Tucson 2017 - Peruvian Opal and Parrot Wing

Most years, my Tucson hauls include a lot of Peruvian opal. This year, I only purchased a few, as I have a good bit on hand and late last year I bought a lot of earring pairs directly from the vendor in New Mexico. So I limited my Peruvian opals to just a few:

The four stones around the center stone are the Peruvian opals. That centerpiece is a chrysocolla...which I'll get to in a minute. ;)

Though I wasn't really looking for opals this year, Those four were all lovely enough to make the cut and come home to the studio. Here are a few examples of opal designs I've made in the past:

They sell regularly for  me, and I look forward to incorporating these new finds into some delicious designs!

The chrysocolla...I had told myself "no more chrysocolla" because I have a ridiculous amount of stock. But....but. There is always room in my studio (if not always the wallet!) for some really stunning gems. And this was one of them. That lovely blue swath across the top of the dark brown host? Like a windswept sky burnishing the rocks and wood on the land? There simply was no question. ;)

And this was another exceptional chrysocolla:

*This* bad boy is from the Ray Mine, in Arizona. The mining operation has been open for over a hundred years, and produces some of THE most exceptional chrysocolla you'll ever see (or at least, that I have ever seen). Look at the complexity of the color shift and the patterns...this one is definitely in "hoarding" status. :)

Chrysocolla is similar to turquoise, but it has a more brittle structure and is prone to chipping or flaking (as I well know; I've chipped / cracked a few during the setting process). Turquoise is softer in general and does not chip as easily. Chrysocolla is a bit more fragile, but its colors and depth are so rewarding that I just can't resist adding a bit here and there to my collection.

On to the parrot wing!

Parrot wing chrysocolla / jasper (as I understand it, it's chrysocolla material that has jasper-ized, so it's harder and less brittle than regular ol' chrysocolla) and it's from Mexico. And it's not easy to get your hands on some. What draws me in, of course, is the vivid blue-green coloring, and the contrasting brown patches. I buy a few (or sometimes just one) at a time, as I can find them.

Here are a few that I purchased last year:

As you can see from the many reflective spots in the photos, they take a very high polish, and are threaded with marvelous color combinations. The best of them remind me of tropical scenes, waters flowing through a jungle, mountainous peaks and deep crevasses. Like a little adventure in every gem. :)

Where to Go from Here?

I haven't been regularly keeping up with the blog...some of you would say, "Well, when *were* you, Jill?" ~wry smile~ I never seemed to have enough time for it. And now, suddenly, it seems a somewhat old and clunky format to share with you, friends and followers. I've been much more active on Facebook and Instagram than I have here, posting photos of new designs (almost) as soon as they're created.

And I've struggled with keeping up with making new designs - not for lack of designs, but for lack of time...same old, same old. Only so much two hands can do....which doesn't leave a lot of time for writing (hopefully) interesting blog content.

While I don't want to shut down the blog entirely, I think it's going to be much more photo-focused with less text. This may end up redundant for those of you who follow me on Instagram or Facebook, and if so, I apologize. But there's just never enough time...and my main love is the making, not writing about, the jewelry. :)

So, without further ado, let me share the Sweet Somethings creations:

These came about because while I've been pushing myself to design bigger and bolder, I also wanted something on the other side of the spectrum. Something sweet, and wearable for everyday, if so desired. Something smaller than my usual designs, that would layer with other necklaces...like little dollops of sweetness around the neck. :)

They've actually turned out to be quite fun to design and make, because they come together much more quickly than the big statement pieces. I can make up a batch and feel like I've gotten a lot done, instead of taking days at a time for the larger  and more complex designs. And they still hold true to my design aesthetic of balanced asymmetry. 

From top to bottom: chrysocolla, druzy, larimar, peruvian opal, shattuckite, turquoise, druzy. 

They are available here: blue piranha web site and here: blue piranha on Etsy

A Little Jewelry Education

When I'm exhibiing my jewelry at festivals, I tend to get a lot of questions about how the jewelry is made. So though I usually don't share Works In Progress, I snapped some quick iPhone photos while I was working on one of  my most recent designs.

Essentially, what I do is take raw metal materials - sheet, wire, and tubing - and "fabricate" them into jewelry:

Sheet:

source

Wire:

It comes in square shape already, but I hammer in every line of that texture.

Tubing:

source

The tubing, as you can see, comes in various diameters. I buy 12" tubes and then hand-cut the smaller tube sizes I need from that. 

