Category Archives: Wire wrapped jewelry

A “Painted” Lake Superior Agate

Lake Superior Paint Agate

I thought a short little blog was justified for this fine little Lake Superior Paint Agate.

“Paints” are onte of the many varieties of Lake Superior Agates. The majority of Lakers are banded, called fortification agates and are fairly transparent in that you can see light through them. People will say the difference between Jasper and Agate is that you can see light through Agate, but not through Jasper.

This is not always the case as there are always exceptions to this rule. In most cases this rule is true, but sometimes we see opaque Lake Superior Agates, mostly as painted agates.

It is like someone took a wide paint brush and made swooshes (is that a word?). I guess if Nike can use it, so can I. These brushstrokes are wide and bold; in many cases in reds and oranges that make very striking Jewelry.

Here’s a paint I wrapped that I really liked. Enjoy

The Amazing Colors of Abalone

I have recently started wire wrapping a group of Abalone doublets acquired in Tucson. These shells are so very amazing, with their variety of iridescent colors. Waves of the irridescent coloration just flow across these shells.

Abalone looks like a clam, but it really is a type of snail. An abalone makes its shell in layers. The abalone grows a layer of a specific kind of protein, and then a calcium carbonate mineral called ‘Aragonite’ crystallizes on the protein layer, until it is much thicker than the protein layer, and then there’s another protein layer, and then another layer of the mineral, aragonite, The protein is like a glue that holds the aragonite mineral crystal layers together. Aragonite and Calcite are naturally occuring calcium carbonate minerals that usually form in a sea environment.

Calcite is the primary makeup of Petoskey Stones and other fossils found in the Great Lakes where we live.

The cabochons I purchased in Tucson were all the same size and shape. The challenge is doing a different wrap for each cabochon. Here’s some samples of my latest pendants. I have one posted on line, but they would all be in the same neighborhood as far as price.

You will enjoy wearing one of these shiny eye-catching beauties .

Morrisonite Jasper Jewelry

Treasures from the Tucson Gem Shows

Oregon’s Morrisonite Jasper has been called the “King of Jaspers” because of it’s range of colors and patterns. The deposit is located near the Owyhee River; the small town of Watson is nearby..

Many times the Gem Shop will have lovely Morrisonite. The Gem Shop sells both rough and cabochons to lapidary artists. I found one amazing piece that caught my eye at his location. I looked at it 3 times before I decided that I really wanted to make jewelry of it. Yes on occasion I do buy cabochons if they are worthy! Eugene (Gene) Mueller, of the Gem Shop, occasionally mines this material.

What struck me was the simply amazing patterns in this special piece. It seemed other worldly and sort of fit my personality. The difficult part, with this piece, was figuring out what should be the top and bottom. what it boiled down to was the mountain (volcano) in near the center top, that appeared to be spewing lava that runds down the landscape. Forget the cost; I just had to have this piece. Visit our Jasper Jewelry page to see what is currently available.

Rear

Yellow Datolite from the Delaware Mine (and Other Places)

Classic Delaware Yellow. The color is corrected in this picture to reflect the true color.

What I bought in Tucson-Part 3

Sometimes I find unusual things in odd places. Bonnie was perusing my friend Gary Wilson’s booth at one of the major Tucson Shows, when she spotted three slices of Yellow Datolite. All were from the same piece of Datolite. Yellow is one of the most sought after colors in Datolite.

Most Keweenaw Datolite sports a wide range of coloration caused from small copper inclusions ranging from orange to red to pink. White is the most common color and was found in all the Keweenaw mines. Yellow Datolite is rarer, getting it’s color from manganese, which is not as abundant as copper. The finest bright yellow is found around the tip of the Keweenaw Peninsula, the northernmost land in Michigan. Fine yellow Datolite has been found at the Quincy, Franklin, and Mesnard mines. Often these three mines had mixtures of colors that looked like they were stirred together, and not quite mixed enough. These three mines as well as the Centennial (blue) are historically the gourmet Datolite collectors Favorites.

