Tag Archives: Agate

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.

Agate Expo

Dnosaur Bone Trio-soon to be jewelry.

Many of you know that we are invited to be jewelry vendors at the Agate Expo in Cedarburg, Wisconsin next month. If you haven’t made plans to be there, you might want to!

Just the list of exhibits alone is astonishing, with 111 exhibitors listed. You will certainly see agates and jaspers you have never before heard of or imagined. A symposium will be held on July 7 with 12 agate experts speaking about their research. July 8-10 the show floor and exhibits will be open. You can see great agates, and that’s where you elect your favorite Snob Appeal Jewelry! On July 9 a banquet will feature Brad Cross as a speaker, plus a Live Auction and dance. Brad has “written the book” about Mexican Agates.

Lake Superior Agate with floating agate.

Madagascar Ammonite looks like falling leaves.

An unusual Laker

A coveted black & Red Kentucky Agate

This is the third International Agate Show we have participated in. In 2008 the Wonderful World of Agates was held in Wisconsin. (It was before I started blogging, if you can believe that, so the link will send you to David Von Bargen’s entertaining report on the event. He barely mentions agate jewelry though. Some Agate Lovers hate that anyone would cut and wear these treasures.) You can see some of our pictures from the Celebration of Agates in our Snob Blog July 2012.

If you love agates like we do, this show should be a must see trip. All the leading experts on agates from around the world will be speaking at the show, signing their books, and making themselves available for any questions you might have.

A Laguna Agate Pendant and Earring Set

Here are some of the jewelry pieces we intend to display and sell at the show. We are known for our fine agate Jewelry which earned us a spot as vendors. Our specialty is Lake Superior Agate jewelry but we also create jewelry made from rare and beautiful agates from around the world. We, or course will have our Michigan Greenstones with us, but most of our jewelry will be top notch agate pendants from many different agates. Visit us and count how many different kinds you recognize!

Boulder Opal

A fine Kentucky Agate pendant

Quartz crystal in a Quartz (Lodelite)

Tucson Gem, Mineral and Fossil Shows-Beads and G&LW

55 sunny

Gary at Caberlight sells his innovative LED lights.

A pleasant day but a bit cold (icy cold for the locals, T-shirt for me). We started at The Best Bead Show (that’s the name of it). I needed a couple new LED lights and Bonnie was in need of some supplies for kumihimo, a braiding material she has been playing around with. We were surprised to see that there were no outside tents like there was when we were here 2 years ago. We thought they might have expanded their space inside, but no, it turns out it was half the size of when we were there last.

Bonnie wanted to go there because this show has lots of seed beads, including new shapes that they keep coming out with. Who knew that those little things come in rectangles or triangles with two holes, or superduos or miniduos or rizos, or just plain o’s. Anyway, I was happy to find coffee and a bench, and she was happy to buy “stuff”.

The piles of beads abound.

After the Bead Show we hopped the Gem Show Shuttle over to the Wholesale Show at G&LW’s (Gem & Lapidary Wholesalers) giant tent, that I showed you on a previous blog. Really you are not suppose to photo anything, but I had a friend that took a couple; That’s my story anyway.

I was sitting in a “Guy Chair” waiting for Bonnie to get through this line.

These were really “Bling”. I did not enhance this photo.

The G&LW show has much buy/sell merchandise from China, India, Taiwan, Pakistan, Austrailia, and many other places with vendors being of many nationalities. I have trouble understanding many of them, and they sometimes have trouble understanding me, but they all understand CASH! Most dealers at this show take credit cards and/or checks. We stocked up on ribbon and leather necklaces and some other premade items. There are few rough rocks at this show other than faceting rough, so I can move pretty fast for a guy with a bad leg. Tables stacked with beads, with the Bead Ladies attacking them with a furor reminiscent of piranha attacking. It seems the more Bead Ladies at the booth, the more it attracts other Bead Ladies. The show was busy even though it was midweek. I took a picture of a line Bonnie stood in. What was nice was a handy corral of resting chairs in the next aisle, and I was not the only guy there!

