Winter has been very productive at Snob Appeal Jewelry. Many beautiful stones that have been patiently waiting for their turn to become wire-wrapped pendants called out to me, and have finally turned up on the workbench.
I’m like a dog that sees a squirrel; I pick out a stone that grabs me, then I might decide not to chase it, and grab something else. All my stones beg, plea, and whine; they tease me, and all of them want to be elevated to the pendant level. The ones that whine the loudest are the “Chosen”. The pendants in this blog were all whiners; can you hear them. Let me know which ones are whining loudest for you.
There will be no rhyme or reason for the pictures in this blog, except they are all new. Many Michigan gemstones are mixed in with assorted worldwide stones. Most have not been listed for sale on the website. Contact us it you have an inquiry. Many will go to our show inventory or are scheduled for shipment to a retail outlet.
I have also been playing around with new ways to wrap gemstones, but still keeping with my policy of never distracting from a fine gemstone by using a lot of fancy doodah and froohaw, what I call it when people run wires all over the place. I do classical wire wrapping that enhances the stones. I spend too much time cutting rare and unusual stones to cover them up with a bunch of wire. Most customers appreciate my clean, neat, style.
So, without further rants, here is some of my recent favorites (AKA the sucessful whiners).
Sometimes it pays to look through old buckets. I recall digging this Chrysocolla with Copper from the Old mine dump at the Bumbletown Mine, maybe 15 years ago. Digging is not as good as it once was, but there are still a few pockets of nice Chrysocolla in the Keweenaw, The brown matrix gives this away as Bumbletown material.
Shattukite set. These from Bisbee, Arizona.
If a Lake Superior Agate Island appears in a Laker, it’s refer to as a “Floater”. Here’s a fine Floater I cut and wrapped.
A happy Trilobite couple..I really enjoy the challenge of wrapping these odd shapes. Elrathia Kingii from Utah. Most trilobites you see are missing their cheeks; these beauties are perfect specimens.
Drusy are natural Quartz Pockets that are treated in different ways. The customers like ’em so I make ’em!
Rainbow Obsidian Starfish has been sitting for a few years. It needed to be done.
A carved Ametrine, about nickel size turned out pretty nice.
Thomsonite; one of my favorites.
A composite Turquoise with Copper inclusions.
A very special piece of Gembone. Red is one of the most popular colors. Each cell is an individual agate. Dinosaur Bone; I love it!
An atypical Greenstone with Greenstone beads on top. I just wanted to be whimsical.
Some people call Owyhee Picture Jasper the king of Picture Jasper. A really good piece (like this one), is so realistic. Found a slab in my shop; Where did this come from? Doesn’t matter if I smiled. From the Owthee Mountains on the Idaho/Oregon border.
Thomsonite form Superior’s North Shore. Big perfect pieces like this are very scarce.
Perfect Morenci Turquoise.