So that's the raw materials. But how do they become a finished piece of jewelry? 

For me, since I design primarly with gems, the sort of "prequel" to beginning to make a piece of jewelry is pulling stones from my stash, comparing colors and shapes until I'm happy with what's in my hands.

After choosing gems, what happens first is a sketch. Well...sometimes. My sketches are mostly rough ideas to build upon, not detailed jewelry renderings. I've found that I'm more comfortable working in the metal itself, rather than making a sketch and transferring that idea to metal. But for more complex designs, like the one I'm using to illustrate today's post, sketching does help to gauge "what's going to go where", and "Do I really want a 3 inch doodad which might not be structurally sound, or would it work better at 1.5 inches?". It's helpful to answer these questions sooner, rather than later. :)

Once (if) the sketching is done, it's time to make bezels and back plates for the gems. I can't solder anything together until the gems have their metal homes first. I detailed the process of bezeling and back plate-ing here if you want to read more about that. Once that part is done, I start shaping and refining the embellisments.*

*Anything that's additional to the basic metal fabrication is commonly called embellishments. I could simply set the gems in a bezel and add a bail, and that would be an un-embellished pendant. Most metalsmiths, however, like to play. So we add all manner of layers and doodads and geegaws and granules...those are the embellishments.  :)

In the above photo, there are no backs to the bezels around the gems, and the embellishments have not been soldered in place. This is the beginning of desiging. I cut and shape the wire embellishements and start laying them out on the tape until they look right. 

I shape freehand, working along a somewhat meandering path to what appeals to my eye. I like what I call balanced asymmetry. For this design, that means that the two triangular bezels in the upper corners of the necklace are close, but not quite the same distance from the center bezel, and that the triangles are not both facing the same direction (one is point up; the other, point down). 

Now the wires are soldered, and two of the hinges are done. The necklace is taped to a neckform for me to check how it will lay on the body. 

Above (in this terribly blurry phone shot) are the small tubes I have cut from the 12" length to make the hinge joins. And the jump rings (which I also make by hand): 

that join the hinges together, as seen below:

In the above photo, you can see one of the "arms" of the handmade chain on this design. 

These are some of the arms. They're soldered together, and the tiny tubing is attached, but they're not added to the body of the design yet. But they're going to go up the neck, on the sides of the centerpiece, and lead to some additional handmade chain in the back. 

And *that* extra chain is all hand fabbed too. I take a slightly thinner wire and make ovals out of it, by first coiling it on a mandrel. With round wire you can just coil to your heart's content, but square wire can very easily get "off the square" and twist where you don't want it to. So it's a little slower process to carefully coil square wire:

Then the rings get sawn off, one by one, I've sawn a bunch loose already:

Loose rings sawn from the coil:

Next the open ends will be soldered, and then they'll be textured:

The one on the left has been textured; the ones on the right are soldered but not yet textured.

They then get soldered together, with another jump ring, to form this:

at the back of the necklace. 

Here's a process shot of those loose arms, all soldered together and getting their tiny ball embellishments:

Painter's tape, as you can see, is an invaluable tool in the jewelry studio. I use it constantly to temporarly keep things in place before they're physically joined. 

And now the whole neckpiece is done. Well... done with the fabrication and soldering, that is. Which doesn't mean that it's *finished*. There's a whole lot of clean up to do, which will remove any excess solder that went where I didn't want it to go, and then several steps of polishing the metal to get that soul-satisfying, deep shine. And then the gems need to be set. Probably at least a day's work (if not more) still...so no full-on shots yet...but I promise to show you once it's ready for viewing. :) 

Hi Torch, I Missed You!!

Okay, I'm a geek. I love what I do. I didn't really miss it while I was gone, but I was sad to leave the work table and I'm glad to be back, though today started out a bit slow (and late! Good thing Brett is working late tonight...so am I).

San Francisco was fabulous. Though cold. And it made me yearn to move West (again...I know. Broken record). But the trip was a really good break, and though I'm struggling a little with getting back into a rhythm, I did manage to finish up some designs I started before the trip:

Peaceful Wishes Necklace

 

Morenci turquoise, from Arizona. It had a little issue with one of the balls not staying put. But now it's all set. I love the color of this turquoise - pure, unadulterated blue heaven. And once again, I played with symmetry / asymmetry, stacking design elements on an asymmetrical cabochon. There's a calmness to this pendant that I really like.

