Author Judith Crowe is both a gemstone dealer and jewellery maker and designer whose aim is “to provide an inspirational guide to gemstones that supplies essential gemmological and practical information and also encourages jewellers to produce imaginative and distinctive designs that celebrates the qualities of stone”. As well as being inspirational, the book is factual and practical.
The main body of the book is a “directory” (i.e. guide) to 39 gemstones. These include the well known topaz, garnet, jade, opal and diamond, as well as the lesser known spinel, sillimanite, lolite and zoisite. The four “organics”, pearl, amber, coral, shell, are also included. The directory covers the many practical considerations around using a particular stone: its visual and physical properties, colour treatments, availability and how it handles. Under Corundum, for example, there are headings for specification (hardness, specific gravity, etc.), sources of supply, pricing, working with corundum, and types of corundum, namely ruby and sapphire. Subheadings under these latter are Limitations, Showcase (illustrated examples), and Treatments. There are numerous high quality colour photographs of individual stones and jewellery settings.
The book has two further sections. That on Creating Gemstones covers gem‐related topics such as the mining, selection and usage of rough material, the supply chain, properties of gemstones, and the designing and cutting of gemstones. The other section, Designing with Gemstones, explores how a gemstone's properties of colour, texture and size can influence a design and discusses the use of delicate material and non‐standard forms. Practical advice covers gemstone appraisal and buying. Resources, useful addresses and web sites are noted. There is a Glossary (Adularescence to Tension setting) and an index.
The book is outstandingly designed with hundreds of colour photographs. It really is a (forgive me) “gem of a book”, useful alike to jewellery makers and designers, enquirers and droolers. While not replacing standard sources such as Webster (1998), the competitive price, information on gem working and design, and sumptuous illustrations, make this a useful addition to the reference collection.
