Blue Lace Agate is popular because it can be worn with almost anything, and has unusual pastel coloring. I felt compelled to fancy the bail up a bit.
After the frenzy of Christmas comes the chance to start on new pieces and replenish our bestselling stone pendants. I don’t know what happened in January, but I made a lot of jewelry! This blog will be fairly simple. I will just show you some of the newest pendants and earrings.
The Great Lake stones are always most popular, so you will see Lake Superior Agate, Isle Royale Greenstone, Copper Agate, Datolite, and Firebrick. Opal, Rhodochrosite, Blue Lace Agate, Charoite, and Petrified Wood are also eye-catching and beloved. Two of these you will find offered in our newest category, Jewelry Sets. A surprise pair of stones I found in Tucson last year caught my eye again, Rainbow Obsidian hearts, so I did one in silver and the other in gold. And of course, people love Druzy!
Picture Petrified Wood from Holbrook, Arizona. I am fascinated by this stuff. Unless you knew it was Petrified Wood, you would probably not guess it is.
I made this gorgeous Rhodochrosite set to replace a set purchased as a Christmas gift. Beautiful color and gem quality came together nicely. They look like pink candy.
The back side of the Copper Included Agate found in the Kearsarge Lode in Michigan’s Copper Country. Many Copper Agates are ugly on the back (which is actually the outside of the nodule, as found by the miner.)
The front side of a Copper Agate. You can see the bands of Copper that replaced some of the agate banding. This one has Copper Eyes. I focused a light on the front face. The copper popped and the cleat Quartz reflected the green back wall of the nodule. Without the light reflecting the face is mostly white.
Like the old song about Friends, “one is silver and the other gold”.
I made a pair of Rainbow Obsidian Hearts thinking someone would like one for Valentine’s Day. If you could see them in the sun you would see the pendants “pop”.
Kingman Turquoise is from one of the oldest Arizona Turquoise Mines. Native Americans historically mined Turquoise from this location long before the white man appeared.
My favorite Gemstones are Lake Superior Agates; a flawless Lake Superior Agate with perfect, varied, pastel color banding.
Kentucky Agate with coveted red, black, and yellow bands
Firebrick happened when vapors and molten Copper replaced much of the brick in the walls of the Copper Smelter. The Silica was impervious to the hot Copper and remains as small white grains in the Firebrick. This pendant was challenging to make in many ways.
A tiny Greenstone from Isle Royale (this is about as small as I can wire wrap.) This is a perfect choice for the person who wants to put it on and wear it 24/7.
The sizzle of Fire Agate amazes me.
I’ve wrapped many new Greenstone Pendants in preparation for summer sales, and Bonnie has had me working on earrings. Earrings are not my favorite projects for a couple reasons. First; they take as much time to make as two pendants and second; They are small and require that they be exactly like each other, but a butterfly image of each other. Buyers also think that earrings should be less expensive because they are smaller than pendants. This should not be the case at all, as they are smaller, and require more detailed work both in cutting and wrapping. Hear me grumble?
When making pendant/earring sets, they more often require making the cabochons and earrings from the same stone. You can never, for example, match a set of Lake Superior Agate earrings to a Lake Superior Agate Pendant, unless they are from the same stone. No two Lake Superior Agates are alike.
We have hundreds of pendants and earrings, both on line, and in our Show Inventory. So if, for example, you prefer a silver wire pendant, and you only see a gold pendant on line, give us a call. We might have something in our off-line inventory. Remember we can custom wrap something for you in a stone of your choice. We have many thousands of stones and cabochons; we specialize in Great Lakes Rocks and Minerals.
Drusy Quartz is a natural Quartz pocket. In some cases these pockets are dyed or treated using Titanium Vapors.
A very fine Dinosaur Bone. Red is always a popular color for jewelry.
From the Keweenaw Peninsula, Datolite with copper and other inclusions.
Charoite from Russia is always beautiful, but you will seldom see this stone with a landscaped picture, such as this has.
A Neon Blue Cooper Peby Opal doublet. A picture does not do this justice, but I did the best I could. Bling!
Gorgeous South African Pietersite. A beautiful landscape that the picture nowhere near does justice to.
Transparent Coyamito Agate from Mexico make charming earrings.