Category Archives: Fossil Jewelry

Pyritized Ammonite Jewelry

Treasures from the Tucson Gem Shows

Finding pyritize ammonites around the Tucson gem shows is not that difficult, but it is hard to find large, whole undamaged Pyritized Ammonites.

Ammonites are extinct mullusks related to modern day Squids, Octipus, and Cuttlefish. They had compartmentalized bodies. This feature makes them very interesting when the inside is exposed to show these compartments.

The rear

Wonderful, large, Ammonites sporting multi-colored Opalized surfaces fetch many thousands of dollars at the Tucson Shows. These large showy Mullusks are mines in Alberta, Canada. Smaller inexpensive Ammonites are available by the millions from Moroccan dealers. We see Ammonites with a coating of Pyrite and we see fully Pyritized Ammonites like the one I found.

Giant Opalized Gem Ammonite from Alberta

These fully Pyritize Ammonites are from a location about 30 miles from Moscow. Similar ones come from other worldwide locales. I find wrapping these lots of fun but you have to be very careful with your tools as the interior structure is somewhat fragile.

We have had variations of ammonite used in our jewelry. I have made a dual piece with tiger eye, and ammonite encased in mammoth ivory, as well as the expected shiny-bright ammonite. You can see the current selection at our Fossil Jewelry page.

A Good Thing Happened on the Way to Kino…Tucson Gem Shows 2017

I love reading Lee Child’s Jack Reacher novels. Reacher is always figuring the odds for everything, but even Reacher could not figure the odds of what happened yesterday. On our way to the Kino Sports Complex to buy a new Titan from Diamond Pacific, we stopped at the 22^nd Street Show just kick around. I saw a small sign that a dealer at the show was going out of business and liquidating his stock, including a used Titan lapidary machine! It turned out to be a great buy, and he had some extra tools, wheels, and add-ons that he had used. This morning we returned to pick up the “monster” that needed the whole back area of our little car.

My new (used) Titan takes up the entire back of the Tracker

Azurite Malachite from Morenci Az

Pretty nice D-Bone

If you are in town, be aware that the big Show Guide has been unreliable this year about dates that shows are open. This has been disappointing because this has always been the “bible” of when to visit the 45 shows!

Lots of Turquoise arond this year at Kino.

Turkish Stick Agate

Rock painting by A.Znaniecki

A. Znaniecki

Boulder Opal-Queensland

What’s inside?

Chrysoprase Australia

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Tigereye

Mexican Carnilian

Rose Quartz

Asking $22,000????

Typical Vendor at Kino

We headed over to Kino with no particular plans now that I have my new/old Titan. Kino is always an eclectic variety of vendors. You never know what you might see here. In the farthest back tent I always find something of interest. I bought some Turkish Stick Agate that I am told is quite rare from Eskisehir, Turkey. Nearby were more buckets of Turquoise, and some vendors just getting set up. We sell agate pendants from many world locations, you can see them on our Agate Treasures web page.

By the door were some painted rocks that I liked by A. Znaniecki. He takes rock slabs and matches wildlife scenes onto the rocks. Amazing, creative and realistic, he was featured in a past Rock & Gem magazine.

A flea market of tents is set up in a large lot at Kino. A tent full of beautiful Malachite was one of the first things I saw. Nearby I bought some pretty Morenci azurite/malachite. Meanwhile Bonnie was talking to a miner of Queensland boulder opal. He had some pieces that were separated at the seams of opal, like puzzle pieces. He demonstrated how thin the seams of blue, green, and white colors are, hidden throughout the boulder matrix.

I had a nice talk with Bo Bohannon from Utah who has lots of dinosaur bone slabs and yellow cat petrified redwood. You may know that I really like both of these and have made various pendants from them, but I have some more ideas…stay tuned!

