I worked on and off today creating a couple of Lake Superior Agate Pendants. I NEVER get tired of Lake Superior Agates.
The first pendant was just about the prettiest agate I’ve seen, and it made a remarkable piece of jewelry to take to the Celebration of Agates in Hopkins Minnesota.
This pendant is big, bold, and beautiful!
Beautiful pastels adore this great Lake Superior Agate.
I promised you I would let you see what I made today, so here they are.
Attendees at the Celebration of Agates Show in Hopkins Minnesota will be happy to see my Lake Superior Agate Jewelry.
Since 1969 the Lake Superior Agate has been the Minnesota State Stone. Glaciers deposited Lake Superior Agates throughout Minnesota, as well as south as far as Kansas.
Many of you know that Laker’s are my favorite gemstone. I am amazed at the variety of colors, types, and patterns. No two are ever alike.
The multi-pattern was amazing on this Laker.
Moons and stripes. I liked this one.
The trick is finding those extremely rare flawless, or nearly flawless Lake Superior Agates to use in my jewelry. Remember Laker’s moved vast distances from bedrock in the Keweenaw area. Most of them were ripped from bedrock. Lake Superior Agates are also tumbled on the Lake Superior shoreline. It is really amazing that any Laker’s can be found that are not cracked.
Three Lake Superior Agates were selected from my stash of slices, cut into cabochons, and hurried to my workbench. These were all distinctively different, as you can see.
An unusual ledge agate.
Each agate talked to me, and I was able to make some exceedingly fine pendants, don’t you think? Let me know which one you like best. I sell many Lake Superior Agate Pendants to Minnesotans. I expect when they see these agates, and well over 100 more Lake Superior Agate Pendants, this jewelry will make them ecstatic!
Bonnie's agate and Datolite. I wonder what color it is?
This past weekend we made it to the Copper Country for one last trip. The colors were not in bloom yet, but we had great weather for a couple of hunts. We found some great Greenstones in matrix at the Central Mine and Bonnie and I both found a Datolite. Bonnie sat down to dig a hole and had worked on it for 20 minutes, searching for the elusive Datolite. She sat down and found one under her knee right out in the open. We have not cut her Datolite yet, but this mine has white, blush green, and some light brown Datolite.
I'm working at Copper World-I Love this place!
I wire wrapped at Copper World in Calumet all day Saturday. I have great fun talking to patrons as I explain the wire wrapping process. I had a great day all the way around. While I was wire wrapping Bonnie went to the beach and found a nice Lake Superior Agate right in a spot that hundreds of others had probably walked over at a public park. It pays to know what you are looking for!
The workbench produced several pendants including two wonderful Michigan Greenstones, a Lake Superior Agate, and a Prehnite.
My workbench at Copper World. Also notice the orange Laker "paint" agate on the bench.
The Prehnite is a cabochon of the Prehnite seam I found at the Cliff Mine and is shown in the blog I posted on August 12th. As I suspected, this apple green Prehnite was loaded with copper. I cut several nice cabs from this rock. I wrapped it in Argentium and double gold filled wire. I think the round shape and the copper inclusions made this piece a standout. What do you think? It will make a wonderful piece for someone.
The finished pendant was just amazing.
“Orange-aide” Agate
I’ve been slicing some elite Lake Superior Agates that I recently acquired. As you may know “Lakers” are my favorite gemstones. The colors and variety of patterns and types are incredible. This week I cut some amazing stones including one so unusual it defies description.
I would describe it as a wild orange and black atypical “Laker” that is unlike any I’ve ever seen (and I’ve seen a lot of lakers). To me it looks like orange and black paint dabbed haphazardly on it. Bonnie thinks it looks like Mexican fire opal, it has such a depth and bright shimmer. I saved a piece of the stone to prove it is a Lake Superior Agate. That one agate begged me to wrap it, so this is one of my workbench projects this week.
Orange "lakers" on the bench
As you can see the “orange-aide” agate is really fantastic. I decided on upscale wraps that enhances both cabs, yet does not take away the beauty of this agate. I wrapped both these agates in Argentium sterling and 14/20 gold fill, allowing the use of either a gold or silver chain.