Shiny beads seem to be the product of the day, both faceted, manufactured simulates, and true gemstones. Even I was able to recognize that there were many more shapes and designs than in previous years. Dealers were in full competition to attract CASH!

Skulls with their heads blown off like that add on TV.

One funny thing I saw were carved skulls but these were different in the top was blown off like the ad you see on TV where the top of people’s heads get blown off. I found some very nice Botswana cabochons and that was about all I bought.

Here are a few things from the shows the last few days. It pays to have a loupe and a light, as there are many surprises in some show treasures. Quartz with inclusions come from Mina Gerais, Brazil (AKA Lodelite), and often contain hidden treasures, if you can find them and you have the CASH!

Lodelite (notice the Quartz Crystal in the Quartz) Very awesome?

Red Rutile in Quartz

Notice the crystal in the grass?.

Inclusions in this are probably Manganese.

Nice Ametrine

Star Rutile is very coveted.

Lodelite with Manganese inclusions

Sphalerite with Galena.

Nice colors for Botswana Agate.

Colorful Botswana Agate

I know a guy who has these hidden in his room. I cannot tell you where!

Tucson Rock Mineral and Fossil Showcase-Tables From Madagascar

We took a little sneak peek at what may be in the Norcross-Madigascar Minerals Tent–we scoped out their warehouse today. Norcross usually has a large display at the Kino Show. Business ID is required to go to the warehouse, but you can see the same stuff at their Kino location.

In particular, I was impressed by their composite coffee tables made from mostly Madigascar Minerals (of course). You buy the table top and can basically support them with any base, although they have bases also. The tops sell for around $6,000 +/-. Not all the stone tables they sell were at the warehouse, so I assume they were moved to their Gem Show Location.

Desert Agate is a Polychrome Agate from Madigascar. It is striking pastels in the pink range. I really liked the look of these.

Another table top was Labradorite. This table top looked more like Larvakite, but whatever. It obviously consisted of Labrdorite.

I really liked a table that looked like it was made from Banded Agate.

Desert Agate slabs were also available and I have to go get a few, as I have regret now that I did not get any. I think this could make nice jewelry.

We also saw another table made from Madagascar Petrified Wood. An amazing look. The fitting on all these tables of the slabs was amazingly tight, and obviously took substantial time to do.

A giant Labradorite Orb with a fine Brazillian Agate Table.

Quartzsite-The Rocks We Found

I’m continuing my adventures in Quartzite today by showing what I found. Some rocks I just admired, while others I brought back to cut. Not much chit-chat in this blog, just fine pictures. The first series of pictures are things we saw:

Why did not I think of this? Thow a few random pebbles in some dirt, add a digging stick, and you don't have to waste time going out in the desert picking rocks.

Why did not I think of this? Throw a few random pebbles in some dirt, add a digging stick, and you don’t have to waste time going out in the desert picking rocks. Great for the city kids, I guess.

Pink Opalite

Even those Moroccans have a sense of humor.

Bonnie was looking at all this Turquoise and dyed Magnesite.

Tables of pretty malachite, some contained azurite.

A big ultra rare Wingate Pass Agate. $1200 and worth it. I make jewelry and seldom collect specimens, but I was real tempted by this beauty!

This series of pictures is some of what I now own.

Bumblebee (Not Jasper) cab. this one was ripe with silica and looks like the end of the world.

More Gembone

Dinosaur Bone–The red stuff; Just look at those Cell Agates. WOW factor for sure.

Mostly Royal Imperial Jasper

Remember Bonnie dumster diving in a previous blog. Here's one of the pieces of Pink Amethyst Lace Agate and a pendant made from similar material.

Remember Bonnie dumpster diving in a previous blog. Here’s one of the pieces of Pink Amethyst Lace Agate she was digging for, and a pendant made from similar material. Purple and pink, Bonnie will dig for that!

