Category Archives: Copper Country Jewelry

Great Lakes Gemstones Make Amazing Gifts

One of the best things of the holiday season is passing along beautiful jewelry gifts to new owners. Great Lakes gemstones are the cornerstone of our selection. Our best sellers are our many amazing Isle Royle Greenstones. Our acquisition of a collection of old Greenstones found on Isle Royale over 60 years ago has enhanced our status as the webs’ go-to site for Michigan’s State Gem. Our wire-wrapped Isle Royale Greenstone pendants come with various mixes of tarnish-resistant argentium wire and 14/20 yellow gold or pink gold wire. The pink gold is especially prized for combining with the Isle Royale Greenstones that have Thomsonite inclusions. We also sell cabochons so that people can have rings or other items created just for them.

Centennial Datolite

Mohawkite

Thomsonite

Snob Appeal Jewelry is also the go-to site for any Great Lake Gemstone. We really enjoy the appreciation notes we get after Christmas from many happy new owners. Many of these stones are not widely known outside of the Great Lakes area, so when we get orders from Texas or California or other far-flung places (even Australia) we always wonder what drew them to select Datolite or Mohawkite or Thomsonite. We know these are beautiful stones, but often there is another connection, such as a family member who worked in a particular mine, or even if it was just a visit to the enchanting area.

Our selection of Lake Superior Agate pendants is Superior! We have water level agates, sagenite agates, tubes, and eyes, candy stripers, gray stones, pink, brown, “Laker” reds, even some yellows. Some have copper, some have quartz centers or even amethyst. Don loves these stones and classically wire wraps them to enhance their natural beauty and variety. Pick one to give to your favorite rock hound!

Lake Superior Agate

I thought I might show you some new jewelry especially made for Christmas.

Remarkable Datolite and other Upper Peninsula Gemstone Treasures

Yelow Datolite from the Quincy Mine

On our most recent trip to the Keweenaw I successfully found some wonderful gemstone rough material to work into new jewelry pieces. When I say I “found” great gemstone rough: I mean I found several friends who were willing, for cash, to part with some wonderful local minerals! Rare colored Datolite is drawing a premium price, even in the rough.

Iron Lace Agate is now extinct.

The annual Ishpeming Show is always interesting, and most of the time if you look in the crevices of this show, good, and sometimes great treasures, can be found. Being an experienced, senior rockhound sometimes has its advantages at times. Being around the block with some of the old, now extinct, gemstone materials has advantages over younger rockhounds. I often recognize old material from back 30 years or more that is seldom seen. This happened at the Ishpeming show.

I saw some Iron Lace Agates from the Republic mine that were briefly available… I’m betting that not many know what these agates really were, and the history of them. A seam of Iron Lace Agate (named by the Ishpeming Rock Club) was very briefly mined back in the 70’s from the North wall of the New Republic Mine near Marquette. I purchased a few and will make jewelry for the Agate Expo next year.

Ultra rare Keweenae Point canary yellow Datolite

Deleware Datolite with Copper inclusions

The other wonderful things I sought out with success was some caramel yellow Mesnard Datolite, a piece of impossibly rare, canary yellow, Keweenaw Point Datolite, some wonderful, Copper included, Delaware Datolite, some classic Yellow Quincy Datolite, a slightly different yellow than the Yellow Point datolite. It’s always a good day when I find some rare Centenniel Blue Datolite. Blue Centennial Datolite is now very hard to find. I also found several spectacular Lakers to work with.

Blue Centennial Datolite. These pieces seem to flow to pink toward the bottom

Mesnard Mustard.

The Isle Royale Copper Mine had some of the hardest Datolite of a light green color, and also some Blue Datolite, much of it a softer, requiring some stabilization in order to work with it for jewelry.

Copper included Agates are a wonderful find. I love these things

I just started working with all my new rocks, so you will see jewelry soon.

Centennial Blue-A Memorial Gemstone

When I cross the mighty Mac, my mind drifts to Centennial Treasures; Especially when the sky matches perfectly. No, I did not re-touch the colors at all. It was amazing!

I find it wondrous that we can actually make friends “on Line”. People we may never meet in person, but somehow they become friends through some site you follow, or some Facebook Group you belong to. I can’t believe how many people I meet on Facebook become good friends. A few I have met in person, a few I will never meet, but that is OK too.

Diana Smith is one of my Facebook friends and follows my comments in various groups and on my FB business page. If you have friended Snob Appeal Jewelry on FB, you know I post up my new jewelry there first. I sometimes do a blog on pieces later, but the new stuff goes on Facebook first when I am freshly excited about it.

