Judith Kaufman’s druzy and moonstone brooch
By Tina Snyder
When West Hartford, Connecticut-based Judith Kaufman stumbled upon a donut-shaped periwinkle druzy quartz at the Tucson gem shows a few years back, she was reminded of a recurring theme in her repertoire.
“Back in the 1960s, there was an abundance of clocks that had a very celestial, spray-like look about them,” she says. “It’s a shape that I find very appealing, and the motif has crept into my work now and again for the past 40-plus years.”
Kaufman felt the druzy would make the perfect starting point for a celestial brooch, with the open center begging to be filled with a complementary stone. “I selected a moonstone with a blue flash that picked up the hue of the quartz,” she says. And from then on, it was all a matter of what felt right.