Thomsonite is a Great Garage Sale Find

Thomsonite Greenstone pendant — Transcendental Thomsonite & Greenstone Pendant

I have a good track record in identifying rocks and minerals, especially from the Great Lakes area. I’m not a know-it-all type person, but I have seen a lot of rocks and minerals in my day. Our website is an example of the variety of stones we use.

This is the back side, showing where the bottom is connected and how the botton swings. The bottom shows to be crooked, but that’s just the way I set it down.

I generally do not use common jewelry store gems; ours are usually much more rare. My rock club friends, and others, will ask me to attempt an ID for them.

At our recent Club Show a random shopper was referred to me by another club member to identify some odd looking stones. She had an old bracelet from a garage sale; the stones falling off a base metal finding. I identified the stones as Thomsonite from the North Shore of Superior. Most of the cabs were small rounds, but the main cab was a very unusual, pastel Thomsonite, sporting a red banding not unlike a Lake Superior Agate.

Closeup of the beautiful Greenstone//Thomsonite beads, the link visually tying the two large stones together.

I asked her what she was going to do with the stones (I was not interested in the metal, which looked like it came from the kids table), as they were loose in a bag. She decided to swap the stones for a bracelet we were selling. Sometimes a stone calls me to create jewelry immediately, and this was the case with this Thomsonite. It was so unusual for a Thomsonite, at first glance I though it was an agate.

I knew what I was going to do with the main stone when I traded for it. The only concern was the stability of the Thomsonite. The stone was thick, and Thomsonite is fairly brittle with an iffy crystal structure at times. Thomsonite does not tolerate harmonic vibrations, and requires careful cutting, grinding, and polishing.

First I used a 4″ ProSlicer high speed saw blade. ProSlicers are thin, for cutting valuable material. I used a .012 blade to cut the Thomsonite. Water and a couple drops of coolant are a must. I carefully sliced the Thomsonite, but a small piece broke off, turning a round stone into one with a flat side. The majority of the gemstone remained intact. I’d rather a gemstone break early in the process. I can’t begin to count the stones I’ve rejected over the years, because they did not live up to my standards. In many cases a customer would not even know there was a problem, BUT I DO. I refuse to sell substandard jewelry.

After a Thomsonite was sliced, the breakage can still occur. Grinding wheels must be broken in and only the soft wheels on the Genie or Pixie (lapidary machines) can be used (remember the harmonic issue?). Happily, the grinding and polishing turned out well.

The Thomsonite could have been a stand-alone pendant, but I love to upgrade if I can. In this case the upgrade was an gorgeous Isle Royale Greenstone, collected off the island 50 years ago; swinging from the bottom of the Thomsonite. This Thomsonite and Greenstone Pendant turned out amazing. If a pendant turns out amazing, I feel amazing, and I know the customer will feel amazing! Life is good!

It turns out identifying a random baggie of garage sale stones could be reworked to something stunningly beautiful! You can own and love the finished product! Visit our Thomsonite page today!

Explore ourÂ wide selection of Greenstone Cabochons, Greenstone PendantsÂ and Greenstone EarringsÂ as well as Thomsonite and other jewelry from Keweenaw Minerals

Greenstones on the Bench-Awesome Isle Royale Greenstone

If you have followed my blogs over the years, you should have noticed many are about Isle Royale Greestones. I am amazed by orders from all over the country for cabochons, pendants, and earrings. How do these people know about these rare, one-source gemstones?

Many people have visited Isle Royale National Park, and know these stones can be found on the Island, but park regulations do not allow collecting Greenstone, as well as other specifically listed rocks and minerals. Having said this, the National Park Service policies have changed over the years in regards to picking up Greenstone. Isle Royale Greenstone have actually been protected since isle Royale National Park was estabished in April of 1940. There are individuals, even today, that harvest a few Greenstones while visiting Isle Royale. I guess my personal feeling is neutral on this subject, but they could pay a price if caught.

