minerals

For The Love Of Minerals: The Designs Of Brenda Houston

Sometimes it's hard to improve on what nature provides. Few designers understand that as well as Brenda Houston who incorporates natural minerals into her jewelry and home decor designs. Houston has always been attracted to the mystical and healing properties of natural minerals. She started working with them more than 15 years ago and after traveling extensively she conceptualized a collection of lamps and accessories that make the most of the natural beauty of the stones.

The sculptural qualities of the minerals used reveal themselves in lamps, artwork and jewelry created by an artisan using select stones and gold wire. Large agate slices sit atop hardwood bases. Minerals have been used as bases to form simply spectacular lamps or sit alone mounted for contemplation and enjoyment. Each piece is signed and the couture lamps are available at Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman. The lamps range from $1500 to $3200; the tabletop pieces are about $500 to $5000 and the tables are about $1500 each.

Gallery: Brenda Houston Designs

Tags: brenda houston, decor, decorating, gems, jewelry, lamps, minerals

The Winter Palace Among Bonham's Offerings

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Jewelry, Auctions

Bonhams & Butterfields will hold its annual holiday auction of Natural History on December 6, 2009, in Los Angeles. Amid the crystal specimens and faceted stones are several fine examples of lapidary art. The most stunning is The Winter Palace, an illuminated music box made of rock crystal quartz, diamonds and aquamarines. It was designed to resemble a Russian onion-domed palace tower and was created under the direction of the German lapidary artist, Manfred Wild. It is decorated with 641 small diamonds and the music box key is made of 18K gold with a cabochon aquamarine inset on each side. The doors of the palace open to reveal a tiny model of a Russian dacha in 18K golf with a snow-covered roof rendered in diamonds. This piece carries a presales estimate of $250,000 to $300,000.

The auction also features an 18.36 carat orange-pink padparadscha sapphire. The pear-shaped gem has a presales estimate of $350,000 to $400,000. Also up for bid is "The Cat's Meow," a 47.80 carat cat's eye chrysoberyl ring estimated at $120,000 to $140,000. A huge blister pearl, The Palawan Princess, is also up for sale. The five-pound product of a giant clam is estimated at $300,000 to $400,000 and comes with half of the original giant clamshell showing the point of attachment where the pearl formed.

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Tags: art, auction, giant pearl, GiantPearl, lapidary art, LapidaryArt, mineral specimen, minerals, MineralSpecimen, rock crystal, RockCrystal, stones

The World's Most Expensive Water

by Rigel Celeste (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Yachts & Sailing

People pay money for water every day, even though it's free in the majority of places on Earth. So if we're already paying for it, why not pay a lot for it, right? Well that's apparently the philosophy of the Japanese, who for a while now have been making big business of buying very expensive desalinated seawater concentrate from off the coasts of Hawaii. Called Kona Nigari, it sells for $33.50 per two-ounce bottle of concentrate and is meant to be diluted in a bottle of regular water (add $1.99 to the bill). It's credited with aiding weight loss, stress reduction, skin tone, and digestion. And apparently this Hawaiian seawater is special -- people pay more for the Kona Nigari than for similar concentrates from waters closer to Japan.

Via Lussorian

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Tags: concentrate, concentrated, deep sea, DeepSea, hawaii, hawaiian, japan, japanese, kona, kona nigari, KonaNigari, minerals, most expensive, MostExpensive, nigari, ocean, water