Category Archives: Stone Jewelry

From Bonnie’s Beading Studio

I don't think a better combination is possible with this combination of jewels.

I thought this month’s “on the workbench” should feature one of the new pieces from the talented Bonnie’s workbench. I just loved the colorations and design of this necklace. So here we go with descriptions from a very talented beader. I have asked Bonnie to tell about this set…

The Petoskey Stone is our official Michigan state stone, so it is very popular in most of our Lower Peninsula art shows. As an artist, it is a great neutral stone to work with. The colors are so flexible, you can mix it with any color you choose. Amethyst is a favorite choice of mine, but so is blue, black, or river stone (ivory color). Turquoise is such a popular stone, and in the southwest you often see turquoise and hematite paired together. These oblong turquoise beads are the beautiful robin’s egg characteristic of the famous Sleeping Beauty turquoise (Globe, AZ). Matrix-free, they have the clear bright color many people expect when they think of beautiful turquoise.

The shiny black hematite beads are faceted, similar to the smooth long turquoise bead shape. The focal bead is a nice round Petoskey Stone disc with an excellent hexagon pattern. With earrings to match, you can wear favorite stones from both Michigan (our primary state to hunt stones in) and Arizona (our favorite place to go in February for the famous Rock & Mineral shows).

This piece of jewelry is also featured in the November/December 2011 issue of Michigan Country Lines magazine in an article about Snob Appeal Jewelry and our dedication to jewelry made from Michigan gemstones.

On the Workbench (August 31, 2011)

My 100th Blog!

Bonnie had a great idea last week that I think will be great fun. She suggested that I show you what is on my workbench. I will show you what I am doing both before making jewelry and after my jewelry is finished.

a 3+ gram Isle Royale greenstone

My first post is a very nice fine-patterned Isle Royale Greenstone that I acquired in Michigan’s U.P. This was a rough nugget that I cut in half. I offer many greenstone cabuchons for sale on my website which folks use to create their own rings and other jewelry. A large stone with a great pattern like this I make into my own wire-wrapped creations.

Here I am making this pendant on the beach at Crystal Lake near Benzonia

Here I am making this gorgeous pendant on the beach at Crystal Lake near Benzonia

I cut it in a designer shape and wrapped it in 14/20 gold fill and Argentium Sterling. I was very pleased with the finished product. You can see this Greenstone pendant on my website along with other chlorastrolite pendants.

A gorgeous Greenstone with included Thomsonite. A winner for sure!

A Luminous Superstar Greenstone with included Thomsonite. A winner for sure!

Where in the world is Copper World?

Copper World

In historic downtown Calumet, Michigan, lies the finest gift shop in the Keweenaw. Yes, I speak of Copper World. They retail my jewelry as well as items from many other top-of-the line artisans, most from the Copper Country. I specialize in gemstone jewelry from the Copper Country that I find myself, cut, and wrap. My jewelry is a great fit for this store.

Snob Appeal Jewelry is exclusively featured at Copper World

I love their exclusive line of clothing items promoting the Keweenaw Peninsula as well as their full line of the famous Stormy Kromer hats “made in da U.P. eh.” They feature all the finest books on the history of the area as well as the rocks and minerals of Copper Country. I could go on and on about all the cool things they have, but I want you to go there or check out their web site: www.calumetcopper.com

My buddies Tony and Tim

The store is owned by my good friend Tony Bausano, and is most often staffed by his son Tim, and daughter Chris. Behind the scenes is Tony’s wife, Joyce, who really runs the business end of things at the store, as well as the online business and all the shipping. I love a family business and this is one of the best examples.

I have been exclusively retailing at Copper World for four years, and thanks to Tony and Tim our business and products have a great following up here. Whenever I do wire-wrapping demonstrations at Copper World many locals come in to chat and see what new things I’ve done. Working in Copper World also allows me to talk about my favorite subject (rocks) to those interested. The best sellers are Lake Superior Agate, Datolite, and Chlorastrolite pendants. Other stones of interest are Prehnite, Thomsonite, Firebrick, and Mohawkite.

I'm in deep concentration making jewelry in Copper World.

They proudly offer the work of many artists’ products, many associated with the Copper Country. Besides the “Kromer’s” I just love the Thimbleberry jam they sell.

Tony is the biggest promoter of Calumet that I know of (and longtime mayor) and steers the “Trolls” (this is the nickname for we who live south of the Big Mac Bridge) to historic places and local sights. He is proud of Calumet and it’s history. The building itself was a big restoration project and is a welcoming beacon to the historic downtown area.

Make no mistake this store is a very busy place during tourist season, with a constant flow of walk-ins, both local and from far and wide. They come looking for that perfect souvenir or gift, and are seldom disappointed. When you come to Calumet, be sure to visit Copper World.

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

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.

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

Times are Changing

People are turning to hand crafted jewelry to get the unique look that traditional jewelers don’t offer. The media and Internet are having a big hand in how people learn about nontraditional gemstones. I’ve been noticing a couple trends over the past year. christmas

One trend I see is many alert couples noticing that there are many more gemstones than the common diamond, that can, and should be used as engagement gemstones. The most recent royal engagement of Kate Middleton to Prince William is a prime example of this. A really big deal was made because the ring was originally worn by Princess Diana. Only minor mentions were made as to this ring being unusual as a colored gemstone being used as an engagement ring. Kate’s ring is a remarkable, flawless, 18 carat, oval, blue sapphire surrounded by 14 fine white diamonds, and is valued at around half a million bucks. Not the piece of jewelry you might find in your local jewelry store. Diana had this ring custom made for her in 1981 as an engagement ring.