The Park service looked the other way, back in the day, when visitors picked up a few Greenstones on the beaches. Tiny little Greenstone, although fairly tough, were eventually ground up by the mighty Lake Superior, so why not let a few go home as mementos. The problem came with commercial Greenstone expeditions, where thousands of Greenstone were harvested by divers or “professional pickers”, and sold on the mainland for massive profit. The park service cracked down on these greedy private business collectors, and began enforcing the collecting rules that were always on the books. Today, there is a strict and enforced policy against removal of certain Gemstones and Copper from Isle Royale.

Over the years, I often have conversations with customers about old rock collections from decades ago. The collections are sometimes discovered by heirs in basements, garages, or sheds. My ears perk up at the sound of “grandpa’s old rocks”. Last year I bought an old Greenstone collection that was stored in a barn for fifty years, the rockhound that collected them was remembered by the jewelry he made, but some stones remained.

I am an obcessed person when it comes to cutting and polishing Greenstone. I try to limit myself to 100-150 of them for marathon cutting and polishing (I can oly average 4 Greenstones an hour). I’ll select the beach tumbled stones from my stash, throw them in my redneck bowl (CoolWhip), and take them to my shop to flatten the backs for Dopping. FYI; the rough Copper-Greenstone, featured in the opening blog photo, is at 12 O’clock in the bowl. I thought it was just a Thomsonite-included stone. There was no indication it had Copper in it until it was cut (with me smiling).

After the backs are flattened, I push them, flat side up, into that crispy Styrofoam used for making wreaths. Sometimes I get lucky, and am able to get broken scraps.

Finishing Isle Royale Greenstones

Whenever the urge presents itself, or my inventory depletes, I decide to have a Greenstone production week. Production usually involves sorting out stones for both pendants and earrings. Earrings are generally sorted for color, size, and quality AFTER the Stones have been dopped, cut and polished, and removed from the dopsticks.

Depending on the size, pendant stones may or may not need to be dopped. Dopping involves gluing or hot waxing a stone to a wooden stick, a nail or a screw, to allow safe cutting without the skin touching the diamond imbedded wheels of the Lapidary Machine. Some bleeding is often present even though the stones are Dopped. I tell Bonnie, that a little blood on the stone improves the polish (NOT). I do heal fast. Some of my cutting and polishing of Greenstone methods I keep under wraps, but standard methods work well for most. I may continue, starting with how I remove the stones from the Dopsticks, and proceed from there.

A tiny Greenstone, from the Jeremy Graham collection, I recently wire wrapped for him. An unusual yellowish-green Island stone with Thomsonite inclusions.. Many times good things come in small packages.

Greenstone Quality

Island Stones are usually superior to Keweenaw stones in all respects. They generally harder and the pattern goes completely through the stone. The pattern most often, is a finer pattern, and often the color is a pale sage green. Because of the hardness of the Island material, Isle Royale Greenstone take a super deluxe polish. You can read more about the colors and inclusions in Greenstone in the Snob Blog article, The Shades and Patterns of Greenstone (Chlorastrolite).

Island Stones make wonderful stud earrings due to the fine pattern that is usually present. Isle Royale stones cost a little more money, but are lovely.

Another phenomena of Island stones is their color variations; some are so unusual you can have doubts that they are actually Chlorastrolite.

We invite you to have a closer look at our Greenstone–check out our wide selection of cabochons, pendants, and earrings.

SISU Agates Revisited

Ledge Agate, Keweenaw Agate or Brockway Mountain Agate

SISU is a Finish word we hear often in the Upper Peninsula. It means going beyond ones’ Mental or Physical threshold. Most Lake Superior Agates are fairly easy to harvest, but Keweenaw Ledge agates require quite a bit of digging, pounding, and more digging and pounding work, to obtain. They require a lot of SISU to harvest.

Rocks and Trees are not an issue with SISU

On a previous blog (circa 2013) I showed the adventures digging ledge agates from the base of Brockway Mountain. A type of paint Lake Superior Agate, found mostly south of Copper Harbor, and not well known. I found a pocket of red chunks of agate in a secret hole. When I got home, I put these buckets of Keweenaw Agate in my barn to work on “later” and they rose to the top when Bonnie was cleaning and neatening out there recently. I didn’t have time to work with them right away, but one piece was so unusual it went right to the saw. Of the many Ledge Agates I have cut and seen, I have not seen one like this agate. Ledge Agates are pretty unique, but this one goes beyond unique

The back side of this Keweenaw Seam Agate is fairly mundane.

