I have to admit that not so long ago I had no idea of who McTeigue & McClelland are and what they actually do. By accident I stumbled upon some of their jewelry designs and I was left completely speechless.

In my opinion they have this remarkable signature on their jewelry, I guess I would in most of the cases recognize their creations. The fact that I truly love is the fact that they are a little out of the ordinary and the details are so well taken care of.

The pieces are so imaginative and colorful; I particularly love the way they use certain gemstones. The colors are so visceral, they attract immediately. The unique floral design, the small golden leaves are the hard work of true craftsmen. My instant reaction was imagining them on me… I’m telling you something, they would look stunning.

They jewelry has an antique patina and yellow gold never seemed so attractive to me. Sophistication describes their vintage style jewelry, both impressive in craftsmanship and antique-cut gemstones.

“Distinguished by a painstaking use of offbeat settings, rare, old-fashioned diamond cuts and super-saturated colored stones, the pair’s jewelry employs techniques that haven’t been seen since the early days of the last century, when teams of master craftsmen worked at Tiffany and Co. and other society jewelers. Most of McTeigue and McClelland’s gold is bloomed, an old chemical process whereby the alloy is stripped from the surface of the gold to create a rich patina that has the silky, burnished look of a Victorian bauble.” says Victoria Gomelsky in an interview with the two artists.

“We’re anti-commercial jewelry,” says McClelland during a break from his atelier in Great Barrington, Mass., an upscale rural community in the Berkshires. “If I was a rapper, I would dis Tiffany because there isn’t a creative element in the least. It’s just become more and more commercial.”

Their creative and original style is what impressed me about their designs. Now I can only dream of one day finding one by accident as I walk on the street.

Blue zircon reminds of “cool blue of arctic ice caves and deep, frigid water”
Zircon is derived from the Arabic word “Zar gun” which means “gold like”, but it refers to the original yellow sapphire.

Zircon occurs in a big range of different colors, such as red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet, but also as brown and colorless, more rare specimens.
Blue zircon also comes in a variety of hues, different shades of blue, such as pastel blue, neon blue, light blue, deep blue.

Zircon is composed of a mixture of Zirconium Oxide (ZrO2) and Silicon Dioxide (SiO2).
Blue zircon has a hardness of 7.5 on the Moh’s scale. The edges are easily damaged, thus it is recommended that the stone be mounted in earrings or pendants.

Sources of zircon are the Asian countries such as Sri Lanka, Burma, Thailand, Cambodia, and also Australia.
Mystical properties of zircon include the power of relieving pain, ensuring a peaceful sleep devoid of nightmares, protecting travelers from disease and injury.

Blue zircon is actually one of the few colored stones with “fire” (much like a diamond has). When well cut, you can see flashes of rainbow colors in one when you turn it in the light.
Blue zircon is also called “Starlite”.

Other December birthstones can be found at: December birthstone: Turquoise and A December birthstone: Tanzanite.

Amber was one of the first and obviously the oldest adornment materials used. It was also believed to have special healing powers, and thus was employed for medical purposes.

It is not a stone but a fossil tree resin that is found in the ground and it’s very probable that it contains insects and other inclusions. it is often classified as gemstone even if it isn’t mineralized. Because it used to be soft and sticky tree resin, amber can sometimes contain insects and even small vertebrates. The amber with inclusions are also the most precious and demanded.

The color of amber is a combination of yellow-orange-brown that is associated with the color “amber”. Amber can range from a whitish color through a pale lemon yellow, to brown and almost black, but there is also red, green and blue amber, precious and extremely rare.

“Amber is like a time capsule made and placed in the earth by nature herself,” said David Federman, author of the Consumer Guide to Colored Gemstones.

Amber was widely used in the last for jewelry in many regions of the world. It was quite populat between the the Assyrians, Egyptians, Etruscans, Phoenicians and Greeks.
Amber, unlike gemstones, is warm to the touch. It is also a very soft stone, it’s hardness varying between 2 and 2 and a half.

The rare “Blue amber”
This beautiful and distinctive form of Dominican amber is very infrequently encountered. The exact physical and chemical processes that cause its formation are not fully understood. Curiously however, the vast majority of blue amber is completely devoid of insects or other organic materials; when present, they are usually severely crushed or washed out, offering possible testimony to the powerful geological forces involved in its creation. True “green amber” is rarer still.