Tag Archives: Wire wrapped jewelry

Pietersite-On The Workbench

Pietersite was on the workbench at the Ludington Art Show. I happened upon a great cabochon while digging through my cases at home, and decided if things were slow (they were), I would demonstrate next to the booth.

It's difficult to see the 3D pattern on Pietersite.

It is always nice to work in the fresh air.

This Pietersite came from the one vendor I deal with, (the mine-owners) in Tucson. If you want more information on Pietersite go to my blog (March 13, 2011). http://www.snobappealjewelry.com/blog/?p=1062

The finished product turned out great.

I loved the reds and browns in this piece. The Holographic depth of Pietersite can only be viewed in person, and is pretty incredible. I think it came out pretty amazing considering I was working freestyle. I may post this up on the web later today.

Let me know what you think.

Here’s a bonus; I made this remarkable Lake Superior Eye Agate also. This one will go to the Celebration of Agates Show.

eye-agate

The “Mole” Rock

“THAT ROCK LOOKS LIKE A MOLE!” This is the comment Bonnie made when I bought a few rocks from the guy at the Boy Scout Camp.

The outside of the "Mole" looked very ordinary.

I am a long-time friend to the Ranger at a local BSA camp. I got a call the other night that one of his volunteers had a few rocks he wanted to sell. If I’m available, I will always look at rocks, especially from an inherited collection. Treasures are often found.

Bonnie was bored so we jumped in the truck and drove to the camp where we found George with a few rough rocks in his pickup bed. He had some good stuff, but much of his material was a duplicate to what I have already. I did find a few interesting pieces and after a bit of bargaining a mutual agreement was made.

The inside of the "Mole" was extraordinary, proving you really cannot judge a book by it's cover.

Much or the time I know exactly what I am buying, but not with the “mole” rock. I knew it was an agate, but had no idea what kind it was. As you can see there is no indication of what lurks inside of this “mole”. WHAT A SURPRISE when I cut this ugly rock in half.

It turned out to be a wonderful Botswana agate. I cut out a crystal section from the rock and ended up with perfect Botswana Agate of classic Grays and white. Making beautiful gemstone jewelry from a really bland rock is so satisfying! This should make a great piece of jewelry for the upcoming Celebration of Agates show in Minnesota.

Pretty nice for a "Mole" rock, don't you think?

So, blog fans, here is the Mole to Gemstone transformation.

Morrisonite-The KING of Jaspers

Morrisonite (Morrison Ranch Jasper) is considered one of the finest Jaspers in the world, and is often referred to as “The KING of Jaspers”. Unfortunately it has not been commercially mined from its source in SE Oregon, along the Owyhee River, since 1996.

Marvelous coloration is a trademark of the finest Morrisonite. The slab needs to be a piece of Jewelry.

The rockhound’s favorite government agency, the Bureau of Land Management, closed the hunting area and dynamited some of the mines, deeming them unsafe. I heard Gene Mueller of The Gem Shop speak on hunting the area before it was closed. It took a lot of material to produce any “good stuff”.

The combination of the area closing and the limited production in the past has driven priced to several hundred dollars a slab in recent years.

I recently discovered that I had some Morrisonite from an old collection I acquired last fall. I suspect this material may be 40 years old.

It did indeed need to be a pendant. Morrisonite like this is so very rare!

When we bought this collection I hardly checked the material. We just loaded all the rock in buckets, loaded the truck, and drove it home. The buckets ended up in storage, then winter set in, so I’m just now discovering what I bought… .Gotta love it!

Greenstone from the Junkpile

I promised you something special on May Day, and here it is.

I have a BVD (Better View Desired) pile in my shop. Rocks that I’m just not sure of, as well as gemstones that need further time-consuming work go into that pile. Stones that are without promise go in the trash bucket, but when they don’t look real promising, I’ll give them a toss in the BVD pile. When I’m feeling patient, I pick through that pile for something to work on.

I placed several possible Greenstones in that pile a few months ago, and today I re-discovered my BVD pile under some other material. I decided to have a little fun and see what I could make out of the BVD pile.

I immediately discovered a large Greenstone that had a small patch of pattern. The rim of the Greenstone showed mostly Calcite. Experience told me that Calcite could be a good sign, or then again maybe not. Calcite often means copper in it. Some of the finest copper crystals are found embedded in Calcite.

When you have Calcite you have to be extra careful. Calcite can sometimes be fragile, and at other times it is very solid.

