An Amazing Evening: The Holiday Glitter Show & Dinner

Hello! Well, last week was the 3rd Annual Zavida Gemstones Holiday Show--this year the "Holiday Glitter" Show & Dinner--and it was a huge success! The show was hosted at the beautiful home of Zavida Gemstones co-founder Shelley Milano, and everyone had a great time.

Shelley prepared a delicious Italian feast of two different types of pasta with homemade meat marinara and vodka sauce (my personal favorite). Of course there was also a fresh salad and plentiful amounts of crusty Italian bread to drench in one's leftover sauce. The desserts were positively sinful: a platter of assorted pastries and cookies tempted even the fullest diner, and my personal contribution to Zavida for the evening was a platter of cupcakes with a dark chocolate and cinnamon ganache, each garnished with a holiday candy.

Some photos of the fun:







All in all it was a wonderful evening filled with lots of laughter and good conversation. A special THANK YOU!! to all our friends and customers for supporting the Zavida Gemstones business and project....and a Happy Holidays to you all :)

P.S. If you haven't finished your gift shopping, right now you can get free shipping on orders over $100 at the Zavida website--just enter coupon code FREE100 during checkout.

The Holiday Shows Begin!

Hello all & happy holidays!
We are busy with lots of Holiday shows and orders over here at Zavida Gemstones and I just wanted to share some of whats been going on!

This weekend we are having our annual Holiday show in Hilton Head, South Carolina, and it has been truly wonderful.

Autumn Hope & Harvest Show pictures

Hello all! Last weekend was our annual Fall show--this year the Autumn Hope & Harvest Show! I had a great time seeing returning customers and friends and meeting new ones, too...and such delicious food! We prepared turkey & cranberry sandwiches (in the spirit of the upcoming holiday), cheese & crackers, and pumpkin bars with cream cheese frosting (my favorite part). I did however manage to pull myself away from the food table long enough to take some pictures of some jewelry before the guests arrived!

(I had to include at least one picture of the pumpkin bars.)

While everyone who came to the show had their own unique style, some pieces reigned supreme! The most popular were...


I have really been wanting one of these in silver...all the clients agreed that these bracelets are unique and a little edgy but still incredibly delicate and feminine. The matching earrings were also a hit.

These metallic cuffs have always been my favorite... I was actually kind of sad to see them all go! We now only have 1 left: brass and copper with an onyx stone (no picture available, sadly.)

Our Sultan necklaces--here shown with Amethyst stones only--were very popular!

All in all, it was a very enjoyable weekend. We still have a ton of holiday shows left--check out our events page!

Zavida jewelry in some stunning wedding photos!

As promised, here are some of the pictures from Zavida customer Caitlin's wedding! She & her wedding party looked amazing and the pictures were so beautiful and well composed...props to photographer Brandon of Rivets and Roses photography. Caitlin was so sweet to send them our way. I love seeing people in Zavida jewelry...especially during such monumental life moments! Here are some of my favorites of the preview batch Caitlin sent us (click to see the full size image!) :

In this picture, you can see that all of Caitlin's bridesmaids are wearing Zavida Gemstones' Silver Wire earrings! Caitlin is wearing our Cabachon Pear Crystal earrings. Couldn't have asked for better models!

Above you can see the Zavida Rosecut Diamond Bangle that the bride chose to wear on her special day. One of my favorite Zavida bracelets, actually...

We will be sure to post a few more when we get the final set of close ups. Our best wishes to the lovely newlyweds!!

Zavida's blogging adventure begins!

This is Zavida Gemstones' first foray into the online world of blogging, and we couldn't be more excited! In fact, this is MY first foray into the online world of blogging, too. My name is Brenna and I am part of the Zavida Gemstones team! I have been lucky enough to have been chosen as one of the small handful of people who will be utilizing this blog to share the Zavida Gemstones world with our fans, friends, customers, and other likeminded people.

If you are interested in jewelry, geology (and the formation of gemstones!), traveling, fair trade, sustainability, culture (both local and foreign!), fun and exotic recipes, travel photography, community development, or making the world a better place one step at a time, then we have something to offer you. Stay tuned for all of this and more.

And now, a little about us! If you haven't heard of Zavida Gemstones, it is a young jewelry business hailing from Vashon Island, Washington, that promotes sustainable jewelry; that is to say, we believe that jewelry companies should not bully miners and artisans to acquire precious and semiprecious gems and metals, but rather, the companies and artisans should have a mutually fulfilling relationship. Zavida runs on a business model based on the idea that what is good for people is good for business, and what is good for business can, and should, be good for people. We buy jewelry and jewelry materials at fair market price from the artisans and miners, and additionally, we give back 25% of our profits to a community of artisans in India who lost everything in an earthquake--this money helps them to revive the ancient trade of silversmiths. This is the Zavida Silversmith Project, and you can find out more about it on our project website by clicking here. However, Zavida jewelry is not just from India! We have jewelry from artisans all across the world, and our goal is to one day have at least one project on every continent from which our jewelry originates.

In a sentence, "when you buy a Zavida piece, you are not only buying something beautiful for yourself or a loved one, you are making a small but significant contribution to global health and happiness."

In our next post or two, I hope to share some stunning wedding photos from a Zavida customer who outfitted her entire bridal party in Zavida pieces...