Author Archives: SnobAppeal

Victoria Stone Pendant-Ugly to Beautiful

I met a lovely woman at our last show named Sue. She was wearing a beautiful dark blue Victoria Stone BUT this stone was wire wrapped (I just do not want to say ugly); OK, it was a really ugly, tarnished, wire wrapped job. The primitive prong setting covered much of the pattern of this stone. I never cover a gorgeous stone with wire. I seldom say anything bad about a piece of someones’ jewelry, but in this case I had to speak up and be honest.

The ugly pendant.

No longer ugly-notice the back side is now out.

Sue’s husband had purchased the pendant at a garage sale and obviously got a good deal by his reaction when I told them what the stone was and what it was worth. I suggested that they allow me to re-wrap the stone, so that this Victoria Stone could be presented in a manner befitting it. I talked to them about Victoria Stone and its’ rarity.

They came back later and agreed that I should re-wrap this lovely stone. I agreed to do this overnight and you can see the results. I re-wrapped using .930 Argentium and 14/20 rolled gold. I noticed that the poor side of the stone was selected to be the front by the original wire wrapper hiding the side with the most chatoyancy, so I turned the stone over so the back side was now the front side in my finished pendant. I made the pendant so that if it does flip over as it is worn, it still looks good. I and Sue were delighted with the results. If you have an “ugly” wire wrapped pendant, and want results similar to Sue’s, get ahold of me.

This is the rear now. Noticed it was the front on the ugly pendant.

This is the rear now with little chatoyancy. Notice it was the front on the original pendant.

A Most Unusual Rock Hunt

This is not the Favosite I donated to the Seaman Mineral Museum, but is a museum grade "feathery" fossil.

At our Grand Traverse Area Rock & Mineral Club meeting recently we had a request from someone coming to the area. He wanted information about hunting stones in this area, and about the geology. Because of glacial activity, we have an interesting mix of stone here. I will write about my rock hunt recently, because of the unusual specimens I found. I sometimes hunt in a private gravel pit, and often find really odd things that the glaciers have dragged down.

Our area is famous for the Petoskey Stones, of course, but other fossils include, Favosites, Horn Corals, Brachiopods, many other Devonian corals. Many other fossils from the Devonian Period as well as the Silurian Period appear.

Most of the Devonian fossils are calcified, but prior fossils can be the same species and are silica replacement. I love this one particular gravel pit because you never know what you will find. Once you think you have found everything, something else appears.

One time I found a fantastic Favosite specimen, so delicate I do not know how it servived 300 million years without deteriorating. The only thing I can think of is it ended up under a large boulder that protected it from water damage. Our area is primarily sand, so drainage is great. Normally the Favosites I get are round and glacial tumbled, but this particular specimen had much of its delicate structure intact. This particular specimen was donated to the A E Seaman Mineral Museum in Houghton, and can be enjoyed there.

A large Horn Coral about 7" long.

The first thing I found the other day was the largest horn coral I have ever found in the area. Into the bucket it went! The second specimen was another horn coral that was silica and contained a banded agate. I have never found anything like this and I have been hunting this location for a decade at least. What a delight to turn over a horn coral and see a fortification agate inclusion.

I also found a piece of Kona Dolomite of the Verde Antique variety, a lovely green Dolomite with lines of white similar to what you might see in Marble. I was amazed that this soft material survived a glacial push from the Marquette area.

I have also found Datolite and copper-included rocks at this gravel pit in the past. These were carried from the Keweenaw Peninsula. Pudding Stones are also not uncommon, and these came from the Sudbury, Ontario area. I found only one on this particular rock hunt, but it was a beauty.

Pudding Stones can be quite large. These are just babies!

Pudding Stones are red jasper and other igneous pebbles that have been “stirred” around in a white quartz matrix. The quartz is generally slightly porous and is difficult to obtain a high shine on it. These Pudding Stones on occasion contain banded agates.