This Lake Superior Agate is so stunning that they allowed me to add a bit of “bling” to the top of the pendant, and not take away from the stone in any way. I have always felt that one should never allow a wire wrap to distract from the gemstone. I see so many wire wrappers that do too much wire and cover up the beauty of the stone.
In many cases these “sculpture” people cover a perfectly good gemstone. Most wire wrappers also buy their stones and do not cut them. In most cases the cabochons are as bad as the wrapping. Check the web if you don’t believe me. OK, I’m off my soapbox for now.
I hope you appreciate my style and stones. Thanks for checking out my blog.
This is not the Favosite I donated to the Seaman Mineral Museum, but is a museum grade "feathery" fossil.
At our Grand Traverse Area Rock & Mineral Club meeting recently we had a request from someone coming to the area. He wanted information about hunting stones in this area, and about the geology. Because of glacial activity, we have an interesting mix of stone here. I will write about my rock hunt recently, because of the unusual specimens I found. I sometimes hunt in a private gravel pit, and often find really odd things that the glaciers have dragged down.
Our area is famous for the Petoskey Stones, of course, but other fossils include, Favosites, Horn Corals, Brachiopods, many other Devonian corals. Many other fossils from the Devonian Period as well as the Silurian Period appear.
Most of the Devonian fossils are calcified, but prior fossils can be the same species and are silica replacement. I love this one particular gravel pit because you never know what you will find. Once you think you have found everything, something else appears.
One time I found a fantastic Favosite specimen, so delicate I do not know how it servived 300 million years without deteriorating. The only thing I can think of is it ended up under a large boulder that protected it from water damage. Our area is primarily sand, so drainage is great. Normally the Favosites I get are round and glacial tumbled, but this particular specimen had much of its delicate structure intact. This particular specimen was donated to the A E Seaman Mineral Museum in Houghton, and can be enjoyed there.
A large Horn Coral about 7" long.
The first thing I found the other day was the largest horn coral I have ever found in the area. Into the bucket it went! The second specimen was another horn coral that was silica and contained a banded agate. I have never found anything like this and I have been hunting this location for a decade at least. What a delight to turn over a horn coral and see a fortification agate inclusion.
I also found a piece of Kona Dolomite of the Verde Antique variety, a lovely green Dolomite with lines of white similar to what you might see in Marble. I was amazed that this soft material survived a glacial push from the Marquette area.
I have also found Datolite and copper-included rocks at this gravel pit in the past. These were carried from the Keweenaw Peninsula. Pudding Stones are also not uncommon, and these came from the Sudbury, Ontario area. I found only one on this particular rock hunt, but it was a beauty.
Pudding Stones can be quite large. These are just babies!
Pudding Stones are red jasper and other igneous pebbles that have been “stirred” around in a white quartz matrix. The quartz is generally slightly porous and is difficult to obtain a high shine on it. These Pudding Stones on occasion contain banded agates.
People often ask me where they can find Petoskey stones, and although I do not often give away my secret spots, or areas on private property where I exclusively have permission to hunt, I can readily state IF it rains the finest Petoskey stones can be found on the back roads. Just find a dirt road and look, especially on the edge. Look in the road cuts, and washed out areas also. I guarantee you will find some nice stuff. I have seldom hunted Petoskey stones on the beach in recent years. The gravel pit stones are so much nicer. Stones from the roads have clearer patterns, and are generally much nicer. You may even find the rare pink Petoskey Stone if you are lucky. Let me know if this was a valuable tip for you.
My prize of the day was a fortification agate in a fossil. The first one I have found in 15 years from our area.
The beach rocks get really picked over so in general they are not as pristine as road rocks. Road rocks, on the other hand, are not picked over. Also the road commissions plow when the roads are wet. If you get lucky and find a freshly plowed and washed road, you can find a bucket of stones in short order.
Don’t just look in the Petoskey area. Spread out. Find someplace where no one has hunted. This is the best tip I can give anyone. Enjoy your hunting!
