Author Archives: SnobAppeal

Amethyst Glitz

“Can you make me a pendant that will match this”? Of course I can, but why would Bonnie want another piece of jewelry when she has hundreds of pendants to choose from?

It all started on Black Friday (that was actually Thanksgiving Thursday this year). She had a coupon for a local Department Store. I’ll man up and admit that I saw a dressy coat that I thought would look nice on my bride. It had a great design and Amethyst colors. We both like Amethyst. Paired with a glimmering silver blouse, this jacket looked really great.

Unbeknown to me, the jewelry maker”s wife had NOTHING to wear with these garments, and this is where I come in. After I realized the wife has NO suitable jewelry, and asked me in a nice way to help out, I actually thought about making something like I’ve never done before. Here’s the dumb part: I announced on The Facebook I was going to make this pendant so my jewelry-less wife would have something to actually wear to our Rock club Christmas Party IN THREE DAYS!

Bonnie thought a white gemstone with some Amethyst beads that she rooted out of her beadroom stash, would look nice. We thought at first white druzy would work, but she settled on the wonderfully rare shiny white Victoria Stone. Argentium Sterling was the metal of choice. You can read the intriguing story about Victoria Stone in my blog at http://www.snobappealjewelry.com .

It took me a while to figure out what I wanted to make and more time figuring out HOW I was going to do it. After a good nap, I arose with my mind clear and a picture in my mind of what the pendant would look like. I usually do not use colored Aluminum wire, but Bonnie does with her beads. Alas, she did not have any purple (I thought she had every beading item available), so we made a not-so-quick-trip to craft stores (notice I said stores with an S) to locate this wire so I could continue.

After a few hours of watching various “Redneck” shows and wire wrapping, the pendant emerged from the workbench. A good hint is if you are using your mind creating jewelry, you can still watch mindless TV, but not anything deep like “Polar Bears Discuss How to Properly Prepare Seal Sushi”. 1. Wait for seal head to pop up in the hole. 2. Snatch seal from the hole and eat, no seasoning necessary.

OK, so I got off my point; deal with it. Maybe the reason that this piece of jewelry looks unlike anything I’ve done before is because of watching Redneck Duck Calls, or some such show while making it.

Since I was clearly focused on my task, Bonnie took this opportunity to vacuum, do laundry, make cookies, and in general stay clear of my area, and not interrupt my concentration. I do tend to get grumpy when interrupted at key points, and sometimes she can tell what’s key, and what isn’t.

I awoke this morning with ideas that came to me in dreams on how to finish this project. I got right on it even before coffee! The jewelry is actually finished ladies and gentlemen. I could go into a lot of details on how I pulled this one off, but it’s Christmas and the stores are open, and I have to set up for our Open House tomorrow. Remember, shop small or shop on this website (trust me, we’re small). Now enjoy, what Bonnie calls, “The glitziest pendant you’ve ever made”.

Here is my bride Bonnie, happily wearing the pendant that "matched" her new duds.

Close-up of Bonnie's Pendant. Those Swarovski Crystals really add glitz to this Party Pendant. White Victoria Stone & Amethyst Beads.

Fordite (Motor City Agate)

A nice chunk of Fordite and what I made from it.

Over the past few months I have been able to make purchases and trade for several nice pieces of Fordite. I have blogged about Fordite in the past, but haven’t talked about it for some time.

A new supply Fordite cabochons ready for jewelry.

I thought rose gold and silver looked good with Fordite of this color.

Fordite is a generic term for the build-up of overspray on non-vehicle areas within automotive, boat, and private paint booths. Much of the paint, after it reached a certain depth, was removed from overspray areas and hauled to landfills. Some paint chunks were taken home by employees.

Designed shapes flow with the Fordite.

Eventually some creative individuals realized that this waste paint could be re-cycled (but we did not use the term recycle back then). It was discovered that the chunks of scavenged material were especially suited for colorful jewelry!

How did this guy get into this slab of Fordite?