People often ask me where they can find Petoskey stones, and although I do not often give away my secret spots, or areas on private property where I exclusively have permission to hunt, I can readily state IF it rains the finest Petoskey stones can be found on the back roads. Just find a dirt road and look, especially on the edge. Look in the road cuts, and washed out areas also. I guarantee you will find some nice stuff. I have seldom hunted Petoskey stones on the beach in recent years. The gravel pit stones are so much nicer. Stones from the roads have clearer patterns, and are generally much nicer. You may even find the rare pink Petoskey Stone if you are lucky. Let me know if this was a valuable tip for you.

My prize of the day was a fortification agate in a fossil. The first one I have found in 15 years from our area.

The beach rocks get really picked over so in general they are not as pristine as road rocks. Road rocks, on the other hand, are not picked over. Also the road commissions plow when the roads are wet. If you get lucky and find a freshly plowed and washed road, you can find a bucket of stones in short order.

Don’t just look in the Petoskey area. Spread out. Find someplace where no one has hunted. This is the best tip I can give anyone. Enjoy your hunting!

New Jewelry for a New Season

We had a very nice show in Elk Rapids–a one-day event which required setup at 6am, show opening at 9am, and teardown at 4pm. So we had a very long day. There were some minor showers and it was somewhat windy, but we met loads of good people, had some good return customer sales, and talked to other vendors. I expect the sweatshirt people did well–shoppers were shivering! I saw very little buy-sell imported junk, which is always a plus at these small shows. A friend told us it should be called the “Elk Rapids Jewelry Show” since there were so many jewelry choices! We like Elk Rapids because we can sleep in our own bed!

I try to make one or two pendants every day, so I have a constantly changing selection in my trays. We don’t add many pieces to the web site in the summer because we prefer to have them available for our shows, but if you have a special stone you are looking for, or a certain size, feel free to contact us. We do lots of custom work.

pyritized Ammonites

Blue Victoria Stone with Citrine and Apatite. I think this is one of the most striking pendant I've ever made.

The price of precious metals continues to skyrocket. Silver has doubled in the past year and gold continues to rise well above $1500 an ounce. Many of our prices on the web have not been updated in …ooh, a long time. Take advantage of this, and buy yourself a bargain today. I really appreciate all our loyal customers that appreciate quality and rarity for all their continued support during these economic hard times.

Another thing that should be considered with jewelry is who made it. Was it imported? If it was then you are supporting a foreign economy and not a proud American like myself. A local “designer jewelry” store proudly tells customers that their jewelry is “designed in America”, but if you look closely the jewelry is stamped “made in Mexico“.
One of my good friends is a silversmith. When someone proudly shows him a piece of jewelry they bought at the afore-mentioned store, he looks at the jewelry and just says “Hmm”. Generally when they ask him about his comment, he says, “Did you notice that this jewelry is made in Mexico? More often then not these people become really upset, and more then a few have gone back into this store to complain. It is my feeling that just because jewelry is “designed in America” it is still made by someone overseas, taking away American jobs and increasing our trade deficit.

flash-drusy

Classic "Candy Striper" Lake Superior Agate

New pieces of jewelry are being manufactured daily at Snob Appeal Jewelry. Trying to figure out what customers might be looking for is always a challenge, so I just make things that I personally like and hope my customers will also. I think I will just post some of my newest things. If you can’t meet us as our shows (see Upcoming Shows on the home page), call us and tell us which piece of hand crafted wire wrapped jewelry is calling your name!

I hope you like some of my recent jewelry. Call me for availability or see us at a show.

Peach Drusy

Snow Scene Jasper (this stone also has other names)

Staurlite.

Trilobite family

Opal Fish Jewelry

One of my favorite unusual things I enjoy wire wrapping are really fantastic fish carved from seam opal. The opal seam is very thin and would be a real challenge to make a cabochon from. These fish are carved overseas and it is one of the few stones I purchase. As most of you know I generally cut my own cabs, but these fish are a whole different thing. They are one of those things I can’t help but buy.

