Rocks and Spring and Moving, Oh My!

Ok. I know I should have done this over a week ago, but there were issues with Blogger and I got to doing other things and then I had to go for a walk and then I just didn't feel like it. Whatya want?

So, here's a picture from Hiddenite:

These are the rocks I found:

And this is... I don't know what this is:

Oh ya... that was my booth at Calico.

Starting to get a little stressed out about the impending move... so much to do and pack AND make jewelry and go to shows before and just after... stretching and meditation can only do so much... which reminds me: I have to go stretch!

Toodles.

Calico Spring Arts & Crafts is Go!

Well, Georgians... I am coming your way.

Setting up a table or two at the Calico Spring Arts & Crafts Show in Moultrie, GA this Saturday and Sunday (that's the 20th and 21st... also know as the Spring Equinox weekend). Should be sunny and warm and I'll be indoors if it isn't so...

I have a whole new collection debuting. Yep, I finished the U Rock Collection. Here are two more pictures of the Sterling versions:

All of these are in Non Tarnish Sterling Silver. The necklace has Smoky Quartz, Jasper, and Agate. The ring is Blue Aventurine Quartz. The bracelet is different types of Quartz and Jasper. The earrings are different types of Quartz.

These earrings are different types of Quartz, mostly Smoky and there's Citrine too. The pendant is Blue Aventurine Quartz. The necklace is Moss Agate and Bloodstone.

I found all the stones at Hiddenite and put em through the tumbler a couple three times. Stopping off again on the way down to try my luck at some more gems. Hopefully I'll have a lot of good ones to learn to cut on this Summer...

So ya...

I made a bunch of new faceted gemstone rings this last week too, and some more matching Labradorite pendants and earrings in Sterling. Making a few adjustable rings now and will be making some more swirly knot rings too. If I have time, I'll even make a couple more faceted gemstone pendants as well. Getting down to the wire though and I have to leave on Wed... that's in two days... to get there in time. So, not sure how much more new jewelry I'll have with me. So, anyway...

That means I'll be bringing a whole slew of new jewelry down with me.

If you're in the area, you should definitely stop by and say HI! (That would be the Custom Adornments table, don't know where I'll be til I get there though, just know I'll be inside.)

I'm going to bring a few supplies so I can make some stuff on the spot (if there's time). Plus, if come by my table this weekend, and you say you heard about it here, I'll deduct the price of admission from your jewelry purchase (for all sales over $50)!

If you were planning to come by anyway... you can't beat that!

The Medium is the Massage!

Howdy raving lunatics what follow my sporadic ramblings - sometimes dotted with acceptable photographic imagery.

It snowed yesterday. People freaked out. I laughed... while I was out walking around in the woods in snow up to my shins. There's still enough snow on the balcony to make a snowman... and I might just do it too... Have a couple things to do first though...

Been running around looking at a lot of blogs this last week. Puts me to shame, actually. You know, when you see these amazingly well graphicked perfectly put together blogs with lots of entries that are all amazing and well written and stuff like that there. Keep thinking I should make some kind of new years blogolution and theme myself up for a month and make myself write something every other day - instead of every other week.

I have tons of ideas and things I want to put to screen, but never seem to be anywhere near the computer when I do. Or, like lately, my wrists don't want me anywhere near a computer at all.

Been tooling round the internets all day and my wrists are SCREAMING right now. No. I will not repeat what they are saying. It's just not acceptable for public print (screen) formats. Yikes!

So, I made some new stuff. Did I tells ya? Well, it's with the rocks I been hounding. A lot of the ones I tumbled... well, partially. They're not all super smooth and super shiny. Didn't want to go that far off the natural. Did manage to figure out how to do Crackle Quartz without heating though! Kind cool. Have a bunch I have yet to photograph and some waiting to be made too but, all the ones I'm going to make in Gold Fill are done and I have some pics... you want a peek?

Ok. Here they are... oh, and I made some snow minions when ya'll weren't looking too! Enjoy!

