What sparked your passion

[Corbes55]

I think it's safe to say that anybody who's on here either reading these forums or posting on them has a love and probably passion for gems! Me included.

I didnt always have this passion though, I didnt realize my love for gems until a few years ago when a past lover surprised me with this ring for my birthday. It's nothing special, just a silver ring with my birthstone (a peridot). But as soon as I put that ring on something awoke inside me! I dont wear it anymore because I'm no longer with the person who gifted it to me, but I have since made and purchased other fine jewellery and gems with many more pieces planned for the future. What's your story? What sparked your passion? I would love to know!

 

[MeowMeow]

My grandmother. She loved jewellery. I loved nothing more than digging through her jewellery box and putting on her shoes to play dress up in both lol. So for me I started young lol.

 

[OreoRosies86]

My grandmother. She was a magpie like me and housed all her gemstone rings in little colorful cardboard boxes with tiny ribbons. Wonderful jewels, wonderful lady.

 

[strawrose]

My inspiration was a large coffee book I borrowed from the library. It was fun to learn that there were gemstones other than sapphires, rubies, and emeralds.

 

[stracci2000]

When I was 5 or 6 years old (about 1970), Dad bought me a "sapphire" ring from a gift shop. I was smitten.
Dad would go to flea markets, and would always bring back jewelry for Mom, me and my sister. I still wear some rings that Dad bought for me when I was about 12.
Also my Mom had a huge jewelry collection, and I used to play in her jewelry all the time.
So this has been going on with me for almost 50 years!

 

[2Neezers]

My first few jobs out of high school way back in the 90’s were working in jewelry stores. I used to have a lot of down time between customers and would have nothing else to do but play with the jewelry! The colored stone cases were always my favorite and I was as mesmerized by them then as I am now. The employee discount was ridiculously good, but being young and out on my own and I was never able to take great advantage of it. I did save enough to buy a blue topaz ring and I still have a soft spot for blue topaz today because of that.

 

[jordyonbass]

Because of an old job I used to work. It was in an emergency dispatch team and the graveyard shifts were killer, so I would sit around and look up stuff on the internet. IIRC the first thing I found was the stories of the old Kashmir sapphire and Russian Alexandrite mines.

Now I'm an Opal lapidary and vendor. Funny how things played out over time...

 

[dk168]

My extended family and my mum.

Being part of a very large family and grew up in HK, I came across some very nice jewellery from an early age.

One distant relative had a friend who was a collector of significant pieces via auctions, and I started to browse catalogues and bought books relating to jewellery.

The rest is history.

DK

 

[Deathspi]

I’ve had a love for gemstones for as long as I can remember. One of my first memories is crawling into the lobby in our old house and finding an earring. I treasured that thing because I thought it was special ‘treasure’ that was worth a lot of money. My mum gave me a brooch soon after, when I was about five or six, saying it had sapphires & diamonds in it, (blue and white crystals) and I loved it so much that I still have it today - with most of the stones missing and no plating left! (I still have the earring too!) I’ve also always been a lover of anything sparkly, so I think the combination of sparkly + precious just captured me.

 

[Bron357]

Apparently I loved bright and shiny things since being a toddler. I used to collect and save the foil wrapping off chocolates and my idea of heaven was being able to take some of the aluminum foil from the roll in the kitchen drawer.
I saved all my birthday money, pocket money and extra chores money for over a year to buy a gold ring wth a horseshoe and tiny tiny ruby set in it at around age 9. I still have this ring.
My preference, should anyone buy me a gift, was always jewelry. I have loved it for longer than I can now remember.
My 1st favourite Gem was Opal (and being an Aussie this isn’t suprising), I was intrigued how all the colours of the rainbow could be in a stone and how no two looked alike. Much later I discovered colour change gems and that “magic” still fascinates me even today.

 

[MarionC]

Always loved diamonds and had some, but no earth shaking passion. Then the fatal moment.... when I bought a small diamond and got curious about what makes a diamond beautiful. I found PS.
I spent months filling a notebook with numbers and percentages and drawings, asking questions and buying diamonds. A glorious time going totally down the rabbit hole. I thought maybe I was going off the deep end. Yep.
So we must put the blame where it is due dear PSers

 

[missy]

My parents and my grandmother.

