Designers Findings

This is a continuation of the story below about the Imperial Court Re-entrance Permit….

After I finished purchasing the Imperial Court Re-entrance Permit it was the monk’s turn to be served. He picked up a silver ring with a hugh blue stone set on top. The stone was set with two simple flowers on the east and west. It was a ring that I would dismiss as a glass ring had the monk not demonstrated his knowledge of antique earlier. When he picked up the ring, there was a look of disbelief on his face. I wanted to take it from his hand to take a good look at it but I knew that would be too impolite. I left the antique store knowing I would come back again.

A week later, I returned to the store and asked to see the ring. Sure enough, the monk had purchased it for a price of 800 yuan. If that ring had been a genuine sapphire, the colour can compare with the most expensive Kashmir Sapphire — a mine discovered around 1880. Could it be a trader brought back the sapphire from Kashmir 130 years ago and presented it to the king? One can only guess but I cannot help but think what does a monk need a Kashmir sapphire ring for? He should have left it for me to pick it up….Not being able to get the sapphire ring, I asked to see more jadeite pieces, the subject I know well. I will let you know about what I bought from this visit in the next post.

I was shopping at a Chinese antique store when a monk came in. He sat down next to me patiently waiting for his turn to be served. While I was looking for some antique flasks he made comments on the authenticity of the pieces. After I finished with the flasks I picked up some Chinese carved stones to see. When I picked up this piece of dragon and phoenix carved stone, he told me this piece of stone used to be carrried by the people in the Imperial Court when they needed to exit the Court. Only the Imperial Court was allow to use the symbol of dragon and phoenix. While dragon represents the emporer, phoenix represents the empress. This stone would serve as a re-entrance permit in today’s terminology. I was fascinated by the story and decided to purchase it. At that time, there were two pieces of this carving available. One is slightly smaller and looks totally brand new. The other one is the one showing in the photo. I picked this one up and my thumb would fall right on the part that is slightly whitened on the right as if that was how the stone used to be handled. I decided to purchase this one thinking there is a bigger chance of it being authentic.

That night, I had strange dreams with imagery of old and new, past and present, stones and monks floating around. I would return to the same antique store in a week and I will tell you the other story in future.

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Natural jade comes in ten colours. Most people has seen green, lavender, red and black jade. Have you seen blue jade? Yes, it is hard to come by. I find this piece of blue jade during a recent visit to China. Notice the belly part of the rabbit, that is where the blue colour is. I photographed it on a piece of green cloth instead of blue so that the blue that shows up is the colour of the jade and not the refraction of the cloth.

Drusy jewellery is so popular now. I have been pondering whether there is a corelation with me showing a piece of drusy garnet pendant which I purchased from the Toronto Gem and Mineral Show many years ago to a manufacturer in Hong Kong a few years ago, to the mass production of the item in the market. Nobody knows for sure but if there is indeed a co-relation, lets take pride in the creativity of Canadian jewellers. We need more creativity in the jewellery world. I have seen beads and beads and beads and sometimes it is hard to get excited. Today I was playing around with the electrol plated drusy with eletrol plated crystals. The colours match perfectly as I think they might be using the same plating technique. Beautiful colours make me happy and I wish they make you happy too.

Heading off to the Mode Show in a few minutes. We are bringing funky chunky jewellery to the Mode Show this year. Of course, they are in genuine semi-precious stones! Will tell you how they go later.

Just uploaded some 2012 jadeite zodic pendants on our facebook. Check this page out: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Imperial-Jade/178179215526872

[caption id="attachment_298" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Oily Green Colour Jadeite Dragon Pendant"][/caption]This summer is for jadeite. I have been working on this and people request to see more. Here are more items of jadeite pieces for you to enjoy. You can also purchase the following pieces from our site at www.designersfindings.ca.

The Toronto Jewellery Gem and Mineral Show has come and gone. It was a busy show for us as people loved our $3.85 semi-precious stone strands. I always throw in strands that is worth way more than $3.85 so that the customers can have a treasure hunt. Some extra large turqouise bead were scooped up as soon as I put them out. Some faceted Madagascar rose quartz were quietyly sitting there. The show was so busy I barely had time to walk the show myself. When I finally had the time, I found a dinasaur coprolite from another exhibitor. I had heard about it before and always felt it was not the most elegant way of collecting fossils. But I finally got one this time. I told my son to bring it to school and do a show and tell. When I told the teacher about this, I was not sure I saw a smile on her face…

The Spring Creative Festival has come and gone. We enjoy the show for its fun and for being able to meet people from all walks of life. The energy is always good there and people are really there looking for ideas, new products or a new trick. At this show we launch our new $3.85 5-inch strand semi-precious stone beads. We actually put these strands in house mixing colours, shapes and stone sizes. I call the process — painting without the mess. At the end I had so much fun doing it I cannot wait to go back to it after the show to make more. There are many angles in running Designers Findings. Sometimes it is a commercial venture, sometimes it is a hobby to connect with people and nature. For the company to survive it has to have both. It is not an easy business to run because of the size of the market, but we have to continuely remember to reconnect with why we were there in the first place –it is the love of stones, the love of the mystic treasures from earth and the wish to be the proud bearer of this treasures. For this, we salute the late Liz Taylor.