Cynthia Renée

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Cynthia Renée https://cynthiarenee.com

30+ years bringing clients the beauty & power of fine jewelry & colored gem

Cynthia Renee Inc.’s founder, colored gemstone expert Cynthia Renée, guides clients through the intricacies of the colored gem market, the creative process of transforming rough minerals to faceted stones and, finally, creating jewelry designed to perfectly complement gem and wearer. From traveling the world hunting for a discerning collector’s dream gem to working with a novice collector creating an heirloom jewel, advising women on jewelry style and wardrobing, Cynthia’s lifework has been bringing her clients the aesthetic and intellectual connection to something great and enduring: the beauty and power of colored gemstones. Jewelry Care & Storage Resource List:https://kit.co/CynthiaReneeJewels/jewelry-care-storage-must-haves

10/23/2026

A funny thing happened on the way to making a tiara…

I fell for antique diamonds!

I’ve been sourcing century-old Old European-cut diamonds for a client’s tiara.

Cut by hand.

One facet a little broader.
Another angled differently.

And the light!

Not today’s diamonds, throwing fireworks at us.

These draw my eye inward.

Broad, warm flashes.
Layers of gentler light.

They have an internal life.

In a world racing toward faster, brighter, more perfect…
perfection can feel rather tyrannical.

But what if perfect isn’t what makes something beautiful?

I love that you can still see the hand of the cutter in these diamonds.

And that no two give back the light quite the same way.

I’ve gathered four pairs of these antique diamonds.

A century of lives already behind them.

And a whole new life ahead.

Curious? Message me for details.

10/16/2026

A client’s husband passed away several years ago. She brought me their wedding bands, wondering what we might do with them.

As we talked, she kept admiring another client’s ring with peridot and yellow sapphires.

Then she mentioned her wedding bouquet had been daffodils!
Well, there was our answer. 🌼

We’re going to use her husband’s wedding band as the foundation for a new ring, with three gems in those wonderful daffodil colors.

Not simply stones perched on a band. The gold and gems will flow together into something entirely new, while keeping their marriage at its heart.

Your Life, Written in Jewels

Vastness doesn’t end at the edge of a landscape.Mountain, rock, water, sky.Weather announcing its arrival miles before i...
09/26/2026

Vastness doesn’t end at the edge of a landscape.

Mountain, rock, water, sky.

Weather announcing its arrival miles before it came.

Out there, I didn’t feel small.
I felt larger inside.

Feet anchored to the earth.
Spirit free to fly.

Perhaps that’s what vast places give us.
Room.

For imagination.
For possibility.

For more of ourselves.

09/23/2026

Vastness doesn’t end at the edge of a landscape.

Rannoch Moor.

Mountain, rock, water, sky.

Weather announcing its arrival miles before it came.

Out there, I didn’t feel small.
I felt larger inside.

Feet anchored to the earth.
Spirit free to fly.

Perhaps that’s what vast places give us.
Room.

For imagination.
For possibility.

For more of ourselves.

09/15/2026

Tucked where only those who love her will look:
her initial. K.

Resting over her heart.
Her heartbeats, layered in.

A landmark birthday. A son’s wedding.

A rare blush topaz from the Hindu Kush,
transformed into a bespoke heirloom pendant;
designed three thousand miles apart.

Someday her grandchildren will feel
her heart’s echo.

Your life, written in the language of jewels.

What would you want hidden where only those who love you will look?
Tell me in the comments.

09/10/2026

Her mother kept a ruby in a box her whole life.

Never wore it. Just... kept it safe.

Her daughter remembered slipping it onto her little girl fingers. Playing with it. Putting it back.

Six years after her mother passed, she came to me.

She wanted to honor her.

We took that ruby. Recut it. Reset it. Surrounded it with diamonds rising like sparks.

The ring her mother never gave herself.

Her daughter gave it to her.

That’s what a jewel can do.

Is there a jewel in your life that’s never had its moment?
✦

09/03/2026

What does your jewelry box remember?

A birthday.
An adventure.

A dream you had twenty years ago.
A new beginning.

We choose jewels because we love them.

Then we live in them.

And somewhere along the way, they begin holding pieces of our lives.

Maybe that’s why pulling them all out and playing with them really is...
the best therapy.

08/20/2026

I had to reach over and stop her hand.

We were at dinner.
Her chihuahua in the handbag,

Neither of us sits on our hands, and hers had been moving the entire meal.

Emphasizing.
Feeling around for the word she wanted.

On it, a ring I made her in 2016.

Green grossular garnet, 9.16 carats, carried home from a buying trip to Tanzania, magenta tourmaline on either side.

Watching one hand petting her dog.
The other one flying.

I felt like a cat.

Hold still. Let me look at it.

WhatAGem podcast asked me recently how I let my pieces go.

It isn’t hard.
I get to visit them.

On the table beside her, an unset fuchsia rubellite tourmaline.
Her next one.

She’s already chosen what’s going beside it.
What do you think she chose?

08/19/2026

Sunset.
A horse who didn’t like being told what to do.

And two hours before I knew a haboob was coming for us.

Somewhere in that ride, past the Palo Verde and their scarred seeds waiting for water, I thought about the year I was 29 and everything cracked open.

Years later I went looking for a cenote in Mexico.

Turquoise water deep enough to hold me.
I never found the cenote.

But I found this blue instead.

A tourmaline I still dive into, every time I put it on.

That’s bespoke jewelry design.
Not just decoration…
A place to keep returning to.

07/30/2026

“I think sixty deserves a ring with a little gravitas.”

That’s what Christine told me.

She’d fallen for two gemstones.
Lavender jade.

And a blue-green tourmaline all over Instagram, called “lagoon.”

Except “lagoon” isn’t a gem.
It’s a marketing name. Made up years ago, for one tourmaline, from Namibia.

Clever. It worked.
But that color was never only Namibia’s to claim.

So instead of an “okay” lavender jade...
I brought her something from my own collection.

An exceptional lavender chalcedony.

Then, two blue-green tourmalines. From Afghanistan, not Namibia.

Same color she loved.
Different mine. Different price. Same spell.
She wasn’t giving anything up.

Still just a sketch here.

Waves curling in. Diamonds scattering like sea spray.

This is what a custom made ring looks like, before it’s finished.

And, this is what it’s like to work with me.


BespokeJewelry agta_gems LegacyInJewels WrittenInStone MilestoneJewelry

Address

By Appointment
Cary, NC
27511

Telephone

+19198834791

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