Contrariwise ramblings

A few weeks ago I had a great time at a local Bead and Gem Show and since then have been working on making new jewelry from all the treasures I got. It takes me a while because, with my full-time job, the only time I have available to solder is on weekends. Just this past weekend, I finished these Sleeping Beauty turquoise earrings.

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=23663161

The dealer I bought these cabochons from must have had hundreds of Sleeping Beauty cabs rattling around in a box and my daughter spent a long time sorting through them to find matching pairs for me.

Sleeping Beauty turquoise is one of the most highly-prized turquoise in the world today. I think you can see why. It's an intense, medium blue with moderate black matrix.

These particular stones were amongst the largest I bought. They measure about 12 x 7 mm. You can get an idea of how big they are in the photo on the right.

As accents, I added little balls of solid sterling to the sides. That's how I recycle my little bits of leftover silver - by melting them down to add as accents to my jewelry! (Or, punish my silver pieces that misbehaved and didn't turn out how I wanted them to.)

I decided to give up buying posts and have started making my own. Somehow, they seem more sturdy to me than the bought ones. I'm also getting better at soldering them onto the backs of the earrings. In fact, it's almost fun now!



Oh, and I'm sure I'll be making more turquoise earrings. I still have a few matching pairs left:

Just to tease you a bit, I'll let you know that I will be posting some new amethyst cabochon earrings later this week.

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