 

Lost in the Depths Earrings

 

Some gorgeous chrysocollas! I love the blue-green combination in these stones. I added slightly vine-y elements to echo the flowing of colors on the stone surfaces.

 

These designs have been a lot of fun, but I think I am going to step away from these pieces for a little while. I want to do some more Larimar in this style, but lately I've been itching to do more of the metal-intensive pieces. I've got some designs in my head that I can't wait to start executing. I love the color intensity of this jewelry, with the metal as accent, but I really want to explore some new work that's metal oriented...so I guess we know what I'll be working on this week! *After* I get done with a custom order, that is...so I'll keep this short and get right back to the torch. Lots of lost time to make up for.  :)

Knowing When to Take a Break

I woke up today feeling crappy. Which is no surprise, because I went to bed last night feeling crappy. Which is also no surprise...because I'm not sure I can recall the last time I really rested.

Coming back from my father's memorial service on the 24th with a lingering sadness. Realizing that I won't be able to attend my friend's memorial service in late July. Planning for an unexpected destination wedding in August (as well as a destination bridal shower). My mother is coming for a visit (also in August). My SIL and BIL were here for a week and left last Friday. Tonight I leave for five days in San Francisco. Trying to continue making jewelry in all that mess, constantly feeling like I can't stay on top of everything (anything!). Having the a/c out in our house (where I work) for two days (that was the week before last, but it's no fun working with a hot torch when it's hot inside).

I'm kind of wiped. I realized that I was dangerously close to burnout with the jewelry right before we left for Arizona. So it was good to take a break from the studio, but it wasn't for uplifting, relaxing reasons. When I travel to Arizona, as I just did, and all the times I went last year while Dad was still alive, it goes like this:

- Fly to Phoenix, pick up rental car, drive to friends' house. Interact with friends. Stay over at friends' house. Unpack for one night, then pack up again and head to Prescott the next day.

- Stay over at Mom's house. Unpack for 1-3 nights, try to adjust to altitude, interact with family.

- Pack up again and drive to Phoenix. Stay over at friends' house. Unpack for one night, then pack again, return rental car, fly home. Go back to work.

There's not a lot of downtime in this scenario. There's flying (always stressful), driving, talking with friends and family, packing and unpacking, more driving and flying.

I don't begrudge my visits last year at all, or this most recent one, but they're draining. And then I come home and work like crazy in the studio. And I go to bed at night and sometimes I just play games on the iPad until I fall asleep, because I'm problem solving all day and just don't want to think about anything once I'm done.

I thought that this year, with less travel, and less festivals, would be an improvement on last year's craziness. In some ways, it has been. I've been finding a rhythm to my studio days, and my studio work. But I still can't seem to manage everything. And travel is just taking everything out of me (oh, and grieving? That, too).

I'm not sure what the answer is...meditation? Yoga? NOT trying to go to every event, and accommodate everyone? Probably a mix of all of the above, to start. At least this morning, I gave myself permission to get a late start in the studio - without feeling guilty. This is part of the point of RUNNING MY OWN business, right? Flexible hours and all that. I guess I'd just like to feel like I'm not RUNNING quite so much. Figuring that out is going to take a little longer though...

In the meantime, I fly to SF tonight - it should have been at 11 *a.m.* today, but somehow Brett and I overlooked the fact that he booked me for 11 p.m....so I will arrive around 3 a.m Eastern time. Eep! Tuesday morning will be a little rough! But it's likely my last vacation for the year, so I'm going to make the most of it. It seems like I never have a "good time" to travel for pleasure - so much work to do in the studio - but I think I'm not going to be making any good work if I don't take a REAL break now and then.

So I will leave you with some goodies I was able to finish recently:

Joy Rising Earrings

Chrysocolla. There are supposed to be two pair, but the other set of stones isn't ready to play nice. : )

Waterblooms Earrings

These and the pendant below are part of a grouping of boulder-y turquoise stones I set recently. I call them "Waterblooms" because they remind me of flowers floating on the water. Beautifully contrasted, really unusual turquoises.

Waterblooms II Necklace

Two pair of Royston turquoise earrings - the first pair, that I mentioned in my prior blog post, already sold:

And I'm having a hard time letting them go. I have to mail them today...but I'm not ready. Sometimes I get a little *too* attached to my gemstones...

And these, just finished yesterday:

Between Canyons 

These are just a few of the new pieces listed on Etsy and on the Blue Piranha site. Feel free to have fun looking at all the new pretties! I'll be back next week!

