this bracket, there is still top quality material, often referred to as A or AA. This is more of an industry standard to indicate the quality vrs. a certificate, which you would expect with a precious gemstone like a diamond or sapphire. Each gemstone I use in my pieces have been carefully hand selected by myself for the colour and gemstone quality/clarity.
I use a lot of clear rock crystal briolettes, and make sure they are visually clean and translucent. The cut and polish quality also come into play - often only spoken about with diamond, but when you see a lot of gemstone - precious or semi-precious, you truly appreciate a well cut gemstone! This finishing touch will exaggerate the gemstones natural beauty and create beautiful sparkly facets.
Here are some vintage inspirations to show you where my love of Briolette jewellery started...
Always, with love and light...
