Author Archives: SnobAppeal

Celebration of Agates Ends

The Celebration of Agate sadly ended today with a time consuming breakdown of all our displays, and carefully putting our jewelry away for the upcoming trip and shows in the U.P.

Aerial view of the show.

Bonnie making a sale.

Wonderful display by Rock of Ages.

Rock of Ages agates.

The last day of the show added a good quantity of Fordite to my stash and three pounds of flawless Lake Superior Agates for jewelry in the future. On the whole this trip was worthwhile. Our jewelry was a show hit!

We met many rock people and remember a couple from Connecticut that plan their vacations around rock related activities. They were headed to the Kewenaw and I suggested they check in at the Seaman Museum and see if they can still register for a hunt or two in the Copper Country Mineral Retreat next week. We expect to see them on the rock pile.

The Celebration of Agates was a successful show with seminars, specimens, jewelry, and lots of learning opportunities. If you have never been to a rock show yet, be sure to attend one in your area this year!

Polka-dot Agate

Spanish Pyrite shown by the Geode Gallery

Costigan's rough rock.

A wonderful wood display.

Great marbles!

Worlds Largest Lake Superior Agate

Panera Bread is a great place to have coffee, a pecan roll, and to blog. Everyone likes my blog from Minnesota, and I really appreciate it. People at the Agate Show from all over have told me they follow my blog–how nice!

Wild Crazy Lace

Lakers like this are all over here; like they are a common occurence.

More Lakers over a pound.

MORE!

The excitement was high at the Celebration of Agate Show today. We talked to people that just came to the show on a lark and could not believe what they saw.

World Record Agates appeared at Scott Wolter's booth today.

The excitement today was I saw loads of Lakers again that I had not seen before, including both the world record Lake Superior Agate and the world record Fairburn Agate.

How about these north shore Thomsonites?

The show attendance was around 1100 today. I had good fun just talking to rockhounds from around the U.S.

Tepee Canyon Agates

I’m just going to show you some of the amazing things I saw today, I hope you do not get bored with great agates.

You would think Fairburn Agates were common looking at this display!

Celebration of Agates-A Giant Venue

Taken from the running track above the show.

Nice assortment of Petrified wood.

lind

The Celebration of Agates opened at noon with a rush of customers standing in line anticipating all the goodies enclosed in this giant gym. All the dealers here were invited to participate, so the best agate dealers from around the world are here, especially popular are the Lake Superior Agates, the State Stone of Minnesota.

Kentucky Agate-gotta love the red & black.

One of Scott Wolter's Lakers. This one maybe three pounds?

The Lindbergh Center is huge! There’s a 1/8 mile track around the top of this facility. All the display cases are filled with wonderful agate displays. The tables are piled heavily with rock goodies, rough, slabs, jewelry, and specimens. If you have the cash you can score big time. I am actually blogging from the show as the crowds have thinned at 6:15pm. The show closes at 7pm, and I believe that the big crowds will come tomorrow.

More huge Wolter' Lakers.

The only things I captured today were a slab of Luna Agate, a small Moroccan Agate, and a new pinpoint metal detector. I am sitting across from Scott Wolter’s booth, and he is busy signing his wonderful books on Lake Superior Agates and his new book on the Kensington Ruin Stones.

Scott brought probably the most fantastic Lake Superior Agate collection in the world. He has filled three cases with BIG agates. Picture all of them over a pound, with one named the “Bowling Ball Agate”, that is as big as a bowling ball at 15 pounds!

Brian Costigan's rock pile.

The display cases were arranged down the center of the Lindbergh Center. They were all wonderful and amazing.Other Lake Superior Agates were displayed by Brian Costigan and others. Bonnie and I took photos for you.

Crazy Crazy Lace.

Enjoy the pictures, if you can’t be here!

Luna Agate.

Our display of (from right) Arizona Green Petrified Woos, Peanut Wood from Australia, and Thunder Bay Seam Agate.

Bob & Jeff Anderson next to their massive agate shopping center.

Miles of rough rock.

Gene Mueller's Agua Nueva Agate.

Sorting Lakers in Minnesota

Except for the occasional construction zones, getting to Minnesota was uneventful. We are camping in one of my buddies cemetery. I could make a joke or two, but I’ll keep my mouth shut on the campsite. We are 5 minutes from the Celebration of Agates Show at the Hopkins High School. Seminars and set up are today, and we are looking forward to it.
We got in yesterday and parked between a couple trucks that occasionally work the gravel pit on the property. I’ll say more about that later.

