Wonderstone Focals from the Western US

Howdy Folks! I've been working making some lovely matte finish focal beads out of material called "Wonderstone" from the Great Basin region, mostly Utah. It's NOT a picture jasper and it's not a jasper at all. It's most likely a coarse grained rhyolite that is not very silicated (low quartz levels). I'll put some inquiries out onto the rockhound and lapidary lists I'm on to try and figure out more info on it. Because it's not very silicated it doesn't take a very good polish, so I put these through a 600 grit sanding to get a satin matte finish on them and then I oil them with hand lotion to fill the pores of the stones and deepen the color.

This first batch is called "Salina Wonderstone" I'm told, because it's from near Salina, Utah. It loks a lot like NW picture jaspers but with a dark night sky....

These other Wonderstones have wonderful banding and color in them and are from various, unknown locations in the Western United States...

Thanks for letting me share and I'll be cutting more focal beads and cabs in these materials soon! Feel free to check out my DVHdesigns store on eBay or like my DVHdesigns Custom Cut Beads page on Facebook if you want to follow what I'm doing!

Last of the Jelly Opal Beads!

Thanks for the feedback! I finally cut the LAST two beads out of the jelly opal rough I got last August! They are smaller, weighing in at only 16 and 22cts each, but they measure 44x9x6mm and 48x10x7mm respectively. One has a drill hole about 1.5mm and the other is about 1.7mm. Here are some pics... I actually sold every single one of the larger beads I've listed before. The BIG one with two drill holes sold on Christmas Morning to a new customer, which was a great thing to wake up to! So these are the last of that 3/4 pound chunk and when they're gone, they're gone!

Most Hideous Jewelry at the Oscars

Ok, the ugliest thing I saw at the Oscars, that made me SCREAM every time it appeared, was the HIDEOUS necklace that Jessica Chastain's grandmother wore that was made out of 10 Brazilian Agate slabs (dyed an artificial blue color). I've been a lapidary artist full time for 20 years and make focal beads out of semi-precious stones. I know those slabs could be bought at any rock shop for $5, although I'm sure the necklace cost much more. Maybe it was "bold" but I thought it was just HIDEOUS! There she is, in an Alexander McQueen gown, with grandma Marilyn in that awful necklace. It was the most prominent thing whenever they flashed on the Best Supporting Actress nominees. I wanted to puke! What do others think?

P.S. I do think Jessica looked great, they're cute together, and it's super sweet to take your grandma to the Oscar's as your date, but one shouldn't let grandma be seen by a billion people in such a hideous necklace!

New Genuine Jet Lapidary Work, Beads & Cabs

Howdy all and Happy New Year! One of my resolutions is to be more engaged with the beading, jewelry, and lapidary forums that I'm involved in! For 2012 I'm working on being back in black, and that means doing more and more work in genuine jet. I'm the January speaker for the Bead Society of San Diego County and will be giving my lecture on the History of Jet and Jet Mourning Jewelry at the Mingei International Museum, so I'm trying to get as much new work in jet done as possible!

I lost my lease at the studio I'd been in for 3 years and had to move out the end of November. I spent much of December getting everything set up and organized in my new space (which is actually a much better space!) and am now finally getting back to work. So glad the holidays are over!

Here's a group shot of my newest work in jet. This is all made with jet from Tennessee and I really like to use the "natural" surface of the rough when possible. Jet is a form of gem grade lignite coal and most people have never even touched real coal (let alone gem grade coal!). It's very lightweight, like amber, and it's only a little bit harder than amber, but substantially tougher. Metaphysically, jet is said to help with depression, relieve grief, help one to accept things just they way they are, and support financial stability! Most jet is fossilized Monkey Puzzle tree and is around 60 MILLION years old! A true fossil fuel jewel!

and here is the polished side of the beads...

and here's some close ups...

and I think this cab will be fun for a jeweler or beader to do some creative work with...

I'll share some pics of the "all smooth and polished" pieces I'm doing with jet from Russia later. FYI, I'm also having a New Year's 20% off sale with free shipping in my DVHdesigns eBay store!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Regards,

David

93 carat Australian Jelly Opal 2 hole bead!

Opals aren't so much "difficult" to cut and polish, as much as they are "challenging". They're a softer gem and they cut easily and take a nice polish, but they are temperature and pressure sensitive. One has to really study the color and patterns before and while cutting them. In some opals the layer of fire or flash can be paper thin and if you grind or sand just a little too much, one can lose the color. Still, I find them really fun and rewarding to cut and have always found cutting them to be a pleasure, but of course I want great material to cut, and that's where the problem, and the expense comes in!

Here's the latest from the Australian jelly opal rough and this is the LAST of the large ones. There will be two small ones after this (assuming they make it through the final sandings and polish without incident, knock wood!). So this beautiful, one of a kind, gemstone jelly opal bead has a weight of 93cts and the entire piece measures 81x17mm by 10mm thick. There are TWO, parallel, 1.5mm drill holes through the bead so it could be strung with a double strand (or more) of pearls or some other beautiful beads! Lovely high polished long oval shape. The material is translucent to transparent jelly opal with a lovely bluish purple glowing flashing that runs through it like a flowing river. There is also a lovely rivulet of minty green fire which has both flashes and sparkles. Occassional small flashes of other colors as well.

There are a lot more images of this gemstone bead in the listing in my DVHdesigns eBay store. Thanks for letting me share more of my work and I hope everyone is having a great weekend. I'm still in the studio finishing up work and getting ready to move my whole studio over the next 4 days and then do a trunk show next Friday, Saturday, and Sunday! Oy...

New Sonora Sunrise focal beads!

Howdy all! Thanks for all the kind comments. I can't believe I haven't updated everyone with my new work in Sonora Sunrise! I've cut the LAST of the two super gemmy pieces of rough. These were the last beads I got out of the multiply layered piece of rough pictured on the left above..

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and I made these out of the very last pieces of the piece of rough pictured above on the right...

and I made these from the piece in the middle (which I still have an egg sized chunk of left!)...

and I did this batch of chrysocolla with hematite veins from the all chrysocolla segment at the butt end of this same piece of rough...

I've done even more but that's enough pics for now! If you'd like to see more, check out my DVHdesigns eBay store! Hope everyone is having a great Thanksgiving weekend, and I hope this Holiday Season folks will support local and independent artists, crafters, and designers.

48 carat Australian Jelly Opal!

Thanks! I just cut another one. This one a little smaller than the others and with the green fire mixed in with the blue (but not the patch of just minty green). This one is very clean and crystally. I wish the photos showed it off better.......because this doesn't really show how the blue, purple, and green dance throughout the stone. I made another attempt at making a little video of this 48 carat jelly opal and it's taken in direct sunlight and gives a little more perspective on this stone.

The auctions for the other three opals end tomorrow evening and there's a number of watchers and they've received a lot of views, so I'm hopeful to do well with them. I just finished a weekend of having an open studio as one of 100 artist in the Portland Open Studios tour and these stones got a lot of attention! Thanks for looking!