Random slabs from someones scrap bin (if you can believe it). That’s what’s so fun about these shows.

Red Crazy Lace

Colorful Condor Agates

Pink transparent Gem dino Bone. Yeah, I spent the bucks on this, but I have a jewelry project for this one.

Pink transparent Gem dino Bone. Yeah, I spent the bucks on this, but I have a jewelry project in mind for this one.

Looking back at 2014 Jewelry (and one 2015 Baby)

snob-appeal-jewelrytuxedo My New Years Pendant this year was inspired by both a dream I had and something that matches our company colors of Red, Black, and White. I pictured this exact ending in my dream. Tuxedo Agate is a dyed Brazilian Agate. The dyeing procedure is the same as is used in the manufacture of Black Onyx. I’m betting you did not know that most Black Onyx was dyed. I combined a piece of Onyx with a great piece of Tuxedo Agate and enhanced the pendant with Rhodolite Garnets. The wire is Argentium Sterling. A few hours of careful work produced a pendant I’m quite proud of. I expect this pendant, as well as the rest of the new pendants in this blog will be for sale in the near future.

As the end of 2014 comes to an end, we want to thank all our faithful customers for a record setting year. The Holiday rush is over and thankfully all orders have been delivered. Many Snob Appeal Jewelry patrons will be happy when Christmas morning comes.

Greenstones are our best sellers. these special ones are from old stock from Isle Royale.

I think back to the wonderful family I met at a Hotel in Munising this summer. We were returning from a trip to the Keweenaw and I had some extra copper, and other rocks I collected. The kids were delighted when I gave them some for their collections. Dad got a business card, and months later I got a call from their mother before Christmas. She wanted Greenstones to add to her children’s collections. I provided some nice stones at a modest price and filled a flat rate box with many more rocks that should make these young rockhounds very happy on Christmas morning. Sometimes rocks in the socks can be a good thing (but no coal!). Things like this just give me a good dose of feeling “Festive”.

Datolite in matrix from the Isle Royale #6 in Houghton County.

Snob Appeal Jewelry is known for our Isle Royale Greenstone (chlorastrolite), Lake Superior Agates, Pink Petoskey Stones, and all Michigan gemstones including Thomsonite, Mohawkite, and Prehnite. Fordite and Firebrick are two man-made substances with unique connections to Michigan history, that were industry left-overs and now are usable for interesting jewelry.

Mosaic Turquoise is a composite material that is very striking in its' coloration.

Although Greenstones are becoming more and more scarce, we continue to seek out old collections and collect in secret locations in the Keweenaw in order to keep our stock supplied. Over the past year a few small stashes have wrenched themselves free, and found their way into our collection. Look for a limited supply of new gemstones from up north to appear in new jewelry pieces.

We also invite you to explore our natural stone pendants of Crazy Lace Agate, Malachite, Ocean Jasper, and my favorite shimmery Pietersite. Another jewelry stone with lots of glamour is the very gorgeous and special man-created Victoria Stone. These are some of my favorite stones to work with.

We are not attending any of the western shows this winter. Over the years this has allowed us to create jewelry from so many beautiful gemstones from across the world. Some of our most colorful favorites are Rhodochrosite, Charoite, and Queensland Agates. We love going to Tucson and Quartzite, but I need time this winter to cut rocks and make jewelry in preparation for the Agate Expo in 2016.

Variscite from Fairfield, Utah with facetted Rose Quartz

Recent purchases of major rock collections have also added to our stock, and these also have to be dealt with. Look forward for some jaw-dropping jewelry in 2015.

Bonnie has been hinting how she'd like a pendant made from some Sonoran Sunset. She finally got this one for Christmas.

I’m pleased to announce that a complete re-vamp of our website is underway to make our website more compatible with mobile devices. There will be new interfaces and amazing technological advances, making Snobappealjewelry.com one of the premiere places for jewelry shopping on the web. We hope you will shop with us again in the New Year!