Two of the three and a half buckets of Lakers.

Fred, my friend that owns the cemetery, had saved three 5 gallon buckets of Lake Superior Agates and other assorted glacial rocks from the aforementioned gravel pit.

I'm just FORCING myself to sort these Lakers.

I spent a few hours sorting and so far I have one 5 gallon pail of agates and one bucket of leaverites; Nice rocks, but space limits me to the cream of the crop. One bucket to go yet. SO depressing having to sort all these agates. Ha! ha!
Later on we walked up to the small gravel pit where a couple large piles of roof rocks were stored, and guess what. It started raining and dampened the rocks. We had fun looking for Lakers and found a few. How good is this for a day? Can today be any better? Stand by and see.

I never got a chance to post this on Wednesday, so let’s continue. We attended several interesting seminars today and perhaps I will expand on this in the future. I am in a hurry tonight (Thursday). We just ate and have to run back for some last minute set up at the Celebration of Agates.

When we went back to the RV, I see there is another half bucket of agates to sort through, so I have to sort 1 1/2 buckets tonight. What stress I am under (NOT)! The big show gets underway tomorrow at noon.

Victoria Stone and Imperial Topaz-The Retirement Pendant

Sometimes making handcrafted jewelry requires a lot of thinking before any action is taken. I’ve been thinking about how technically to create this pendant for several weeks, and for various reasons all the pieces of the puzzle did not come together until now. What I see in my mind’s eye sometimes does not easily translate into a finished piece of jewelry. On rare occasions the process of how to make a pendant has to simmer inside of my head for a while.

I could not figure an easy way to create this piece of jewelry. I am showing you one of most complicated wire-wrap jobs I’ve ever accomplished. Alert: I would recommend you not attempt this at home!

This has been in holding since June 15th. I’ve got the stones, now what should I do?

I started with an impossibly rare bottom end piece from a Victoria Stone Boule. I previously mentioned in another blog about the unusual, chatoyant, flower pattern that appears on only the bottom of the Victoria Stone boule. (http://www.snobappealjewelry.com/blog/?p=159) Among Victoria Stones, this is the most unusual of patterns. I have been saving this particular Cabochon for several years, until I figured out something to do with it that was worthy of its’ beauty.

I had one of my “jewelry dreams” one night and thought that Imperial Topaz might work with this green Victoria Stone Cabochon.

Imperial Topaz is considered by most to be the Cadillac of Topaz, and quite expensive (so is the Victoria Stone). An opportunity to buy a large faceted Imperial Topaz presented itself last year, so I jumped at it. I liked this natural 28.9 ct Imperial Topaz from Pakistan because it has a large platelet inside. The platelet produces a rainbow within the stone. Unfortunately under the photo lights I use, you cannot see the phenomenon. You’d have to see this in person to really appreciate it.

What do you think of this one? BLING! BLING!

Putting the Topaz and the Victoria Stone together was a match made in heaven, but not quite enough bling for old Don. I added two faceted Pink Topaz and a pair of lovely green Peridots. NOW there was something unbelievably nice!

Several hours of work over several days produced this amazing piece of jewelry.

I refer this piece of jewelry The Retirement Pendant because it is the pendant I have been planning ever since retiring from my day job a couple weeks ago! Bonnie wants me to give it a more fitting name when I post it on this site for sale in the next couple days. It’ll take me this long to figure out the perfect name, but if you have any suggestions I will consider them.

Enjoy this special piece.

Read more about Victoria Stone manufacture and colors at https://www.snobappealjewelry.com/blog/victoria-stone-the-new-research-and-victoria-stone-color-chart/

Lake Superior Agate Jewelry-I never get tired of Lakers

I worked on and off today creating a couple of Lake Superior Agate Pendants. I NEVER get tired of Lake Superior Agates.
The first pendant was just about the prettiest agate I’ve seen, and it made a remarkable piece of jewelry to take to the Celebration of Agates in Hopkins Minnesota.

This pendant is big, bold, and beautiful!

Beautiful pastels adore this great Lake Superior Agate.

I promised you I would let you see what I made today, so here they are.

Lake Superior Agate Jewelry

lsa-on-bench

Attendees at the Celebration of Agates Show in Hopkins Minnesota will be happy to see my Lake Superior Agate Jewelry.

Since 1969 the Lake Superior Agate has been the Minnesota State Stone. Glaciers deposited Lake Superior Agates throughout Minnesota, as well as south as far as Kansas.
Many of you know that Laker’s are my favorite gemstone. I am amazed at the variety of colors, types, and patterns. No two are ever alike.

