I’ve recently lost a very big piece of my heart. The sorrow is soul crushing. Daily functions are difficult to complete. These are times I find that if I can keep busy, I may can get through it.
God never gives us more than we can handle right? It’s a fine line and I’m on the line.
I found a box with some watch parts from a time I made some steampunk jewelry. It stayed on my mind and a plan started to develop. Incorporate the parts with resin? Hmm.. interesting…
Well its been awhile since I’ve picked up a rock to give it a polish or even a cut. Last weekend I finally decided it was time to get something done. That and my friend kept berating me about not working any rock. Ha! It finally worked, all that guilt.
So anyway, I worked a crazy lace agate, reworked a botswana agate, and the chrysocolla, malachite druzy that begs to be seen. I knew that working the druzy would make me want to set it or wrap it in silver.
It was fun and boy do I need to practice. It did make me want to practice though. So I’ll be cutting up some more soon.
Here are a few pics and the finished pendant.
Thanks for stopping by, have a wonderful 3 day weekend! 😉
In San Juan Bautista, CA. You need to get out and see what you can find this weekend in the little town of SJB. Lots of handmade crafts and beautiful art. Who knows you may even see some pretty nice wraps that have been hiding out.
Well I suppose its time I get back to work and get a few things cut or wrapped or both. These 2 wraps are my latest.
My original twisted pendant is one I wear almost daily and it still gets quite a few compliments. I just had to try to make more after that one. It wasn’t easy either.
The malachite drusy, and chrysocholla drusy in the new twisted pendant is from Lima peru. I love this stone and it has been hard to find. So when I do find it I have to buy as much as possible. The cutting of it is pretty tricky tho. I just hate to lose any color or drusy crystal. But I can’t wrap a big a chunk of rock nor do I want it to just sit on a shelf and get dusty. This rock just begs to be cut and wrapped.
The next pendant has a focal skull magnasite bead. I bought a few skulls at a rock shop in Alburquerque NM last summer. Since it was a nice turquoise color, I had to add a little coral and a Pecos River diamond we found in NM too. The garnet was just a lil more color and I like for these twisty pendants to have as much color as possible. This pendant is just totally southwest inspiration.
I finished a pendant that is a twist of stones and silver wire. I wanted it to have stones on all sides and no matter which way it hangs it would have something pretty. I had a piece of the Chrysocolla/Malachite Drusy from Peru and I wanted it to be the focal. I soldered a couple of pieces of 18 gauge silver wire to make it look like a dragon finger, or so it does to me anyway. Then I started weaving from it. The piece has 3 tourmalines, 2 garnets, and a spinel along with the drusy cab. Here is the pic for it and a lil video.
I had an idea for another but it will have to wait since my life has been invaded by a couple of lil gremlins.
They are so much fun, but just like kids they take up alot of time.
Thanks for coming by!
So I’ve been wrapping a couple of pendants for the past couple of weeks and I have been wanting to make something in line with an amulet. Something different. So with a little weaving and then a little more weaving I have come up with these new two. The first has 2 tourmalines and a Mexican fire opal, the second has a faceted red garnet and blue green piece of apatite.
I am once again addicted to wrapping. Seems like I can’t stop for awhile then I take a break then back to being addicted. Crazy stuff.
Well thanks for stopping by! Hope you get to enjoy the the three day weekend. I know I am. 🙂
While looking thru some videos on youtube, I came across a really interesting one about taking a quarter and making a ring out of it. Well! I had never heard of this, and I just couldn’t stop looking for other videos or links to read. There are actually 2 ways to do this. You can make the ring to where the writing on the coin shows on both the inside and outside of the ring, or you can make it to where only the inside will show the writing and outside will be a beautiful shiny band of whatever metal your coin is made of. I tried to make one out of a new penny but its pretty sad that even a penny isn’t really copper anymore isn’t it? Made for a pretty ugly ring. So thankfully a couple of really good enablers gave me a couple of quarters that are actually made of silver. Anything older than 1964 works great. I drilled a small hole in the middle of the coin, then used a jewelers saw to cut out the middle. Then I put the donut looking piece put it on a ring mandrel and started to pound on it with a rubber hammer. You just keep hitting it down the mandrel until it won’t go anymore, by then its pretty flat against the mandrel. Just make sure you hit a couple times then turn the mandrel a little then hit some more. Then you take it off the mandrel, I annealed it to soften it, put it back on the mandrel, the other side up and hit it some more to take the cone shape off and finish it with a little polish. You can use a little oxidizer to make the writing really show. With practice you can make them any size you like. It was fun and there are so many pretty coins out there!
This is my favorite link about the coins, the pictures at the bottom of all the different coins is what hooked me.
I think that since its a pdf it won’t show as a link so you have to copy the whole link and put it in a browser. But its really worth the read.
Here’s a couple of pics of my attempt and I think I’ll be making more of these. I like the thought of a couple having rings of each others birth year. But then you would have to be born 1964 or before, to get the really good silver.
Well thanks for stopping by and I hope you get to try and make a few rings for yourself. Let me know if do or if you find any other cool jewelry making ideas.
Well, no holiday weekend, and rain. No rock fun, other than finishing a couple of wraps. I wrapped a couple of morrisonite cabs that I polished little while back. Here they are.
The druzy cabs are awesome. So wrapped in silver they are even prettier. The blues are bright and the crystals very clear. This is a really nice stone to work with. I can’t wait to cut some more. I’m hooked is all I can say. I wore one of these pendants to work and let me just say, it was an attention getter. I love it when people just can’t help but comment on a pendant I’ve made, but all I heard was, love that stone.. yeah, (me too) .. lol. I suppose since I’ve worn it I’ve claimed it.. 🙂
So I cut the Chrysocolla side of the rock from the prior post. It was a little tough, being that I didn’t want to cut it wrong or lose any of the druzy. I then cabbed it and was really happy with the outcome. I also cabbed a piece Morrisonite that takes a shine like glass with very little effort. Love this stuff. Here’s a few clickable pics.
Raqyz's Rocks 