Birthday Necklace

For years, I have been frustrated by not having any jewelry in my birthstone. Those who share July as a birth month will be familiar with my plight -- it's very difficult to have jewelry made with an actual ruby, since it's so darn expensive (April babies has a similar problem, cursed with the diamond). And while I am not that fond of the color red, sometimes I do wish I had something in my birthstone. So last year I had an idea; I would get myself some ruby zoisite beads! Those are predominantly green and black with inclusions of rich wine colored ruby, which is both more affordable and more wearable than straight up ruby. They are still a bit expensive though, so I went with a lower grade when I placed my order. The photograph on the Fire Mountain website still showed plenty of inclusions though, so I wasn't worried. When my package arrived in the mail I tore into it, excited to start making my necklace.... until I saw the actual beads. Maybe 1 out of 5 had any visible ruby at all. I felt jipped, but there was nothing I could do. The site *does* warn that your beads are not the ones pictures. I tried to figure out a way to salvage the project, but I was just too disappointed. The beads sat in a box until a week ago, when I decided to see if there was anything I could do. After some experimentation I had a necklace, and I am quite happy with the results! I sorted through the ruby in zoisite and made sure that all of the beads with visible ruby inclusions were in the front. I alternated those with gemstone chips (I'm pretty sure they are garnet, but they might be a very dark amethyst) and accented with 8 silver cones. In the middle is a moonstone pendant which my mother in law gave me for Yule. I quite like that I managed to add the gemstone that governs my zodiac sign (Cancer) to my birthday necklace! All told, this necklace is much nicer than the one I had in my head last year.