Contrariwise ramblings

I've been in a frenzy of activity lately.  It must be the springtime as well as the longer days that help bring me out of the doldrums of winter.

I bought these Red Creek Jasper cabs over a year ago, set them as earrings almost 6 months ago, and only photographed them this week!

But now they're finally ready to emerge, like the butterflies that they resemble.

In lovely shades of pinks and reds with touches of yellow and rust, these cabochons are not only shaped like butterfly wings, but they also seemingly have the delicate veining seen in many butterfly wings!

I could't bear to set them in anything but a sleek and contemporary setting.  The stones are just so spectacular, that any embellishments would just detract from them.  Then I hung the wing-like cabs from flowing earwires, so that they almost seem to be fluttering around your ears.

More photos can be found here.


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Like I wrote in my blog a few days ago, I've been busy lately.  This past weekend, I went through my bowl where I keep all my cabochons and this particular stone called.

It's weird.  I'm sure I've owned this cab for over a year, and I've ignored it.  But suddenly it insisted to be made into a ring.

One half of this particular stone is Prehnite in a luscious pistachio green and the other half is a chocolate-colored matrix.  I loved the stark contrast when I first saw this stone, and I though it needed (wanted?) to be set in a clean modern setting. 

But I couldn't resist adding a little extra detail;  so I created a band to evokes an Art Nouveau feel. And, of course, dragonflies are often themes in Art Nouveau - so my stamp fits right in!

(Those little curlicues in the band were the hardest part.  They just didn't want to stay soldered in place at first.  But I eventually throttled them into submission.)

More photos of the ring can be found here.

Today I've been taking photos of more new stuff and I hope to post more on my blog and in my Etsy shop in the next few days.  But I'll also have a new post on MooShu. 

Because of the winter cold weather, he hasn't gotten a haircut in the past several months and his coat has gotten really long.  Because the weather has gotten warmer, he seems to be really hot. Although his water bowl is kept filled, he still pants a lot.  So tonight, we're taking drastic measures. 

The shampoo is out, the shears are ready, and the camera is fully charged!

All we have to do is catch him!

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Only two months in the making!

As you can see from the photo on the left, this gorgeous graveyard agate is cut on 2 sides but one side is left in its natural form.   The artist who cut is Michael (a.k.a. Gemcutter), from Michael's Lapidary,  a wonderful shop on Etsy.

This was the first time I ever set a freeform cabochon and it was certainly a challenge. 

The first time I made the bezel, the stone didn't fit.  The next time, I melted the bezel.  Each time I had to reheat the setting to melt my failed bezels off and try again.  Finally, I got it right on my third attempt!

The Graveyard Point Agate is translucent and has so much depth to it.  I didn't want to lose that, so I polished the silver behind the stone to a mirror-like finish.  This means that light reflects from the silver and through the cab, emphasizing the lovely details that nature gave to this stone.  The stone positively glows in the light with a slight peachy-lavender cast.

The natural freeform edge of the stone reminded me of clouds and I tried to cut the silver setting to follow those lines.  Then I carried over the design to the back of the setting. (And you can find my signature dragonfly peeking over the edge of the clouds.)

To the chain, I added some Hessonite garnets, which complement the colors of the agate, and then set the chain with, handmade clasp which fastens asymmetrically to one side.

More photos of this piece can be found here.

(And if you want more background about this piece, as well as its progress, you can read my earlier posts here and here. )

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Creating each piece of new jewelry is a unique experience.  Sometimes a design comes from seemingly nowhere and almost creates itself, and sometimes the entire process is a struggle.  This necklace has definitely been the latter.

I bought this stone almost 2 years ago.  It was in a pile of tourmalated quartz cabs.  I picked it up because I liked it and it was different than most of the other cabs.  (Honestly, I'm not sure that it's tourmalated quartz.  Any thoughts out there on what it might be?)

Two years ago I was just starting to learn how to solder and set cabs.  So I when I initially created the bezel for this stone, I was really disappointed.  It was a great stone but it looked so boring and I didn't have the skills to do anything to help enhance it.  So I threw it into a box of silver scraps and half-finished works.

About 6 months ago I took it out again and started playing with it.  I drew a lot of sketches and eventually decided on the details - leaves, flowers, a bail that curves behind the stone, and an assymetrical hand-made clasp.