A fine opal fish

Rear of fish

Originally I bought fish with no idea how I was going to wrap them, but after thinking about these for several months I had a dream of how to wrap them using a prong set method. By using prongs, the wrap does not distract from the stone. I find by hiding the bail behind the fish they appear to be hanging from a chain, but all that is seen from the front is the fish. Prong-setting is an advanced wire-wrapping technique, which I developed with some special proprietary methods for this “fishy” jewelry.

These fish are carefully carved on the rear, just as they are in the front, but there usually is no opal on the reverse. Some of these fish have their own personality. The carving is different and the rock appearance is different, giving each one a distinctive look. Different body and tail positions on the carvings convey different attitudes. Some people even name their fish!

The fish come in several sizes and it takes a bit of “fiddling” to set the prongs correctly. Hey if it were easy everyone would do it! Everyone that has acquired a fish raves about all the nice comments they receive. You cannot wear one and expect people not to see it.

I have several fish I purchased in Tucson this year, so expect to see a few on this site after the summer shows. If you need one before then, let me know and I will photograph what I have available.

This one was a special request to add a lure.

Another fish-front side

fishfrt2

Stones with Pictures Make Distinctive Jewelry

This month I thought I would talk about rocks with pictures in them. I love these, as do many of our customers.

Fordite is for the warped (or intoxicated mind). Get drunk enough and you WILL see pictures!

Royal Imperial Jasper

OK. this IS NOT a picture rock, but it is a great picture of my favorite hunting areas near Lake Superior. This one is from our campsite.

Landscapes are common in Biggs Picture Jasper and other western jaspers, but they sometimes show up in other stones as well. I have posted a blog previously on my “Dogman Pendant”, and some of the stones and pendants you see in this blog have been commented on before, but others are brand new. This will be good fun. You may see things others do not.

On some occasions finding a picture is just “the luck of the cut” as demonstrated by a datolite I found. If I had not had a lucky cut I would not have found Michigan’s Lower Peninsula inside it. The same holds true for the “Dogman” and many other lucky cuts I have made. I do not often recognize the unlucky cuts because the picture never materialized.

"Michigan" Datolite

Mookaite from Australia on rare occasions has dendretic inclusions.

Old rockhounds, like myself, are often accused of having rocks in the head, so if you see strange things in stones, you may not be hallucinating. There are some people that just do not have enough imagination to see things. This is a shame. How can you go through life without having a little fun? I’ve been accused myself of being “a few fries short of a happy meal”, and I accept that as partially true. Check out all the rocks I’ve found with wonderful picture inclusions.

Arizona petrified wood often has pictures.

Paint brush Jasper from China.

Dendretic agate from India

Montana Moss Agate

owl-picture

I'm not sure where this agate came from, but it looks like and undersea adventure.

A great set of Mookaite jewelry.

A great dendretic Mookaite

REGAL JEWELRY

Bonnie interrupted my Easter TV watching to tell me I had to write a blog about Regal Jewelry, and “maybe make a regal piece” ( I’ve got to keep her from watching all this stuff on the upcoming royal wedding). As an experienced and alert husband, I know this means “get off your butt and do something”. So, knowing full well, based on experience, I can watch a fishing show and make jewelry at the same time, I got right on it. Good fishing shows are all the same; catch the fish, comment on “what a hog” it is, then throw it back, and repeat. So you don’t have to concentrate on it like you would if something is exploding.

Vitoria Stone with Citrine

I found a beautiful piece of dark green Victoria Stone and experimented with assorted facetted stones to see which ones looked good with the Victoria Stone. I chose a couple natural Citrine’s and man did they pop! A couple hours later I produced my take on Royal Wedding Jewelry.

Green and Pink Topaz looks like Watermelon Tourmaline.