I have come to the realization that I have not talked about any of my new designs in quite a while. My latest picture frame pendant has become my recent favorite, and I think these will become a popular items this year.
My interest has not always been in jewelry making and the lapidary arts. I started out in visual arts, especially water color. When you paint a picture, it always looks better in a nicely matching frame, so I thought why not stones? This got me thinking of all my wife’s beads and especially beads made from Michigan rocks and minerals. Between the rocky Great Lakes shorelines, stony gifts from the glaciers, and mineral finds in the Upper Peninsula, Michigan has a real variety of stone to choose from. Many of our Michigan stones are miracles, found here and really nowhere else on earth. What if I could frame these beads in a collage featuring a variety of the most popular of these Michigan stones, making a picture of Michigan Miracles, or Lake Superior Miracles?
I started playing around last year with sizes and designs for my window boxes and this winter decided that the most pleasing shape and size may be a rectangular box of around 20X30mm. Stones can be arranged in pleasing and artistic ways within these confines. Thicknesses of the frames can also be manipulated to protect the beads therein. I have made a couple of much larger frames also that some people enjoy. Larger, or more stones can be used in these larger frames.
The featured stone in a Michigan pendant could be expected to be our Michigan greenstone (chlorastrolite) which is found in small areas of the Keweenaw Peninsula or on Isle Royale. We had some very nice Isle Royale Greenstone beads that were drilled incorrectly. These beads were drilled so when they are strung, you can only see the sides of the beads and not the widest and best part of the greenstone. By using a prong-set on these beads I was able to turn the best faces to the front of the pendants, giving folks a very large size greenstone for a reasonable price. The cost of these gemstones alone is worth our low pendant price.
I think it is important that the best possible beads be used. If I’m going to make a little piece of art, I want to use the best media (stones), that are available. I am selecting from a nice variety of Michigan miracles: greenstone, Petoskey stone, datolite, jasperlite, thomsonite, firebrick, kona dolomite, epidote, favosite, hematite, prehnite, copper/silver half breeds, and Lake Superior agate.
Wire wrappers should be warned that these pendants take me three times the time that I commonly spend on a pendant! I also think that it helps to have some training in balance, layout, and color and an artistic eye to make these little treasures.
We have posted a couple of these little Miracle treasures on out website, and hope you will experience the same enjoyment wearing and showing these pendants as I do making them.
Snob Blog fans seem to like the unusual rocks I often make into jewelry . Here is a way cool Lake Superior Agate that I call “The Roadrunner”. Do you see the bird? 
The agate is a somewhat unusual color for a fortification agate and when I cut it, I was surprised by this great picture in it.
Sorry this was sold to Beth (the same Beth that owns the fantastic Isle Royale Greenstone that I previously Blogged about). Take a look at my rhyolite Owl which is very unique, or The Parrot. I have wire wrapped other Lake Superior agates into slides or pendants. You also might enjoy the Crazy Lace agates pendants/slides.
If you are looking for a particular animal in a rock, you can E-mail me and I’ll keep an eye out for it. You will have to be patient as these pictures do not appear commonly. No guarantee on these requests!
“Lakers” are found as beach pebbles on the shores of Lake Superior as well as in glacial till primarily in Minnesota and Wisconsin, but also in Kansas, Nebraska, Illinois, Iowa, and throughout Michigan. They are also commonly found in the amygdaloidal basalt in the Keweenaw Peninsula and on Isle Royale National Park.
The basic material of agate is Chalcedony, a silicon dioxide form of microscopic fibrous crystals. The fibrous makeup of the Lake Superior Agates, makes them hard and able to accept a wonderful, glass-like polish. This brittle structure also makes the Lake Superior Agate prone to cracking from thawing and freezing or being moved vast distances in the glacial till. A crack-free “Laker” is quite rare to find, and are coveted highly by rockhounds and jewelry makers.
The ancient basalts of the Lake Superior region are amygdaloidal (containing gas bubbles called vesicles) in nature. Of volcanic origin, the holes from the bubbles became filled with various minerals. Often these minerals were silica, forming agates. There are several theories on how agates are formed which can be read about in some of the books we recommend on this site.