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.

Shadow Agates, Greenstone, and Thomsonite Jewelry

As winter blasts keep us close to the fireplace, I have been busy creating new pendants with favorite gemstones and wire. Enjoy these two new Great Lakes Jewelry Treasures and two new Shadow Agates.

A beautiful and rare North Shore Thomsonite.

Unique to the Lake Superior region, I acquired a quantity of old stock North Shore Thomsonites over the summer and have started cutting and wrapping them into jewelry. These dark-eyed beauties are very rare and highly coveted. Since these Great Lakes gemstones came out of a site near Thomsonite Beach near Grand Marais, Minnesota that is now buried under a park, no others are found at that location.

Greenstone Lily Pads in Natrolite

The second Great Lakes Jewelry Treasure I recently made was a remarkable stone with Greenstone Lily Pads floating in a pink sea of Natrolite instead of floating in a sea of green Chlorastrolite. I made a pendant from the opposite side of this stone and it sold immediately. Never have I seen another Greenstone like this.

Shadow Wave Laguna Agate

I also made a pair of agates with shadow effect. In certain agates with opaque bands, the bands cast shadows on the adjacent bands as the agate is rotated back and forth. This crates what is referred to as “Shadow effect”. The bands casting shadows also have to be spaced correctly in order to “shadow”. the easiest was to explain shadow effect is if you lined up dominos and shined a light on the top of them. When you move the light back and forth over the dominos you see the shadow that are cast on the adjoining domino change. It’s the same with the lines in the Shadow Agate. This purpley-pink and white Laguna has a great Shadow effect. Laguna Agates from Mexico are famous for “Shadow”, but most banded agates, including my favorite, the Lake Superior Agate, can sport Shadow at times.

Blue Lace with shadow

In this old stock Blue Lace Agate I found wonderful shadow. Two Mercury Mist Topaz added at the top give elegance and sparkle to the glorious pale blue/white agate. What a great piece for a special holiday occasion or wedding!

All these are available at www.snobappealjewelry,com, Click on “View all our products”. With over 375 pendants, chains, and earrings on our site, we hope you will start your Christmas shopping with us now!

Lake Superior Agate Jewelry, My Favorite!

A wonderful Lake Superior Tube Agate before and after making into a pendant.

Everyone claims that certain types of agates are the most colorful, interesting, and rare, but few agates come close to Lake Superior Agates for variety and coloration. As far as rarity; yes some LSA’s are very rare. Lake Superior Agates are also my favorite stone.

Lake Superior Agate floating in a sea of Quartz.

A Laker in a sea of Citrine.

A Laker floating in Amethyst

A nice group of Lakers. 4 pair of these cabochons are opposite sides of the same Lakers.

Here's the smiley guy in the group.

This blog highlights some of the best Lake Superior Agates I’ve made into jewelry over the last 10 years. If the agate is still for sale, we have hooked a link from the picture to out website. Many are long gone, but maybe you’ll get lucky.

An amazing Laker

Painted Agates are like someone took a wind paint brush and threw on paint.

Painted Agates are like someone took a wide paint brush and threw on paint.

Floating eyes are usually at or near the agate's surface. Careful cutting develops them.

Floating eyes are usually at or near the agate's surface. Careful cutting preserves them.

A Fortification/semi Water Level Laker. I call it a fort in a fort.

Proof that Lakers can resemble other Agates. This one apes a Montana Moss Agate, but found buried in a Minnesota gravel pit.

Proof that Lakers can resemble other Agates. This one apes a Montana Moss Agate, but was found buried in a Minnesota gravel pit.

I purchase most of my Lakers rough. Most good stuff comes from gravel pits in Minnesota, and I have no access to these sites. I also use flawless or nearly flawless Lake Superior Agates in my jewelry, and believe me, with the beating Lakers took, the good majority are cracked. The agates in the Minnesota Gravel Pits were carried as glacial till from the Lake Superior area via many glaciers that pushed into this area, than receded, leaving glacial till in their wake. We now call this glacial till gravel. These glaciers pushed Lake Superior Agates as far south as Kansas. You see glacial evidence today as large rounded boulders left scattered randomly about.