Yellows are also found in other mines including the Delaware and Connecticut. Often, Datolite colors can be fairly specific to one mine, and yellow shades are ones you can often determine the source from the hue of the stone, but we Datolite collectors can sometimes be fooled by yellows.

The Delaware Datolite cut into three pieces. I have a couple more to wrap.

The king of yellow Datolite; The ultra rare Kewenaw Point.

The Quincy Mine produced a wonderful caramel yeollow. This little beauty I made for this blog.

The Delaware mine tailings pile has all been hauled away and that historic site for hunting Datolite is now extinct. Enjoy these Datolites while they are still available.

Druzy (Drusy) Quartz Jewelry

Treasures from Tucson Gem Shows

One of our first stops is to find a dealer with Druzy Quartz, with a variety of colors, shapes, and sizes. Druzy is natural Quartz pockets, mostly in Brazilian quartz, but these pockets are enhanced by various treatments, including dying, titanium vapor, and painting. Most of these start as plain white Quartz pockets, but when treated they are very colorful, bright and have metallic shine. The tiny quartz points pick up the titanium vapors and reflect light off the facets, creating a reflective surface with gives lots of bling to your jewelry. Many of our customers love treated Druzy and it certainly is showy. Here are several I’ve made since the shows.

None are posted on the website yet.

Our most popular color is Pink! But blues, greens, multicolors also have their enthusiasts. We also offer natural Druzy jewelry created from Amethyst or other attractive natural Druzy pieces. Treated Druzy is an affordable alternative to other gemstones and often appeals to folks who prefer a pretty bright color more than a naturally colored rock. Enjoy our Druzy Quartz pendants at our web page and here on the Snob Blog.

Beautiful Larimar Jewelry ( What I did with my Tucson buys-part 1)

Treasures from the Tucson Gem Shows

I believe this is one of the best I’ve made.

Some stones offer universal appeal. A gemstone that reminds people of ocean waves crashing up on a sandy beach is hard to ignore. Larimar the beautiful sea-blue stone from the Dominican Republic never fails to attract sighs of delight from shoppers. Our handcrafted Larimar jewelry always tugs on the eyes for attention!

Great quality but a lighter blue than most.

My best one I found in Tucson this year.

At the Tucson gem shows I seek a small selection of stellar Larimar pieces each year for our jewelry because it is so eye-catching. Customers who appreciate a special quality pendant for their jewelry collections enjoy shopping for these fine stone necklaces. Larimar comes in many qualities. Less choice pieces have washed-out light blue/gray/black patterns containing brownish inclusions or have little or no pattern. It seems every dealer claims to have AAA Larimar in Tucson, but the fact is that less than 3/10 of 1% of all Larimar is the top of the mark. The very best Larimar shines with pastel blue alligator-type patterns across the face. Nice pieces shimmer back at you from cut stone selections and call for your attention!

The good stuff; one with copper inclusions. Pictured is not the top of the line Larimar, but nice stuff none the less.

Larimar is only found in the Dominican Republic. It is a form of Pectolite, but the mineral Pectolite is generally soft, not solid for gemstone jewelry making. Larimar is a form of Pectolite with interlocking crystal structure similar to chalcedony making it tougher than other Pectolites. Larimar can range from a hardness of 5 to 7 on Moh’s Scale. The harder the better for making jewelry. Larimar was originally discovered around World War I, and rediscovered by a Peace Corps worker (Norman Rilling) and Miguel Mendez, in the mid 1970’s. Rilling named the stone after his daughter, Larissa, and the French word for the sea, “mer”.

Since then, many holes or mines were dug in the area. I have actually talked to the former owner of the largest Larimar Mine in the DR. She was forced to give up the mine due to the many government regulations for mining it. The work is very intensive as dynamite cannot be used lest the gemstone may be damaged or to avoid mine collapse. . Wet weather makes digging impossible and the mines may be closed 5 months out of the year; the tunnels are prone to collapse.

