January’s birthstone is the garnet, so this is the perfect time to unveil my latest creation for ANZA Gems: a 20.36-carat rhodolite garnet “man brooch” accented with seven rose-cut diamonds and set in 18K yellow gold. All of my ANZA designs are special because I get to work with ethically mined gemstones that give back…
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My Best Dressed at the 2018 Golden Globes Is …
There was a blackout at the Golden Globes tonight: The majority of the attendees wore black to promote the newly established Time’s Up campaign against sexual harassment in all industries. Embed from Getty Images The Time’s Up initiative was announced Monday with an open letter signed by 300 prominent women in the entertainment industry. It…
Wednesday’s Video: ANZA PURE x Wendy Brandes
I introduced my new ANZA PURE x Wendy Brandes collaboration in a blog post just before the holidays. A post shared by Wendy Brandes Jewelry PR (@wendybrandesjewelry) on Dec 21, 2017 at 10:08am PST Now I’m talking about the collection, ANZA Gems, and ANZA founder Monica Stephenson in this week’s YouTube video. Continuing 2017’s slow-fashion…
Year in Review: Jewels of the Month for 2017
At the end of the year, I tend to feel like I didn’t do as many new designs as I wanted to … via GIPHY … so it’s good to take a look back and appreciate everything that has been accomplished! While my Jewel of the Month posts usually feature my newest designs, I also…
Throwback Thursday: Eryn Wearing Something Borrowed
My right-hand woman Eryn got engaged in this February and married in September. I previously mentioned that Eryn had her eyes on my opal lariat necklace for her big “something borrowed” jewelry, but wound up selecting a different design. Here’s a belated photo of her mom helping her with my one-of-a-kind Selene moonstone necklace. When…
New Collection: ANZA PURE by Wendy Brandes
I’m excited and honored to announce my new collection for ANZA Gems: ANZA PURE! Click through the three slides below to see the first styles: asymmetric dangle earrings, single stud earrings, and a necklace — all created with glowing pink spinel and electrifying green garnet. A post shared by idazzle (@idazzle) on Dec 20, 2017…
Jewel of the Month, Part II: Abigail’s Engagement Ring
Every day, I get three or four emails in which someone claims to be a “big fan” of my blog and offers me $50 to publish a guest post (which often includes the dreaded “infographic”). Of course, anyone who truly is a big fan of this blog might have noticed that I haven’t had a…
Heart-Shaped Gems Can Be Lovable
Jewelry expert Jennifer Heebner has written about the increasing popularity of heart-shaped gems. As Jennifer points out, hearts in jewelry tend to be a love ’em or hate ’em kind of thing. I used to fall into the latter camp, because I had only seen poorly cut or poorly set stones that looked more like…
October’s Other Birthstone: Tourmaline
October has two birthstones: opal and tourmaline. I’ve already done two posts about opal jewelry, so it’s time to give tourmaline some love. Tourmaline comes in a variety of colors, and I have two on display in the toi et moi ring I recently created for my friend Monica Stephenson’s ANZA Gems project. Can't get…
Jewels of the Month: Your Own Opal Designs
September’s Jewels of the Month post featured one of October’s birthstones, the opal. Because the ring, necklace and earring designs I was showing have to be made to order, I figured I’d give people shopping for an October birthday a little bit of a head start. While I was working on that post, I kept…