There are always sculptures, geodes, tabletops of rocks, and huge rock chunks. We saw some great chrysoprase. We skip past the hodge-podge imported goods from India and China, and stop to admire the rock cabochons and piles of rock. Note the pile of buffalo skulls. What would you do with one of them?

Rose quartz skulls were offered for $22,000, but maybe you could get a better deal, if you are in the market. Irridescent ammonites were $50-$2000, and other Morrocan ammonites were less expensive. See our ammonite pendants and more on our fossil page.

We left a lot of Kino unexplored, and left early to pace ourselves!

Dinosaur Gembone Jewelry of the Pink Variety

When the dinosaurs died they probably didn’t know that years later their bones would be prized for fine jewelry making!

You can easily see the bone cell structure in fine Gem-grade Dinosaur Bone.

I acquired a slab of delicious pink/black/gray Gembone this year in Tucson. It took some slight prying and good money, but I’ve never seen quite this color in D-Bone, and when held up to the sun, you could see right through it in spots.

Dinosaur Bone is like Petrified Wood, in that the cells and patterns are replaced by varied colors of silica, making each cell a tiny agate. Some colors, like gem reds are more coveted that other unusual colors both in D-Bone and Petrified Wood. This piece has a great combination of white, gray, black with hints of pink making it very unusual.

The original slab (picture taken in natural sunlight). You can see why I wanted this one.

It is really an amazing gemstone. My pink slab was large enough for several cabochons. I am now working on several pendants of D-Bone (Not just this one slab, but many including some red).

Here is the first of my pendants Made from the pink bone. This Pendant was gold and silver and is about 3″ tall. it has a free swinging bottom, of a design engineered by me. This pendant was a real challenge and took several hours, but I think the effort was worth it. It is going to the Agate Expo with us to sell. Other dinosaur bone pendants and coprolite jewelry are for sale on our Dinosaur Jewelry page.

Wire Wrapping 101-NOT! ( My most Challenging Wire Wrapped Pendant)

One of the Gem Bone Slabs I found last year.

One of the Gem Dinosaur Bone Slabs I found last year.

Jewelry I made from the above slab.

Last year I bought some amazing gem dino bone slabs in Quartzsite. These particular slabs came from the estate of a famous bone collector. I love gem grade Dinosaur bone. It amazes me that each individual cell is many times an individual agate, within the agatized D-Bone. These cells can be fortification agates of just nice clear Chalcedony or some of the great colors in good gem Dinosaur bone can be vivid red, orange, yellow, pink, brown.

I cut a few slabs with a multi-stone pendant in mind, and searched out some bone-shaped dinosaur bone beads. I layed out the pieces and saw good possibilities. Bonnie has wanted me to make a pendant for myself to wear at shows, and D-Bone seemed to be a good choice for a manly pendant.

My most challenging pendant thus far.

I thought about this piece of jewelry for at least a year. With multi-stone pendants you have to know the end, and mentally work backwards. Sometimes I need a challenge, or I think I do. No matter what stage you are in your wire wrapping endeavors, you should always look for something to challenge your brain, fingers, and tools. I sometimes get bored just making simpe single-stone wraps and enjoy the challenge of multi-stone wrapping.

Even with all my experience I sometimes try things that just do not work; I have to start over, and try again. This is very frustrating at times. I can almost wire wrap a single stone with my eyes closed, but these multi-stone things are another issue entirely.

Multi stone wrapping is equal parts of engineering, art, and expertise. I find myself inventing techniques to conquer challenges when using multiple stones. A good understanding is also important as to what your wire, your tools, and yourself may be capable of. Sometimes it really upsets me when I think I can do something, and it fails. But I find the best way to learn is from your mistakes (sometimes it takes reminder mistakes).

Ahead 1 year: I laid out my dinosaur bone cabs on my workbench and was certain that I had a plan, but instead I had two complete failures which frustrated me and taught me that perhaps I should rethink this pendant. What I had in mind was extremely complicated and intricate. Can I really pull this off? Finally after being on my workbench for approximately three weeks the pieces began to come together. The big challenge was how to connect piece to piece and still make the work come together artistically.

