Dont get me wrong, I love mother earth. I am always amazed at what nature can do. I love storms, we get a few in the desert and most of them are in with a bang of thunder and out with a lightning strike. I camp a lot out in the dunes and deserts here in Nevada and in So. Cal and even though I run a quad and off road buggy all over the surfaces I am still very respectful and I always try to clean even more than just my own trash when I leave. With that said, do I want nature in my jewelry?
My personality is a big one and I think my jewelry shows that. There are not a lot of dainty items, the colors I choose are always bold and bright and even though I am far from a girly girl I like shiny, sparkling crystal. Gemstones to me have always been muted earthy tones and subtle shapes so I never dreamed I would be buying and using gemstones and semi-precious stone in my jewelry designs. I have always love quartz and growing up in southern California and playing in the dirt with the boys, I found a lot of quartz in the ground. I still collect rocks, I find a lot of neat ones out in the local desert. I stopped in a bead shop here in Vegas, one I only go to once a year and I found these great 14X8mm Ice Flake Frosted Quartz rounds and I wanted to by all they had. I gained some perspective and only purchased 4 of them. After I used them in a pair of earrings I knew I wanted more. I went to the online bead shop I use for 90% of my items and got another string of the Frosted Quartz and I have been trying to find the muse for them ever since.
To me, quartz doesn't look like a gemstone, it is either clear or frosted and now they also dye quartz too. I found some pretty blue and purple 10mm flaked quartz discs as well. But other than that I wasn't thinking of using any other gemstones in my work, that is until I met Marie. Marie has come up with an ingenious way of making you fight to get gemstones. She live in Minnesota and has a quarry close to her home. She became obsessed with rocks and eventually made great little business out of her hobby, cutting and polishing gemstones. Now everyday Marie goes about her routine knowing there are hundreds of people sitting in cyber space waiting anxiously for her to post her daily creations on her Facebook Fan page. She has a Album she keeps adding photos of her creations to everyday and if you would like to purchase her beautiful hand cut and polished cabochons all you have to do is comment under the photo of the one you like. Easy, right? Not so! You have to be quick and catch them as they are being posted. The first person who comments "mine please" is the winner, so to speak. I purchased a blue Goldstone cab from her, my first gemstone aside from the quartz beads and I am hopelessly hooked! Now, keeping in mind what I said about gemstones, they are earth tones, pale colored rocks and I would never work with them, boy oh boy, was I ignorant or what! Marie finds the most beautiful stones of all colors and her talent just makes them more desirable. I have looked into gemstones and I was kind of right about them, most are beads I would never use in my work but they also dye them into pretty colors and others are great colors in the natural state. So now I have a couple items in my shop and I will be adding a few more. You will never see gemstones take over the Swarovski Crystal and beautiful glass beads I use everyday but there are a few of Marie's beauties in a drawer in her office with my name on them and you may see a few wire wrapped or just simply hung on a silver chain in my shop soon. Thanks to Marie I can bring you all even more variety and choices in my shop. Coming soon!
For more info on Marie and her great stones, http://www.facebook.com/SuperiorAgates!
My personality is a big one and I think my jewelry shows that. There are not a lot of dainty items, the colors I choose are always bold and bright and even though I am far from a girly girl I like shiny, sparkling crystal. Gemstones to me have always been muted earthy tones and subtle shapes so I never dreamed I would be buying and using gemstones and semi-precious stone in my jewelry designs. I have always love quartz and growing up in southern California and playing in the dirt with the boys, I found a lot of quartz in the ground. I still collect rocks, I find a lot of neat ones out in the local desert. I stopped in a bead shop here in Vegas, one I only go to once a year and I found these great 14X8mm Ice Flake Frosted Quartz rounds and I wanted to by all they had. I gained some perspective and only purchased 4 of them. After I used them in a pair of earrings I knew I wanted more. I went to the online bead shop I use for 90% of my items and got another string of the Frosted Quartz and I have been trying to find the muse for them ever since.
To me, quartz doesn't look like a gemstone, it is either clear or frosted and now they also dye quartz too. I found some pretty blue and purple 10mm flaked quartz discs as well. But other than that I wasn't thinking of using any other gemstones in my work, that is until I met Marie. Marie has come up with an ingenious way of making you fight to get gemstones. She live in Minnesota and has a quarry close to her home. She became obsessed with rocks and eventually made great little business out of her hobby, cutting and polishing gemstones. Now everyday Marie goes about her routine knowing there are hundreds of people sitting in cyber space waiting anxiously for her to post her daily creations on her Facebook Fan page. She has a Album she keeps adding photos of her creations to everyday and if you would like to purchase her beautiful hand cut and polished cabochons all you have to do is comment under the photo of the one you like. Easy, right? Not so! You have to be quick and catch them as they are being posted. The first person who comments "mine please" is the winner, so to speak. I purchased a blue Goldstone cab from her, my first gemstone aside from the quartz beads and I am hopelessly hooked! Now, keeping in mind what I said about gemstones, they are earth tones, pale colored rocks and I would never work with them, boy oh boy, was I ignorant or what! Marie finds the most beautiful stones of all colors and her talent just makes them more desirable. I have looked into gemstones and I was kind of right about them, most are beads I would never use in my work but they also dye them into pretty colors and others are great colors in the natural state. So now I have a couple items in my shop and I will be adding a few more. You will never see gemstones take over the Swarovski Crystal and beautiful glass beads I use everyday but there are a few of Marie's beauties in a drawer in her office with my name on them and you may see a few wire wrapped or just simply hung on a silver chain in my shop soon. Thanks to Marie I can bring you all even more variety and choices in my shop. Coming soon!
For more info on Marie and her great stones, http://www.facebook.com/SuperiorAgates!
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