As cars, for example, flowed along the assembly line on assembly stands they were actually spray painted by REAL people (not robots). The car bodies were mounted on assembly stands that transported them along the line. Overspray saturated these stands, walls, and pipe surfaces. Each car was a different color, so excess paint was sprayed on the walls of the paint booths to get it out of the sprayer. The sprayer was reloaded with a different color, and the procedure was repeated. Paint build-up could be an inch thick or more.

Side 1 of a Fordite.

Side 2 of the same Fordite. I like both sides so I’ll make it so someone can wear it with either side out.

I like this piece. It is rare to find green in Fordite.

You would think that paint certainly is not suitable for jewelry, but this paint from the 60’s and early 70’s was very tough. Remember that the enamel was baked after each color was applied, so while the vehicle was getting baked, so was the overspray on the assembly stand. Layers were baked over and over, perhaps hundreds of times. Also the paint contained lead. Lead was added to allow for speed drying, pigment, increased durability, to resist corrosion causing moisture, and to retain a fresh appearance. I’ve been told that the paint “flowed” better with the lead. Bottom line is that Fordite is tuff stuff. I use my diamond wheels to form this paint just as I do with other stones.

At an art show I had one lady ask me in a sarcastic voice, “Does this paint have lead in it?”. I could see she was just “testing” me, so I asked her “Why, are you going to eat it?”. My counselor and wife admonished me later, but it was fun anyway. I think back to all the lead paint I ate as a kid. I couldn’t resist the lure of paint peeling off the wall! It’s a wonder any babyboomer is still alive. Virtually ALL paint had lead in it “back in the day”. You can be sure that the small lead content of your jewelry is certainly not the biggest threat to your health!

By the mid-70’s public safety rules from various Departments, regarding health and job safety, were enacted limiting lead exposure in the workplace, and robots began painting cars using powder coating, virtually eliminating Fordite, as the paint no longer built up on the assembly stands. Fordite’s days came to an end when powder coating was mandated in most applications. There are still things painted the old fashioned way. Non-metallic body parts come to mind, so in some manufacturing you still can acquire layered paint pieces.

It’s amazing to me the variety in pattern that can be coaxed out of a single piece of Fordite. The real secret of Fordite is that it may not come out of a Ford Plant. I cannot tell where exactly where most of my Fordite came from (I often call my Fordite “Motor City Agate” if I do not know it’s source), and neither can 90% of jewelry makers, although some car collectors can actually match colors to old cars. I try my hardest to find matching color charts for my antique Fordite.

This rare antique paint is quite expensive to buy, if you can find it. It’s a great day when I find someone with a stash of this wonderful old material. You also could own a piece of Fordite jewelry or give one as a gift. A wide variety of folks admire the Motor City agates–because they love the bright colors, the cool designs, they worked for an automotive company, or they just love jewelry. This is a surprising media, and is a good conversation starter. Which is your favorite wire-wrapped Fordite pendant?

Is your Jewelry “REALLY” Rare?

Old Crazy Lace from Mexico was turned it this wild set.

What is it that makes “old material” in the lapidary world more valuable than what is being mined today? Sometimes the value is true because a desirable area has been completely cleaned out, and sometimes the values are false or artificially created by a controlled market. The nature of people is to covet anything that is scarce, as we see when morons run over each other at Christmas to get that rare (?) toy or electronic device.

Rare Victoria Stone. This one is light blu, but they come in other colors also.

There are actually some lapidary materials that are rare, and some material, like Diamonds, that are artificially rare. Much of the materials I make jewelry from really are rare. They include Victoria Stone (the art of creating this was lost in the late 1970’sand has not been rediscovered), Wingate Agate (the land is now in a highly restricted military bombing range area),

Wingate Pass Agate from the China Lake Military Reserve, Death Valley California.

Old stock Cocoxenite from Brazil

Cocoxenite from Brazil, and old stock Mexican Crazy Lace Agate.

Mexican Crazy Lace Agate is still available, but not with the beautiful pastel yellows, pinks, and that most sought after material, that contained beautiful caramel opal sometimes found years ago. The only chance of getting this really old agate from the 5o’s and 60″s is to find an old collection. The primary reason I often buy up old rock collections is to obtain just a few pieces of really rare material that may be hidden in the collection grandpa had.

