Design Tips for DIY Jewelry with the Birthstone for May: Emerald

Each month we have been featuring that month’s birthstone. For May, we take a look at the gorgeous green Emerald! According to our Gemstone Meanings and Metaphysical Properties Guide, emerald signifies fertility, hope, love, vitality, balance, intuition, and truth. Dating all the way back to the ancient Egyptians (and Cleopatra in particular), emeralds have been a cherished and highly sought after gemstone. The Romans also prized the emerald as well and linked it to the goddess Venus. Many consider emerald to be the gemstone of spring because of its lush green color and think that in addition to fertility, it symbolizes rebirth and renewal. It’s one mighty gemstone!

If you want to incorporate "emerald" into your jewelry designs, you have many options. You can use gemstones, glass beads, crystal beads, seed beads, or even green ribbons and cords. It is all a matter of what you are wanting out of your design, what type of techniques you are doing, and what your budget is.

The first option is to use real emerald gemstones. When you work with gemstones, there are different grades. Some emerald gemstones are extremely expensive while others are more affordable. We do offer a selection of emerald gemstones by Dakota Stones and the various sizes they come in offer a lot of different design possibilities!

If you want to invoke the spirit of emerald, you can also pick beads that are the emerald color. PRESTIGE Crystal Components makes a gorgeous Emerald color that is available in beads, pendants, and fancy stones. Its rich color and faceted sparkle are what a lot of people think of when they hear the word "emerald." PRESTIGE also makes a lovely color called Majestic Green which also invokes the spirit of emerald. It is a slightly lighter and brighter shade than the emerald color and both are absolutely beautiful!

Another option to add emerald to your designs is Czech glass. You can do Czech glass round beads, two-hole beads, pressed glass and more. With Czech glass emerald color beads, you have a lot of options in terms of shapes and sizes.

Last but not least, seed beads are an easy way to add this wonderful color to your designs, especially if you are doing loom work, kumihimo, or bead weaving. The nice thing about emerald colored seed beads is they too come in a variety of both sizes and finishes. You can have matte colors, transparent, gloss, silver lined, and really everything in between. You can use a lot of them or a few, and it is easy to add complementary colors with them. If you are wanting some nice color combos, consider blues and purples for subtle designs or orange, white, and yellow for brighter designs. 

Check out all our emerald colored offerings!