The front is really amazing. Like the big lake is has waves and mountains.

A close look reveals evidence of tubes, surrounded by red agate “eyes”

The green/ blue is probably a Chlorite deposition within the silica.

Keweenaw Agates are generally opaque with a porcelain surface, and little or no fortification banding. This particular agate had those attributes, and also eyes surrounded by red agate. The base color of the agate is reddish, but it also had green in it, indicating a chlorite deposition in the agate. I cut it and made a pendant as you can see here. I am hopeful that as I rummage through these buckets of seam agate I will find other nice pieces from this lucky pocket.

It took 5 or 6 years to show you Keweenaw Agate from this hunt, but hopefully I’ll find more good stuff to show you later. I probably missed some of the nuances in this stone. Feel free to comment at whatever link source you got here from.

video of rock huntint the Keweenaw Agate: https://www.snobappealjewelry.com/blog/category/keweenaw-peninsula/

Greenstone Surprise

When Bonnie comes to the shop all excited, it usually means she wants to show me something.

I was polishing a batch of Petoskey Stones when she appeared to tell me it was raining and all the my Greenstone-infested mine rocks were lit up with Greenstone. I had only a small pile of rubble outside that I have been working Greenstones out of them, off and on. Most of these rocks only have small Greenstone in them, and those I keep for teacher specimens. Sometimes a larger Greenstone may appear, and sometimes I see what appears to be a small Greenstone, and it turns out it’s really a big Greenstone. Let’s take a look:

Some of my tailings pile rock appears to be full of Greenstone, but it is full of, what most Greenstone hunters call “Half-baked Greenstone” or “Greenstone wannabes”. This material is dark and soft, showing no pattern. The wannabes usually occur in softer mine rock, whereas the good Greenstone occurs in hard rock (hard rock=hard greenstone). I’ve included a picture of this Half-baked material. This softer material may contain Chlorastrolite, but is mostly Chlorite. Unfortunately, like most of my fellow Greenstone hunters, I wasted a lot of time, over the years, on this half-baked dull junk. Not every green stone is our beloved gemstone Greenstone!

Soft, dark green Chlorite (Possibly with some Chlorastrolite) often inhabits soft mine waste.

Today I found one rock that I could see had a Greenstone poking out from the surface. I thought, based on my experience, that I might be able to break the rock open, and the little Greenstone might pop out. I whacked that mine rock and I broke that small Greenstone right in half. IT WAS A BIG-UN! I don’t mind at all that the stone broke in half. Now I can make two Greenstones!

The additional nodule shows some promise also.

This particular Greenstone has a center filled with some type of Zeolite. Often the Zeolites in Greenstones is soft and rotten, but this stone seems to be solid. The extraction now involves carefully cutting out the stones. More work, but the rewards may be worth the extra effort. Based on the thousands of these I’ve cut, I will not get real excited unless the final gemstone is finished and really is a worthy Gemstone.

Because of my workload right now, I cannot show you a finished piece and we don’t know if it’s a winner or a loser. The end of this story will have to wait…sorry!

to be continued

“You can’t count on a Greenstone Gem until the finished stone comes off the polisher”-Don Reed 2019

You can read more about Greenstones:

The State Gem https://statesymbolsusa.org/symbol-official-item/michigan/state-gem-gemstone/isle-royale-greenstone

Inclusions in Greenstone https://www.snobappealjewelry.com/blog/the-shades-and-patterns-of-greenstone-chlorastrolite/

An Amazing Laker

Coming out of Warp Drive inside a Laker. I just might get a poster made of this. “*These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise”…..you know the rest.*

I cut and polished this odd Tube Agate and had a vision of the Starship Enterprise coming out of warp drive and finding they had actually warped right into this agate. Only an old Trekker, like myself, would think this. How WOULD that look exactly? How would Kirk or Picard escape from this dilemma? I’ve never been known to think like others, I admit, but if this shows up on the IMAX screen, I WILL claim credit.