One of these rocks is from right around here in Sterling Forest, one from Crater of Diamonds, Arkansas, and one from around the Colorado River outside Moab, Utah. Can you tell which one is from where? Go ahead... guess;]

This set has Amethyst and Citrine/Smoky Quartz I found in Hiddenite, NC

Snow Minions!

Hidden Gems in Griffin...And Hiddenite

Griffin was fun - of course - how could it not be? The Next Chapter is a great used bookstore run by wonderful ladies with amazing customers who have spectacular taste. You must go next time you're in Griffin... of course, it won't look quite like this unless you go next time I'm there (which might be in March, but I'll keep you posted)

I swung by the Cowee Ruby Mine drivin through Franklin on my way back up on Saturday and found a few, not very nice, Sapphires and pretty much nothing else in my one sifted bucket so I decided to high tail it back to Hiddenite and try my luck there again.

Got there a little after 3pm (they close at 5pm this time of year) and it was already getting just about too dark to see what you were looking at. I got a native bucket and found a few nice pieces. Nothing like in the bucket on the way up though. So after running through that, I ran down to the creek and started looking around. Obviously, it pays to be there early cause it was pretty much picked through. I found a couple here and there and mostly quartz and then ventured across the rocks to the other side and just as I was getting ready to turn around and head back (it was getting pretty dark by then) I looked at the bank and saw some pretty colors poking out of the sand. Pay dirt! as they say. Started moving the leaves away and brushing stones from the dirt. Wound up finding a fairly good couple of handfuls of nice stones in about 10 minutes and then headed back just before closing time.

Wound up finding a really nice Garnet, larger than any of the three I found on the previous rummage on the way up but just as clear and dark. Some nice Rutile, another small ok Sapphire, some Blue Aventurine, some smaller Moonstones, amazingly clear pieces of Smoky and Rose Quartz, some more Moss Agate, Bloodstone, and Red Banded Jasper. Plus a few nice stones I have no idea what they are.

I wound up with a lot of pretty "just rocks" as well as a lot of actual gemstones in my two day, 4 or so hours of sluicing and creeking. See:

That's a 3/4 length bath towel covered in gems... well, the bottom left is a bunch of not so great quartz, quartzite and such like that - up to the blue in the middle, which is where the Aventurine is...

This is a closer look at the more valuable stones:

Flourite in the foreground with Amazonite just behind and Moonstone and Sapphires to the left of that and Garnets above the Moonstone and the little Tourmalines next to the Garnets...

There wasn't a lot of sun today so those two pictures don't really show off the stones that well. Phil took some close ups of the stones he liked yesterday when there was sun though. He thought this was the best Rutile, but I might have better ones:

One of our many lingering lady bugs joined in for this picture... then crawled over to the stones I was cleaning and sorting on the towel. Gives a good scale for the Rose Quartz, don'tcha think:

[We have a lady bug infestation every year, twice a year - Spring and Fall - and we still have a few left from the recent outdoor explosion that wound up inside our windows.]

That's not the really clear one I found on Saturday either. That one is smaller and shaped almost like an arrowhead. I've never found Rose Quartz so clear. It's almost like glass. In fact, Phil asked me if I was sure the large, clear Smoky I found wasn't glass.

Those are Phil's manly fingers, not my tiny girly ones like with the Rutile:

It's a good size Smoky and the picture doesn't really show how clear it is since the light is refracting off of all the surface fractures.

So yep. I'll probably be heading back down in early Spring to do it all over again. Should be a great time and hopefully I'll come back with Rubies and Emeralds next time! Going to have a longer stay at the Emerald Hollow Mines on the way down too. Bright and early creeking and sluicing!

I have so many stones now, I guess I'd better break out my tumbler and find someone to teach me how to cut the ones that would be better faceted or cabochoned. One more thing I have to add to my to do list...

Speaking of which, I have a whole table of jewelry that needs getting made... oh, and I gotta get dinner started first.

Rock on til the next installment!