Fair quality, but there may be one good piece in there.

The best Larimar may be deep within a mine, perhaps a hundred feet or more. Much of the Larimar is not fit for jewelry. As you can imagine, top quality demands premium price both at the wholesale and retail level.

Like Turquoise and Chrysocolla, Larimar gets the blue and green colors from the presence of copper. This year Bonnie grabbed a cabochon that has a visible copper inclusion. Because we sell so many pieces in Michigan’s Copper Country we thought this would be popular there and I look forward to making this unique cabochon into a wire-wrapped pendant. Normally, Larimar with Copper inclusions is considered substandard, but I admire some pieces that have this inclusion.

You could be fooled by blue Victoria Stone.

The closest Gemstones I’ve seen to Larimar is the man-made Victoria Stone and Hemimorphite from China.

The top piece of Larimar this year I purchased on the last day of a show. After looking for two weeks, I finally found just the right treasure, a big bold round beautiful Larimar cabochon. This Larimar gemstone was wire wrapped in pink and yellow gold creating a lush handcrafted pendant, big, bold and beautiful.

Let our Larimar pendants evoke Caribbean beach images for you!

Still need a gift for Christmas?

I filled my tree with a few treasures from the website. Jewelry is such an easy gift. No worry about sizes. It is rarely returned. Our pendants are a long-lasting gift, and have no calories. Plus it fits perfectly in the toe of a Christmas stocking.

The pendants you see are linked here for you.
From the top down you might see Sleeping Beauty Turquoise, Teepee Canyon Agate, Gold Dust Fordite, Desert Night Biggs Picture Jasper, Peach Moonstone, Lavender Lace Agate, Sea Green Victoria Stone, Pink Candy Druzy, Blue Bling Druzy, Hard to Resist Aspenite with Chrysocolla, Horizons Lake Superior Agate, Metallic Marvel Mohawkite, and Denim Sweetheart Lapis.

We hope you have a great holiday and thank you for your business.

Datolite, Copper and Quartz Pendant

I’ve decided to write some mini-blogs to keep you up on activities at Snob Appeal Jewelry. I will be keeping you up to date about waht takes place in my shop, on my workbench, and in Bonnie’s Bead Room.

Last week I cut a beautiful Cabochon from a piece of Datolite I bought from a friend in the Keweenaw earlier in August. I don’t usually use White Datolite as there are many more colors of Datolite that are far more coveted. White is common and was found in most all the Copper Mines in the Keweenaw. It is impossible to determine what mine White Datolite came from. Most colored Datolite can be identified with what mine it may have come from.

White Datolite generally has very little “character”, but sometimes, as in the case of this piece, it has character to the max. Copper always adds character to Datolite no matter what color. White Datolite with Copper inclusions and Quartz is especially fine.

I cut this piece into a large bold teardrop shape (30 X 40 mm). Since the Datolite is so showy, the wrap needed to be simple and elegant. I love using Pink Gold whenever I have loads of native copper in a stone. Pink gold’s coloration matches Copper well, but you do not have the Oxidation with Pink Gold like you do with Copper. I combined Pink Gold and Argentiun Sterling for this piece.

Whenever you wrap a calibrated Cabochon, you have to be as identical on the right and left side as possible. Any variation from side to side are readily noticed, and this is why many wire wrappers avoid calibrated cabochons. This pendant could be worn by a man or woman.

I hope you enjoy these small blogs.

A Loony Greenstone

In a large hoard of small tumbled Greenstones from Isle Royale, I noticed an odd shaped one. Closer examination revealed it looked exactly like a Loon. I had an immediate inspiration to combine this particular Greenstone with another gemstone of a unique pendant.

A couple weeks later my wife, who always seems to be trying to improve the neatness of my barn and shop, located a great piece of clear Quartz with Rutile ribbons included. The stone remind me of a reed bed in some Northern Lake where a Loon might nest.

