school supplies

Went school supply shopping on Friday at my 2 favorite places on Jewelers Row in Philadelphia: Hagstoz and Shivan. First stop: Hagstoz... my go-to shop for all of my metal supply needs. Second stop: Shivan... I love, love, LOVE this store! It is the tiniest little nook of a store, crammed full of gems to drool over, and I am totally enamoured with the family that owns it. When you walk in, the L shaped counter that forms the store is full of a spectrum of faceted gems, and although this seems like quite a selection, they have boxes and boxes filled with other stones behind the counter that you can't even see at first glance... every stone you could desire, and if they don't have it there, they will gladly find the stone for you and cut it down to the shape and size you want. As soon as I walk in, they know I want to go straight to the aquas, topazes, and tourmalines.

I love tourmalines! I love the color range and the saturation of the color in these stones. I specifically love the blue tourmaline called indicolite which I often substitute with a london blue topaz to reduce cost. It is so hard to resist just indulging in so many different stones at Shivan, but I walked out with only 4 small ones this time (a smoky quartz, a cubic zirconia, an aqua, and a london blue topaz) and I cannot wait to start working on the settings next week!