Last Park Silly Market, and then...

Well, tomorrow is the last Park Silly Market for me. Then it's off to Nevada to dig up some Opals (really this time. Not like the Diamonds).

This time I'll be between Heber and 7th (right side heading toward 7th; should be somewhere in front of Zooms). Hope to see a bunch of you there!

Everybody wish me luck for the Opal hunt!

After I find a ton of Opals, I'll be heading North East to Montana for another friendly visit, and hopefully, a dig for Sapphires too. Already planning my return to Southern Utah in Spring for some fossil and Topaz hunting. I just love digging around and playing with rocks! Doesn't everybody? ;}

Ok, that's the news for now. Should be back in NY by next Monday. See some of you at the Beacon, Hudson River Market the following Saturday (August 22).

See some of you tomorrow! Wish for a beautiful, gentle windy day with no down pours (yes, it's been strongly gusting and bursting forth from the clouds frequently these last few days, so...) - fingers crossed for a good day for an outdoor market.

Treasure is Where We Find It?!

You know the saying:

One man's trash is another mans treasure... well, that goes for women too... probably for some animals as well... It's a matter of taste and style and upbringing and interests. Always is, no matter what you're talking about. 

I personally love trash AND treasure. I like treasure from trash and I like some trashy treasures. I was a dumpster diver when I was a kid. That was some good treasure, I'll tell you what! 

We lived behind the local shopping center so we could go diving for everything from still good food to toys! Yes, there was a toy store that threw stuff out! Broken display stuff mostly but, there were the occasional broken but still fun toys too. Plus, the other side of the street had a huge vacant, hilly lot that provided a place to build a hidden fort - where we could stash some of our dumpster goods if only have a place to play with them so our parents wouldn't know we'd been dumpster diving - and a lot of native plants and animals to wonder at and catch. Something which made us well known in the pet store as well. Though, I kinda feel bad about it now, we used to catch blue bellies (lizards) and sell em to the pet store for a quarter... which we'd inevitably give them back for the privilege of watching them feed the MataMata turtle - who was supposedly 150 years old! 

Ah, good times. 

This was also a time when my Cracker Jacks were giving up the occasional cool metal toy - like working compasses - and my mother and grandmother were giving me their unwanted extra and broken costume jewelry. Which got even better as I was learning things like how to string jewelry from parental friends during our occasional weekend days at the flea market. Now that was a lesson in finding treasure wherever you looked if there ever was one. It may have even been my inspiration for some of the first jewelry I ever made - from Cracker Jack and gumball machine toys. Mostly earrings, but the occasional necklace too. Still have some of those somewhere. In a box in the garage no doubt. 

Since my mom was also a single one (hi mom!), I was  getting dragged to the field portions of her geology classes around that time too; due to lack of babysitters, and possibly the unending sound of "please take us". That was GREAT! We had our own hammers and got to search for fossils in the shale and sandstone along the creek just like all the adults. Found a geode or two and a fossil here and there. Nothing like banging on rocks to find treasure! Later, every time I went up to visit my mom and sis and aunt and cousins (hi everybody!), I got to wander around Park City finding crystals. Which I eventually learned to wire wrap and started making necklaces and earrings from. 

I still walk around looking at the ground or sifting through the edge of streams and rivers; picking up rocks that speak to me everywhere I go - and sometimes putting them into my jewelry - however, I'm ready to move into a new phase along those lines. So, I'm planning to travel around to all the dig your own gemstone places in the US (everything from diamonds to opals and all the precious stones inbetween!) and incorporate the raw, uncut, might polish them a little first, precious gems I find into some truly unique stuff. I'm aiming to start next Spring. 

I know it won't be everyone's idea of treasure (even though, technically, it will actually be considered precious and therefore: actual treasure) but the raw and found have always captivated me as much as, if not more so, than the finely cut and polished purchases I've made, so I want to reflect that more in my jewelry. 

Now, all I have to do is make my life more conducive to that particular goal.  All help and suggestions welcome!