Your personality is a significant factor in your choice of jewelry. When it comes to aesthetics, we all have marked different styles.

Several respected image consultants have developed systems to categorize style personalities. One of the original and best is the Universal Style System, introduced by Alyce Parsons and Diane Parente in the early 1990s. It categorizes styles into seven types: Sporty, Traditional, Elegant, Feminine, Alluring, Creative and Dramatic. It provides guidance to help you determine which style best represents who you are and what you want. 

As you read through these descriptions of personality styles, you may find that more than one of the categories appeals to you. For many people, one category (for example, Classic or Elegant) defines their business look; a second category (for example, Sporty or Feminine) captures how they dress for leisure-time activities, and yet another category (for example, Creative and Alluring), defines their characteristic style for evenings or special occasions. Alternatively, you may find that one of the following personality styles suits you to a tee in all your activities. Either way, remember that the style of your jewelry, like the style of your apparel, speaks volumes about you. 

SPORTY

The Sporty personality likes jewelry that doesn't interfere with an active lifestyle, and, therefore, the pieces tend to be small and unobtrusive. She likes to incorporate natural materials (such a wood or pearls) and often favors amusing and witty pieces incorporating such designs as animals, music, or sporting motifs. The Sporty personality prefers studs earrings or small hoops. Necklaces are worn inside the neckline. In necklaces, she chooses basic pearls, gold link chokers, and novelty pendants on short, fine chains. Brooches are worn n shirt collars or lapels. 

traditional

The Traditional personality takes a business-like approach to her jewelry. She wants pieces that work in a professional setting. For her, earrings are small or medium-sized designs that cover her earlobes and do not dangle or otherwise distract with movement. Button shapes and small hoops not large than the size of a quarter are both appropriate. Since she may favor jewel necklines, matinee-length pearls and 24-inch chain or bead necklaces that can overlie those necklines are often part of her working wardrobe. Brooches are conservatively styled. often in bar or circle shapes, and are worn on lapels or shirt collars. Suites of jewelry - that is, matched sets- are favored by the Traditional personality. 

ELEGANT

The Elegant personality dresses impeccably and with refined restraint, focusing on superior design and workmanship. Her jewelry choices, like her clothing, are understated with clean lines. She wears designer earrings, often in rounded button shapes, but always of timeless design. She wears necklaces of all lengths, sometimes in multiples (a la Coco Chanel), and she may combine chains with beads and pearls. Brooches are beautifully crafted statement pieces. The Elegant personality likes to wear designer jewelry for its association with quality and status.

FEMININE

The Feminine personality is romantic, favoring flowers, ribbons, and bows. She typically likes vintage pieces featuring lacey openwork or other fine details. The lines in her jewelry are soft and rounded. Bracelets are delicate bangles or link styles (such as charm bracelets), worn loosely on the wrist. Necklaces are delicate and are of short or medium length. Brooches contain fine detail and will often reflect romantic themes.

ALLURING 

The Alluring personality likes to project a sexy or glamourous image. She takes a "look at me" approach to dressing. Her jewelry often includes movement and undulating designs. She often wears jewelry to bring attention to the part of her body that she wants to be noticed. Earrings are large hoops, drop earrings, chandeliers, or other long styles, and usually have movement. She favors lariat necklaces and long necklaces knotted to lie close to her body and bring attention to her cleavage. Bracelets dangle; brooches generally are used only to highlight specific portions of her apparel, such as the dip of a low neckline. 

CREATIVE

The Creative personality has an artistic nature and likes to bring an element of originality into her apparel and accessories. Imaginative and unconventional, she thinks rules are meant to be broken. She piles on eclectic accessories or puts together unconventional mixes of classic items. Ethnic or Gothic are but two sub-categories of jewelry she may favor. Nothing demure in accessories for this woman! She'll wear huge earrings, brooches, and complex necklaces, sometimes all at once. She'll also use jewelry in creative ways - for example, wearing two different earrings or multiple earrings on one ear, or placing brooches in creative spots such as on a sleeve, at the back shoulder of her dress, or pinned to a boot.

DRAMATIC

The Dramatic personality conveys a confident, authoritative style by the use of strong, even severe accessories. More than any other personality type, the Dramatic woman's style is typified by strong, clean lines, and she characteristically wears one bold statement piece of jewelry. Her earrings are oversized, geometric shapes. Bracelets are wide sculpted cuffs or highly structured rigid links. Necklaces are oversized and sculpted and wor close to the neck. Styles of brooches she favors may include Art Deco and abstract, asymmetrical designs. 

When we’re apart from a loved one, we can look up at the stars knowing that they are looking up at the same stars, too, and feel a little bit closer. The golden warmth of the sun, the steady light of the planets, and the stars that twinkle like gemstones can bring us all closer together because no matter how far away someone is, those stars are farther. Looking up at the stars, we realize that we all live under one sky, all of us sharing this little rock floating in space.

As mysterious as it all seems, there is a reliability to be found in heavenly bodies, in the rising and setting of the sun, the phases of the moon, and the clockwork motion of the planets. We sought to capture this dynamic sense of movement in our Cosmic collection, in pieces like the Cosmic Swivel Earrings, Ring, and Pendant. A planet of champagne diamonds on one side and black diamonds on the other represents day and night, freely rotating inside a ring of 18 karat yellow gold. There is peace, power, and comfort to be found here.