A Very Special Lake Superior Agate.

You might suspect, based on how many blogs I’ve written on Isle Royale Greenstones, that they are my favorite rock or mineral from the Great Lakes Region. I do indeed love Greenstones, but those that know me also know that Lake Superior Agates are really my favorite stones. The more unusual the Laker, the better I like it. This blog is the story of one particular Laker. Other than playing with lighting, I have not enhanced this agate in any way. What you see in the pictures is as close as I can come to what I see.

A Citrine, banded, tube Laker salted with micro Quartz Crystals. How many of these have I seen? Answer: None.

When I first view a rough Lake Superior Agate I always wonder what does the inside of this agate look like? In many cases I can take an educated guess based on the thousands I’ve seen, but in many cases it becomes a mystery, and I cannot wait to slice that agate open.

I obtain my Lake Superior Agates in many ways; find them, trade for them, or buy them. These Lakers may come from swap meets or rock show, but most of my best agates come from trusted dealers. I make jewelry from my stones, and I do not apologize to my Purist collector friends that just collect them to perhaps oil them and put them on display shelves. I have no issue with simply collecting Lake Superior Agates, but to me, they are beautiful and deserve to be shown off.

The full banding, crystal, and tubes appear here.

Clearly the tubes are seen. Don’t they look like balloons?

I would never make jewelry from a large, super quality Laker, one that is clearly a true collector agate. I try to obtain fracture-free Lakers of smaller sizes, rare colors, patterns, and types. Classic Candy Stripers are always in demand for jewelry.

In Tucson, several years’ back, I bought a quantity of medium sized “Buckers”. This is a term Laker collectors give to pocket-sized Lakers, neither large nor small. I like the size of Buckers for jewelry. I can slice them on an 8” saw, and quickly see if there is a piece of jewelry hiding inside.

Micro Quartz crystals are seen here. This is the best I can do lacking a camera-microscope.

This Laker is just loaded with floating Quartz Crystals that sparkle as you move the agate under bright lights. I’ve never seen anything like it. Some of these tiny, clear quartz crystals are double terminated and resemble Herkimer Diamonds. I wish I could show you in person because I can’t do justice even in a close up to this inclusion rich agate. I do not have the capability or microscopic photography, but I was able to confirm the Quartz Crystals by using a Corbascope.

What a surprise when I plucked an agate from the bucket full of Lakers I purchased in Tucson. It was a very unusual yellow and orange coloration, it was not the normal banded beauty. As I cut this agate recently, I found that is was a Tube Agate, with some banding. But, to me, it looked like a Lava Lamp (they were a big thing back in the 60’s). I could watch a Lava Lamp for hours and globs of an unknown substance rose and fell within the globe. I never imagined 50 years later I would find a Laker Lava Lamp.

A Lake Superior Agate Lava Lamp. The **Lava Lamp** is the name I call this Laker.

Usually my blogs involve several specimens, but this Laker deserved a blog of its’ own. Hope you enjoyed your voyage with me today. Continue the journey by picking your favorite on our Lake Superior Agate Jewelry page.

You might have noticed the new look in our blog. This is part of a major update we recently had done by our web people. Please let me know if you like the changes. We (Snob Appeal Jewelry) apologize for the disruption of our website as changes were made. If you have any problems at all with our new systems, PLEASE, let us know, so we can correct things.

Patricianite (or not!)

Apple Green Prehnite appears as vein material in some mine spoil piles from Calumet north. Normally it has fine Native Copper inclusions. This is some of the “Chunky” variety of Prehnite mixes. Notice that this material forms in veins, as does Patricianite, in most cases.

Before I can address how to identify Patricianite, I have to address the main ingredient–Prehnite. Prehnite occurs generally in vein material in many of the mine waste piles in the central Keweenaw Peninsula area from Calumet north to Copper Harbor. Prehnite is formed in veins and cavities in Keweenaw basalts, and is associated with other Keweenaw Minerals, including Calcite, Datolite, Chlorastrolite (Greenstone), Quartz, and Zeolites. It is also closely associated with Native Copper.