The "new" Cocoxinite (called Super 7) from Brazil is nice, but just not great, like the old stuff

The "new" Cocoxenite (called Super 7) from Brazil is nice, but just not great, like the old stuff

OLD Crazy Lace is jaw dropping. The caramel is all opal!

The reverse side. AMAZING! Two pendants in one.

I just finished a gorgeous pendant and matching set of earrings from some old Crazy Lace. I am sharing this set with you as well as some pictures of other old Crazy Lace pieces I have in stock.

I have found really colorful old Crazy Lace Agate at the shows in Quartzite and Tucson by carefully searching. One time several years ago, as I was walking by one of the hotel rooms at Tucson, I spotted old Cocoxinite through the window. The guy had acquired some old material in an estate sale. How happy I was, as well as other knowledgeable rockhounds, to find this rare, long time extinct, gemstone. The next day I went back to get more, but guess what? IT WAS ALL GONE! I quickly learned my lesson. If you see rare stuff, get all you can or others will scarf it up.

Colorful Datolites from the old copper mines are also getting harder and harder to find. The rarest is the almost impossible to find Centennial Blue Datolite. Also brown datolite from the old Arcadian Mine that now is under the Houghton Airport. I actually have some of this brown datolite, but I haven’t figured out how to make attractive jewelry from it.

Iron Lace Agate from the Republic Mine.

A small quantity of fortification agate was discovered at the Republic open pit iron mine in the metamorphic iron formations back in the mid-70’s. I have found some of this rare agate in old collections owned by veteran members of the Ishpeming Rock Club. After this agate was discovered members of the Ishpeming Club named this material Iron Lace Agate. A few rockhunting field trips were made to the mine and all this agate was collected. There may be more at the mine, but tons of rocks would have to be moved to find it. This stuff is impossibly rare.

Blue Centennial Datolite. Talk about rare.

There are many other really rare gemstones throughout the world, and I can only say that if you see it in a jewelry store, it probably is NOT what I consider rare. I concentrate on offering my customers rare and unusual gem material. Some of the rocks I have for making jewelry are so rare you may never see another person wearing the same gem.

Yellow Cat Petrified Wood, although rare, can still be found. This bright red wood was used by Tiffany for their jewelry years ago.

I have scores of truly atypically scarce stones. Call me if you want something unusual. I might have it in stock.

After I finished this blog, Bonnie told me there was just too much information (and pictures) for one blog. I told her you all could handle it. Picture-wise, I think this may be my best blog ever for jaw-dropping images.

Datolite-A Borosilicate to be proud of

I always keep several hundred cabochons in my inventory, ready to be made into fabulous Snob Appeal Jewelry. After I cut my cabs I carefully place them in boxes, trays, or perhaps just lay them gently on the dining room table (this my wife is not fond of). She is misguided in thinking that the dining room table is only for dining on.

The workbench was a mess today; not to worry; I'll just put stuff on the dining room table.

Fortunately she is married to a husband who thinks outside the box and can utilize the dining room table for several things at once. The table is an ideal place for putting new and old jewelry that may be in the loop for cleaning, posting up, washing, remaking, or just to lay somewhere where it “won’t get lost”. The issue sometimes is that the jewelry can get covered by several layers of newspapers or mail; then I either forget it’s there or lose it. That being said Bonnie enjoys saying things like: “Are you missing this?’, or “If you’d put it where it belongs, you’d be able to find it.” Comments like these disrupt the serenity of my retired life.

Today I went in search of my favorite borosilicate, Datolite. What is your favorite borosilicate? I re-discovered a beautiful pastel, copper-included Datolite from the Mesnard Copper Mine in the Keweenaw Peninsula of upper Michigan. The Mesnard mine was near the Quincy Mine but it seemed that the finest Datolite colors of yellow-orange, pink, and red came from the Mesnard. The Mesnard waste piles are now owned by a gravel company and are no longer available for hunting, making Mesnard Datolite ever more rare and more coveted every year.