First there was my grandmother's ring (from her momma so my great grandmother who I briefly knew but she died when I was very little). Pictured on my pinky finger. My great grandma's ring.



Then my parents loved gemstones and all beautiful jewelry and my dad bought my mom the most breathtaking Cartier opal that I fell in love with and the rest is history. I was smitten.



So my love of old cuts are from my great grandma and my grandma and my love of beautiful gemstones from my parents. Old cuts and gemstones represent to me the best of unconditional love as that is what I associate them with and perhaps the reason I am so in love with beautiful jewelry.

For the deeper meaning behind that jewelry. For what it represents and of course for its breathtaking beauty.

 

[Anne111]

Born and raised in the mountains around Idaroberstein. EVERYBODY works with gems or for people who work with gems. I disliked the incestuous gem-world in my rebel youth and ran but now have come to "see-the-glitter", never mind the incest.

 

[passions4purples]

My late husband was a gemstone collector with an extensive collection, and every few months he'd surprise me with something new and beautiful. I loved all the pieces, but never really learned much about them. Our daughter was only 5 when he passed, and after a while I thought it might be nice to make some heirloom pieces from his stones that I could pass on to her someday. Because I wanted to honor the collection he loved, I did my research and made sure I was setting the stones in a way that would protect them and display their beauty. And shortly, I was hooked myself and now I add to that collection pretty often!

I still feel quite close to him when I find a really beautiful stone or have something set. I just ordered a multicolored tourmaline I think he would have adored. I teach my daughter about them too, and we talk about J as we learn.

 

[sydneyatl]

When I was really little we used to go to a grocery store in one of those weird shopping markets that always also had a bakery and jewelry store that seemed always empty. But it had a little tray of glittering colored gems in the window, and I always, always, always had to stop and look at it. It was always my dream to have even one stone but that was obviously not in the cards for a kid.

For awhile I saturated the love for colored things with glassware - everywhere I traveled I would scope out antique and thrift stores for colored glasses, and I have a huge rainbow of drinking vessels on a shelf now - tumblers, shotglasses, martini glasses, goblets, you name it. My rule is that it has to be used for drinking and has to be one solid color.

And then I found PS and y’all helped me find the purple sapphire for my engagement ring and now that I’m grown up and have a job I can finally indulge a little bit

 

[Sparkle_ruckle]

My grandmother and mother collected some jewelry, but I blame my mother mostly for this dangerous, expensive hobby . She didn't have pieces that are huge and luxurious by PS standards (neither do I ), but she did enjoy pulling them out of a home safe very frequently, taking stock, cleaning, admiring them and rearranging them back in the safe. As a child, I enjoyed watching her. And she would tell me stories about how she came to own each piece of jewelry, and they inadvertently came with subplots of resilience, perseverance (it sure takes perseverance to save up for jewelry haha) and love.

 

[natasha-cupcake]

I remember being fascinated by gems, particularly sapphires, emeralds and rubies as a teenager. My mom bought me a pretty little marquise sapphire (my birthstone) set in a white gold bypass ring because she noticed my interest and wanted to encourage me. She had no jewelry to speak of, having lost her diamond engagement ring after being married a few years. My dad refused to buy her another one, and although she never really said so, I think that really bothered her. My maternal grandmother was very fashionable (she was a seamstress who used to sew the dresses worn by Yves St Laurent's runway models back in the 60's and 70's). She had a lot of pretty costume jewelry, but virtually no fine jewelry to hand down to anyone. So I grew up with an appreciation for fine jewelry, but no real exposure to any. I treasured my little sapphire ring, but sadly, at some point over the years I lost it. When I got married, my original diamond was not a good one, as my husband was pretty clueless about diamonds. He relied on bad advice from his sister who thought she knew a lot about jewelry, but ultimately proved not to be so knowledgeable. Early in our marriage my husband went through a period of prolonged unemployment and we sold my diamond to help make a mortgage payment. I went without one for years. Something in me still wanted a ring but life just kind of got in the way. Eventually I bought a CZ and wore that for a while.