Knowing When to Quit

I'ts the end of a long week, in what has thus far been a long month, in a series of long months. I've been jumping around from festival to work bench like a crazy woman since early April. And I'm really starting to feel it.

I had yesterday "off", which meant that I spent 5 hours (!!) at the studio of another metalsmith, absorbing everything she was willing to show me / share with me. I didn't plan on staying that long, but it was utterly worthwhile. I still have so much to learn and am always grateful when other choose to take the time to help me grow.

Then I went to a gallery exhibit with friends...looked at art, looked at jewelry, went to dinner, got home around 11 p.m. That was my off day. As days off go, it wasn't bad...it just wasn't relaxing.

Today I got started kind of late at the work table; my energy was really gone. I cut five more back sheets, soldered bezels to them, got them filed, cleaned up, and ready for the embellishments to be added. I'm also working on a big designer neckpiece from nearly two weeks ago, a design that's given me nothing but fits since I started it. I'm trying to get it finished and cleaned up (and the stone set!) today because I am hoping to do a photo shoot this weekend (yes, also time "off")...but that may not happen. My "work hard, play hard" lifestyle is wearing me out. Either working too hard or playing too hard is going to be death of me!

So in what really turned out to be 2.5 days of actual fabrication time, I got 22 pieces started. That includes remaking one from two weeks ago that the top embellishment just fell off (!) after I set the stone, so I had to re-do it (this does happen; it's not just me), as well as remaking three bezels that I made earlier this week, because they ended up with some funny chip in the bezel, and all were un-fix-able (I tried). So I scrapped them and started over. So really, 25 bezel pieces.

I wonder why I'm tired.  :)

Here's a quick snap of everything but the big pain-in-the-ass necklace:

When I make this many, I mark them so I know who's who. I've got tons of turquoise, some jasper, chrysocolla, and...well, maybe that's it. But I want to keep in mind what stone goes in what bezel as I'm designing the embellishments for the piece.

I sat with my sketchbook for a while and drew out some preliminary embellishment ideas, but I think I just don't have it in me to make them up and solder them today. I'm too tired, and the embellishments need a lot of concentration or I'll just get frustrated / melt something / solder something in the wrong place and have to start over. So I'm making myself take a break and the plan is to tackle these Monday morning. Apparently one cannot be a high-functioning creative diva ALL the time.  :)

I'm leaving next Wednesday for Arizona (yep, traveling again), this time for my father's memorial service, and that's been on my mind a lot this week. I'm both looking forward to and dreading it. It will be good closure but it's not going to be fun...so I'm feeling kind of stressed about that this week too. Plus it means only a two-day workweek next week...I can see why I never seem to have enough time to accomplish everything I want to do!

So that's it for this week...I'm at home this weekend but it's a busy one and before it even gets started I've got a workout to do and a grocery store visit...haven't been to the store since mid-May, nearly a month ago. It's long past time to get some real food in this house.

Happy weekend! Hopefully I can show you some new goodies next week!

Loving Life

Which I shouldn't be...loving life, I mean. Money's tight. Art festivals are a tough (even tougher) job these days. I'm working hard and can't seem to get caught up on housework, paperwork, staying in touch with loved ones and friends...and yet. I am loving life.

It's been a long journey. How many times have I said that?? Especially here on the blog. But it has...it's been more work (and yet more rewarding) than I ever imagined. A good friend told me years ago, "You have to know the rules in order to know which ones you can break" and it's so true. I really wanted to skip ahead, stick my tongue out at the rules, and be a diva from the get-go. And it wasn't going to happen. Metal Diva...what I said to my husband when my first piece of many solder joins didn't fall apart...it was a joke then, and it's still a joke now. Only less so...metalworking is getting easier.  :)

I cam home Monday from a show in Michigan which didn't meet expectations. And normally I would have a few days' pity party. Long drive (11 hours each way), tough show, low ego. And usually I'd be hurting a lot (which I am, my Fibromyalgia doesn't like travel much). But I have so many plans and so many design ideas in my head that I don't want to wallow. I'd rather work through it. So I selected a bunch of stones for my next bezel-ing blitz:

The lighting is poor - it's a quick snap from the work table. But you can see all the turquoise...especially those Roystons, and the tiny chrysocollas, and a little bit of red creek jasper too. I think there are nearly 20 turquoise stones in the mix. And I haven't even gotten started on the Larimar...but one thing at a time.

