Making jewelry when the wind blows…...

During the summer, we sell our jewelry at shows and then make new cabochons to replace the ones we have sold, (a cabochon is a stone that has been shaped and polished). Our goal each year is too make a few more than we sell as some end up not being used, migrate to my dear wife’s jewelry collection, or contain flaws (called anything but a flaw/weakness, often described as having a unique event). When we reach our winter home, we start to make jewelry and it takes us most of the winter to shape stones and wire into pendants, bracelets, chains and kumihimo necklaces, and rings. For metals we use sterling silver, untreated copper, (which has antimicrobial properties), 14 K gold filled wire, (different from plate as it does not wear off due to its thickness), that lasts for twenty to one hundred years. This year we traveled to a rock show in Clear Lake, Texas and purchased Coober Pedy fossil opal shells, and a collection of malachite/ chrysocolla cabochons, (see photo above), that were cut and shaped by a miner in the southwest USA. This person was one of two people who were allowed to collect in the Morenci Mine. We also made a few pieces using Wyoming heliotrope/bloodstone,

It is said that wearing such a material will cause you to disappear in a crowd. We were very excited to get our hands on the Morenci malachite cabochons,(we sawed and ground the rest). Now we have enough of the Morenci mine material to have a seperate display case. We make the jewelry when the weather is cold, the fishing is slow, or its raining and windy. When you do not see a new blog in a while it’s because of a combination of the three things listed. Our goal this winter is to make two hundred new pieces and we have gotten off to a good start having completed sixty-nine.

The next image shows another material one of which is brand new named Yellowstone Variscite. We met a claim owner and miner at the Cody Wyoming show last July. Purchasing five pounds of the rock we started working it into finished pieces. Variscite is a soft mineral, tends to have flaws/lines of weakness but can be worked into pieces with a variety of green coloration. In the same image you can also see rubies in zoisite.

The rubied are lesser quality than gem material but glow a brilliant red under a long wave ultraviolet light, (we usually sell out of these pieces). Finally, you will note a blue stone which is the rarest stone we own, (said tto be the third rarest stone in the world). It is named Ellensburg Blue and is found in Washington State. We have searched for it for years and finally acquired a small piece of the rough in a Wyoming rock shop.

There will be more but for now the rocks are calling to me. Time to get back to having fun! Clear skies