Bonnie's Birthday Pendant-I named this "Copper Strike"

I recently, and in the past, posted up pendants made from the very rare blue Datolite from the Centennial Mine. Centennial Datolite is so very scarce and beautiful. Diana saw a piece of jewelry I made, and mentioned her Great Uncle had lost his life in an accident at the Centennial. She wanted a Centennial Datolite Pendant as a family heirloom and as a tribute to her Uncle.

I was happy to make her something that was very special and very sentimental to her family from Centennial Datolite.

Diana's Memorial Pendant

She agreed to co-author this blog. I really appreciate her sharing her family history like this. This is one of my favorite all time blogs. Here’s what she says of her uncle:

Michele (Michael) Picchiottine

Family stories can draw us into a world of the past that strikes a chord within us and forms a bond with someone we never knew. As I researched our family history I formed that bond with the 21 year old brother of my great grandfather, Michele (Michael) Picchiottino. The Italian world was in political and economic chaos and poverty was rampant. The copper industry in Minnesota and Michigan’s U.P. offered plenty of opportunity for immigrants. Some of our family members moved to Michigan and several of them were employed in the mines. The hours were long, the conditions horrific, and many miners died. On June 13, 1891, Michele was working at Centennial Mine #3 as a laborer when he fell from a tram car on the 25th level and was run over. He joined the list of dead miners that year.

Twenty one years old, barely a man by today’s standards. A life never to be lived. His story of all those I have found in our history probably speaks to me the most. I spent my entire teaching career preparing young people to think about the choices they were making that would direct them into a successful adult life. But Michael never had that chance. As he stood on the threshold of adulthood, his life was cut short.

I told this story to Don Reed and asked him if he could make something we could pass down as a family memorial for this young man. Don suggested the minerals he had worked with ….a small piece of blue/green datolite, copper, and silver, Simple, strong and yet beautiful. The datolite is pretty much gone today , only a memory like Michael. Only a few pieces can be found here and there. We decided on plain, as Micheal’s lifestyle would have been, but solid. The pendant grew under Don’s touch and I could hardly wait to see it. I was so excited. Don did not keep me waiting long. Four days after he began, it arrived. I opened the envelope and fell in love. It was everything I had hoped for. I showed it to the girls. My daughter loves it. My granddaughter also loves it. We will all be very happy when we wear it. No, it won’t bring Micheal back, but it will keep him near our hearts.

THANK YOU, Don for knowing what I wanted, and how to make it look great. Your skills, your creativity, your patience and your speed were much appreciated. You may be sure I Will be shopping with you again. DIANA SMITH

Houghton County Mining Inspector Report

Back to Accident Name Index

Page No.	7
Full Report	Accident 21. Michael Pichiotine got onto a loaded skip at the 25th level No. 3 shaft Centennial mine to ride to the surface and when up about twenty-five feet fell off when the skip passing over him killed him instantly. An inquest was held before Justice CRUSE at which the jury exonerated the Mining Company and its officers from all blame.
Accident No.	21-1891
Source	s1
ID	r21

Source Information

Source Name	Inspector	Library Call No.	ID
Report of the Mine Inspector of Houghton County Michigan for the Year Ending September 30 1891	Josiah Hall Mine Inspector	Michigan TN 272 .H68z 1890/91	s1
Report of the Mine Inspector of Houghton County Michigan for the Year Ending September 30 1892	Josiah Hall Mine Inspector	Michigan TN 272.H68z 1892	s2
Mine Inspectors Report for Houghton County, Mich. For the Year Ending September 30th 1893	Josiah Hall Mine Inspector	Michigan TN 272.H68z 1893	s3
Mine Inspectors Report for Houghton County, Mich. For the Year Ending September 30th 1894	Josiah Hall Mine Inspector	Michigan TN 272.H68z 1894	s4
Mine Inspectors Report for Houghton County, Mich. For the Year Ending September 30th 1895	Josiah Hall Mine Inspector	Michigan TN 272.H68z 1895	s5
Mine Inspectors Report for Houghton County, Mich. For the Year Ending September 30th 1890	not named	Michigan TN 272 .H68z 1889	s6
Mine Inspectors Report for Houghton County, Mich. For the Year Ending September 30th 1897	not named	Michigan TN272 .H68z 1897	s7
Mine Inspectors Report for Houghton County, Mich. For the Year Ending September 30th 1900	not named	Michigan TN272 .H68z 1900	s8

Data contributed by: Patricia Wazny-Hamp Copyright © 2015

I find it very interesting that it was common practice back in the day to exonerate the mining companies. It was commonly accepted by the courts that miners knew the dangers of mining and by accepting employment in the mines, they also accepted the dangers. You hardly ever had any case where a fatality was the mining companies fault.