Typical Prehnite Mixes and Patricianite Beach Pebbles. These pebbles often have Copper inclusions and beautiful radiating eyes, similar to Thomsonite, hence the local name of U.P.Thomsonite is commonly mentioned.

Patricianite and Prehnite, from the Keweenaw Peninsula, come in both smooth or chunky, just like peanut butter. Smooth beach pebbles of White, Pink, and Green are not uncommon finds in the Keweenaw, The pastel colors often appear stirred together. Chunky Prehnite or Patricianite are found in the mine spoil piles, roads, or secret holes near Thomsonite Hill. The forest roads sometimes produce nice Prehnite mixes. Here’s a secret; some of the Prehnites appear white, and is often passed over on these forest roads. The colors and patterns are hidden under this thin rind and are not visable until this rind is removed.

Patricianite is a special variety of Prehnite, named by Rosendahl, in 1966, after his daughter Patricia Ann. Green Prehnite with inclusions is not considered Patricianite. In order to have Patricianite, you must three ingredients: 1. Pink Prehnite; 2. Chlorite; and 3. Visable Copper Inclusions. If any of these three elements are not visable, you do not have patricianite. (pink prehnite is light apple green prehnite containing microscopic specks of copper that have changed the green Prehnite to pink shades). The more Copper in the mix, the darker pink; I have found a few Prehnite pieces that are actually Maroon from so much Copper. If you hold these pieces in the sunlight the massive ammount of micro-copper is very evident.

I usually like to write a new blog and have it published close to the first of the month. I wanted to write about Patricianite, but I could not find a good piece anywhere. If you have so many rocks, you can’t find A rock, perhaps you have too many rocks; NOT! While searching for a nice piece of Patricianite, lo and behold, I discovered some amazing Datolite. Now I’ve become distracted by the Datolite I forgot I had. While looking through the old Datolite, I found a small slab of PATRICIANITE. At a glance, Patricianite can look like Datolite, that’s why it was there. So amazing things lost years ago (can something be lost, it you don’t know it’s lost?), were found today. Now, even though Greenstone is being worked in the shop, the Datolite is calling.

The pebbles of Prehnite found on the beaches, are generally a combination of beautiful apple green, pink, white, and other colors which appear stored together (smooth), while the mine spoil piles produce chunky seam Prehnite. Usually the seams aren’t much more then an inch wide, and if you are lucky, you can find gem green Prehnite visibly peppered with copper. Prehnite in these seams seems to form from both sides of the seams, and either meets in the middle of the seam, or there may be a gap right down the middle of the seam. Bubbly, boitrioidal, Prehnite is also found on the spoil piles. This Prehnite is translucent and has a vitreous luster. If you find one of these, you have a great specimen.

There was so much Copper in this Prehnite that the stone was Maroon. Patricianite?; Some call this Patricianite, but not the classic mix.

Prehnite with copper and Chlorite. No Pink, so this isnot Patricianite.

A beautiful pink and white Prehnite cab, but no evidence of Chlorite. Copper IS in there, but I can see no Chlorite.

A close-up of the previous cab, reveals visible Copper, but I see no Chlorite. I believe this is Patricianite, but I would not argue the point. That Chlorite has to be in there, doesn’t it? Under magnification that triangle in there looks loke a Pseudomorph of Aragonite, doesn’t it?

Copper and Patricianite mix, but green so Not Patricianite.

This is Patricianite; all the right ingredients and more.

Prehnite in the Keweenaw is sometimes referred to as UP Thomsonite. People used to think Prehnite was a form of Thomsonite until testing by Michigan Tech proved that it was not. Prehnite can have eyes, and radiating crystals similar to Thomsonite, but Prehnite is not a Zeolite, as is Thomsonite. TRIVIA: Prehnite is the first modern mineral named after a person. You can read about this on one of my previous blogs. https://www.snobappealjewelry.com/blog/can-you-make-jewelry-from-keweenaw-prehnite/

Prehnite is a favorite stone to make Keweenaw Stone Jewelry from, the shiny copper bits and pink and green color variations make it interesting and popular. High quality, gemmy Patricianite and Prehnite are highly prized for jewelry and collecting. Visit our Prehnite Jewelry page.

