Print Stone from Australia !

This highly unusual stone called Print Stone or Newsprint Jasper, comes from an area near Kununurra in North Western Australia. Actually it is a type of Silicated Sandstone which as can be seen has an increible pattern.

The highly unusual patterning makes this stone unique and fun to work with. Although this material cuts very easily, it does not take a high polish without some kind of a surface treatment such as Opticon or epoxy. A matte to semi-gloss finish can be obtained by using diamond dust with a final polishing of Zam. A good looking finish can be obtained through the use of Birchwood Casey Tru-oil, gunstock finish.

Look for these pendants incorporated into some new jewelry pieces completed by Gayle for the upcoming Fall and Holiday Shows.

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Well after getting things finished up and the BLOG originally posted, took the small piece of the slab that was left and managed to get a third round 40mm pendant out of it. Interesting how the back side of the slab, which I used as the face for the pendants, provides a totally different looking scene from the front side seen above.

GEMSTONE JEWELRY - The Foundation !

A "foundation" is the basis for almost anything that is accomplished. The "foundation" of many gemstone necklaces is a pendant that is the highlight of the piece. The pendant can be either a single fashioned piece or a grouping of pieces that together form a larger pendant. The pendant may also be a larger piece of the same gemstone as the rest of the necklace, incorporated into the total design. The following are some of the new "foundation" pendants that have been made recently. The "shield" design or type appears to be quite popular with many. Some of these shield pendants have a 'top hole' thus requiring the use of some kind of a bail. Others are drilled across the top, so can be strung directly onto the necklace wire with other stones. Either style, can be wire-wrapped with amazing results. They can also be hung directly on a chain with the use of bails. The following are all 'top hole' drilled.

Russian Unakite

First discovered in the United States in the Unakas mountains of North Carolina, unakite is an altered granite composed of pink orthoclase feldspar, green epidote, and generally colorless quartz. It exists in various shades of green and pink and is usually mottled in appearance. IGood quality unakite is considered a gemstone, with the largest mines now being in Russia.

Australian Mookaite

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Mookaite is the common, or popular, name for the rock with the geological name Windalia Radiolarite, being a fine grained, silicified and multi-coloured, radiolarian siltstone, found in outcrops, principally on Mooka Station on the west side of Kennedy Range in Western Australia. Mookaite can also be found in the northwester United States in the Agate and Jasper fields.

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Norwegian Larvakite

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Larvikite comes from Larvik, Norway. Used widely in building constructions, Larvikite is a gray color with black markings, reknown for the occasional flash of light/fire with a hint of blue. It has recently become a very popular stone in jewelry. Considered a Monzonite, Larvikite and relative Labradorite are both notable for the presence of handsome, thumbnail-sized crystals of feldspar. These feldspars are known as ternary because they contain significant components of all three end-member feldspars thus giving the characteristic silver blue sheen (Schiller effect) on polished surfaces.

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South African Blue Tiger Eye

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Tiger's Eye is a chatoyant gemstone that is usually a metamorphic rock that is a golden to red-brown color, with a silky luster. A member of the Quartz group, Blue Tiger Eye is a classic example of a pseudomorphous replacement by silica of fibrous crocidolite or blue asbestos. An incompletely silicified blue variant is called Hawk's eye.

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Indiana Rainbow Fluorite

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Fluorite (also called fluorspar) is a halide mineral composed of calcium fluoride. The word fluorite is derived from the Latin root fluo, meaning "to flow" because the mineral has a relatively low melting point and was used as an important flux in smelting. Fluorite gave its name to the phenomenon of fluorescence, which is prominent in fluorites from certain locations, due to certain impurities in the crystal. Fluprote can come in all colors of the rainbow depending on impurities. When many different impurities occur as in the Indiana Fluorite fields, we have a variety called Rainbow Fluorite.

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Look for these in new necklace designs in the future or they can be obtained for you to incorporate them into your own design for you necklace makers out there.

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SABOS SPRING BEAD BAZAAR - this Weekend

Vendors are setting up and the Live Oak Civic Center has been transformed into a "Bead Wonderland" for this upcoming weekend. In addition to 'beads', there are Jewelry Sets, Jewelry making Tools, Books, and many interesting things to see. The doors open at 10AM on Sat and 11AM on Sun and the Bazaar runs until 5PM both days.

