Turquoise

This marquise set of B grade turquoise has been sitting on my bead board for over a month.  It is a special set that required a special setting and it underwent several transformations.  I finally decided that the stones were too beautiful to do anything but accentuate them with some silver beads.  So here it is in its final incarnation - just a short necklace with sterling and gorgeous turquoise and a silver-plated Swarovski belt buckle clasp.

Price: $65 Canadian

I made two pairs of matching earrings, either of which would complement the necklace or look terrific just on their own.  One pair is a matching marquise turquoise dangling from a sterling ball.   The other pair is a caged turquoise nugget.  Earrings are $20 per pair.

Ghost crystal

Quartz is the second most abundant mineral in earth's crust, and clear, quartz crystals come in many sizes and shapes.  The ideal shape is a six-sided prism with six-sided pyramids at each end.  They are reputed to be able to structure, store, amplify, focus, transmit and transform energy in our bodies, thoughts and emotions.
I picked up some nice Brazilian crystals at the Brantford Gem & Mineral show a few years ago with the intention of wire wrapping them, but with my jewelry production being a little slow, still have quite a few left.
Imagine my surprise when I pulled one out to wrap last month and discovered that it had an owl "ghost" living in it.
Ghosts or phantoms are found in quartz when the crystallization has been interrupted at some point in its growth, but the phantom is usually a crystal within a crystal or the inclusion of another mineral.  This one is pretty special and I hated to see it sold!

This is my new blog!

Since I rarely have anything exciting to say, I've created this blog mainly for my jewelry business.

As you can see from the montage, I still create beaded jewelry but my two new loves are silver clay and argentium.

Argentium is the same percentage of pure silver as sterling but the composition of the "other" 7.5% alloy is mainly germanium, instead of the copper used in sterling.  It doesn't tarnish like sterling silver.  It is more expensive to buy than sterling silver but well worth the extra expense.

Silver clay is an amazing mediums for a jewelry artisan.  Invented by the Japanese, it is microscopic particles of pure silver suspended in an organic binder.  It can be rolled, sculpted or painted on and when it is fired, the binder burns off and results in .999 pure silver.  It truly becomes "wearable art."