Category Archives: Lake Superior Agate Jewelry

Agate Expo

Dnosaur Bone Trio-soon to be jewelry.

Many of you know that we are invited to be jewelry vendors at the Agate Expo in Cedarburg, Wisconsin next month. If you haven’t made plans to be there, you might want to!

Just the list of exhibits alone is astonishing, with 111 exhibitors listed. You will certainly see agates and jaspers you have never before heard of or imagined. A symposium will be held on July 7 with 12 agate experts speaking about their research. July 8-10 the show floor and exhibits will be open. You can see great agates, and that’s where you elect your favorite Snob Appeal Jewelry! On July 9 a banquet will feature Brad Cross as a speaker, plus a Live Auction and dance. Brad has “written the book” about Mexican Agates.

Lake Superior Agate with floating agate.

Madagascar Ammonite looks like falling leaves.

An unusual Laker

A coveted black & Red Kentucky Agate

This is the third International Agate Show we have participated in. In 2008 the Wonderful World of Agates was held in Wisconsin. (It was before I started blogging, if you can believe that, so the link will send you to David Von Bargen’s entertaining report on the event. He barely mentions agate jewelry though. Some Agate Lovers hate that anyone would cut and wear these treasures.) You can see some of our pictures from the Celebration of Agates in our Snob Blog July 2012.

If you love agates like we do, this show should be a must see trip. All the leading experts on agates from around the world will be speaking at the show, signing their books, and making themselves available for any questions you might have.

A Laguna Agate Pendant and Earring Set

Here are some of the jewelry pieces we intend to display and sell at the show. We are known for our fine agate Jewelry which earned us a spot as vendors. Our specialty is Lake Superior Agate jewelry but we also create jewelry made from rare and beautiful agates from around the world. We, or course will have our Michigan Greenstones with us, but most of our jewelry will be top notch agate pendants from many different agates. Visit us and count how many different kinds you recognize!

Boulder Opal

A fine Kentucky Agate pendant

Quartz crystal in a Quartz (Lodelite)

Owyhee Picture Jasper and other Great Lakes Gemstones

Can you guess why I called this pendant “Sleeping Bear”

North Shore Thomsonite

Now that the Tucson shows are done, the jewelry creation process is moving forward. Over the past week I’ve made several pieces of jewelry, especially Michigan stones, from Lake Superior Agates, Datolites, Dark-eyed Thomsonite, and a really special and amazing Laker pendant.

Yellow Snow-don’t eat it. I did not enhance the color in this at all.

Sugar and stripes.

This is why Lake Superior Agates are my favorite gemstones. This one is “Stripes in Stripes”

I love these. I called this “The Red Continent”.

I have had this particular Laker slab that shows the classic Laker reds, but also Citrine. When you find the reds and the yellows together it is surprising and fantastic!

Even I was amazed. This one is called “Lady Luck”, a unisex piece of jewelry. I test wore it and won a fifty-fifty drawing. Do you need some luck?

A really odd Waterlevel Laker with a lot going on. It is not named yet.

Other Lakers I made into pendants are so very unusual with the banded Laker floating in Sugar Quartz or with the more common sugar Quartz surrounded by the colorful laker.

Peachy-pink Mesnard Datolite.

A Yellow Quincy-Outstanding!

Colorful Datolite is always a winner, and a gorgeous Peach from Mesnard, and a Quincy Yellow are new pieces. Really nice colored Datolite is getting very hard to find. The old piles are held by private interests (not allowing hunting for liability reasons), or crushed and hauled for road fill. Any colorful Datolite demands premium prices. I’ve been advising people to buy Datolite Jewelry now, if they like it. Old stocks of Datolite are being used up.

Greenstone-Central Ex pile (when there was a pile)

Just for variety I did a North Shore Thomsonite, which is another beautiful stone from the Lake Superior Region, especially Minnesota and the Keweenaw Peninsula.

Amongst all these Michigan gemstones, why did I feature a western Owyhee Picture Jasper? Well, when we saw it at a show, it looked so much like a picture of a Michigan lakeshore. If you have ever visited Sleeping Bear National Lakeshore, you will recognize the resemblance to this beautiful Owyhee Picture Jasper. Welcome to my creative world!

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.

Ghostbusters

“Ghostbusters” is another pendant of the “Debbie Collection”, one of her earlier purchases. When Halloween time comes around, you often see her showing off how her ghost seems to fly through the air!

My inspiration on this one came as I was cutting slabs from a very unusual Lake Superior Agate. The agate had distinctive eyes as well as some fortification structure with unusual coloration, mostly white but including some yellow, which is quite rare in Lakers. I immediately saw a face on the second slab, and the pattern continued through the next three slices.

I cut a calibrated oval 30X40 mm cab with the eyes in a position showing the face of the ghost. The position of the eyes toward the side of the cab made me think of a flying ghost.

I took this cab to William Holland School of Lapidary Arts in Young Harris, Georgia for an advanced wire wrapping class I was taking. The first incarnation of the ghost came into being at that time. I thought the piece was quite whimsical and artsy. I kept that piece of jewelry around for a couple of years and my wife wore it at Halloween time each year. Debbie was looking through my pendants one day and fell in love with the ghost. By the time she looked at the original piece I had made a second, less extravagant ghost pendant, but Debbie wanted the wild unit I had created at lapidary school. p12600032 I re-wrapped the original ghost simply because my skill level had progressed substantially and I could see some flashier things to do! This is the pendant that Debbie loves.

The ghost appears to be flying rapidly through the air throwing up a trail of smoke. I really enjoyed creating this extra-ordinary apparition.

Debbie’s Bluegill Pendant

While cutting an interesting Lake Superior eye agate one afternoon, I saw a fish eye develop. I had an inspiration that if I cut an oval cabochon, then backed that agate with a thin sheet of Jade, I could somehow make a fish come to life. The dilemma then became how to do it.

I first cut a thin slice of mottled green Jade from a rock I found in my collection, then cut it out in a fish shape using my Taurus Ring Saw. A Taurus saw has a continuous circular, diamond coated wire that allows cutting in any direction. It’s a machine that I use occasionally, but on those jobs nothing else works as well. One of the uses for the Taurus is cutting Christmas tree ornaments. Another use is cutting the State of Michigan shape out of Petoskey Stone.

I used two-part Epoxy to bond the fish-eyed cab to the Jade. I then continuously wrapped a frame from Sterling silver, finishing the wrap at the bottom of the fish.

I left extra wire at the bottom and ran that extra wire up the rear of the fish to lock the wire to the fish frame.

Debbie always likes matching earrings for her pendants. In this case I used the same piece of Jade as I used for the backer, and using the Taurus Saw again, I cut the blue gills. With a Foredom and diamond bit I drilled tiny eye holes in the earring fish as well as hole to hang the drops. p12600021

Debbie is an enthusiastic rock hound, has eclectic tastes, and claims many of my unusual pendants. This was one of the early pieces in a growing collection, I refer to as the “Debbie Collection”. I have a lot of fun designing pieces with her, and she graciously has agreed to have her jewelry in the next few blogs. I expect when I become “Rich and Famous” (right!) Debbie should be able to open up a museum of my strange, unusual, and weird stuff.

You can see some of our available agate pendants on several pages: Various, Crazy Lace Agates, Lake Superior Agates, Petrified Wood, and Queensland Agates.