But the real reason for my reawakening to the beauty of diamonds, gemstones and jewelry happened shortly after my mom passed away unexpectedly a year and a half ago. I was devastated. About a month after she passed, she came to me in a dream. It was an extremely personal and emotional experience, and it's hard to describe exactly what happened. But one thing really stuck with me, and the only way I can describe this, is to say that as I saw her and interacted with her, I came to realize that she was made of light. After this event, I started to feel better about her passing because she told me directly that she was in a beautiful place and was very happy. Shortly after this experience, I inexplicably started to become interested in diamonds (obsessed with, really) and I decided to finally replace my e-ring. In my mind, diamonds are the most beautiful substance on Earth and the closest I can come to something that is made of light. Now every time I look at the beautiful light play in and around my diamond, I think of my mom and I'm reminded that she and my grandmother are both happy and at peace.

So that's my story!​

 

[AV_]

I was taught to live with jewelry before reading & writing, and it almost worked: I kept paying attention all my life, although I am not much of a wearer. Eventually natural pearls turned into substantial research hosted by a European university & more of the same... I am finishing this work now.

Diamonds are another story!

 

[strawrose]

@passions4purples @natasha-cupcake Those stories are lovely.

 

[stracci2000]

I remember being fascinated by gems, particularly sapphires, emeralds and rubies as a teenager. My mom bought me a pretty little marquise sapphire (my birthstone) set in a white gold bypass ring because she noticed my interest and wanted to encourage me. She had no jewelry to speak of, having lost her diamond engagement ring after being married a few years. My dad refused to buy her another one, and although she never really said so, I think that really bothered her. My maternal grandmother was very fashionable (she was a seamstress who used to sew the dresses worn by Yves St Laurent's runway models back in the 60's and 70's). She had a lot of pretty costume jewelry, but virtually no fine jewelry to hand down to anyone. So I grew up with an appreciation for fine jewelry, but no real exposure to any. I treasured my little sapphire ring, but sadly, at some point over the years I lost it. When I got married, my original diamond was not a good one, as my husband was pretty clueless about diamonds. He relied on bad advice from his sister who thought she knew a lot about jewelry, but ultimately proved not to be so knowledgeable. Early in our marriage my husband went through a period of prolonged unemployment and we sold my diamond to help make a mortgage payment. I went without one for years. Something in me still wanted a ring but life just kind of got in the way. Eventually I bought a CZ and wore that for a while.

But the real reason for my reawakening to the beauty of diamonds, gemstones and jewelry happened shortly after my mom passed away unexpectedly a year and a half ago. I was devastated. About a month after she passed, she came to me in a dream. It was an extremely personal and emotional experience, and it's hard to describe exactly what happened. But one thing really stuck with me, and the only way I can describe this, is to say that as I saw her and interacted with her, I came to realize that she was made of light. After this event, I started to feel better about her passing because she told me directly that she was in a beautiful place and was very happy. Shortly after this experience, I inexplicably started to become interested in diamonds (obsessed with, really) and I decided to finally replace my e-ring. In my mind, diamonds are the most beautiful substance on Earth and the closest I can come to something that is made of light. Now every time I look at the beautiful light play in and around my diamond, I think of my mom and I'm reminded that she and my grandmother are both happy and at peace.

So that's my story!​

Oh my....what a touching story! And your telling of it is so beautiful.
Jewelry is very personal and emotional for all of us PSers, don't you think?

 

[leslie1956]

Like many here, my jewelry passion began with a grandmother My maternal grandmother had a lovely engagement ring and a sizeable costume jewelry collection. I'd loved going through her boxes of pretties.

After childhood, my interest waxed and waned over the years until I moved to Seattle in the late eighties. I loved visiting the upscale stores and collected a bit over time. This interest sparked more brightly after I encountered Etsy in 2010 and Yvonne's shop the following year. I knew enough by that time to realize that Yvonne's gems and finished pieces were very high quality and a great value. I have also developed great fondness and respect for Yvonne herself I greatly appreciate being able to wear her little treasures, they certainly class up my genteel bohemian persona I also appreciate being able to share my interest with others who are as besotted with sparkly as I am, thanks, guys!