The pendant turned out just as I envisioned it. At 2 1/4″ tall and 1 1/4″ wide, it makes an impressive pendant. I made it from Gold wire and Pink Gold wire. I’m going to test-wear it a while and sell it on line.

Datolite: One of the Keweenaw’s Colorful Mineral Treasures

I tried to do justice to a customer’s Yellow Keweenaw Point Datolite. earring and bracelet set.

You already know that Datolite is my favorite Calcium-Borosililicate. I just love the way that flows off the tougue, and it sort of makes you look smart when you say it. Datolite commonly occurs in the the Keweenaw in the Copper deposit host rocks in veins and vesicles. We also find Datolite in mine waste piles, often in the form of round, Califlower-looking crystals that have popped out of the host rocks left from mining Copper. If you find Datolite in the Keweenaw, you can be assured there is copper nearby..

Quincy Yellow

Franklin or Mesnard (?)

White Datolite can be from anywhere. This one containing classic Datolite Crystals.

The most common color of Datolite is white, and can be found in all the copper deposits in the Keweenaw. Pink is the second most common color. A close microscopic study of pink Datolite will reveal the pink hue is the result of micro copper within the stone. the darker the pink, the more copper in the Datolite.

Copper is the star in these three I’ve been saving for a personal piece of jewelry. From right clockwise: Keweenaw point Yellow Datolite, Copper Replacement Agate (Kearsarge Lode), Dark Chlorastrolite with Copper.

Centennial Blue (#2 Shaft)

Copper “Lightning” in Centennial Blue

Colors in Datolite run the entire color palette. Impossibly rare is the Canary Yellow from the Keweenaw Point. Unlike most Datolite in the Keweenaw this yellow Datolite gets its’ color from manganese and not Copper. This Point deposit is primarily under water, but has been covered with green algae for quite a few years now, making it almost impossible to find in the host basalt.

Most mines, where Datolite occurs, sport particular colors in their respective Datolites. I, and many other serious Datolite hunters can make educated guesses as to where a particular Datolite might have come from. I find my friend Jeff Anderson’s website the go-to site for Datolite ID. Check it out at http://www.sailorenergy.net/Minerals/MLDatolites/MineralMainDatolitesMI.html

Another rare Datolite is the Centenial, a white Datolite stained blue-green from oxidized copper. Several hundred pounds were removed, from a muddy pocket deep in the mine, in 1962 by miners. This was all that were found, and after the mine was closed, it flooded. If you have one of these “Tidy-Bowl” colored beauties, you are fortunate indeed. All Centennial’s were either full of copper flecks, or had less copper, making them lighter blue. Some blues came from other areas, like the Phoenix Mine (Phoenix), and the Isle Royal Mine (Keweenaw County). Even though blues are found in other locales, the best blues have always been from the Centennial.

Mesnard in the classic colors Mesnard is famous for.

Quincy Caramel!

Caledonia Mine. The red is Microcline (var Adularia)

Beautiful and striking Datolite colorations came out of the Mesnard, Franklin, and the Quincy. These three mines were eventually tied together by adits. The Orange/pink/red combinations are amazing from the Franklin and the Mesnard, as is the caramel Yellow’s from the Quincy.

Datolites of all colors were prolific at the Delaware and Connecticut Mines over the years. Many of the mine waste piles, including the Delaware, have been crushed in the last few years for road fill. Finding any Copper Country mineral is not as easy as in years past, mostly because of the incessant crushing of the old mine waste piles.

Bonnie found a wonderful bag of Datolites, I obtained several years ago, in my shop. I thought you would enjoy what I’ve been doing with them.

My Datolite jewelry is very popular at Copper World in Calumet, on our website, or see us every year in August at art shows in Eagle Harbor and Copper Harbor where you can choose your jewelry (Including Datolites) in person. All the types of Datolite’s mentioned in this blog are still available from us, but are becoming depleted as people realize if they don’t get one know, they may never get the ones they want.