As I carefully proceeded into the stone, I noticed that fine Greenstone appeared just on the outer layer of the Calcite gradually appearing under the stone’s dark green crust. A beautiful unusual stone began to emerge from an ugly duckling. Greenstone is very striking on pure white Calcite, and this one has fabulous contrast. As a bonus, I noticed that the Calcite was accented with fine copper particles. I love how my close-up photo shows the copper.

Close-up detail reveals fine copper within the calcite.

This is what makes rock collecting and lapidary so satisfying–every stone has it’s own look. This one is WOW!!!

Another amazing Greenstone-I'm So lucky!

The finished Greenstone ended up being a 5.4 gram beauty, one inch tall and about 3/4 inches wide; the largest Greenstone I’ve cut in a while. I was so thrilled about this Greenstone, I wire-wrapped it right away. Gold with a bit of twisted silver was the perfect choice. The regal looking wire top is an ideal enhancement to this beautiful and scarce gemstone. The first person that saw it now owns this dream, so if you want your own greenstone, browse our pendants or cabuchons.

Celebration of Agates Jewelry

I have been working on several cabochons for the upcoming Celebration of Agates Show at Hopkins, Minnesota in July. There is a lot of buzz about this show already, and it is building up to be a well-attended and exciting event. I will be exhibiting at this special rock show, and

Amazing Royal Imperial Jasper enhanced with a Mystic Topaz.

Sea Scene Jasper. I think this is quite tranquil.

Ocean Scene Agate is quite tranquil to look at. This wonderful rock is from British Columbia.

am striving to bring some unusual agates to this show as well as many unique Lake Superior Agates and other rare stones.

Lets just have some fun and see some of the stone jewelry I have made thus far. Which is your favorite?

Chevron Amethyst

Great colors in this Kentucky Agate!

My favorite-The Lake Superior Agate in classic "Candy Stripe".

Agate/Drusy with Calcite. WOW!

Amazing Cats Eye Jade and Stunning Greenstone with Thomsonite

I had a dream last night. I often dream of rocks I covet, but on rare occasions I have dreams of jewelry I must make. I woke right up at 4 am and pulled the rocks out so I would not forget that which my brain had imagined.

What will Don do with these?

I was looking at a piece of Cats Eye Nephrite Jade that I had bought in Tucson. I had never seen this material from Siberia, but I had heard of it. The lovely green looks like that optical glass that marbles are made of and has a “cats eye” effect similar to Tiger Eye. I bought this one piece because it was so intriguing, and there were no others like it.

My dream brought this Jade together with a wonderful piece of Moonstone that had another phenomenon called Labradorescence. I also invisioned Pink Topaz in the picture. I laid out the stones on my workbench and when I awoke went right to work.

These multi-stone pendants are a real challenge and take a great deal of time and deep concentration level. Success! A wonderful pendant was produced, just as in my “Nice Dream”.

Cats Eye Jade, Moonstone, and Pink Topaz in Argentium Sterling.

Also today, off the workbench, came one of the most amazing and stunning Greenstones I’ve ever made. I cut it a few weeks ago and could not believe what I was seeing. As I ground the stone the most beautiful Thomsonite unexpectedly broke out of the center of the Greenstone! I never have seen more gemmy Thomsonite in any Greenstone, nor have I seen such a large quantity of georgeous pink Thomsonite in one Greenstone–“Unexpected Romance”.

Greenstone with a Thomsonite Inclusion. WOW!

This especially large (4.5 gram) stone is so amazing I have to show you the picture. Yes, it is for sale until gone–one only! Some stones are so stunning they cannot be described.

Copper Shoots–an Amazing Greenstone

Check out the copper in this one!

A most fascinating Greenstone crossed my workbench this week. When you cut a piece of chlorastrolite, you expect to see green, or dark green. To see the shine of copper throughout, and feel the resistance of tough metal when cutting, you know you have a most unusual Greenstone. Normally when copper appears in a Greenstone, it is a spot, or a small part of the stone. This has copper from bottom to top! The Chlorastrolite on this one does not exibit the classic alligator skin pattern generally expected on a grade “A” Greenstone, but this has a shiny character highly regarded by folks who appreciate a most distinctive gemstone. The Copper Country does not often offer up a stone this large, with so much Copper! We have many Michigan Greenstone cabuchons for sale as well as Michigan Greenstone pendants, but as you look them over, you can see this is one-of-a-kind.