But even after I finished the necklace, it still proved to be obstinate!  I've spent several session trying to photograph it, and I still haven't been able to capture the unique patterns within the stone.  So far the photo of the necklace sitting in my hand is the closest to what the cab looks like in person.

If you want to see more photos, they can be found here.


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Lots of stuff!

I love doing these Workbench posts.  I sweep the crap off my table with my hand, lay out my unfinished pieces, and snap a few photos.  It's really a little slice of my life.

I've had a really busy weekend.  By tonight I'll have 4 new pieces of jewelry finished - including a pendant with the blue stone you see at the above left.  I've also finished photographing several other pieces that are in my "backlog".  (I just never seem to have enough time.)

And, finally,  I will be listing several brand new pieces on my Etsy store over the next couple of days.  (Starting later today.)

And do you remember the piece in the middle.  It's a huge freeform Graveyard Plume agate.  To the right of it is the setting, which is partially oxidized and waiting to be polished and set.

I started it a while back and wrote about it in an earlier post.   It's taken me seemingly forever, but now it's almost finished.  The uneven natural stone on one end was definitely a new experience and I learned a lot.  What I can absolutely promise is that you will see the final necklace posted in my blog sometime this week - along with more about how I made it.


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I've had these cabs for over a year, set them as earrings over Christmas, and hadn't taken any photos till last week!  And now I finally listed them in my Etsy shop. 

I bought them at a local Gem and Mineral Show that's held twice a year at the fairgrounds. The dealer  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.  I still have about 8 matching pairs which, at my rate of setting them, should keep me busy for the next 8 years!

Here's a photo of the mountain  ---->

(Hmmm. I guess someone really had a vivid imagination.)


Well, if you want to see more pictures of these earrings, just go here.

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I've become absolutely fascinated with Morrisonite Jasper and have bought quite too many cabochons recently. (I just can't help myself .)  This is the first one that I've set.

Morrisonite Jasper is known as the King of Jaspers.  It's a rare stone that is known world-wide for its deep rich colors and unique patterns. I think you can see why.

Until I started working with cabochons, I never appreciated how special they are.  Some unique stones can only be found in incredibly small areas - for example, in just a single riverbank.  Morrisonite comes from a mine on one side of the Owyhee River canyon in southeastern Oregon near the Idaho border . It's no longer mined .

Therefore, as with Morrisonite, the supply of many beautiful materials is limited. Once gone, they're gone forever.

I love buying cabs online. I think it’s because, when they arrive in little packages in the mail, I get as excited as if it was Christmas morning! And when I open them, it’s always a surprise.

I’ve recently bought some new cabochons from Dale at JustCabs. When this Snake River Dendritic Agate arrived in the mail, it took my breath away.

The dendrites form a perfect miniature tree, which seems to be sitting on a golden brown hillside. If you use your imagination, you can see mountains behind it, also in shades of golden brown. The background color of this agate is white, but it glows with hints of peaches and purples.

The entire scene felt very Japanese to me, so I decided to set the stone to emphasize that feeling. I cut pieces of silver to create a bamboo twig to sit next to the stone. 

I thought about cutting out a design on the back, like I've done before.  But I had already put in so much time into this setting - and I was anxious to get it finished - that I decided to just do a little curlique as part of the bail in the back.

I just listed it in my shop.  More photos can be found there.

During the day I have a full-time job, but in the evenings and weekends I steal away a few hours working on my hobby and improving my techniques.

Depending on what else is going on in my life, this may mean that I may not get to my workshop at all for a while.  But on a good week, I might get as much 12 hours.

In the past couple of weeks, I've gotten some gorgeous stones which have inspired me to create new pieces of jewelry - but I've been so intent on working on them that I didn't want to use my spare time to take photos!  So I have a lot of new jewelry to photograph and list in my shop.

Today I finished this new ring and decided it was time to take some photos!

The stone in this ring is a black lace agate.  Nature created a perfect miniature landscape within this wonderful stone.

The agate has an image of autumn reeds in the foreground bordering a flowing stream.  In the background clouds float in the late-evening sky.  A full moon peeking behind the clouds illuminates the scene 

To complement the flora of the stone, hand-cut leaves are asymmetrically positioned on the setting and the motif is continued in the band.

A signature dragonfly can be found on the back.

More photos of this, my latest ring, are found here.