The panels that decided these cases were comprised of individuals employed in management of one mine or another, so the odds were stacked against any miner or their heirs ever getting anything as recompense. Miners lived in company housing and exclusively used company stores to buy what they needed. After paying rent and store bills, there wasn’t much left. Liability on the mines and mine owners was pretty much non existent. The miner’s wives were hesitant to sue the mines in fear of losing housing and/or any small pension that they might be receiving because of the kindness and concern of the benevolent mine management. The lack of protections was one of the many conditions that led to turmoil between labor and management and resulting strikes and protests.

The Centennial Mine in it's heyday.

The mines did not even care enough to get the spelling correct on the miner’s names. Especially difficult were Italian, Finnish, and Polish names. As you can see on the mine inspectors death investigation report, Mr. Picchiottino was misspelled. The entire report of a miner’s death investigation in a few sentences. No way this would happen today. You can read more about the life and times of the copper miners in three books by Larry D. Lankton, especially Cradle to Grave: Life, Work and Death at the Lake Superior Copper Mines. Another interesting book about the era is Death’s Door: The Truth Behind the Italian Hall Disaster and the Strike of 1913 by Steve Lehto.

Centennial Mineshaft today

An old ladder and a broken down building at Centennial

Mineshaft #6 is still visible from M-41 on the west side, north of Calumet in Centennial. The Centennial Mine opened in 1869 and closed in 1968, became flooded, was dewatered in the mid-1970’s by Homestake, but the operation was abandoned within a few years. Shafts 6 and 3 worked the Calumet and Hecla Conglomerate and yielded 1.9 billion kg of refined copper. This was the largest lode in the district and comprised one-third of the total Native Copper mined in the Keweenaw Copper District.

I love the Keweenaw Datolite, but especially the Blue from the Centennial. This blue tinge is probably caused by Kinoite. You would be hard pressed to find a random piece of Centennial around anymore. I only have a small supply left. Copper World (aka the best Gift Shop around Lake Superior), usually has a piece or two of Centennial Jewelry I’ve made. If Blue Centennial Datolite were an animal it would be on the endangered species list!

I appreciate Diana adding personal interest and her family history to this blog.

Shadow Agates, Greenstone, and Thomsonite Jewelry

As winter blasts keep us close to the fireplace, I have been busy creating new pendants with favorite gemstones and wire. Enjoy these two new Great Lakes Jewelry Treasures and two new Shadow Agates.

A beautiful and rare North Shore Thomsonite.

Unique to the Lake Superior region, I acquired a quantity of old stock North Shore Thomsonites over the summer and have started cutting and wrapping them into jewelry. These dark-eyed beauties are very rare and highly coveted. Since these Great Lakes gemstones came out of a site near Thomsonite Beach near Grand Marais, Minnesota that is now buried under a park, no others are found at that location.

Greenstone Lily Pads in Natrolite

The second Great Lakes Jewelry Treasure I recently made was a remarkable stone with Greenstone Lily Pads floating in a pink sea of Natrolite instead of floating in a sea of green Chlorastrolite. I made a pendant from the opposite side of this stone and it sold immediately. Never have I seen another Greenstone like this.

Shadow Wave Laguna Agate

I also made a pair of agates with shadow effect. In certain agates with opaque bands, the bands cast shadows on the adjacent bands as the agate is rotated back and forth. This crates what is referred to as “Shadow effect”. The bands casting shadows also have to be spaced correctly in order to “shadow”. the easiest was to explain shadow effect is if you lined up dominos and shined a light on the top of them. When you move the light back and forth over the dominos you see the shadow that are cast on the adjoining domino change. It’s the same with the lines in the Shadow Agate. This purpley-pink and white Laguna has a great Shadow effect. Laguna Agates from Mexico are famous for “Shadow”, but most banded agates, including my favorite, the Lake Superior Agate, can sport Shadow at times.

Blue Lace with shadow

In this old stock Blue Lace Agate I found wonderful shadow. Two Mercury Mist Topaz added at the top give elegance and sparkle to the glorious pale blue/white agate. What a great piece for a special holiday occasion or wedding!

