Category Archives: Wire wrapped jewelry

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.

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.

2015 at Snob Appeal Jewelry

Royal Imperial jasper is considered the cadillc of Jasper’s

Morenci Blue Turquoise with Pyrite inclusions

Royal Imperial jasper

Thank you to our customers for a great 2015. Our jewelry is being worn and enjoyed all around the U.S.

Thanks also for all the positive feedback. We really appreciate it when you take the time to write.

Fordite ( real deal, not the new fake Fordite)

Isle Royale Greenstones continue to top the list of most popular products we sell. Other bestsellers are Lake Superior Agates, Thomsonite, and Datolite, as well as many of the unusual, one-of-a-kind gemstones. Knowledgeable customers are snatching up Keweenaw Gemstones as they realize how scarce the hunting areas are becoming. The old tailings piles are rapidly being crushed and hauled away for road fill. We have been warning of this for quite a few years, and it is coming to pass. Now is the time to obtain these U.P. treasures before it’s too late. We are fortunate to have hunted, traded, or bought a good inventory of Keweenaw materials over the years.

Picture jaspers were hot sellers this year, so I have made some new jaspers as you can see here.

Deschutes Jasper

We are looking forward to the Agate Expo 2016 in Cedarburg, Wisconsin. This is the third International agate show we have participated in (That’s all there were). A symposium day will feature recognized speakers and well-established, reputable dealers will offer agate and rock products from around the world. Put it on your bucket list, and plan on being there.

Kentucky Agate

I have been busy manufacturing jewelry for this show, and our usual art shows this coming summer. We continue to be very popular at Copper World, our retail outlet in Calumet. A substantial inventory of our pendants is always on hand there.

Attending the Rock & Gem Shows in both Quartzsite and Tucson is also on out agenda. We carefully search all the nooks and crannies of those shows to find those rare treasures our customers expect. I’ll be blogging from those shows this month and in February. Blogs flow out on a daily basis, so watch for them here.

Peach Moonstone. Unfortunately you can't see the sheen on this in a picture.

Peach Moonstone. unfortunately you can’t see the great sheen in this picture.

I hope you enjoy the pictures of some recent jewelry. Most of these are not on the website, but is in our show inventory. If you are interested an any of our new pendants, contact me. By “Liking” our Snob Appeal Facebook page, you will see each piece as I make it, and by reading our blogs you will keep up with our activities.

Deschutes Jasper

Biggs Picture jasper

We hope you had wonderful Holidays and we really appreciate you supporting our small business instead of buying poor quality imported jewelry.

Wirecrafting New Stone Pendants

Montana Moss Agate chock full of Dendrites. This one is called "Snow Swirl".

Montana Moss Agate Pendant I called Foggy Marsh.

Montana Moss Agate Pendant I called "Foggy Bog".

I have been very busy this last month. Internet business has been brisk, and I have been posting up many new pendants. If you haven’t checked recently, you should have a look. Christmas is coming up fast. Every year someone (guys in general) will call three days before Christmas wanting something immediately. We prefer not to rush the USPS! I can send things out overnight service, but cannot guarantee the USPS, especially during the holiday rush. Overnight here often means 2 days.

I made a couple of new Montana Moss Agate Pendants within the past week. I love Moss Agate, and as you may know there are many different varieties. The “Moss” in these agates is not actually some sort of petrified moss, but is inclusions of Manganese, Iron, or other minerals that formed moss or fern-like structures within the Quartz agate. These inclusions are called Dendrites.

Careful, and often thin, cutting can really enhance these organic looking inclusions. I’ve ruined more than a few of these moss agates learning proper cutting. It’s worth learning when you see a virtual garden of “Moss” in what looks like a fantastic picture of what you might see in a real-life landscape, or underwater vista.

I called this Fire Agate "Fire Nebula"

Sometimes I come across a very beautiful Fire Agate with deep botroidal pattern and a rainbow of colors. These are again very tricky to cut, as the “fire” forms in a micro-thin layer on the bubbly looking inclusions in brown quartz. If you cut too deep, there goes the fire; if you cut too shallow the brown quartz will disguise the true colors under it. There is really a fine line between taking off too much or too little. There are Lapidarists who specialize in Fire Agate only.

Poppy Jasper

Poppy Jasper is increasingly rare orbicular jasper. It is a brecciated jasper, meaning it probably came from sun-dried and oxidized iron-rich clay. The cracks were filled in by other substances, in the case with these; Agate. I cut two pendants from a fine piece that Bonnie found when cleaning (or rather rooting) around in our barn.

I added a pair of garnets to the top of this one.

Isle Royale Greenstone is our best seller, so I thought a couple new creations would be in order.

Greenstone lillypads afloat in Natrolite.

You may think you’ve seen this Natrolite and Greenstone before. You almost have! I posted the opposite half in my November blog.

Just a really fine Greenstone. I called this one "Day to Dinner"

The other new Keweenaw beauty is simply a very nicely patterned Greenstone Pendant.

Bonnie says I must make Christmas Jewelry, so I guess I have to get to it. I’ll show you later.

Some of these pendants in this blog are for sale and linked to the shopping cart. Just click on the picture and have a look. If nothing happens, the pendant is spoken for, but get ahold of me and I’ll make a similar one for you.