Due to the approximately 50% copper content and it’s large size ( 7 gram weight), this Greenstone pendant is showy and unusual.

Click here to see our available Greenstone pendants.

Deer!

Deer on Onyx

I acquired some outstanding black Onyx Cabochons today with etchings of a pair of deer in the face. The first pendant came off the workbench today. How do you like it?

I think it well represents where we live in NW lower Michigan and we often see similar scenes out our windows.

The cab is a 30X40 and is wrapped in Argentium and 14/20GF.

Azurite-Malachite. My latest “Pièce de résistance”

Pendants are my specialty–I have made over a thousand and lost count along the way. I can make a good quality pendant in an hour or two if I am not interrupted. When I am doing a demo of wire wrapping, customers often ask “How long does it take you to make a pendant?”. I try to field this type of question with care. Is someone fishing to see how fast they can make a pendant? Or are they just showing real interest?

Generally these curious people never think of the time I have in finding the stone, cutting and polishing it, and then finishing up the piece of jewelry. This is a question that cannot easily be answered and I usually explain this to a customer. What used to take me four hours, might take one hour now that I am more proficient both in skills and tools.

When I get down to the actual wire wrapping I can get it done in a very proficient manner.

What, you may ask, can Don make in 8-10 hours? I’ve been sitting on a project that I just have not had the time to do. Fortunately and unfortunately I have been laid up recovering from a knee replacement. This has given me the opportunity to tackle these challenging projects.

A great stone is always the start for my jewelry. I bought the finest matched pieces of Azurite-Malachite I’ve ever seen at the Tucson Gem Shows last February. I could envision the finished pendant the minute I saw the stones.

After my successful operation I decided to jump in and challenge myself.

I first laid out the pendant. I would make this as four separate components. Any time I do a multi-stone pendant, it requires a lot of thinking ahead, about how the various parts will mesh together, as well as what stones to use.

The dark blue azurite perfectly matches the coloration of London Blue Topaz, and the pendant needed something at the bottom to “anchor” the design. I decided on a 16X12 mm, 12 ct gemstone. Pinks and shades of lighter blue also fit into the color palette. I decided to run a strip of 5mm facetted stones down the center between the two mirror Azurite-Malachite cabs. After some experimentation I decided on Pink Tourmaline, Apatite, and London Blue for the 2.5 caret facetted stones. I roughly laid out all the components.

Pendant components laid out

Now the real work began. I had to think on how to to best combine all the components, so I had to slow down and really decide how things should go together.

The pendant progresses.

Now let’s push on the the finish while fighting the tiredness the pain medication is causing. I just love a challenge. Fortunately the plan came together. The finished pendant is named “Lasting Romance”. I think that just about sums up one of the most beautiful pendants I’ve ever created.

Lasting Romance--the finished pendant.

WOW!

Michigan Greenstones-on the Workbench

I had a knee replaced a couple weeks ago. This has given me substantial blocks of time that I am using to make jewelry. This jewelry is comprised of pieces that have been on my to-do list, but up till this time I have not had the time to get it done. The pain medication I’ve been taking has caused drowsiness at some unexpected times, and at other times keeps me wide awake in the middle of the night. I have found that I can be quite productive when it is very quiet in the house and I am in complete focus. I have made a few really complicated pendants that I just have not had the time to do previously. Also I thought I would catch up on some really fine small greenstone pendants. These are from very nice Michigan Greenstones (chlorastrolite) and do not exceed one inch in height. Anyone that has wire wrapped can testify that smaller pendants and earrings are not easy to make. They take more care and finesse than regular sized pendants. The 24 gauge wire I use to make these pendants is delicate, easily scratched and gouged, and requires a skilled and steady hand. However, the resulting greenstone pendants are very popular.

Small and awesome greenstones have been on the workbench for the past few days.

My petite greenstone cabochons do not require complicated wire wrapping. It does not take much to overwhelm a small greenstone, so I keep it simple. I like to creatively name my creations–what do you think of them?

This is from an old collection and was found on Isle Royale years ago.

"Small Wonder" is from an old collection and was found on Isle Royale years ago.

"Concealed Silk"-a perfect petite Greenstone.

"Beautiful Mystery is REALLY nice," says Bonnie.

TThis is a very rare Isle Royale Greenstone with pink Thomsonite inclusions

"Cool Factor" is a very rare Isle Royale Greenstone with pink Thomsonite inclusions. Suberb!

Green Mist--What great chatoyancy!