All these are available at www.snobappealjewelry,com, Click on “View all our products”. With over 375 pendants, chains, and earrings on our site, we hope you will start your Christmas shopping with us now!

Keweenaw Mineral Hunting

Central Exploration (remember the big piles?).

Happy Datolite diggers.

bridgeup

Why would the bridge be up when rock hunting is beyond it?

This past week, as is our norm, we made our annual trek to the Keweenaw Peninsula for a week of rock hunting. Every year it seems that the mine spoil piles continue to become extinct because they are being crushed and used as road fill. Where giant piles of rock used to be are now fairly open, flat empty spaces. I expect within the next few years that rock and mineral hunting activity here may be a thing of the past. Many of what used to be county-owned, or easily accessed hunting grounds are now privately owned, or gone. Due to liability issues private owners do not welcome groups of rockhounds. Only a few years back we used to come up for rock hunting events sponsored by the AE Seaman Mineral Museum, including hunting various spoil piles, lectures and demonstrations by the experts at Michigan Tech. This was formerly known as Red Metal Week, then the Keweenaw Mineral Retreat and lasted an entire week. The local rock and mineral club has put in many volunteer hours over many years to make these events happen. Now the event is co sponsored by the AE Seaman Mineral Museum, and Keweenaw Gem & Gift. This is a shortened week, with the hunts starting on Wednesday and end on Saturday.

Datolite/Chlorastrolite. My best find.

My best find was a large seam Datolite that appears covered with Chlorastrolite.

After staking my claim, I dig it.

Rock hunting during these events consist of fee digs each day at different sites. These different mine sites still have copper, easily found with metal detectors. I am normally not interested in Copper but will pick up a piece when I see one, often giving them away to interested kids. What peeks my interest are the many stones I can make jewelry from. Some of these are Isle Royale Greenstone, Datolite, Prehnite, and agates.

Bonnie sees a pile where there may be a Greenstone.

Finding a Greenstone in spoil piles is like looking for a needle in a haystack. You start with a large like of rock. On the hunt at the Central Exploration these piles were crushed ore ready to be hauled out for road fill. Where high piles of large rock chunks used to be are now flat barren areas. The only piles left were the final crushed tailings piles. How depressing this is to see.

Bonnie did find many Greenstones by meticulously digging and searching. She out-hunted me. I did find a few Greenstones, but my best find was a large Datolite seam. The Datolite was covered with Chlorastrolite. Jewelry is in the planning stages.

There are hunters up here that look for relics from the copper era. I located a Maul. I used it on the Connecticut pile to pound in the ground to “Stake my Claim”. I then dug a large worthless hole looking for Datolite. I did have fun digging though. It’s bizarre how we rockhounds will work like dogs to fine a pebble. In normal society you would get real money for doing the same thing (or are in a penal institution), while WE actually pay for the privilege of being allowed to dig a hole; go figure.

A closer look.

Here is the hidden treasure.

The swap meet is a tailgate event. Great fun.

Another fun thing during this mineral hunting time is the annual swap meet at the Quincy Mine Hoist. For three hours vendors will set up in the dusty parking lot and peddle their wares. I left much money in the parking lot with various local vendors. I have some really nice Greenstones, colorful Datolite, and particularly amazing Lake Superior Agates. None of these come cheap, but I was happy with my deals.

The swap meet is also THE spot for meeting old friends and fellow rockhounds. Rockhounds appear from around the country. I think they realize the clock is ticking on these hunts, and the minerals of the Keweenaw are becoming more scarce each year.

My intentions are to make great jewelry from my recent finds and acquisitions. I will keep you in the loop on this blog. If you really wish to see more, and hear more of what we do, friend our Facebook Snob Appeal Jewelry site.

A selfie with a happy Bonnie with happy large Greenstone.

A selfie with a happy Bonnie and a happy large Greenstone.

Lake Superior Agates, Datolite, and Greenstones on my Workbench.

I just can’t stop cutting Lake Superior Agates; Making
jewelry from them, or digging through my buckets, looking for that perfect jewelry stone.

Big brown eyes islandlakersajlogo

Recently I’ve cut some unusual pieces. One was a very rare Lake Superior Moss Agate. It resembled a Montana Moss Agate, but had banded eyes. I had to play with my photo studio lighting so you can see this detail. Another couple featured red Islands floating in seas of clear Quartz. roundislandlaker2

Lake Superior Agate Pendants are my passion. Enjoy these few additional pieces of eye candy.