See other jewelry from Keweenaw rocks and minerals: Greenstone, Datolite, Firebrick, Mohawkite, Thomsonite, Lake Superior Agates.

Just as an aside; In order to do the research for this article I happily dug into my collection of old Rock & Mineral books. Every time I do this, I pick up little known and forgotten facts. I was reading “Rocks and Mineral of Michigan” published by the State of Michigan Department of Conservation (now the Department of Natural Resources; DNR) in 1939. It was so old it referred to MSU as Michigan State College, and MTU as Michigan College of Mining and Technology. I’ve got to re-read this book and perhaps find a new rock hunting area lost in the past.

Turkish Stick Agate: One Stone-Different Looks

My next cab is ready to be cut.

Turkish Stick Agate is an interesting pseudomorph agate, from Turkey with a variety of intriguing patterns and colors. The Turkish Stick Agates come in different types. A distinguishing characteristic of Turkish Stick Agates is needle-like tubes, forming what looks like pointy, sharp sticks within the stone, so it can be referred to as Needle Agate.

Experienced rock collectors will have in their mind what a certain agate looks like or what represents a body of agates with that name. When I say Lake Superior Agate for most people a red and white banded agate might appear in their mind, but we know that there are many types of Lakers.

When we say Stick Agate you might expect needlelike structures in a clear quartz agate, but there are many types of Turkish Stick Agate even from the same mines. I thought you would enjoy seeing these samples which are quite different. You can see another very nice piece at mindat.org.

Just a little aside folks.This brings up an important question; Can you poke your eye out with a Stick Agate? My mother had four boys and unlike kids today, we played OUTSIDE a lot. It was not uncommon for her to yell at us for doing dumb things. ” Don’t run with that stick; you could poke your eye out”. As I have grown up (maybe) I came to realize it was impossible to “poke your eye out” while running with a stick. You can only poke your eye IN. The only way you can poke your eye OUT is to stick the stick up your nose and then you could theoretically “poke your eye out”. Now back to our regular program…

The most characteristic form of Turkish Stick Agate shows needle-like patterns.

Turkish Stick Agate with banding and shadow effect

This one sports fortification banding showing some Parallax (shadow effect) and tubes.

Turkish Stick Agate with tubes and banding

Tubes and banding as well as beautiful colors make this a Turkish Stick Agate with no sticks!

High quality Turkish Stick Agate is quite expensive in the rough, and every time I’ve tried to get a break on it, Turkish miners, at the Tucson shows, decline to give much, claiming how difficult it is to find and mine. Much of this material comes from mines near Ankara, Turkey. Actually the good stuff comes from Cubuk, Turkey; but who knows where Cubuk is? (Central Turkey: I looked on a map)

Quality depends on how solid a particular Stick Agate is. Most Turkish Stick Agate has geodes with gaps, or vugs, and also can vary in hardness within a stone.

I find it intriguing that such variety can come from the one source. I am not an expert on Turkish Stick Agate, but I do know it is very beautiful. I guess that’s why I make jewelry from it.

I lied; When I did a search on Turkish Stick Agate, I came up as one of the experts. This has often happen. Bonnie (wife) says it’s because I’ve written so many blogs over the past 10 years. I guess I could say I’m a pseudomorph of knowledge on many subjects.

This agate has only become known in the United States within the last 20 years, and is not commonly available. Usually there is a Youtube video on everything, but there seems to be no video of actual mining Turkish Stick Agate.

In this blog I show three pieces of jewelry I made from expensive rough I bought a couple years ago in Tucson from the Non-negotiable (price) dealer.

Can you poke your eye out with a Turkish Stick Agate? Like a stick, the answer is probably “NO”, unless you take a small, sharp shard and shove it way up your nose. If you ever try this experiment, make sure your camera is recording it. I’m betting you could go viral; until Youtube pulls it off.

