Mordaunte's Coffin Shaped Gemstones & Jewelry Are A Spooky Way To Sparkle.

Mordaunte's Coffin-Shaped Gems and Jewelry specializes in semi-precious faceted gemstones, cut into a perfect 6-sided coffin shape by exclusive contract with an international gemstone company. Gemstones include colors such as Blood, Death, Shroud, Moss, Flesh, Scalded, and Pentacle. In stock sizes range from 3 to 10 carats.



"So far, I am the only one in the world that does this", states Mordaunte - owner, designer and creator (shown below).



In addition to the gemstones, she designs and creates finished jewelry in both men's and women's fashions. These include rings, earrings, pendants, and tie tacks, done in sterling silver as well as 14k gold. In keeping with the coffin-shaped design, purchases are even shipped in a cardboard coffin-shaped box. Mordaunte's clients buy her jewelry for costume decoration, funerary wear, immortalizing a departed loved one, wedding sets, and everyday wear with a "kick". "Most people don't realize it's a coffin shape until you tell them - they just comment that it's a beautiful stone", says Mordaunte, "When I mention that it's a coffin shape, they gasp - "That's awesome!". Many customers refer to her business as "The Morbid Tiffany's".




Mordaunte started her custom coffin-shaped gemstone "business" from her desk in her basement in the spring of 2000. She offered 3 different stone materials in two sizes. She then set up a internet service-provider website and went into business. Slowly, but surely, the business grew both in the USA and Internationally. More and more interest was revolving around her unusual gemstones, especially the idea of offering them in pre-made jewelry. Being in the IT field, she had never set a piece of jewelry in my life. However, after much research and "trial and error" she started setting her gemstones in oval and marquise pre-made settings.




As the business continued to grow it took on a life of it's own. Mordaunte began supplying jewelry to celebrities and rock bands that had found her online site. She was invited by the people at OzzFest to be a vendor on their tour. Radio stations and TV shows asked her for interviews. Haunted Houses, Horror Conventions and Gothic Nightclubs contacted her to be a guest and a vendor at their events. In 2005 Mordaunte re-designed the coffin gemstone shape to the perfect 6-sided coffin you see today and has added several colors to her line since then.



The coffin-shaped gems have made many a wicked woman happy and have been used as engagement rings, such as in the examples shown below.

A white topaz coffin gem surrounded by real diamonds makes for an unusual engagement ring:


above black glove image (cropped) © All rights reserved by Countessa Di Fangxious

Other jewelers use her stones as a source for their own creations, such as Lyndsay Brown of Idle Hands Designs on etsy who makes them into pendants, rings and cufflinks set in sterling silver:



shop for the above jewelry at Idle Hands

Coffin Gems and Jewelry Facts:
•All Coffin Gems are cut from genuine semi-precious stones such as sapphire and garnet
•The perfect 6-sided "toe pincher" coffin shape is exclusive to Mordaunte's Coffin Gems
•Each Coffin Gem is expertly faceted, polished and inspected by a professional gemologist
•Sizes are exact - weights are approximate (different gemstone materials weigh differently)
•Visit the Birthstones page for traditional and modern birthstone color charts
•Visit the Gemstones page for color choices and size comparison
•Each piece of jewelry is custom designed in Sterling Silver to hold the Coffin Gems, but is available in other settings upon request



Mordaunte's Coffin-Shaped Gems and Jewelry can be viewed and purchased at her online store - www.coffingems.com

Matchstick Diamond Jewelry Launches In Absolutely Adorable Packaging.

Launched by Britain-born Louise Carter, Matchstick is a new brand of diamond baguette jewelry. The five pieces in the collection, each of which are available in 18k white, yellow or rose gold, include a Boy, a Girl, a Dog, a Small Heart and a Large Heart.




Each represent universal symbols of life to the designer and each piece lives in its own house, a lovely oversized matchbox with sweet line art illustrations.








Shop Matchstick Jewelry here

Highland Park 50 Year Old Whisky Limited Edition Bottle Wins 2012 Design Award.

Recently, the stunning, and extraordinarily expensive (just over $15,000) , limited edition bottle designed for Highland Park’s oldest ever island single malt whisky – Highland Park 50 year old, won the award for Best Design at the World Whiskies Award 2012. What's inside the stunning bottle was also named Best Single Malt Scotch 41 Years and Over (Multiple Casks), at the 2012 Whisky Bible Awards.

Bottle front:

Bottle back:


With only 275 bottles produced, this prestigious edition has become an exclusive collectors’ item. Each bottle is unique, encased in an intricate ‘net cage’ of hand-crafted ornate sterling silver created by Scottish jewellery designer Maeve Gillies, who took inspiration from Orkney’s elemental forces. Maeve’s bottle design celebrates Orkney: its seas, island life, wild elements, incredible natural light and the passage of time.

The "50" has black enameling on the sterling silver and is subtly integrated into the silverwork:


Inspired by the wild and rugged natural elements of the Scottish island of Orkney, Maeve aimed to create a bottle that would visually communicate what made Highland Park unique without any words, as well as an object that was precious enough to be worthy of the oldest island single malt in the world.

The details are stamped into the sterling silver at the base on the back of the bottle:


A visitor to the beautiful Orkney islands since a child, Maeve conveyed a natural and nautical theme in her Sterling silver bottle, evoking ropes, twisted seaweed and a metal finish that looked like it could have been a very old and precious object, discovered washed up on the beach.


above: Silversmith and jeweler Maeve Gillies with her award-winning bottle design (photograph by hans offringa)

Set on the front is a disc of genuine Orcadian pink sandstone carved with Highland Park's logo, sourced from the original quarry that built the incredible 12th century St Magnus Cathedral in Kirkwall.