 The stars seem so far away, blinking down indifferently on us while we look up in wonder. But these distant mysteries are more than just jewels scattered across the heavens. Their beauty is inextricably tied to the origin of all life on earth. Everyone we know, everyone we don’t know, everything we love, it all has its origin in the stars. Every atom of our bodies came from matter expelled by stars as they create energy through the fusion of hydrogen atoms.  

Cosmic Memory

Perhaps there’s some cosmic memory of the ancient universe in the allure of gold, which also has its origin in the stars. In the furnace of the sun, hydrogen atoms are fused to form helium. Larger stars can create elements as heavy as iron. But it takes the unfathomable energy of the collision between two neutron stars to create heavy metals like gold and platinum. The legacy of these explosions has long since dispersed throughout the universe over the course of billions of years. Early in the Earth’s history, the planet was bombarded with meteorites made of gold and other metals, connecting a piece of those faraway stars to our own planet. Did the first person to come across a gold nugget perhaps sense something of its miraculous origin in its distinctive shine? Did they feel a connection to that strange, malleable metal, and did its energy radiate outward, granting a sense of the interconnectedness of all things?

As we gaze upward into the sky, we are constantly reminded of our infinite potential and the comforting thought that the heavens are always watching over us. No matter where we are from, we all see the universe above us in some form. It reminds us of our interconnectedness and the bonds we share with each other. After all, aren’t we all dependent on each other, just like the sun, the moon, the planets, and the stars?

CARAT WITH A C

This term refers to the weight, not the size of a stone. Since carat weight varies by material, some types of gemstones are heavier than others. For example, if all other measurements are the same, a one-carat diamond will look slightly smaller than a one-carat emerald but slightly larger than a one-carat sapphire. Keep in mind that when you are buying a stone or piece of jewelry, the stone weights are often approximate. 

KARAT WITH A K

In the U.S. karat with a "K" is a measure of the purity of a metal (gold, platinum, silver) whereas a carat with a "C" refers to the weight of a diamond or gemstone. Most jewelry pieces are made from a mix of precious metals (primary metals such as platinum, gold, and silver) and other less expensive metals. This mix, in any proportion, is referred to as an alloy. Most precious metals are alloyed because in their natural state they are soft, and they wear better with other, usually stronger, metals mixed with them. Adding other metals may also have an effect on an item's price since a lower percentage of precious metal in a piece of jewelry usually means a lower price. Most jewelry for sale today is made from alloyed metal. However, some designers enjoy working in the purer version of metals, so it's possible to buy a higher-karat piece of jewelry that contains a very small proportion of another metal.

 In gold, 24 karat equals 100% (or in finished jewelry, 99.99 % gold)

• 18 karat gold is 75% gold and 25% other metals
• 14 karat gold is 58.5% gold and 41.5% other metals
• 10 karat gold is 41.7% gold and 58.3 % other metals

Purity in gold, and in all metals, may also be reported differently in different countries. An 18-karat gold item may be marked as 750 instead of 18k. 

In silver, purity is measured in parts per thousand (ppt). The standard for sterling silver is 925 ppt, which means that, for every 1000 parts, 75 of them (or 7.5%) are alloy metals. You usually see either "sterling" or "925" marked on a piece that has this purity.

We love how a clear, depthless emerald captivates the senses with its purity, the perfect embodiment of the very concept of green. But there’s also great beauty in what some would consider imperfection, and nothing exemplifies this better than the character and individuality of a heavily included emerald.

Inclusions are materials that get trapped inside the crystal during formation. They can appear as streaks or bubbles of gas or other minerals. They’re often seen as flaws in other gemstones, but they only add to the beauty of an emerald. The unique inclusion patterns of emeralds are referred to as “jardin,” for up close they resemble the layered, complex foliage of a lush garden.

The presence or absence of jardin makes each emerald unique. As creators of hand-crafted jewelry, we strive to capture a moment of beauty in each piece. We’re inspired by the beauty of nature, and emerald jardin gives the impression of an entire forest captured in a thumbnail, the perfect complement to a nature-inspired piece of jewelry.

While the oldest emerald mines were found in Egypt, the ancient Egyptians maintained vast trade networks and traded emeralds as far as the cities of the Indus Valley, in western India. Since then, the mysterious beauty of the emerald has fascinated people across cultures and throughout history. Those ancient Egyptian mines have long since dried up, and today the most beautiful emeralds come from Colombia.

Rich Green Emerald

Emerald is the rich green form of the mineral beryl. Other varieties of beryl are aquamarine (blue-green), heliodor (golden), goshenite (clear), and morganite (pink). Emerald stands apart from these other beryl gemstones for its deep, intriguing color. It’s not the only green variety of beryl, as there is also a form of beryl that is simply known as green beryl. While green beryl has its own lively beauty, it pales in comparison to the richness of emerald’s green, which is why we say the emerald seems to be the solid embodiment of the color green itself.

It seems that the first people to admire an emerald likely agreed. The English word “emerald” comes from the Greek word σμάραγδος (smaragdos), which itself is derived from the Sanskrit word मरकत (marakata), which means “green.” Is there a better name for emerald than simply “green”?

Aside from their captivating beauty, emeralds have deep spiritual significance, as well. It is one of the Navaratna gems, the nine precious stones in the dharmic traditions of India (Buddhism, Hinduism, and Jainism).

Emeralds regulate the planet, Mercury, granting the wearer mental control, enhancing memory and communication skills. Its distinctive shade of green also made it an important gemstone in Islam, as green is associated with paradise. When gazing into an emerald and feeling at peace in its presence, it is easy to see why.