*pseudomorph

1: a mineral having the characteristic outward form of another species:

Good examples in the mineral world happen quite often in replacement fossils, where minerals replace, for example, wood; they often look like wood, with patterns, bark, and even knot holes. Another good example is petrified dinosaur bone where you can see every cell (each cell is actually an individual agate).

2: a deceptive or irregular form

In. The “sticks” in Turkish Stick Agates were originally Aragonite Crystals but they were replaced by Silica. The sticks still look like Aragonite, but they are not. Pseudomorphs are common in many Agates, but that is a whole other subject.

3: Don Reed

Don Reed, according to the Internet (and we should always believe the Internet), is one of THE experts on Turkish Stick Agates. Don Reed appears to be something he is really not. This may not be true, or perhaps it is…..Like the Internet; Don Reed would never intentionally deceive you.

Pseudomorph of Don Reed in Crystal Quartz from Brazil.

If this craziness is of interest to you, you should also read our embarrassing story about a missing chunk of this Turkish Stick Agate.

Visit our Turkish Stick Agate jewelry page for currently available pieces.

New Wire-Wrapped Pendants

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!

Greenstone pendant with greenstone beads

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.

New Bestselling Stone Pendants

Blue Lace Agate is popular because it can be worn with almost anything, and has unusual pastel coloring. I felt compelled to fancy the bail up a bit.

After the frenzy of Christmas comes the chance to start on new pieces and replenish our bestselling stone pendants. I don’t know what happened in January, but I made a lot of jewelry! This blog will be fairly simple. I will just show you some of the newest pendants and earrings.

The Great Lake stones are always most popular, so you will see Lake Superior Agate, Isle Royale Greenstone, Copper Agate, Datolite, and Firebrick. Opal, Rhodochrosite, Blue Lace Agate, Charoite, and Petrified Wood are also eye-catching and beloved. Two of these you will find offered in our newest category, Jewelry Sets. A surprise pair of stones I found in Tucson last year caught my eye again, Rainbow Obsidian hearts, so I did one in silver and the other in gold. And of course, people love Druzy!

Picture Petrified Wood from Holbrook, Arizona. I am fascinated by this stuff. Unless you knew it was Petrified Wood, you would probably not guess it is.

I made this gorgeous Rhodochrosite set to replace a set purchased as a Christmas gift. Beautiful color and gem quality came together nicely. They look like pink candy.

The back side of the Copper Included Agate found in the Kearsarge Lode in Michigan’s Copper Country. Many Copper Agates are ugly on the back (which is actually the outside of the nodule, as found by the miner.)

The front side of a Copper Agate. You can see the bands of Copper that replaced some of the agate banding. This one has Copper Eyes. I focused a light on the front face. The copper popped and the cleat Quartz reflected the green back wall of the nodule. Without the light reflecting the face is mostly white.

Like the old song about Friends, “one is silver and the other gold”.

I made a pair of Rainbow Obsidian Hearts thinking someone would like one for Valentine’s Day. If you could see them in the sun you would see the pendants “pop”.

Kingman Turquoise is from one of the oldest Arizona Turquoise Mines. Native Americans historically mined Turquoise from this location long before the white man appeared.

My favorite Gemstones are Lake Superior Agates; a flawless Lake Superior Agate with perfect, varied, pastel color banding.

Kentucky Agate with coveted red, black, and yellow bands

Firebrick happened when vapors and molten Copper replaced much of the brick in the walls of the Copper Smelter. The Silica was impervious to the hot Copper and remains as small white grains in the Firebrick. This pendant was challenging to make in many ways.

A tiny Greenstone from Isle Royale (this is about as small as I can wire wrap.) This is a perfect choice for the person who wants to put it on and wear it 24/7.

The sizzle of Fire Agate amazes me.

