Lovin' Labradorite

Thought I'd share my newest creation on my blog. I'm so in awe of Labradorite in general, so many wonderful combinations of color naturally occurring in a stone that just leaves me breathless!

Saule - Labradorite, Green Onyx, Yellow Topaz, Smoky Quartz

(The top 2 photos show the vivid stripes on one side and the bottom 2 show the other side)

Cabochons...Ohh so pretty!

This is 500cts of beautiful cabochons that my dad picked up for me at an estate sale! I can identify all but 5 of them. One of them is the triangle one in the lower left hand corner, I believe its a jasper of some sort. Another is an oval black cab in towards the upper middle, it's a little silverish in color, I was thinking a pyrite but again, I'm not quite sure. Two more are matching rounds on either side of the oval one I was just talking about. When you flip them over they have cool fossils in them, I'll have to take pics of them at a later date. The others consist of Moonstone, Chalcedony, Agate, Onyx, Tourmalinated Quartz, Rhodonite, blue Aventurine, Rhodochrosite, Moss Agate, and Lapis. I can't wait to actually start working with these!

I Survived....

prom weekend! The girls were gorgeous and the guys were handsome of course. For those of you who have teenage kids, you can understand the weekend I had.....I know I have a few more grey hairs after this one. I think mostly because we had a lot of rain, hail and intermittent snow, and my kids who don't have a lot of highway miles under their belts were having to drive quite a ways to their dance location, and even further for dinner with their friends.

I've tried my hand at oxidizing...and I'm not sure how well I really like it. The process or actually the solution that is used is quite toxic and being acid it's sure to burn the skin with the smallest drop. I know that I in no means have mastered it, and don't know if I will because I'm so uncomfortable working with it. I think what I may resort to doing is oxidizing the natural way using eggs, I just can't seem to keep eggs in my house though with the kids.

I've also recently been working with briolette stones. The wire wrapping can drive a person nuts. I tried it a long time ago and after only having one pair turn out after many feet of wasted silver, I gave up. Well I think I've finally gotten the hang of it, and really enjoy doing it. I've been amazed that I haven't had more than the usual silver left over. It's funny how you can write off something because it simply does not work for you then all of a sudden you try it again and voila, you've done it! Hmm...I'm just noticing that I must really like this paper, I've used it with all of these earrings..hehe