Making the Stones Shine
Moonstones with silver background
The stones must shine, and sometimes I am able to help them along. One technique I use is blackening the sterling-silver backdrop with liver of sulfur to make moonstones flash brightly.
For example, you can see in the first picture of my rainbow moonstone & Australian boulder opal earrings, the moonstones are lovely with a silver background. However, I knew they could be even more beautiful.
Utilizing their transparent nature, I blackened the inside of the stones’ setting thus creating a contrast that highlights the blue, rainbow flash. As you can see, this worked beautifully. I then set the stones with the black backdrop and finished the piece.
Moonstone with darkened background
It’s a simple technique, but one that I believe gives the earrings even more sparkle than it would have had otherwise.