I love this Mesnard Datolite.

The designer shape and the coloration of this cabochon warranted a tri-tone wrap. I used gold, Argentium silver and pink gold for the wraps. The pink gold beautifully draws out the copper inclusions in the cabochon. I love the dancing sunset colors of the stone. A picture cannot do justice to the true colorations of this remarkable gemstone.

A bonus Mesnard Datolite.

The most common white Datolites are still out there, but colored Datolite is dwindling. The only place to find these fine old pieces of Mesnard are from old collections, and even these are becoming very limited. Fortunately someone who has inherited an old collection, or has an old collection and needs some ready cash sometimes approaches me. I really appreciate how hard these gems are to locate both then and now, and I am always trying to keep a good variety of Datolite jewelry available.

If you enjoy rare gemstone jewelry or have ever sought a piece of Datolite Jewelry, you should act now before there is no more of these beautiful rare hues available. Many a Mesnard has vanished in the piles on my dining room table, increasing the shortage of my favorite Borosilicate.

Whimsical Agate.

Lucy gave me an agate cabochon a few weeks ago and wanted a whimsical pendant.

Lucy's Agate on my workbench. Do you see the face?

This cabochon had a big smile and little eyes. Lucy saw glasses on the face, as did I.

I thought about this face for a couple weeks and today an idea popped out. I saw the glasses and envisioned little curls.

Does this make you smile?

Here is the finished pendant. I hope it makes you smile as it does me. Lucy will really like this piece of jewelry in her collection and enjoy making other people smile.

Petoskey Stone Twins

Same stone; Different pendants.

Today I wrapped Petoskey Stone jewelry from a pair of cabochons of the same perfect stone.

The stone on the right was wrapped in Argentium Sterling and Pink Gold. The Pink Gold wire is a new product, so it is fun to try it out with different stones. This Petoskey stone really looks good in that combination, and result in a new jewelry look. This one is available for purchase today.

The next slab produced the stone on the left. I wrapped this one in 14/20 Gold Fill and Argentium. This one looks great also. This one will be for sale in Copper World in Calumet at the end of the week. You’ll have to call them!

I expect to make more Petoskey Stone Jewelry in the near future from some of the rare pick Petoskey’s I have, so watch for it.

Enjoy this pair; more to come.

Inside the A.E. Seaman Museum

The A.E. Seaman Mineral Museum

I thought you would like to see a small sample of what you would see when you visit the A.E. Seaman Mineral Museum.

THE most spectacular native Copper specimens in the world.

Copper Included Calcite

The new museum opened just over a year ago under the direction of Dr. Ted Bornhorst and Curator Dr. George Robinson.

The famous "Grasshopper" (Native Copper)

The Seaman is Michigan’s Official State Mineral Museum, located on the Michigan Technological University Campus in Houghton. A brand new museum building houses one of the most remarkable collections of rocks & minerals in the world.

Tourmaline

There is no other museum, including the Smithsonium, that houses the premier collection of Upper Peninsula Minerals that you see at the Seaman. Also you will not want to miss the amazing fluorescent display room, and the many “best in the world” specimens scattered thoughout this museum.

All the new, locally manufactured, custom display cases seem to be a perfect fit, and the lighting in the Seaman Museum is just perfect. Much thought went into the entire structure, except,”what do you do if you hit an old mine shaft during construction?”. You can read the interesting story from the building construction at The Mining Gazette. And you know the story eventually had a happy ending!

One of the Mineral Galleries at the Seaman

Pegmatite Display

A temporary display on loan from a private collection.

Many people, from around the world, make a pilgrimage to this out-of-the-way locale just to see this world-class museum. YOU would be remiss if you missed this marvelous and incredible museum. You might even have a Pasty after your explorations in the A.E. Seaman Museum.

A Donation to the A.E. Seaman Mineral Museum

Anyone that knows me, knows that one of my favorite places in the world is the Keweenaw Peninsula. It is a beautiful, historic place, as well as my best rock-hunting area.