The St Magnus Cathedral in Kirkwall:


On the backside of the bottle, the medallion is replaced with a translucent glass cabochon:


Behind this, viewable through the glass when the whisky has been finished (although in the composited image below, the bottle is still full), is an ethereal silver replica of the beautiful rose window inside the Cathedral.


The actual Rosette Window in St. Magnus' Cathedral:


The bottle is presented in a hand-carved Scottish oak box, also shaped to feel worn by wild elements, and set with a silver and glass porthole, through which the Highland Park logo on the bottle inside can just be viewed.





The special edition of Highland Park 50 year old was initially launched at Harrods in London as a Limited Edition of 275 bottles for 10,000 GBP per bottle and is now available for purchase for at that same price: $15,811.00 USD or £10,000.00 (Size: 70cl 44.8% ABV) here

Human Hair Necklaces by Kerry Howley

Kerry Howley is a contemporary jeweller and jewellery artist recently graduated with a First Class BA Hons Jewellery and Accessories degree from Middlesex University. She is fascinated by the power materials have to influence our emotional response to jewellery, with a particular interest in how these emotions can be conflicting.



Attraction/Aversion is Kerry's award winning graduate collection, winning the Museum of Domestic Architecture's Arthur Silver Award for graduate innovation and excellence.

Attraction/Aversion is a material exploration of how people can feel seemingly opposing emotional responses simultaneously.



The necklaces are made of human hair, a familiar material that we take pride in. However once off of the body hair becomes an innate source of aversion. Kerry wanted to see if she could make discarded hair attractive again.



Through the familiar form of a necklace, and using patterns and symmetry that are instinctively pleasing, Kerry has created a delicate balance between the viewer/wearer’s feelings of aversion and attraction.



Credits for images below: Photography by Lucy Eleanor Brown, Styling by Emma Breden, Make-up by Jemma Stokes, Model Hannah Alton from Gingersnaps:


Kerry is happily available for commission.
Your commission need not be jewellery, Attraction/Aversion is displayed in exhibitions as wall pieces, and a commission could make a personal, elegant and unusual talking point framed in your home.

For more details about a possible commission contact Kerry at kerry@kerryhowley.co.uk

all information and imagery courtesy of the artist.

Moritz Glik's Kaleidoscope Collection of Fine Gemstone Jewelry Shakes Things Up.

My new 'wishlist' item is a piece, any piece, from Moritz Glik's latest jewelry collection, Kaleidoscope. A line of fine jewelry that takes ordinarily traditionally set gemstones and uses them in a very unconventional way. Earrings, necklaces, pendants and cuffs in which loose diamonds and gems of various colors and cuts tumble around in settings that are unlike most I have seen before.



above: Moritz Glik "Kaleidoscope" Textured Oxidized Silver, 18k Gold, and Diamond Cuff Bracelet $12,480

The Brazilian born shoe designer turned jeweler places loose gemstones of various cuts and shards of gold inside a two faceted white sapphire crystals, secures them with a bezel and then mounts the pieces as pendants, earrings, bracelets and necklaces.



Some pieces are coupled with traditionally set stones in the bezel, others are flush mounted in simpler settings. Diamonds of all colors, polished and rough, colored sapphires, emeralds, rubies and even shards of 18k gold are used in the creations which are set in everything from platinum to pink gold to oxidized silver.

Rings:












The only consistency within the pieces of the Kaleidoscope collection is the idea of the loose stones tumbling around within the encased crystal. Otherwise the collection varies in terms of cuts, colors and settings.

Bracelets:






There's something to appeal to almost everyone's taste - Modern, Victorian, Art Deco, Edwardian, simple, ornate, monochromatic or colorful. What may not appeal to everyone is the price.

Earrings:















Pendants and Necklaces:








Glik's signature collection creates the illusion of diamonds and precious stones floating within their settings. Many of his pieces are fluid, assuming their shape only when worn. Each earring, necklace, bracelet and ring is meticulously handcrafted by Glik, and he often works with clients to create a unique design solely for them. His latest collection, “Kaleidoscope”, consists of floating diamonds enclosed within double white sapphires that are in fluid motion for which he won the Best Diamond Piece at the Couture Show in Las Vegas in 2011 and was also nominated in 2009 and 2010.


above: Moritz Glik

His jewelry is sold in New York City, and various other cities around the world. His designs have been featured in magazines such as W Magazine, British Vogue, InStyle, Cosmopolitan, Oprah Magazine, New York Magazine, Black Book, TimeOut NY, Gotham , Cigar Aficianado., Noise Magazine, Prestige and many others. Glik’s designs have been seen on celebrities such as Kate Hudson, Rhiana, Mila Kunis, Nicole Kidman, Marcia Gay Harden, Jennifer Lopez, Bebel Gilberto, Penelope Cruz, Christina Applegate, Goldie Hawn, Shakira, and the Dixie Chicks. And recently a commissioned piece for Justin Bieber. store locations

Moritz Glik
phone: 212 679 0948
moritz@moritzglik.com

Fragments Showroom
110 Greene Street
New York, NY 10012
Phone: 212 226 4955
Fax: 212 226 4199



Buy Moritz Glik Jewelry Here