I've learned that with fabrication and stone setting, my reach far exceeds my grasp. Every time I set a new goal for show inventory, I never get it all finished. So I think I have to cut my expectations in half because there's just too much labor involved and not enough time before the next festival...only this time I've got a bit of a gap. I don't have anything on the horizon except a possible wholesale show in August...and that I'm still debating doing. But if I DO exhibit, I'm looking to wholesale one of a kind pieces. Which means having sample inventory ready and similar pieces that I can remake.

I'm not sure I'm ready - I'm really not sure I have enough stone supplies for that. It's a lot of outlay with no guarantee of income. BUT it might be possible...so I'm focusing on that instead of wallowing. And I'm full of ideas. Some may be great, some not so great...but I'm willing to try them all right now. The journey isn't easy but the work is worth it. I'm loving life.  :)

Busy Girl

Hi there...I'm still here, just not here on the blog lately. March was a bit of a crazy month and with three art shows in April, time hasn't slowed one bit. My last show this month is next weekend and I'm busily working on inventory for it. Then I get a big break in May before June heats up again. I'm kind of looking forward to May.  :)

I went to Arizona at the beginning of the month, then dashed back home to exhibit in Georgia last weekend. In the meantime, I made a bunch of one-of-a-kind pieces, and they nearly all sold. Which is WONDERFUL but I'm having a hard time keeping up!

I've been playing with a LOT of saturated color this spring:

Turquoise

more turquoise

and still more...this set (above and below) had some of the loveliest matrix:

I"m really loving the silver work on top of all these, for a couple of reasons: it's good practice for making rimless bezels (no extra sheet around the stone; which allows me to teach myself stick soldering (a very scary process for me!)), and it's also good practice for my joining two items together (I make the silver toppers separately, and then solder them to the bezels). This is one of the hardest soldering practices for me, so I'm really trying to improve at it.

The other nice thing about these is that they are a good bit less labor-intensive than my signature mosaic pieces, like this one:

labradorite

I enjoy the mosaic work, but it's time consuming. And the designs on the newer pieces are light and happy. Lots of curves and swoops, which I love. I also played with some bee-yoo-ti-ful chrysocolla stones:

Nuance necklace

And my favorite so far (I'm sorely tempted to keep them...):

Radiance Earrings

There's more, but I won't bore you with them all. But I'm really feeling good about my fabrication skills developing, and I'm itching to play with the Roystons, and that crazy bloom-y turquoise I bought in Feburary. Remember these?  Yeah....they're on my mind lately.  :)

Anyhoo, it's been a whirlwind and so many things are changing in my life right now, some good, some bad, some...undetermined at the moment. But I'm loving the new jewelry and hope you do too. 

I'll be back as soon as I can!  :)

Natural Wonders: Shattuckite

First discovered in copper mines in Bisbee, Arizona, Shattuckite is a fairly rare gem mineral. I've been told that it's a form of chrysocolla, which wouldn't surprise me, since it gets its vivid color from copper, just as chrysocolla does.

Until 2003-ish, the Shattuck Mine was the world's only supplier of Shattuckite. Recently it has been discovered in Southern Africa, but so far those are the only two known locations.

I just bought several pieces at a gem show, and can't wait to play with them:

They have a much wider color range than chrysocolla, which tends to mostly be a deep green. At first I thought these were turquoise, but they didn't look like any turquoise I'd ever seen (and you know I've seen a lot!) and then the dealer told my friend what they were and I had to get some. These are all fairly small - most of the larger pieces didn't have as much variation - they were almost all blue and black - so I chose the most widely varied ones I could.

The rest of my stash:

Gorgeous. I've got a ton of design ideas already!  :)

For reference, a bit of chrysocolla:

Gem Quality and Costs, Starring The Lovely Chrysocolla

How do you know what a gem cabochon is worth? There's no real grading scale, like there is for diamonds, but when I source cabs I look for several things.*

- Color is first and foremost. I like saturated stones and so do most of my customers. I look for consistent coloring. If the coloring is not consistent - many stones are multicolored - then consistent saturation or vibrancy of color.

- Cut, or technically, shape, is the second determinant. I like unusual stone cuts, but even if the shape is not symmetrical, the stone needs to look "balanced" to my eye. Otherwise it will likely look unbalanced when I try to set it.

