Beautiful Turquoise from Battle Mountain, Nevada
I am hesitant sometimes to try new Gemstone material, but I bought a piece of Turquoise from Battle Mountain, Nevada, at one of the Arizona shows. After cutting this stuff, I found it is absolutely wonderful. I have never cut natural Turquoise so hard. It was almost Quartz-hard. You can see why I like it. it sold the first time I put it out.
Custom jewelry pieces have been a backbone of our business for as long as we have existed. I love when someone contacts me in person or via the web, with an idea for a piece of jewelry, or simply brings a rock to one of our art shows to make something for them. Unlike most people that wire wrap, I cut most of my cabochons from rough rock. I know most wire wrappers don’t cut because of the crowds around cabochon dealers at the major trade shows; all wearing wire jewelry that they made from these cabochon. Even I, on occasion, find a cabochon I cannot pass up. Pre-holidays is a busy time around here, whether it be cutting rocks people find, or making custom pieces from rocks/gemstones that patrons provide.
A quality Petoskey Stone was removed from this ugly wire pendant.
Over the years, after seeing what kind of work I do, people will bring in jewelry that some other artist has created. Generally these are what I refer to as “amateur jobs”, and they generally are from the “Lee” family. Most of you know the Lees’; Home-Lee and Ug-Lee. One time a lady had a gorgeous Victoria Stone Ug-Lee wrapped in tarnished Sterling. Sometimes I am brutally honest, and in this case I told the lady that her pretty Victoria Stone deserved better. It wasn’t long before she came back to my booth and told me to fix the Lee wrapping. I did a rush job, and she was delighted when she returned the next day. I even wrote a blog on this, if you care to take a look.
http://www.snobappealjewelry.com/blog/2011/07/victoria-stone… y-to-beautiful/
After removing the Petoskey cabochon, I re-wrapped the stone as it deserved.
Janet brought in a very fine Petoskey Stone in a Lee wrap. If you know anything about Petoskey Stones, they are almost pure Calcite, and Calcite is a softer stone. This particular stone was grooved around the edge with a single piece of 16 or 18 gauge Sterling surrounding the stone in the aforementioned groove. It was twisted wire, making it even more distracting from this lovely, clear, stone. This technique of “grooving” is a simple way to created a fast, cheap, wrap, and in general is used for harder Silica stones.
By grooving a Petoskey Stone, it makes a weak edge, and two things can happen. 1. When you tighten the wire, the edge can (and often does) flake or break. 2. Because of the soft stone, the wire cannot be tightened enough to secure the stone in its’ grip tightly enough. Glue can be used, but then you see glue around the edge. In this case Janet’s pendant was literally falling out of its frame. Some related advise–I recommend no one buy a Petoskey Stone Ring. No matter what you are told by anyone selling you a Petoskey Stone Ring, they do scratch. I am constantly re-polishing them for people, but you can only do so much. Never buy any ring with soft material in it. Petoskey Stone Pendants are generally great, but still if you are wearing them, they can be scratched by zippers, metal buttons, or other harder objects. Pendants, unlike rings, can easily be re-polished.
Another customer brought in a couple large rectangular beads with holes drilled through them at the top with a mediocre finish. I cut across the beads just below the hole, re-shaped the cabochons so they were thinner, and less harsh. By rounding the edges and re-shaping these, I was able to produce a more pleasing shape to wrap. After reshaping them, I polished them and was pleased at how much better they looked. You can see the finished results.
I am also including a couple other recent projects for your viewing pleasure. Did I mention the 22 9mm Greenstones I made for one discriminating lady?
Nancy always brings me interesting projects. This is an example of a Laker she brought me for cutting and wrapping. It turned out so wonderful.
Greenstone always looks great with pink gold.
As Christmas approaches, I become more and more busy, so get your custom suggestions to me as soon as you can. At my age, I can’t take the stress of rush jobs like I could in my younger days. It’s not too early to start your shopping. Why do the big box stores have to put their Christmas stuff up before Halloween? I guess you could, theoretically, buy a Santa Costume and wear it for two holidays!!
Feathery Thompsonite from the north shore.
Pink Petoskey Stones don't come much better.
Hey! that’s just the way I think!!