Kentucky Agate in red and black always looks regal.

Victoria Stone with assorted Topaz

I have produced several “Regal” pieces in the past, so here is a sampling. Regal jewelry usually features faceted stones, but not always. I think sometimes rocks alone can be “regal”.

Dinosaur bone, Sunstone, and Moonstone

Muonionalusta Meteorite with Peridot and Topaz. This would be "Regal" if you were an E.T.

Prehnite with Peridot and Topaz.

This stuff is about as “Regal” as you can get. What do YOU think? Enjoy Don

New Machine and New Pendants

My new Diamond Pacific Xpert seems like a great machine. It produces the cabs wonderfully, and because I have used the Genie for 10 years, there is little or no learning curve. My unit is #8, and I am very pleased with it. I would recommend the machine to anyone.

My "bank" of polishing wheels.

I lined the Xpert up to the right of the Genie and am planning on putting worn wheels on one side of the Genie and polishing wheels on the other side. Some of the stones, like opals, require worn out wheels to work properly. I think it will be nice to not have to change out any wheels.

I’ve just cut and polished a large quantity of greenstones, mostly small, but many are old material from Isle Royale that would make great rings for some lucky individual. Greenstones seem to rising in popularity and I have recently finished a couple custom pieces that where well received by the owners. I have the largest selection of Isle Royale Greenstones on the Web for sale, and I get many hits in that section.

Wonderful blue druzy.

A very large and unusual Kentucky I cut from rough.

I have a couple new Greenstone products coming out in a few weeks. I’ll post them, when I make them.

I will post a few more pictures of recent pendants I made from the rocks I bought in Tucson. Some of these are not on the website, but may be available if you call. I will be selling loads of new stuff at this year’s shows, so check our show schedule on the home page and stop and say hello. Two shows just added are the Tulip Festival Show in Holland and the Ludington 4^th of July Show. I expect we will also be in the Alpena area this summer. Follow our link here or check our show schedule on the home page.

A flawless Lake Superior Agate should make someone happy.

Larimar (Pectolite) of high quality was expensive at Tucson.

Another change this year is the price of gold and silver (ouch). I am trying to keep the cost down, but it is hard when I am paying three (almost 4 times) what I paid when I started making jewelry. I still refuse to cheapen my jewelry by using substandard metal. I think my loyal customers will realize what a great values they still get from us.

Australian Black Opal (triplet)

Russian Staurolite I picked up in Tucson was some of the best I've ever seen. Who else would make pendants out of this stuff? This one is made for guys or gals.

Unfortunately we still have too much snow to go out rock hunting, but we did sign up for the Copper Country Mineral Retreat, put on by the Seaman Mineral Museum in Houghton. I would recommend this opportunity to search the various scrap rock piles of the Keweenaw. You WILL find something, and I see remarkable treasures found every year. Think about a big bulldozer turning over a rock pile exposing material that may not have been seen for 100 years, then releasing us rockhounds onto the pile. It’s just like an Easter egg hunt for adults. Visit www.museum.mtu.edu Click on the Copper Country Mineral Retreat.

I hope you liked this small sample of my new stuff. Come see us this year; check the “Upcoming Shows” list on the home page. I love it when someone comes to one of our shows and tells me they like my Snob Blog.

This is one of the strangest cabs I obtained in Tucson. Calcite on Druzy Quartz.

Pietersite

I have difficulty when in the presence of high quality Pietersite. I just have to have it. In Tucson this year I told Bonnie I did not need any more Pietersite but the first thing I bought at the show was Pietersite cabochons. Many people are not familiar with Pietersite but when they see it, they want it! It has a magical shimmer, similar to tiger eye, but deeper and more eye-catching.

Gorgeous blue

I can tell you that Pietersite is a pseudomorph variety of quartz. It has the outward appearance of Crocidolite fibers (asbestos), but this mineral has been completely dissolved with quartz taking on its fibrous formations.