This ring has spawned many rip-offs. Even QVC has jumped on the bandwagon and selling their replica for $39.54. Of course this stone that QVC has is surrounded by diamond-looking stones and has a silver band.

Another trend I notice is black diamonds and brown diamonds being advertised as chocolate diamonds. Back in the day the black diamonds, which are heavily ladened with carbon, were simply crushed up and used on diamond tools. The brown diamonds were used for the same thing, not considered a desirable gemstone. Times are changing, boys and girls.

I do not have to go too far out on a limb to predict that in the near future even more jewelry buyers will seek out alternate gemstone jewelry other than the diamonds, rubies, sapphires, emeralds, and topaz that the jewelry stores sell. This will be a gradual change because of the heavy advertising by the jewelry industry. jasper-2 But wouldn’t your own special stone lover treasure a unique picture rock or mookaite jasper or a moss agate or picture jasper that no one else in the world has a duplicate of? These unique hand crafted jewelry pendants are our specialty, unusual gemstones, wire wrapped with artistry and precision, and providing a lifetime of beauty.

The variety of jewelry sold by numerous jewelry selling networks on TV has been a boon to me and others selling the rare and unusual gemstone materials. These TV sales have help people change their attitudes and expand their thinking in regards to what is, and is not, a gemstone. I see things on TV that I never thought would sell in multiple hundreds. Things like jasper with names obviously made up by the these TV outlets. Things like dabacle rose spring sunset copper-included Christmas eve jasper. OK, I made that up, but you get the picture. I’ve got to re-name something with an alluring name that no one can resist. How about we re-name Greenstone to something like Star Light Pumpellyite. Hey Don, that’s a great idea!! jasper

We have turned snowy white up north and it brings thoughts of family and Christmas. We hope you have a wonderful holiday season. May visions of Datolite dance in your head.

Don & Bonnie

May visions of Datolite dance in your head

OUR FAVORITE CHRISTMAS THINGS

With holiday shopping on the news, and the calendar showing the holiday shopping season is here, I thought I might help readers find our most popular Christmas gift items. The photos posted in this blog are recent creations not as yet on the website. Call if you are interested.

A giant 4.2 gram Greenstone (may be available)

Our most popular pendants are Isle Royal Greenstone. Some people call these Michigan Greenstone. In any case they are Michigan’s State Gem. The correct mineral name is Chlorastrolite, which is a variety of pupellyite. These lovely green stones, with a chatoyant alligator pattern, are extremely rare and are a single source gemstone. We sell lots of individual Greenstones as well as Greenstone Pendants, Greenstone bead or stud earrings, necklaces, and bracelets using Greenstone beads often combining these Greenstones with other Michigan minerals. Most people have never seen a Greenstone, let alone own one, so these become treasured gemstone jewelry gifts.

A lovely Larimar waiting for you. (may be available)

Our next best sellers are Lake Superior Agate Pendants. Our “Lakers” are the best flawless gemstones we can find. No expense is spared in obtaining the very best Lake Superior Agates, giving you great pride in your jewelry purchase. Many of our agates are rare varieties and of course we do have the popular red and white Lake Superior Agates known as “candy stripers”. We also have requests for other colors of Lake Superior agates, such as the pinks, grays, or ones with certain patterns. We also have Laker beads which we use in necklaces and bracelets.

Brown Rhodocrosite was one of the most popular gemstones in Tucson this year. (may be available)

We also feature Michigan’s State Stone, the Petoskey Stone as jewelry and as polished specimens. This fossilized coral is found widely across Michigan and is prized by visitors and residents alike. A plain gray rock, it takes on a distinctive look when it is wet or polished, giving a magical quality. Our Petoskey Stone pendants, like all our jewelry incorporate 14/20 gold fill and argentium (tarnish-resistant) silver to make their care easy.

Wild Horse Magnesite. (may be available)

bluvic

We are famous for the rare stones we use in our jewelry. Among the most rare are Victoria Stones, which really dazzle customers when they get them. You can choose from a full selection of the most beautiful colors of this curious stone product. Shiny and chatoyant, you will enjoy wearing it and telling the unusual story behind their creation. These stone pendants will really get noticed! Read the amazing story behind these stones in this blog.

If you see a particular stone in a pendant on our website, you are only seeing a small sample of what we have available. Our show inventory is substantially greater then what we have available on the web. We are always willing to send jpeg’s of products not on our website. We also have thousands of cabochons and thousands of pounds of rough rocks, minerals, and fossils that we can cut, polish, and wire wrap for you.

We also have Michigan rock and mineral specimens available that are not on the website.

Give us a chance if you want something unusual. You can never know what we have or can do for you unless you ask.

Lake Superior Agate Fish

Sometimes when I’m cutting a rock I come across one amazing slab from whatever I’m slicing. Well that happened recently when I cut a larger Lake Superior Agate.

I was amazed to observe a beautiful fish show up. This fish so astonished me that I had to make a pendant out of it immediately. So here is a photo. What else can I say? I did not re-touch the color of this fish. This fish lasted two weeks and sold off this website.

fish