I’ve wrapped many new Greenstone Pendants in preparation for summer sales, and Bonnie has had me working on earrings. Earrings are not my favorite projects for a couple reasons. First; they take as much time to make as two pendants and second; They are small and require that they be exactly like each other, but a butterfly image of each other. Buyers also think that earrings should be less expensive because they are smaller than pendants. This should not be the case at all, as they are smaller, and require more detailed work both in cutting and wrapping. Hear me grumble?

When making pendant/earring sets, they more often require making the cabochons and earrings from the same stone. You can never, for example, match a set of Lake Superior Agate earrings to a Lake Superior Agate Pendant, unless they are from the same stone. No two Lake Superior Agates are alike.

We have hundreds of pendants and earrings, both on line, and in our Show Inventory. So if, for example, you prefer a silver wire pendant, and you only see a gold pendant on line, give us a call. We might have something in our off-line inventory. Remember we can custom wrap something for you in a stone of your choice. We have many thousands of stones and cabochons; we specialize in Great Lakes Rocks and Minerals.

Drusy Quartz is a natural Quartz pocket. In some cases these pockets are dyed or treated using Titanium Vapors.

A very fine Dinosaur Bone. Red is always a popular color for jewelry.

From the Keweenaw Peninsula, Datolite with copper and other inclusions.

Charoite from Russia is always beautiful, but you will seldom see this stone with a landscaped picture, such as this has.

A Neon Blue Cooper Peby Opal doublet. A picture does not do this justice, but I did the best I could. Bling!

Gorgeous South African Pietersite. A beautiful landscape that the picture nowhere near does justice to.

Transparent Coyamito Agate from Mexico make charming earrings.

Swing into 2019 with Great Lakes Stone Jewelry

“Greenstone, Copper Agates, Lake Superior Agates, Datolites, and Pink and normal Petoskey Stone Jewelry continued to be popular in 2018; and we expect this trend to continue. Our loyal customers understand how rare these Gemstones are becoming, and eagerly order them as impressive and historic pieces of jewelry from the Great Lakes Region. Many are buying these rare Gemstones as investments and treasured heirlooms. Great Lakes jewelry makes unique and highly appreciated gifts.Thanks to all of you that bought handmade in the USA, Great Lakes jewelry treasures, in 2018.

Christmas is past, but many of you are now wearing our jewelry. Thank you so much.

Bonnie’s Christmas Pendant: Top to Bottom; Lake Superior Agate, Yellow Keweenaw Point Datolite with Copper, Greenstone with Thomsonite from Isle Royale (Collected at least 50 years ago).

What does the jewelry makers wife get for Christmas? The trick is to make her something special (and make it in a stealth mode). I think I pulled a good one off.

I picked out three special stones; cabbed them, and made a beautiful Lake Superior Area Showpiece. The top stone is a wonderful, flawless Laker. Stone two is an ultra rare Keweenaw Point Yellow Datolite with Copper. The third Stone a very finely colored Isle Royale Greenstone that I retrieved from my very old collection of Isle Royale Stones. All these stones swing freely and separately from each other.

Bonnie: “You’ve got wires going everywhere!!” Me: “Don’t worry, I’ve done this before.”

I took care of all those errant wires; (see above picture) which proved me worthy.

Very unusual pattern and coloration from the Central Exploration Mine. Enhanced with a nice pair of Greenstone beads. 2.8 Gram Greenstone about Quarter-sized large Greenstone.

A double Greenstone pendant with a free-swinging bottom. Phoenix Mine.

I’ve decided to up my game in 2019 by making some exceptionally notable pendants. Thanks all, and a very Happy New Year to you all.

Visit our best-selling Great Lakes Stone jewelry pages: Lake Superior Agate Pendants, Petoskey Stone Pendants, Thomsonite Pendants, Michigan Greenstone Jewelry, Mohawkite Pendants, Datolite Pendants, Firebrick Pendants, Prehnite Pendants, Copper Replacement Agate Pendants. Also we have beaded earrings: Jasperlite, Leland Blue Stone, and Lake superior Agate and Kona Dolomite. We also have Unakite, Binghamite, Kona Dolomite pendants in our show inventory. What’s your favorite Great Lakes jewelry stone? Chat with us on Facebook, or send us a message!