Mesnard Datolite with Isle Royale Greenstone.

A few cabochons of Datolite from the Mesnard Mine in Hancock have been sitting on my workbench for a few weeks. I look at gemstones for a while sometimes, and eventually they speak to me and tell me what they want me to do with them! This was the case with the Mesnard Datolite. Sometimes I put off wrapping these because my idea was a bit complicated and I need to be in the right frame of mind to work on them. I’m sure you will love the results, especially with the pair of Greenstone Beads I added to this free-swinging creation. The Mesnard is known for its’ bright pastel colors, but as with most of the old mines, material is scarce and getting harder to find each year.

This is a busy time at Snob Appeal Jewelry. We have taken some time off to make jewelry. In August, we have shows in Eagle Harbor, Copper Harbor, and doing demos at Copper World in Calumet (AKA the best gift store anywhere around Lake Superior). See you there.

laker1

Radial Sagenite Laker.

Made you smile!

A rare Lake Superior Moss Agate (both sides)

Thomsonite from Lake Superior

Beautiful eyes usually dominate high quality Thomsonite.

Thomsonite is rare and beautiful. The most striking Thomsonite colors and patterns come from Lake Superior’s north shore in the Grand Marais area. This eyed Zeolite has to be the most attractive stone in the Zeolite family. High quality Thomsonite, with dramatic greens and pinks, is highly prized by rockhounds.

I love finding Thomsonite and polishing them to expose the gorgeous eyes.

In this post I decided to show you before and after photos showing the Thomsonite cabochons and the pendants I made from them.

All the beachfront in the Grand Marais is private property and the owners are very protective. Some basalts in the area have Thomsonite inclusions. Extracting these gemstones involves cutting them out. The gemstone is very brittle and fragile, so hammers and chisels cannot be used.

The best deposit near Thomsonite Beach was buried years ago to create a public park. The best chance to obtain high quality Thomsonite is from old collections or local hunters that know where to find this elusive gemstone.

Thomsonite is sometimes found on Isle Royale and in the Keweenaw Peninsula of Michigan. In the Keweenaw we also find a mineral that often mimics Thomsonite. This is the colorful Prehnite. Prehnite is referred to locally as “U.P. Thomsonite” and often sports eyes and chatoyant, feathery patterns, like Thomsonite, except it is not a Zeolite. Many inexperienced rockhounds mistake Prenite for Thomsonite. Thomsonite is much less common than Prehnite.

thompend28x10

Recently I obtained several beautiful pieces from a dealer that had purchased an old collection of Thomsonite from an estate. These gemstones are some of the best pieces of Thomsonite I’ve ever seen. Two or three of these are spoken for and the rest will be posted on this website. I really enjoyed working with all these and hope you enjoy the pendants made from these gemstones!

thompend68x101

thompend18x101 thompend38x10 thompend48x10 bigthomson

Greenstone Pendant Marathon

I especially like the old Isle Royale material.

My fully dressed Greenstone Army.

When we went on our road trip to Tucson via Florida last October, I, of course, took our jewelry. I took also a few hundred Chlorastrolite Greenstone Cabochons. We also took a few cases of random cabs to wrap. I’ll show you some new jewelry from the random cabs later, but right now let’s look at some Michigan Greenstones.

After flattening the backs, they are ready for dopping.

I have to be in the right frame of mind to wrap little Greenstones. I scheduled 4 days and put together 25 new GS Pendants. All of these mini-pendants fit in small 1″ plastic containers. I use custom made mini-tools to work these. The stones range from 1″ to 1 3/4″ diameter. Many of them are from old stones collected on Isle Royale many years ago. A few of them even have pink Thomsonite inclusions, like you see in the top photo.

My little greenstone army standing at attention.

I cannot say that these are easily made, but I do not dislike making them. I know how many people love and wear these miniature gemstones. Many of these pendants will be put up on line, others will be sold at art shows, or at Copper World in Calumet. Often people like to buy just the cabochon and have someone they know make it into a special ring for them. They are a perfect size and can be seen close up when they are in a ring.

Sorting the stones takes place at several stages, looking for the best. As I flatten one side I look for the most promising side to be polished. Then they get glued to nails or dop sticks. I use small nails for the smallest ones and glue them on the heads. Polishing seems to be a production line effort also. I have to be careful with the pressure on the wheels or my little Greenstone shoots off to Neverland. My shop is sort of a Black Hole where many stones disappear. My wife really enjoys when I ask her to search around on the shop floor looking under the workbench for my missing treasure. The whole business of polishing rocks consists of creating mud, and dirt that ends up on the workroom floor. Every once in a while I may find a cabochon I was working on a couple years ago, but I’d rather not lose any valuable Greenstones.

