I haven't been adding to my Blog as I should be. However, I have created a few pieces to which I am pretty proud of. I ventured into making some gemstone (fauceted gems!) pieces and I think they turned out pretty damn good!


Top stone is an amethyst, the bottom stone is a beautiful Austrailian opal doublet. I have been told that the
dark blue opals are rarer. I don't know if they really are or not, but I think this stone is one of the prettiest I have
ever seen. It flashes irridescent blues and violet. The amethyst is a 'purple to pink' color, meaning it changes in the
light to varying colors of purple. VERY pretty piece if I do say so myself!

The top stone is a pale blue topaz and the bottom is a beautiful blue and green Australian opal doublet. The opal REALLY is nice on this piece! I made each of these in two pieces so that the opals sparkle with each movement, each breath, that the wearer has. I think opals should be set in any way possible to show off their beatiful sparkles.



This is a cool looking piece; it's a
'natural' emerald w/two blue green Australian opal doublets
that are independently moving of eachother and the emerald. The two opals
are very reflective and pick up flashes of greens, blues and even yellow!

I had kind of a bad week this past week. I had been on call at work which always is tough as I am the only person supporting one product for 48 hours basically, but throw in a holiday and add another 24 hours and yea, I was pretty burned out this week. I felt a lot of pain and had some difficultly getting around. Today was finally a LITTLE better and I got done some of the stuff I needed to do (very badly!) such as fix my vacuum cleaner. Yea, I literally took it apart entirely and put it back together! LOL...Glad I have an aptitude for fixing things! Anyways, I also needed to create a piece for my friend Leanna as I am going to visit her for a couple of days this month and I wanted to do something extraordinarily nice (for me anyways). I think I may have acheived that! I also wanted to set a couple of smaller pieces because, well, not everyone likes bigger stones/pendants. I think I did pretty good on all 3 items and it's not always so easy to do 3 pieces in one night and have them each come out OK... Anyways, here they are....

Leanna's piece:

These ones that follow are the lovely, smaller pieces. The stones in each are VERY pretty irridescent blue opal doublets. I like them anyways. Hopefully, one or both of my daughters decide they want one or both. Otherwise, they go on the Etsy site. 

I sold a very pretty Boulder Opal pendant to a lady in Idaho! The stone was pretty remarkable in the light and I truly hope she likes it! I made myself a necklace out of stones that I acquired over the span of about 4 mos.. I LOVE the stones! They are filled with red fire and blues/greens and vivid purples. I wanted to make something that allowed them movement so that light would constantly change on them, with every breath and movement that I made. So this is the necklace and I have to say that pics do NOT do it any justice...the stones are gorgeous!!

And then there is the freakish story of the horse pendant! I lost this the same day I made it. I tore the house apart for 2 weeks looking for it and couldn't find it. I gave up on it. 2 days ago, I got up from the couch, walked back to it about 2 minutes later and there, where I had been sitting, was the damn horse pendant! Out of NOWHERE! LOL! I don't know where it went for that month or so but am glad to have it back!

Couple of other things I did this week...another pendant with a nice, flashy opal in it and a pair of opal earrings that I love...

Did this custom piece for a dear friend of mine. It's a large turquoise set in sterling. It's really one of the nicest things I think I have done...the photo doesn't do it justice.

I was very fortunate to sell 2 of my pieces to a very sweet friend who I actually went to school with on the south side of Chicago. Ironic that we both, unbeknownst to eachother, moved to within 20 miles of eachother so very far from where we grew up. She was always someone who I admired as she was not only very pretty, but intelligent, athletic and popular in school. I am thrilled that she was gracious enough to purchase not one, but two of my pieces. Thank you Sheila!! You brought a measure of much needed confidence to me!
I made some very cool earrings and 2 pendants tonight. Tomorrow, I am focusing on first seeing my pain doctor for our monthly get-together, then spending some time making a brooch for someone very dear to me. I have hopes she will like it enough to wear it in a horse show this upcoming weekend. I hope that my positive thoughts and the fact that it is made with much love will bring her happiness in the wearing of it and good luck each time she does. I will post pics later of all that I created this week.

As the saying goes, 'all dressed up with nowhere to go'...I have several beautiful gems that need to set and I ran out of sheet silver! LOL...So my posts will all be ones done with SCRAPS, just like these nice opal doublet earrings....These little opals are really pretty...lots of sparkle to them! They are for sale, just go to http://www.etsy.com/shop/pyrografix if you are interested in purchasing anything from me.

Very pretty stone! Again a opal doublet, dark blue with blue and a little green flash. 4.31 Carats

I was asked to make a custom piece for someone whom I know loves opals. Now I need to pick one out that matches her personality and color likes. So far, I have been on the money with the stones people would pick. I would choose the stone I think they would want, then add another couple to the list and ask the to pick the stone they want. Each person has picked the same stone I thought they would want (so far anyways!). I hope I make something good for her, she means a lot to me!

 Lovely 14.63 caret Boulder Opal. This stone is so pretty all on it's own. But it's endowed even further with beauty as it flashes an almost flourescent purple, almost making the stone glow at times. A very nice piece of jewelry!

Shot these over as the new pictures are of a higher quality and give some scale to the pieces:

Lovely Opal Doublet, approx. 5ct. Sky blue with green flash

Boulder Opal browns/reds and purple flash

This is a 'lab created' opal...like a cubic zirconia is to a diamond

BEAUTIFUL pale blue opal w red/yellow/orange/blue and green flash.



Another shot of this stone to show the colors it flashes



Another shot of blue and green opal doublet to show size and color

14.63ct Boulder Opal set in 930 silver (Argentium silver)

Boulder Opal pendant, 14.63 caratsThis is a piece that I have to say really is beautiful.
The boulder opal's pattern is lovely all on it's own, but it is enhanced further by almost flourescent purple streaks that almost make the stone glow at times. It's difficult to try to capture those purple flashes with a camera. This is a pendant that I really think came out nice!

Update

The Star Sapphire Earrings and the Blue Opal and Citrine Pendant have been sold. Thank you for the interest in these two items. We will be posting new items a little later, and will have the etsy store up and running soon as well.

Welcome to my site

This is my first post on my new site. I am hoping to use this site as a way to display and enhance my artwork, namely my jewelry. If you have any ideas, requests, or suggestions, leave me a message.

Without further ado, here is some of my recent silversmithing.

Blue Opal Pendant

Citrine and Blue Opal Pendant

Opal Pendants

Star Sapphire Earrings