Also you have to think about what metal to use. In this pendant I decided to use Argentium sterling, yellow gold and pink gold (three tone). I decided that twisted pink always looks nice with silver and I bound it with half-round gold. In this pendant the center rectangular dinosaur bone cabochon is the featured stone: bright red and a perfect pattern. I used another slab of dinosaur bone to fashion the top and bottom pieces with the beads coming from another piece of dinosaur bone. I worked on this off and on for three weeks so that my frustration level would not exceed my judgement. Backing off and thinking things through entirely indeed helped.

I had a larger gap between the second and third pieces than I expected, which gave me the chance to insert the two 5mm faceted garnets between which adds a bit of dignity to the piece. This entire piece is about 4 1/4″ by 1 3/4″.

The finished piece exceeded my expectations, and I will be happily wearing this piece beginning with the upcoming Tucson gem shows. It will open discussions with other wire wrappers that I meet.! I enjoyed the challenge of making this piece of jewelry, but I am elated now that it is done! I name this the Dinosaur Boneyard. So if you are at the Tucson shows and you see a guy wearing this, say hi and introduce yourself!

Speaking of the Tucson Gem shows, my daily blogs will start later this week–hope you join me for my adventures!

Ammonite Jewelry and Ammonite Discus

Iridescent Ammonite from Alberta are many Thousand Dollars.

There are many sources on line (and we should always believe anything on the Internet), that indicate the first Discus’ were Ammonites. Other sources (WIKI) say the first Discus’ were cats. Who do you believe? I am indeed confused; perhaps they alternated; throw a cat then an ammonite. I say nothing more for fear lest PETA members boycott my blog. ammoinrock

Reverse impression and golden hue make this Ammonite classy.

I enjoy making fossil jewelry. A favorite popular fossil is Discus Ammonite. Most ammonites are found in Canada, U.S., or Madagascar. I’ve also seen plates of Morroccan Ammonites that are obviously fakes (ie artsy positioning, exact duplicates, or Ammonites from different time periods in the same plate.

Moroccan Ammonite

Ammonites were Cephalopods related to Nautilus, Squid, Cuttlefish, and Octopi. Many people think of them as snails. This is incorrect. Sizes range from huge 3 footers to miniscule sizes. I like the 3/4 to 2″ size for jewelry. The avid specimen collectors love the amazing iridescent Ammonites from Alberta. These specimens are priced in the high 5 figures. Some Ammonites from Europe are six feet in diameter. Ammonites thrived in the Jurassic and Cretaceous Periods (175 to 65 Million years ago).

Kosmo Ceras

I have been attracted by the Pyrite Ammonites, Kosmo Ceras, from the Volga River in Russia. A Russian dealer mentioned that you have to pay large sums for a ride on a government helicopter to this remote site on government property. You could save much money by buying a Snob Appeal Jewelry Ammonite instead of exploring the Volga River Valley.

I love the reverse imprinted Ammonites that appear to be sprayed with gold paint from New York State. A light dusting of Pyrite occurs naturally on these Ammonites. I think, along with the iridescent Ammonites of Alberta, these particular Ammonites are very classy. I seek good ones out each year at Tucson.

Iridescent Ammonite

The iridescent part of the Ammonite is called Ammolite, and is considered gem material.

My metaphysical friends tell me that these iridescent Ammonites have good Feng Shui in the home or office. I would think that if you owned an Ammonite Pendant from Snob Appeal Jewelry, it should provide enough Feng Shui for your body. Besides Feng Shui, our Ammonite Pendants are great conversation pieces and look great with anything.

Fun Ammonite trivia:

Ammonites were believed to be petrified snakes in Medieval times.

Navajo and plains Indians called Ammonites “Buffalo Stones” as they had a resemblance to Bison. They carried them in their medicine bags for health and good hunting.