Greenstone cutting and wrapping has ceased at the moment in deference to recent purchases I made in Quartzite, Tucson, and Deming.

It's fun to pick just the right ones for wrapping.

I hope you enjoy my new Greenstone army.

Lake Superior Agate Pendants and other Unusual Stones-On the Workbench

I’ve been cutting lots of recently acquired Lake Superior Agates since we arrived back from our winter in Arizona.

I suspect a couple fans will want this one.

A marvelous pastel Lake Superior Agate Pendant

I have to admit a recent Laker Pendant was put together right after cutting and polishing the stone. Sometimes a certain stone just make me eager to make something of it. The Laker I am speaking about has unusual banding and color; a tight reddish/brown fortification pattern in the top, and an entirely different pattern of wide white and peach banding on the bottom. The agate outdoes itself with this beautiful pink/peach. Pink Gold and Gold Gold wires enhance this nice stone.I named it Color-Wicking Lake Superior Agate Pendant.

Unusual Lakers like stirred Mocha

The second great Laker is an unusual dark carnelian with a pattern that looks like it was stirred in. The brown base agate bleeds though the white pattern creating a very rare yellow. The opposite side of the agate is eye-like.

Luna Agate found over 50 years ago.

Copper Crystal Cluster in float copper. A really amazing cabochon ready to be jewelry.

Picture Petrified Wood.

As a bonus I show you a couple of cabochons of Picture Petrified wood from near Holbrook, Arizona. Also a few other cabochons that will soon be jewelry.

I have been very busy cutting stones and sorting through my treasures from the Tucson shows. I’ll share my favorites as I get more!

Variscite from Utah is a beautiful pastel.

Another blog is in the works for the near future on the 20 0r so new mini Greenstone Pendants I have recently made. Thanks to all our blog readers.

Top Stone Pendants of 2013

2013 was a very exciting and productive year for Snob Appeal Jewelry. I made many beautiful pendants and even though it was hard to pick favorites, I had some success picking these for your viewing pleasure. They are in no particular order, but these are my favorites:

Malachite Bullseye Pendant and Earrings

The first is a bullseye malachite set. While at the Tucson Gem Show in February I saw two unbelievable bullseye malachite slabs at a booth. I snatched them up as soon as I saw them and willingly paid by the gram for these beauties. During packaging, the vendor dropped one of the slabs and it broke in two. My heart sank, as did his. But I noticed that the slab broke perfectly i half. This pleased me, because I knew I could make a set of earrings to go with the pendant. Since he broke the slab, we renegotiated our deal, and I went away confident that I could make a gem out of a broken gemstone!

Mystic Quartz

At the Tucson Gem Show I also found a vendor selling large impressive faceted mystic quartz. Looking at these meticulously faceted gemstones I could picture what they might look like when finished in a precise wire wrap. Only one of the three gemstones I bought remain in my inventory. They are very eye-catching!

Royal Imperial Jasper

Another favorite is a double Royal Imperial Jasper pendant with Swarovski crystals around the top. Royal Imperial Jasper is the most beautiful and coveted of the jaspers because of the diverse colors and patterns. I think this pendant does justice to this regal pink and green stone set, making a striking and elegant jewelry presentation.

Dinosaur Bone Pendant

Sometimes you find something so unusual and spectacular that you just have to have it. This was the case with a piece of dinosaur bone I purchased in Quartzite. Fully banded fortification agate embedded within the dinosaur bone matrix. This stone does not need any fancy wrapping to make it shine.

Samethyst Laker Pendant

A Lake Superior Agate with amethyst, what a great jewelry combination stone. I was fortunate to have several slices of agate and amethyst to work with this year, and they all sold promptly. Only one survives for me to share with you today, Samethyst, with a combination of salmon pink outer layer and light purple amethyst in the center. Pink gold and argentium silver made this beauty stand out. I had a great run with amethyst and agate this summer, with them selling as fast as I made them. I don’t think there are any other cabochons of this in my stash, certainly not any as nice as this. An unusual combination, specimens of this are hard to find and highly coveted.

As of this writing, these are all available for sale, but are not all on the website. Contact me if you are interested. It is difficult for me to make choices as to my favorites. Every pendant I make is part of me. I hope you like these in particular. Which is your favorite?