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Candy Colored Crushes
I grew up in the ‘90s. A time of friendship bracelets, mood rings, neon colored laces, kitschy peace-sign plastic rings, and Ring Pops (remember those gigantic diamond-shaped artificial candy rings?).
It was cool to have a multitude of accessories practically dripping off our tiny bodies. I may or may not have had several friendship bracelets covering a good chunk of my wrist (later replaced by festival wristbands) and at least a ring (or two) adorning each finger at one point.
Some of my happiest weekend mornings were spent figuring out the combination of accessories I’d wear before I ran out to meet my friends (only to take everything off later on, because rings weren’t exactly tree climbing-friendly).
In hindsight, it’s really no surprise that as an adult, I have a habit of stacking my rings. And I can see my eldest daughter enjoying picking her jewelry for the day too.
In 2020, I’ve been playing around with our recently launched Borneo Gems collection. I mean – how can I resist? When I first got my hand on these gems, the dreamy candy colored stones got my creativity sparking.
I thought about having them polished and cut, but often their raw forms were just too amazing to ignore! Especially the more opaque stones with banded crystal formations or bicolor ones.
Sapphires and rubies are super tough. They rate 9 on the Mohs scale of hardness , which is just one below diamonds. That should give you an idea of just how durable these beauties are!
I fall in love with pretty much every piece I design, the reasons may vary, but it inevitably happens. TheBorneo Slice rings you can see on the left really made an impression on me with those dreamy shades of summer and joy.
They're larger than life. Sugary sweet chunks of sapphires that are just too pretty to cut and polish, their raw charm begs to be enjoyed just as they are. These are one of a kind rings that I’ve been tempted to just keep for myself. I’ve been playing around with them to style with a nesting band, but I just love how they look all lined up like this.
Finding the right ring combination is always something I enjoy doing. Some rings look right stacked up, and some look better when worn side by side. I don't really have set rules that I abide by when I choose my rings. Often it hinges on what I wear and how I feel on that particular day.
My favorite thing about our Hidden Gems collection is how they look when stacked against each other. There’s a duality in the look - a raw rustic look that is paired is somehow still satisfyingly neat and orderly. Playing with colors is something I do on the regular, so stacking these Borneo Blue Sapphire Ring with Hidden Gems and Rough Borneo Ruby Ring with Hidden Gems was a no brainer. I also adore seeing them worn side by side (or stacked) with the Borneo Diamond Slice Ring.
But what about you? How do you stack and combine your rings? I’d love to see how you wear your rings! I got a glimpse of how differently people wear their rings from our May Love Letters, with Sharon and Elizabeth. And now I'm always on the lookout on all the different ways you wear our rings.
Did I write this post specifically to show off our Borneo Gems collection? Well yes, you got me there. I can’t help but beam with pride at this collection. Much like the Origins collection, our Borneo Gems represents the core values at Gardens of the Sun, and a very determined effort to show what ethical jewelry can mean for the jewelry industry.
Slowly but surely we’re realizing my dream of setting up our very own ethical supply chains for each of the materials we use. Supply chains that are traceable and transparent, and as short as possible. As I mentioned before, this current project is in its infancy, and we only have limited amounts of sapphires, rubies, and diamonds from Borneo.
The ultimate goal is to set up for our indigenous gemstone miners what we set up for our indigenous women gold miners. So keep an eye out for further development on this project!
How do you feel about our Borneo Gems collection with raw stones?
(Psst, although this post is dedicated to the raw stones from the Borneo collection, I also have some cut and polished stones from Borneo saved up for the Custom Borneo Sapphire Rings)