1 Jewelry from freshwaterpearls
1.1 What is amethyst?
Amethyst
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Amethyst is a member of the quartz family and has typical high brilliance and is frequently inclusion-free. The color ranges from lilac to deep purple; the deep purple being the most prized. Amethyst is very durable and makes an excellent and popular choice for jewelry.
Amethyst was considered to preserve sobriety in ancient Greece and Amethyst adorned wine goblets to prevent drunkenness.
Leonardo Da Vinci wrote that Amethyst dissipated evil thoughts and quickened intelligence. Amethyst is a noticeable adornment in the British Crown Jewels, and the color purple has come to be symbolic of royalty.
Amethyst was believed to promote piety and celibacy, and it was popular ornamentation for religious purposes in the Middle Ages. |
1.2 What is turquoise?
Turquoise
The name turquoise is apparently related to the fact that is was brought to Europe from the Eastern Mediterranean by Levantine traders, more commonly known as Turks. Its been used as a valuable ornament for ages and was used by the Egyptians thousands of years ago. The color is, of course, turquoise, but its range of color varies from green and greenish blue to sky blue shades.
The Aztecs mined turquoise in an area now known as New Mexico and a significant amount of turquoise comes from Arizona, California and Nevada in the United States.
1.3 What is coral?
Coral
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Coral is an organic gemstone - like pearl, jet, and amber - composed of the external skeletal remains of the coral polyp, a tiny tube-shaped sea creature. Millions of polyps build their skeletons (made of calcium carbonate with a trace of carotene) on the abandoned remains of other polyps, creating massive coral reefs. Coral is much softer than other gem materials with a hardness of only 3.5
When you say the word coral, most people think of the coral reefs in the South Pacific like the Great Barrier Reef off Australia. However most of the precious red, pink and white coral is found in the Mediterranean Sea or in the Pacific off Japan and Taiwan. Where the two species of coral, Corallium rubrum and Corallium japonicum, traditionally used in jewelry are found.
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1.4 What are cultured pearls?
Cultured Pearls
Cultured pearls are real pearls. Instead of the random occurrence of an irritant becoming trapped inside the mollusk, cultured pearls are formed through human intervention, also known as perliculture. If not for the culturing of pearls, pearl jewelry might still be restricted to royalty. Women wouldn't have the luxury of owning pearl jewelry, brides would be able to have their bridal jewelry made of pearls, and pearl necklaces would never adorn the necks of women.
The first person to actually produce a spherical pearl was the Swedish taxonomist Carl Linnaeus. When he visited a pearl fishery in Purkijaur , Sweden during an expedition, he became fascinated with the issue of pearl harvesting, and he believed that there might be another way of growing pearls without having to rely so much on "nature." When he returned home to Uppsala , he experimented by inserting a piece of plaster paris inside a mussel shell which he left in the Fyris River . When he retrieved the pearls six years later, he was able to culture several pearls that were the size of peas. Thus, the first spherical cultured pearls were "born" in Sweden in 1740.
Today, when we think of cultured pearls, we think of the name Mikimoto. Kikichi Mikimoto revolutionized the art of perliculture, but two other men were actually responsible for patenting the method of culturing pearls-Tokichi Nishikawa and Tatsuhei Mise. Although they did not discover the technique together, they agreed to share the credit and named it the "Mise-Nishikawa" method-they patented their technique in 1907. Since Mikimoto could not patent his technique, he changed his patent application to the technique for culturing round pearls. However, Mikimoto had the vision of an entrepreneur and he eventually bought the rights from Mise and Nishikawa. Today, the word Mikimoto connotes high quality saltwater cultured pearls. Nevertheless, the technology of saltwater pearls continues to improve.
1.5 How are pearls growing?
Pearls form inside oysters, mussels, and clams (molluskan bivalves) when a small object becomes trapped inside the shell of the mollusk. Contrary to popular opinion, it is not sand that finds its way inside the shell but a small piece of clay, mud, worm, small crab, or parasite. When a foreign object enters the shell, as a self defense mechanism, the mollusk attempts to isolate the foreign object by secreting nacre (also known as mother of pearl).