- Quality. This sounds vague, but it really isn't. I define overall quality by the polish (or lack of), the regularity of the finished stone (for example, are the edges a consistent height? Is the back flat? Is the stone cut to show the best advantage of its qualities (transparency, luminescence, color)?

*Okay, it does kind of sound like a diamond grading scale. But there are no hard factors to compare the stones, just what I prefer.  :)

I'm going to use some chrysocolla examples to illustrate the points above. Chrysocolla is often confused with turquoise but its coloring tends to be more diverse and vivid, and it's often more "teal" than turquoise. In fact, much of it comes from Arizona, from copper mines. It gets its bright coloring from copper, as does turquoise.


First:

Looking at the stone, I can see that there are uneven color patches. The upper left corner, for example, has a clear patch that will show when the stone is set. (Note: the two white patches on the top of the stone are from the lighting, but the area under the left side white patch is actually part of the stone). It also has a black stripe down one side. This will likely not be noticeable when the stone is set, but that in addition to the clear patch tells me that this is a stone I would not expect to pay big money for. Also, while it has good color, it has a more mottled effect than I would normally prefer (this will become more obvious when you see the next photos). There also some dark / black patches within the stone. Again - that is very subjective, but I prefer (and will pay more) for a stone without these dark bits. This stone is a nice quality, but not superb. Also, it's an asymmetrical stone - it's oval-y, but not really a true oval. That is not a detraction either, but the more cuts on a stone (i.e. sides of a triangle, rectangle) typically cost more money than a stone with less cuts, like an oval or round. And the non-symmetrical shape will definitely figure into design deliberations.

Side note: chrysocolla by itself is often too fragile to set in jewelry, but it is cut into cabochons when it is found mixed with quartz (the clear patches you see in some of these examples are the quartz).

Next:

More cuts:  higher price. More unusual shape:  higher price. What I consider better coloring:  higher price. And can you see the slight line running through the left side of the stone, to the bottom? I don't mind that in certain stones; however, I will pay more for stones without any kind of "fault" lines in them. The other thing you can't see from the angle of the first photo is that the semi-oval stone is of uneven height...more work when I set it. This stone has very consistently even sides. More labor / skill to make that happen:  higher price.

Third:

Another triangle. Notice that the edges of this stone are all a bit cleaner than in the triangle above it. The stone in the second photo has what I would consider "softer" corners. Usually, but not always, this speaks a bit to the skill of the cutter. And of course, more skilled labor costs more. Also there is no "fault line" running through this stone. It does have a bit of a clear patch on the left side but that will likely not show when the stone is set. If it does, it will not detract from the stone (I suspect it will be barely or un-noticeable). The two in the upper left are more noticeable on camera than in person. And the coloring and "definition" of the stone - by definition I mean the detail - is much sharper here.

And finally, the piece de resistance (of course I saved the best for last)!

Asymmetrical, again. But, to my eye, more "balanced" than the stone in the first photo.This has even more sides, so a higher price for that. Its coloring is not as consistent as in the second or third photo, but it has a wider color range. That is a very subjective point; I bought both stones, so obviously whether I want more consistency or more color overall varies.  :)  But notice the the colors on this stone are much deeper and richer than on any of the others (at least, I hope that comes through on your monitor). That will also typically bump up the price.

What's also interesting about this stone, though you probably can't see much of it in the photo, is that the edges are sort of beveled. The sides don't rise straight up toward the top of the stone; they slant inward a bit. See the two white streaks on the top sides of the stone? That's caused by the lighting hitting on those beveled edges. That's also a money factor. How it will work out as a setting factor remains to be seen. I have never set a stone (yet!) with edges like this. I'm guessing they will be a bit of a challenge. And you know how I feel about those!  :)


It's also really hard to tell from photos, because any polish I try to *not* have show so that you can see the full coloring of the stone. But the last two stones have a much more finished look than the second. The first one is also more highly polished, but because of the less vivid coloring it doesn't show that as well. In most cases, I am going to look for and purchase the stones with a better polish...probably because that usually coincides with a more sophisticated cut or shape, and typically a better color saturation.

So what are they worth? The first stone was less than half the price of any of the others. No surprise there. It's smaller in addition to the other aspects I mentioned. The second stone was a little more than double the first, and the last two were more than that. Chrysocolla is very prized for its vivid coloring, and tends to bring a commensurate price. Some of these cabs cost more than other lovelies twice their size. Partly this is because of the cutting and polishing, but partly it's just because it's chrysocolla. Such are the ways of the gem world...