Tucson 2017 - Red Creek Jasper

Red Creek jasper is a bit of a mystery. It's from China, not the U.S., and its makeup isn't exactly the same as other jaspers. It's a bit softer and doesn't take a high, hard shine like the American jaspers I shared in an earlier post (here). So it's a bit of a mystery. But oh, what a beautifully colorful mystery!

Though it's got "red" as part of its name, not all Red Creek jaspers are very (or even a little) red. The color range runs the gamut, from soft browns, beiges, and peach, to this lovely cranberry color mixed with olive, yellow, and charcoal gray. 

It's a gem that has enough personality to get noticed, yet pairs wonderfully with a neutral wardrobe. 

Here's an example of the softer color palette:

They all just feel like autumn to me. ;) 

Tucson 2017 - Picture Jaspers

Jaspers occur all over the world. Many of them are known for their ability to look like small landscapes; thus they're called "picture jaspers".

This large lovely is Owyhee jasper, from the Oregon-Idaho border. This is an excellent example of the blue color morph or "blue sky" of Owyhee jasper, which not all Owyhee's will possess. Many of them are soft neutral shades of brown and beige, but to me the blue contrast is what makes them standouts. Essentially this (and several other jaspers from Oregon / Idaho that are classified as Owyhee) are petrified mud. They take a very high polish and often contain stunning desert vista "scenes" on their surfaces.

I took this beautiful gem to Tucson this year, as it's been in my hoard for some time, and I wanted to find it some earring mates. I'm not a fan of "matchy" jewelry designs, but sometimes, with something as specific as this, it's nice to have a pair of earrings that complement it.

And that search led me to:

Rocky butte jasper (bottom two). Apparently the Rocky Butte claim is not far from the Owyhee claim; the similarities in color and patterns and pretty obvious. I don't mind that the earring and pendant gems are not the same; it's an overall look that I'm going for. :) And just to throw another jasper into the mix, the earrings in the photo above are actually Deer Creek jasper. Idaho and Oregon (particularly Oregon) are well known for their variety of really gorgeous picture rocks. ;)

So...the earrings I found to "go with" the big Owhyee? Here they are:

At some point this year, those are going to be made up into some gorgeous jewelry!

As a side note, most of the American jaspers are kind of a niche-y product. You won't find too much about them online, and they tend to be cut by American gem cutters, rather than sent overseas to India or China like a lot of other gem rough. Which means that you (or rather, I ) purchase them from - usually - grizzled older men who look exactly like you'd expect. Weathered, stubbly-chinned, gnarled fingers, sitting in tiny booths in small gem shows, with a selection of amazing gems that you truly have to see to believe.

One of my favorites to buy from is Gary Wiersema, of Gems of the Earth. He has no online store, no Etsy shop,  he barely has a Facebook page. But he has the most AMAZING cabs.

Here's an example:

The top gem is another Rocky Butte, but the bottom is a Deschutes (Oregon) cut by Gary. I only bought one from him last year (I only bought two last year; these are spendy beauties) but they are truly special treats. That mountain and what looks like a cliff (or river) below it? It must be my Southewestern background, but that stuff just grabs me.

Here are the cabs I purchased last year:

that top one went for a custom order, for a very special lady:

such a stunning gem. I wish I could tell you how much I love what I do. :)

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. :)

Natural Wonders: Willow Creek Jasper

I was unfamiliar with Willow Creek Jasper until recently. Found only in Idaho, it's part of a family of porcelain jaspers (including Bruneau, Carrasite, Deschutes, Hart Mountain., Morrisonite, Imperial, Succor Creek, and Mookaite, just to name a few).

Here's a particularly stellar example:

source

The moniker refer sto the way these gems take a very high-gloss finish or polish, and can be mistaken for porcelain ceramics. Willow Creek, in particular, is known for its range of soft colorings, browns, grays, greens, yellows, pinks. Sometimes it's a little *too* subtle for me. I actually don't like a lot of Willow Creek jasper...but as usual, when I do like it, I like the best (and often expensive), the unusual, the dramatic.

Here's one of my Willow Creeks:

It's hard to see the glossy shine  from this angle but you certainly can see the colors!

I tried another angle, but the shine is hard to pick up on camera.