Throughout time, many layers of nacre are formed around the foreign object, and a beautiful pearl is born. One might say that the conception of a natural pearl is much like the birth of a child. The genetics of a child as with a pearl depends on the two entities that converge. The shape of the pearl actually depends on the shape of the foreign object that is trapped inside the mollusk, the rounder the object-the rounder the pearl. The color of a pearl on the other hand depends on the mollusk that incubates it.
1.6 Do you only use freshwaterpearls?
Yes, all our jewelry are made from real freshwaterpearls.
1.7 Are the pictures the same as your real juwelry?
All jewelry pictures are made under the natural light, and uploaded online without being processed. They are nearly the same as the real jewelry.
2 Jewelry from dried pansies
2.1 How do you dry flowers?
Drying flowers is a precise work, humidity is also very important.
Depending on the weather, this process takes 2 to 3 weeks.
2.2 How long does it take to make a flower jewel?
The whole process is about 3 weeks.
2.3 How are flower jewelry made?
From plant to jewel. The plants are flew in fresh from the Netherlands and dried on Lanzarote. We use wooden plates to dry the flowers. With the drying, which is about 2 weeks, the flowers lose their color. Sandra paints the flowers then with a silk paint. This is the hardest, most difficult of the whole process. Then the flowers are all set in resin, polished and jewelry made of it. All together a process of 3 weeks.
2.4 I suffer allergies?
All jewelry from Atelier Sandra are created with anti-allergic and nickel free metals or silver.
I make necklaces of rubber or stainless steel covered with nylon.
Within Europe it is forbidden to work with nickel, so all materials are nickel free.
I have a RUBBER ALLERGY? The 110cm long chain with XL flower and the casual 42 cm necklace are not suitable for you. All other jewels are.
2.5 Each flower is unique?
Yes, each jewel is made of one or more pansies. It is impossible for 2 real flowers to be the same. Although some may look very similar.
2.6 Can you also make jewelry from other flowers?
Actually not, the only flower that is ideal for this process is the pansy. It is a strong flower, not falling apart after the drying, easier to paint and the most important: it is a very thin flower. Other flowers should be to thick and too heavy to wear as a jewel.
We play of course with natural materials and in the autumn I also have jewels of autumn leaves. Peacock feathers are also ideal to set in resin. Keep a look at our website.
2.7 Can I break the jewels?
No, it is impossible for them to break. The resin in which they are cast, is very hard. I never had one broken back.
2.8 How are the flowers painted?
The flowers are painted with silk paints.
We do not, of course, tell how we do this, this is the art of the artist.
2.9 What resins do you use?
We use a 2-component crystal resin. This resin dries in the air and has the look of glass, we do not use a drying oven.
3 Information
3.1 Free gift wrapping?
Each jewel is sent in a gift pack to you. For FREE.
3.2 Favorable tax rate?
We live in Lanzarote, one of the tax free Canary Islands.
We are exempt from VAT and only have to pay a local tax of 5%, IGIC named.
This will save you 13% on your purchase.
3.3 How large are the pearls in a necklace?
Under specifications, you will find the different dimensions of each jewel.
3.4 Where can I find the weight of the jewels?
Under specifications you will find all the information.
So click on more information of the desired product and then specifications.
3.5 What are the shipping costs?
Choose for UNITED KINGDOM at ESTIMATE SHIPPINGCOST in your shopping cart. Shipping costs vary by weight and are automatically calculated by the cart program.
3.6 Converting cm to inch?
2.54cm is 1 inch.
Most of the time you will find the measures in inch under specifications.
3.7 Converting gram to pound/ounce?
1 gram = 0,00220462262 pounds
1 gram = 0,0352739619 ounce
3.8 Buying in Pounds? US Dollar?
In the right top you can change the currency from Euro to Pounds or US Dollar. (EUR-GBP-USD)
So you can buy in your own currency.
The exchange rate is updated automaticly every 15 minutes, so prices can change depending of the exchange rate.
4 Contact
4.1 Address?
Urb. Costa Papagayo
Calle La Bonilla 10
35580 Playa Blanca
Las Palmas
Lanzarote
4.2 Email?
info@ateliersandra.com
4.3 Phone?
+34-693.54.54.80
We have the same time as England.
You can reach us from 11am till 18.00pm,
Monday to Friday.
4.4 VAT number?
We live and work from Lanzarote, one of the taxfree Canary Islands.
Here we don´t have VAT, so also no VAT number.
Our fiscal number is X2648491H.