The play of light that rolls across the stone takes on a cats eye appearance. Multiple colors and hues streak and swirl in all directions similar to brush strokes. Crocidolite’s original color is blue, so blue (in its wide range of shades) is the most dominant Pietersite color sharing the palette with rusty reds, golds and browns.

Pietersite is one of the more recent mineral discoveries. It was found in Namibia, in Southwest Africa in 1964. I have been told by the miners that it is found in the river banks and the high quality Pietersite is not widespread. I can personally tell you that Pietersite is exceedingly difficult to polish. I cannot come close to the cabochons I find in Tucson with their glass-like surfaces.

High quality Pietersite is not inexpensive, but worth it. The best stones are perceived almost as a holographic image, with a three dimensional depth. At every show people are awestruck by a featured piece of Pietersite jewelry. It is hard to capture this depth in a photo. You can be sure our pendants are all beautiful, both the stone and the wire wrap.

Druzy (Drusy) Quartz

While in Tucson we purchased a substantial quantity of Druzy Quartz, both treated and untreated. Treated druzy is very popular right now, both because of its fantastic play of color and its “flashy-ness”. You just cannot wear one of these treated druzy pendants without being noticed. We sold every piece we had last year so it was time to re-stock.

Both treated and natural druggy Quartz

It is amazing how an ordinary piece of druzy quartz can be vapored with Titanium or other substances and magically turned into something extraordinary with such exciting results; each piece different than the next.

Some other druzy pieces that we found were wonderful natural druzy, not treated in any way. These natural pieces are generally higher, some much higher then treated druzy. I got so excited about this material, that I immediately made three pendants that are now for sale on this website.

Treated druggy

Natural Druzy

On another subject, if you recall I talked about the double trilobites from Utah we found. I cleaned them up and here is a fine photo of a few of them.

Let me show you a couple other pendants I just made also. It is very difficult to photograph these treated pendants because of the color-changing properties of the coatings. I’m fairly pleased with how they came out, but consider that these Titanium units are much flashier and brighter then shown.

Trilobites (Elrathia Kingi)

Yawah Opal

Blue Treated Druzy

Paint Brush Jasper

Tucson Gem, Mineral, & Fossil Shows-Wrap Up

Sunny 85

Sun sets on Tucson-Notice no sides on the big tent.

AS quickly as it began the Tucson Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Show ended yesterday. The tents are being dismantled, the hotel rooms are vacated, and the dealers are headed back to all over the world. From what I understand, the crowds have been down a little, but the buying has been up slightly. I saw some major pieces were purchased. I know the people at the Black Hills Institute are pleased after selling a couple of major fossils. I saw many other large or pricey items gone, and some boxed amethyst geodes with “Sold” signs on them.

Only one more flat-rate box being shipped out today. In the final few days, Bonnie found some bargain beads and I found an outstanding piece of Chrysoprase that I haggled to a great price.

Tucson was a winner!

I hate to go back to cold and snow.

I experience slight withdrawal each year when I cannot go out to look at rocks. I go home broke as usual, but I obtained some wonderful things to make into jewelry for the 2011 art shows we are in, as well as the website.

There was a nice activity called “Second Saturday” in Downtown Tucson with street performers and a great band playing oldies. There is sparse lighting downtown, no big sodium vapor lights or the like, so it is all sort of dark. Tucson has a light pollution ordinance so no lights are allowed to shine upward. This gave the area a Halloween-like feel, but we had great fun and some adult beverages on the way back home at Buffalo Hot Wings.

Adios Tucson.

This will be my final Tucson Blog until we get back home next week. You will see some of the amazing things we found in our travels out here. Better photos can be taken at home. I have sent home eight large flat-rate boxes of goodies. It will be fun unpacking them and finding the things I forgot I bought.

I hope you enjoyed what I wrote here, and I appreciate all the nice comments.

Don (and Bonnie)