One-of-a-kind Cat's Eye Tourmaline Ring

I bought the gem from an international gem dealer who specializes in gems of the world. A rare and exotic tourmaline cats eye. My original thought was to make a ring for myself. While we mine tourmaline here in Maine, never have I seen a tourmaline of this size, 20 carats, color Forest Green, or purity of eye, straight north south.

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I bought the gem almost 30 years ago. Every few years I would take it out, admire it then put it away. There was a designer jeweler based in Maine. Over the years I’ve seen a half dozen of his rings, each with a big gem, tourmaline, amethyst, aquamarine, citrine. All were handmade with a heavy wire under-structure. The sides of all these rings were decorated with leaves, oak, elm, maple, grape. I’d never seen anything like them. The look, the feel, the patterning, each leaf was clearly laid out by hand, hand pierced and individually layered in and soldered in place. Once you’d seen one of his rings, his creations become immediately recognizable. His name was Mr. Oaks.

We know nothing of Mr. Oaks. We do not know where he lived, where his shop was, we know him only by his body of exquisite work he left behind. Because oak leaves seemed to be his favorite I’ve often wondered if the name Mr. Oaks was assumed because he worked with so many oak leaves.

One of our jewelers has worked on a number of Mr. Oaks ring designs. We got into a conversation a few months back about Mr. Oaks rings and I was surprised to learn that he too had developed a love for everything created by Mr. Oaks, his high carat green gold, the grace, the flow, the logic of the gem and leaf pattern. I talked about building a collection. My jeweler was enthused. My jeweler said at most he could make 8 – 10 rings a year.

The first ring we made had a SparHawk mint-green-teal Maine tourmaline with Ginko leaves on the sides. We completed it on a Monday, sent an email to 11,000 of our closely connected Cross Family Customers. The ring was chosen within hours. Our American Elm Cat’s Eye tourmaline is ring number two.

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Website: http://crossjewelers.com/