More Progress In The Studio!

I got to work in my studio all day this past Thursday and made some headway on a few pieces. Here is the coral pendant in progress. All of the stone setting components have been soldered in place. I have a silver bezel for the main cabochon and a 14 karat bezel for a fossil coral. There are two 14 karat prongs to hold another fossil coral. The excess silver around the pendant has since been cut and filed, and I just need to finish the bail before I can start setting the coral.

Above are some more of the pieces I had time to assemble. The first is a simple wire ring with two large prongs to hold a fossil embedded with quartz crystals. Mike and I found this fossil on our dig last week. The second ring is for a green ocean jasper. It has granules of silver soldered to one side of the bezel where the shank begins. The last ring will hold a bullet-shaped, fluorite tiffany opal. The bezel has a silver round wire lining and the shank is formed from square wire. Once the pieces are finished and the stones are set, more pictures will be posted.

Mother's Day At The Gem Show

So lucky am I to have a Mother who loves what I do. For Mother's day, my Mom wanted to join my sister, boyfriend and I on our trip to the gem show that was in town this weekend. They are all good company when picking out stones for upcoming projects. We spent the day browsing cabochons and buying way too much! We found some incredible stones and the prices were pretty good too!

Above are the ocean jasper cabochons that we picked. I have made a few pieces from ocean jasper in the past, and it seems that people always notice it. So I thought I would stock up. I will be set for a long long time!



The stones above are some of the more unique specimins we found. Wood agate opal, fossilized coral, portrait jasper are just a few of the pieces shown. I will be very busy with these, and can't wait to get in my studio to start working on new jewelry.



This last image is a beautiful blue labordorite that I bought for my Grandma. She has been hinting for a piece of jewelry set with labordorite for a little while, and I thought that this stone was absolutley perfect for her. Her birthday is in September, so maybe I'll have a finished piece for her to open up!