The New A.E. Seaman Mineral Museum.

In Houghton, on the campus of Michigan Technological Institute is one of the great mineral Museums in the world, one that, unfortunately, most tourists pass up. The A.E. Seaman Mineral Museum located at 1404 Sharon Avenue. The seaman Museum is Michigan’s Official State Mineral Museum.

The Seaman moved to their new building last summer. The new building is still lacking the space to display all the museums collection, but it is all they could afford when forced to move from their old space in central campus location. The new museum building has room for expansion in the future.

Donating my Pink Petoskey Stone to Dr. Robinson at the Seaman Museum. I am pointing the case where the specimen should fit.

The curator of the museum collection is my good friend, Dr. George Robinson, who also teaches some of the geology classes at Tech. The director of the Seaman is Dr Ted Bornhorst. Based on all the work done in moving the specimens, and setting up all the new displays, I would also point out the work done by George’s wife, Susan. You might as well call her co-curator.

The new museum opened officially in August 2011. I told George that when the museum opened, I would donate a world-class Pink Petoskey Stone to add to their display case containing Michigan’s Official State Stone. I took a mineral photography class in 2010 and George saw the Pink Petoskey Stone when we photographed it in the class.

The world-class favosites I donated previously to the Seaman.

I have previously donated a Favosites specimen that is on display, but it was an honor for me to share my Pink Petoskey with the world. I know of no other museum that has a pink Petoskey Stone in their collection.

You can clearly see this Petoskey is Pink!

Next time you are in the Houghton area, check out the A.E. Seaman Mineral Museum and look for my donated fossils.

I’ll blog more about the museum and show you some of the displays in the near future.

The Museum Collections

(as listed on the AE Seaman Museum website):

World’s finest collection of Keweenaw Copper District minerals

World’s finest collection of Lake Superior Iron District minerals

World’s most comprehensive collection of Michigan Minerals

One of the best fluorescent mineral exhibits in the United States

One of the largest systematic mineral collections on public view in North America

Collection includes individual specimens that are the best of their species

One of the world’s best suites of Fairfield, Utah Variscite

One of the world’s best suites of Yukon phosphate minerals

Guinness World Record copper specimen (satellite exhibit at the Quincy Mine)

Greenstones in the Rain (and other fun U.P. things)

The colors in the Keweenaw were about 30%, but we found spots. This tree was near Phoenix.

Our fall weekend in the Keweenaw was very productive.

The view from the top of Brockway Mountain indicates it will be a couple weeks before peak colors.

By going up Thursday, most tourist traffic can be avoided, and an extra day for rock hunting opens up. We found some nice greenstone at the Mandan.

Finding a nice Greenstone in all this rock is a challenge.

The best time to locate Greenstones is in the rain. The silky chatoyance just pops from the stones, both the loose nodules and those nodules still embedded in the matrix. We looked pretty wet and scruffy after a day in the rain, but it was worth it.

We had the Cliff Pile to ourselves on this drizzly day.

My favorite fall colors, maple Leaves and Greenstones.

Friday is also ‘pasty day” at the Mohawk Superettte. The locals purchase their pasties (pronounced pas-tee) in quantities, and we are happy to when we are in the area. We find them to be some of the finest pasties around. For those that do not know what a pasty is, they are a portable Cornish pie made from coarsely ground beef, with small cubes of potatoes, and rutabagas. You can find recipies on line. This was a hearty lunch for the miners, sort of an early version of fast food!

Any day is a great day to Stop in the Jam Pot and purchase a few delicious Muffins and rum-soaked, raisin and nut filled, brownies from the monks. Yum! (Closed Sundays, of course)

Makes me hungry just looking at the sign in Mohawk.

This rock ship at Kearsarge always makes us smile. Bonnie mans the ship at the Veterans Memorial.

While just aimlessly searching I saw a 3″ suspect just laying on the ground. This was just a suspect greenstone and may or may not develop into a winner. We also went to the Cliff mine, my favorite Prehnite location, and picked up some nice material to cut.

