Salt and Pepper Diamonds
My newest favorite stones are salt and pepper diamonds. I started using them this past year and have become more and more enamored of them because they are so well-suited to the organic feeling of my work.
Salt and pepper diamonds have a luminous grey hue that varies from stone to stone; they are in fact white diamonds with black striations—so each one is one of a kind.
I like them best as rose cuts—faceted on top and flat on the back. Sultry and sparkly in an understated way, the rose cut is the perfect cut for salt and pepper diamonds, creating tiny mountains evoking a feeling of dark snow on a moonlit night.
Fascinating to the eye, rose cut salt and peppers attract attention without being pretentious or ostentatious. Totally natural, they gleam with their uniquely patterned striations of black and grey and sometimes with hints of warm tones like browns and yellows.
Salt and pepper diamonds contrast dramatically with gold, while when used in oxidized silver they enhance the dark glistening of the silver surface. And they create a sense of casual luxury, verging on rustic yet maintaining a sense of elegance without the formality that can be so constraining. Used in my pieces, they create a visual movement. As the light dances across the surface, one senses the flow of water over rocks, the glint of sunlight on a moving stream, and the freedom that comes with being in nature.