See this Turquoise, Coral and Sardonyx Set along with other new designs and an excellant selection of Gemstone Beads and unmounted Cabochons and Pendants at the Jewelry by CnC booth, just inside the main entrance. Look for our sign as you enter the door.

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WINDFEST 2010 - FINISHED PENDANTS - string or add a bail !

Making finished pendants out of the raw rocks can sometimes be a chore, sometimes a lot of fun, but when finished, and someone uses one in a jewelry piece, all that hard work has paid off. For the upcoming Windfest 2010 Show at Takas Park in Windcrest, Texas this coming Saturday, April 17th, several new styles and materials have been completed.

Golden Druzy Quartz

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Some of the pieces have been left undrilled, similar to a Cabachon, for either wire-wrapping or for placing in a setting. Others have been drilled, some with top hole for use with a bail, and others with the hole across the top so they can be strung directly on the necklace wire or this style can also be easily wire wrapped also.

Lepidolite.........................Amethyst

Spiderweb Agate...................Tiger Eye

Nevada Lapis

See these and other unusual pendants you can put into your own jewelry as well as finished Jewelry Sets at WINDFEST 2010 at the Jewelry by CnC Booth.

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Some Simple Jewelry Items !

Nothing Fancy, Large or Expensive. Just some simple items that work well for Holiday Gift Giving and Stocking Stuffers.
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We start out with a nice Red-Black-Silver Dichroic Glass pendant and earring set on a ribbon necklace.
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Here we have Blue Glass Leaf style pendant and matching earrings, again on a ribbon necklace.

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Now we have a Purple Dichroic pendant and earring set on a matching purple ribbon necklace.
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If one prefers ceramic, here is a nice Seafoam Ceramic pendant with necklace and matching earring set.

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Here is another Colored Glass pendant and earring set on a ribbon necklace.

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Staying with glass, here is a Black and Copper Glass heart pendant and matching earring set, again on a ribbon necklace.

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And to complete this grouping of simplier jewelry sets, we have a Blue-green Ceramic pendant on a crystal necklace with matching earrings.

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Pendants and Cabachons !

I was recently asked at a show how I can call off the names of the various pendants and cabachons I am selling without having to look them up in a book or some kind of a listing. Well I would have to say that I get some of the common ones right most of the time, but probably some of the rarer ones only about 70-75% of the time. My biggest problem is spelling the name correctly for the person after I identify the pendant or cabachon. Then of course there is the all time major consideration that the name I know the stone bye may not be the same name that the person I got the slab from to make the pendant or cabachon, called the rough rock. And of course as I travel around to different areas for shows, the stones may have locally used names that differ from what I am calling them.

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What I like to do for several days before a show is lay all the pendants and cabachons out in a pile, like in the picture, and start pulling them out and naming them as I remove them from the group. Those I take a bit to long to ID or miss completely, go back in the pile to be selected again. All of the stones, pendant or cabachon, have an ID tag on the reverse side so that I can confirm if correct or wrong based on what I know the stone as. If someone totally disagrees on a name or doesn't agree that the stone can have another name, I do have a computer program that I carry with me that lists all the names, species ID, group ID, misnomers, local names and false names for several thousand gems and gemstones used in Jewelry.

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Gemstone Pendants - new varieties just completed !

The following pictures are of some new material picked up recently. Although I have shown the name given to the stone by the source I acquired them from, several I recognize as having seen listed under other names. Most gemstones have their mineral name, a gemological name, a common name, a misnomer name and sometimes several totally off the wall names. Also remember the same stone can be called by a different name in a different part of the same country or in different countries. So have fun identifying if the name I have listed is not familiar to you.

Transvaal Jade.................Sodalite..............................Pink Opal

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Maw-Sit-Sit......................Meshwork Jasper..............Stromatolite Fossil

Chrysotine......................Chrysocolla..........Green Fire Opal

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RAFB 'ROSC Luncheon' Sep 17th !

Here are some simple pendants for placing on chains that have been made up for the ROSC Luncheon to be held at the RAFB O'Club on Thursday Sep 17th starting at 10:30.

Smoky Quartz in Silver Setting...............Lapis in a Silver Setting

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Yellow Labradorite from Mexico in a 10k Gold Setting

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TEXAS Lone Star in the center of a Swiss Blue Topaz in a Silver Setting

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For Pearl lovers, a Fresh Water Pearl in a 10k Gold Setting

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See these and other pendants on the Jewelry by CnC web-site.

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