Whenever I go to the Upper Peninsula, I enjoy at least one day wire wrapping at Copper World in Calumet, and I really had a great time as usual. Talking to the customers, and answering rock and jewelry questions are a couple of my favorite things.

Sunday was another cool day with some scattered showers, we went out with some new rockhound friends. Bonnie found some nice little greenstones, and I found a very nice 2″ stone that has to be cut from a rock.

From left to right beginning at the top: Mesnard Datolite, Rose Quartz and Quartz with Copper, Franklin Datolite, Yellow Keweenaw Point Datolite, Patricianite with Silver and Copper.

While up north, I also located a source for some rare and unusual things like Patricianite with silver, and pink crystallized Datolite. Let’s see what kind of jewelry I can make.

Close-up of the Rose Quartz Cabochon.

A couple other things we did were donating a polished Pink Petoskey to the Seaman Mineral Museum (Blog coming), and I walked into Copper World Sunday afternoon and met a couple from Dayton, Ohio that had just purchased an exceedingly rare large Greenstone with a centrally embedded copper crystal, as well as a Petoskey Stone Pendant. It’s always nice to meet with owners of my jewelry. It means a lot to me to talk to them and answer any questions, and I think that the jewelry means a lot more to them when they can say they have met the artist. I could have stopped in any time, but Karma (I learned about this from Earl) brought me in at that particular time.

Patricianite with silver and copper inclusions.

Now I have some exciting new U.P. gemstones to cut, polish, and wrap up. It will be a great rest of the month.

The above stones I cut this morning. Enjoy!

Working on U.P. Projects

Today let’s talk about some of the projects I brought back from the Upper Peninsula.

Sue's "super" Thomsonite

Sue has been a faithful customer over the years and she has brought me some amazing local stones for custom pieces in the past.

This time she brought one of the largest and most amazing Pink Thomsonites I’ve seen in a while. The cabochon was found in the Keweenaw 40 years ago, according to an I.D. tag that was on it. Thomsonites of this size and quality are very scary to work with because of the value and this one because of the size. Thomsonite sometimes just blows apart when you work with it on the grinder. Any harmonics created by the machine grinding wheels can send shockwaves into this material that sometimes just blows the stone apart.

I am always up to a challenge, but I also would hate to ruin a $500 stone. Thomsonite varies in hardness quite a bit, as well as crystal structure.

I had to re-work this stone to balance the shape and the dome. Believe me it was scary. This stone was very hard and solid (fortunately), and I was able to reform and re-cut it .

I was very happy with the way the wrap came out. As is my normal theory on wrapping I did not cover the beauty of the stone, yet I wanted the wrapping to be as elegant as the stone. I liked the way it came out; as did Sue.

Unusual blue coloration enhances this great little agate.

Nancy's ring.

Our friend Nancy brought several stones for me to assess. She enjoys the U.P. and rock hunting. Her daughter, Elizabeth, is also a rockhound. Several of Nancy’s stones had possibilities, and cutting when I got home produced an unusual small agate from the end of an otherwise plain stone. The stone had a strange bluish area. I have never seen this coloration in a Lake Superior Agate. It is hard to explain and lucky for you I took a picture. I made a ring for Nancy that reminds her of the U.P.

Elizabeth's wonderful pendant.

Elizabeth found a very cool ledge agate the next day and after cutting it and finding out how nice it was, I made a great little silver pendant for her. All these projects I really enjoyed. I love making my customers happy. Thanks to all of them.

You are not going to believe what is inside this stone.

The third project was my wife Bonnie’s anniversary pendant. You have seen the amazing copper-infused Datolite Pendant, but I don’t think you saw the ordinary looking rock it came from. You never know what might be inside the crust of a rock. I think that is why I love making jewelry. I’m the first person to actually see the inside of the rocks I cut for my jewelry.

The 35th Anniversary Pendant...SHE LIKED IT!

I would be happy to do some custom work for you. I can take your stones and create something wonderful just for you! What’s your dream jewelry? Let me make it for you.