Lake Superior Agates were formed in Amygdaloidal Basalt. This was bubbly basalt and the gas bubbles floated to the surface, and those that did not escape before the basalt cooled remained vacant. The bubbles are called vesicles and as the bubbles rose they became smaller and more numerous. The basalt, as it cooled, shrunk and cracked allowing silica and other minerals to enter through these cracks and fill the bubbles (vesicles). There are many theories as to how agates form in vesicles, sometimes totally opposite of other theories. I’ll let the researchers discuss these theories, my interest is in the colors and patterns that make wonderful agate jewelry! The Lake Superior area was ripe with iron, and it was common for iron to mix with the silica producing the red colors as iron oxide formed. The classic red and white Laker is referred to as a “Candy Striper”, and cannot be mistaken for any other type of agate. Sometimes Lakers can be white or clear and show a ghost banding, or the core of the agate can be just Quartz. One theory says that minerals that colored the agates ran out and whatever space was left was filled with plain Silica.

A classic Paint Agate

Sagenite Lakers contain metallic inclusions, usually Rutile. This makes them look like plant material is present.

A fine Water Level agate

I could talk Lake

An unusual Sagenite Agate.

I was very stumped on this Laker. After consulting agate expert John Marshall it was determined that this is basically and unclassifiable Laker.

Superior Agates all day, but in this blog I want to just show you some different LSA types. You can scratch your heads as to how exactly these formed. I don’t fret about how agates are formed; I just cut, polish, and make jewelry from them. If you follow links to my jewelry pages you will see that I have over 50 pendants online and many more in my art show collection. It is fascinating to see how different each stone can be. The more I work with them, the more I enjoy Lake Superior Agates and the variations we find in them. The variety of types, and combinations of colors and patterns make Lakers the most remarkable of members of the Quartz Family.

Come visit us at the 2016 Agate Expo, July 7-9, 2016 in Cedarburg, Wisconsin. www.AgateExpos.com

The best Laker I ever personally found on the Shores of the Keweenaw. Loaned from Bonnie Reed's collection.

Lake Superior Agates, Datolite, and Greenstones on my Workbench.

I just can’t stop cutting Lake Superior Agates; Making
jewelry from them, or digging through my buckets, looking for that perfect jewelry stone.

Big brown eyes islandlakersajlogo

Recently I’ve cut some unusual pieces. One was a very rare Lake Superior Moss Agate. It resembled a Montana Moss Agate, but had banded eyes. I had to play with my photo studio lighting so you can see this detail. Another couple featured red Islands floating in seas of clear Quartz. roundislandlaker2

Lake Superior Agate Pendants are my passion. Enjoy these few additional pieces of eye candy.

Mesnard Datolite with Isle Royale Greenstone.

A few cabochons of Datolite from the Mesnard Mine in Hancock have been sitting on my workbench for a few weeks. I look at gemstones for a while sometimes, and eventually they speak to me and tell me what they want me to do with them! This was the case with the Mesnard Datolite. Sometimes I put off wrapping these because my idea was a bit complicated and I need to be in the right frame of mind to work on them. I’m sure you will love the results, especially with the pair of Greenstone Beads I added to this free-swinging creation. The Mesnard is known for its’ bright pastel colors, but as with most of the old mines, material is scarce and getting harder to find each year.

This is a busy time at Snob Appeal Jewelry. We have taken some time off to make jewelry. In August, we have shows in Eagle Harbor, Copper Harbor, and doing demos at Copper World in Calumet (AKA the best gift store anywhere around Lake Superior). See you there.

laker1

Radial Sagenite Laker.

Made you smile!

A rare Lake Superior Moss Agate (both sides)