Lake Superior Agates are most often quite small, but have been found up to 20 pounds. It is rare to find a “Laker” over one-half pound. I love to tell the story of the day I personally found six “Lakers” over one half pound.
“Lakers” can be almost any color, but reds and browns are common colors. Agates are most often banded, but can occur as tubes, eyes, moss, shadow, sagenite, plumes, and almost solid colors, often orange (carnelian).
One of the most popular and sought after Lake Superior Agates is the classic red and white “Candy-striper“. A nice “Candy-Striper” cannot be mistaken for any other type of agate.
I strive to use only fracture-free, classic banded Lake Superior Agates, as well as uncommon varieties in my jewelry. No finer wire-wrapped Lake Superior Agate jewelry can be found on the web. I think the Lake Superior Agate has always been my favorite stone.
“Ghostbusters” is another pendant of the “Debbie Collection”, one of her earlier purchases. When Halloween time comes around, you often see her showing off how her ghost seems to fly through the air!
My inspiration on this one came as I was cutting slabs from a very unusual Lake Superior Agate. The agate had distinctive eyes as well as some fortification structure with unusual coloration, mostly white but including some yellow, which is quite rare in Lakers. I immediately saw a face on the second slab, and the pattern continued through the next three slices.
I cut a calibrated oval 30X40 mm cab with the eyes in a position showing the face of the ghost. The position of the eyes toward the side of the cab made me think of a flying ghost.
I took this cab to William Holland School of Lapidary Arts in Young Harris, Georgia for an advanced wire wrapping class I was taking. The first incarnation of the ghost came into being at that time. I thought the piece was quite whimsical and artsy. I kept that piece of jewelry around for a couple of years and my wife wore it at Halloween time each year. Debbie was looking through my pendants one day and fell in love with the ghost. By the time she looked at the original piece I had made a second, less extravagant ghost pendant, but Debbie wanted the wild unit I had created at lapidary school. 
I re-wrapped the original ghost simply because my skill level had progressed substantially and I could see some flashier things to do! This is the pendant that Debbie loves.
The ghost appears to be flying rapidly through the air throwing up a trail of smoke. I really enjoyed creating this extra-ordinary apparition.
While cutting an interesting Lake Superior eye agate one afternoon, I saw a fish eye develop. I had an inspiration that if I cut an oval cabochon, then backed that agate with a thin sheet of Jade, I could somehow make a fish come to life. The dilemma then became how to do it.
I first cut a thin slice of mottled green Jade from a rock I found in my collection, then cut it out in a fish shape using my Taurus Ring Saw. A Taurus saw has a continuous circular, diamond coated wire that allows cutting in any direction. It’s a machine that I use occasionally, but on those jobs nothing else works as well. One of the uses for the Taurus is cutting Christmas tree ornaments. Another use is cutting the State of Michigan shape out of Petoskey Stone.
I used two-part Epoxy to bond the fish-eyed cab to the Jade. I then continuously wrapped a frame from Sterling silver, finishing the wrap at the bottom of the fish.
I left extra wire at the bottom and ran that extra wire up the rear of the fish to lock the wire to the fish frame.
Debbie always likes matching earrings for her pendants. In this case I used the same piece of Jade as I used for the backer, and using the Taurus Saw again, I cut the blue gills. With a Foredom and diamond bit I drilled tiny eye holes in the earring fish as well as hole to hang the drops.
Debbie is an enthusiastic rock hound, has eclectic tastes, and claims many of my unusual pendants. This was one of the early pieces in a growing collection, I refer to as the “Debbie Collection”. I have a lot of fun designing pieces with her, and she graciously has agreed to have her jewelry in the next few blogs. I expect when I become “Rich and Famous” (right!) Debbie should be able to open up a museum of my strange, unusual, and weird stuff.
You can see some of our available agate pendants on several pages: Various, Crazy Lace Agates, Lake Superior Agates, Petrified Wood, and Queensland Agates.