The multi-pattern was amazing on this Laker.

Moons and stripes. I liked this one.

The trick is finding those extremely rare flawless, or nearly flawless Lake Superior Agates to use in my jewelry. Remember Laker’s moved vast distances from bedrock in the Keweenaw area. Most of them were ripped from bedrock. Lake Superior Agates are also tumbled on the Lake Superior shoreline. It is really amazing that any Laker’s can be found that are not cracked.

Three Lake Superior Agates were selected from my stash of slices, cut into cabochons, and hurried to my workbench. These were all distinctively different, as you can see.

An unusual ledge agate.

Each agate talked to me, and I was able to make some exceedingly fine pendants, don’t you think? Let me know which one you like best. I sell many Lake Superior Agate Pendants to Minnesotans. I expect when they see these agates, and well over 100 more Lake Superior Agate Pendants, this jewelry will make them ecstatic!

Pietersite-On The Workbench

Pietersite was on the workbench at the Ludington Art Show. I happened upon a great cabochon while digging through my cases at home, and decided if things were slow (they were), I would demonstrate next to the booth.

It's difficult to see the 3D pattern on Pietersite.

It is always nice to work in the fresh air.

This Pietersite came from the one vendor I deal with, (the mine-owners) in Tucson. If you want more information on Pietersite go to my blog (March 13, 2011). http://www.snobappealjewelry.com/blog/?p=1062

The finished product turned out great.

I loved the reds and browns in this piece. The Holographic depth of Pietersite can only be viewed in person, and is pretty incredible. I think it came out pretty amazing considering I was working freestyle. I may post this up on the web later today.

Let me know what you think.

Here’s a bonus; I made this remarkable Lake Superior Eye Agate also. This one will go to the Celebration of Agates Show.

eye-agate

The “Mole” Rock

“THAT ROCK LOOKS LIKE A MOLE!” This is the comment Bonnie made when I bought a few rocks from the guy at the Boy Scout Camp.

The outside of the "Mole" looked very ordinary.

I am a long-time friend to the Ranger at a local BSA camp. I got a call the other night that one of his volunteers had a few rocks he wanted to sell. If I’m available, I will always look at rocks, especially from an inherited collection. Treasures are often found.

Bonnie was bored so we jumped in the truck and drove to the camp where we found George with a few rough rocks in his pickup bed. He had some good stuff, but much of his material was a duplicate to what I have already. I did find a few interesting pieces and after a bit of bargaining a mutual agreement was made.

The inside of the "Mole" was extraordinary, proving you really cannot judge a book by it's cover.

Much or the time I know exactly what I am buying, but not with the “mole” rock. I knew it was an agate, but had no idea what kind it was. As you can see there is no indication of what lurks inside of this “mole”. WHAT A SURPRISE when I cut this ugly rock in half.

It turned out to be a wonderful Botswana agate. I cut out a crystal section from the rock and ended up with perfect Botswana Agate of classic Grays and white. Making beautiful gemstone jewelry from a really bland rock is so satisfying! This should make a great piece of jewelry for the upcoming Celebration of Agates show in Minnesota.

Pretty nice for a "Mole" rock, don't you think?

So, blog fans, here is the Mole to Gemstone transformation.

New Business Cards

Our stylish new business card.

I just completed updating our business cards.

We love our current business cards, but wanted to step them up a notch or two. Our trademark logo of the snobbish woman with her nose in the air over our stylized red SAJ logo was not changed; just updated.

I changed our tagline to read “Specializing in masterful wire-wrapping of uncommonly rare gemstones from Michigan and throughout the world”. This slogan more reflects our philosophy of producing the highest quality jewelry made from gemstones both scarce and unique. Many people use the term “one of a kind”, so much so that it has become a cliche. Every rock is “one of a kind”, offering so many opportunities for the lapidarist and jewelry artist. The combination of cutting and polishing my own diverse rocks, as well as my meticulous wire-wrapping, make my jewelry unlike any other jewelry on the market. We know this is one of the things that keep people looking at and buying our semiprecious stone jewelry, again and again.

We have also added a business Facebook page, so of course we want people to “like us“.

I continue to custom cut and wire wrap stones others bring me. I especially love it when customers bring me assorted rocks or gems that their parents or grandparents have found in years past. Some of these have much more sentimental value than intrinsic value. No matter how plain these stones may be, I dress them up so they can be proudly worn.

What do you guys think of the new business card? See me at a show or order something off the website and I will give you one absolutely free!