I've been holding on to my 2012 purchases. Not for any special reason, but the colors are a bit different than what I usually use, and some gems just need to sit with me for a while before I have a plan for them. I did set one recently:

With wire embellishments that echo the patterns in the stone. This is one of the most amazing examples I've seen in person and I had to take it home. :)

This jasper is found inside Thunder Eggs. What?? Thunder Eggs, usually baseball-sized, form in layers of volcanic ash. Like a geode, but not geodes (geodes have hollows within them and often crystals), they must be cut open to (hopefully) reveal their treasures: deposits of jasper, agate, or opal, which can then be cut into cabochons.

Why Willow Creek? That I don't know. Many jaspers are named after the area where they're found...I guess it was more descriptive than "Idaho jasper".  :)

The pendant above sold almost immediately and I guess I'll keep my eyes open for some more on my next gem shopping trip!

The Best Laid Plans...

Oh positive thoughts, if only you were able to manifest so easily!

In my last post, I was SO excited to have a week in the studio. I should have known better. Just when I think I'll get a handle on things, some sort of monkey wrench gets tossed in and the whole plan falls apart.

I won't bore you with the details. I'll just say that my output last week was so much less than I'd planned or hoped for. But at least there was some output. Here's the evidence:

Crescendo necklace and earrings, turquoise

Yes, at least some of the twenty-odd bezels I made last week got all the way through the stone setting process. And I love the way they turned out. The pendant gave me fits at first, but I'm so pleased with the end result. I love the contrast between light and dark in these stones, and wanted the embellishments to reflect that. The earrings don't have room for as much embellishment, of course, but they echo the movement and upward curvings of wire on the necklace.

And then, this:

A lovely Deschutes jasper from Oregon. Deschutes is not easy to come by (nor inexpensive), since the "dig site" is no longer active. I've had this stone for a while, and decided to give it a proper setting. And I like it so much that I may have to go hunting for a few more Deschutes cabs when I'm in Tucson next year...

I don't buy a lot of round stone cuts, because I think they're sort of boring. But this was more about the patterns of the stone, rather than the shape. And of course I wanted to contrast the smoothness of the stone with some pointy asymmetrical embellishments. It's also a bigger stone - and bigger embellishments - than I normally use. But I'm thrilled with the result.

Also, the next mosaic piece is on the way...most of the mosaics are soldered on and it's probably two-thirds of the way finished. Not including making the chain...I love the handmade chains when they're finished, but I don't love the actual process of constructing them. And I'm trying to do something a little different with the connections this time...I'll show you all of it once that baby's done.  :) 

Working Through It

Last week I posted about the sudden death of my friend, Kathleen. It's still incomprehensible to me that she's gone...I keep thinking of the times we shared and the talks we had. And there's a "Friends and Family of" Facebook page that's full of photos and memories of her. I only knew her for a few years, but some of her older / closer friends have shared such wonderful remembrances and photos.

Kathleen lived a very full life, living in NYC, London, Los Angeles, Atlanta...and traveled all over the world. This last trip to Mexico was just one vacation in a long, long list.

Sometimes (okay, often) I get stuck in a rut here in the studio. I love working on jewelry designs. And working from home means that I don't have to get out of the house and interact with the rest of the world. For an introvert like me, it's great. But too much solo time can be detrimental, and for several reasons, I feel like I've pulled even more inward this year. While it's helping me create more designs, it's not necessarily best to live like a recluse most of the time.

Kathleen's death made me realize how great her reach was...so many people touched by knowing her, grieving her loss, remembering her through shared words and photos. It makes me want to reach out to all my friends and make sure I spend a little more time with them. And it reminded me of how short life can be, and that's part of what propelled me out of the grief and depression last week to pushing hard in the studio.

In addition to hearing the news about Kathleen last Sunday, my festival was rained out that day, which meant significantly fewer sales, and I got three other show rejections last week. I was a mopey girl, feeling bad about myself and my work, sad about my friend, and generally low. But toward the end of the week, I was online, perusing some other jewelers' creations, looking at the people who *didn't* get rejected from those art shows, and I thought to myself, "Well, you can be the girl who mopes about it, or you can get cracking and be the girl who can compete with them!" So...I got cracking.  :)

Here's what I did yesterday:

I bezeled 26 red creek jaspers. This is just a sampling of them...there are more...and then I soldered seven of them to the back plates and finished the decorative details on three. Whew!

You can't really see the detail work at the top, and they're all white from being in the pickle. And they still need bails. But they're 99 percent done. On to the rest of them today.


Last week was pretty much the worst week of the year so far. Which I guess means that there's nowhere to go but UP!  :)