Jewels of the Blue Ridge

GOOD TASTE SHOULD NOT RUIN YOUR BUDGET,we make budget friendly jewelry,Judaica, commissioned jewelry made from reclaimed heirloom glass, china, lace, vintage textiles, paper. Pearl jewelry, gemstone jewelry, earrings, necklaces, bracelets, chuppah ornaments, baby, weddings, bar and bat mitzvah gifts, sippy spoons, commemorative, one-of-a-kind jewelry, original designs. CONTACT richtext@frontiernet.net Newer version of this site at http://manysplendouredthings.blogspot.com

STORYTELLING WITH STONES AND SILVER

Some experts say that the reasons it is so hard to market jewelry online is that buyers want to hear the story of each item, as antiques collector want to know the provenance of their purchases. As someone who tends to rely on photos to tell the story of my work I am very much aware that my marketing technique needs improvement.

Lately, I have been thinking that the successful artisan is someone who learns very early how to communicate her enthusiasm for what she does. As a former journalist, I should have no problems writing copy that makes visitors to this site reach for her credit card. Perhaps handling stones and silver as often as I do I consider that each piece I make tells its own story. But I also think that their story only really begins when they find a good home. My story is that is that I like, above all, the marvelous variety of colors and pictures found in opaque stones. Surprisingly, these stones--agate, jasper, turquoise--are far more affordable than, say, diamonds, rubies and sapphires.

I love the traces of the stone cutter's touch as much as I like the story that a glassblower imparts to each bead she makes. I love the minute record of tiny pauses, detours, joyful discovery, the moment when stone and sand give away their secrets. I love the play of colour and the amazing pictures found in jasper, agate and glass. I love the brilliance of sunstone and the ruby red roses that bloom in green zoisite. Ultimately, each glass blower and stone cutter is gardener. My role is to add my vision to their efforts. So please forgive me if I do not wax poetic about every bit of silver that leaves my bench. I trust you to hear what it says.

INSPIRATIONS

The jeweller's bench is not where it begins. It is where one gives shape to one's vision. I may see a chrysocolla pendant, Tibetan turquoise and cognac citrine arranged around fancy jasper tubular beads and be reminded of the flowers and butterflies I photographed throughout the spring and summer.
Glimmering butterfly wings, raindrops caught in a spiderweb, Fibonacci's pattern in a seed head, the glossy carapace of a june bug, the music of a creek rushing towards the river, the silvery song of the woodthrush are part of my life in West Virginia. Living in the Blue Ridge, I only have to travel across the street in order to discover marvels that stir the soul and feed the imagination. This is what I want to express in my jewelry--my delight in the treasures that surround those me in my little corner of the world. This is the harvest I want to share with you.
Mine is a microbusiness, which allows me to provide old fashioned one-on-one service. I respond promptly to e-mail and I welcome commissions. I do not charge for consultations. If you wish to have a special piece of jewelry designed for a special occasion--birthday, wedding, bar and bat mitzvah, anniversary--we can meet and discuss your preferences. Following the meeting, I will submit sketches for your approval. Once we decide to go ahead with the project, I request a down payment of half of the proposed fee. I also ask you to sign a form in which you indicate your commitment to pay for the remainder of the fee upon completion of the project. If you wish, you may bring me fragments of a favorite textile, an unusable plate or glass you and your family treasured and I will incorporate it into a chuppah--bridal canopy ornament, a pin, a necklace, earrings--the possibility are many.
I prefer to work with sterling silver and I do not use diamonds in my work. All the coral I use was collected a good fifty years ago. I do not buy new coral.
I repair Jewels of the Blue Ridge items at no cost. I charge U$ 30 per hour to repair jewelry made by someone else.
I will be updating this blog often, adding new jewelry--stay tuned for the less costly baubles--and dates of future shows.
Please contact me at richtext@frontiernet.net
or at P.O. Box 716
Shepherdstown, WV 25443

Brief Glossary of Semiprecious Stones

Amazonite is a type of feldspar found in Australia, Africa, and Russia. In the US it is found in Virginia and Colorado.

African jade--is actually grossular garnet mined in the Transvaal.

Brecccia means breach or fracture. It is healed fractures that give brec jasper its picture-like appearance .

Bronzite is aged hyperstene.

Chalcedony is microcrystalline quartz. Agate, carnelian, bloodstone, jasper and seftone all belong to the chalcedony family.

Charoite is a rare purple stone from Russia.

Chrysoprase is a type of chalcedony. Its name is Greek for "green as a leak."

Citrine is rare yellow quartz often misrepresented as topaz. Some citrine is heated amethyst. Brazil has the best citrines in the market.

Druze is a layer of crystals within a stone.

Fire agate is carnelian that has been heated. High temperature creates its lacy, agate-like pattern.

Fuschsite--green, chromium rich muscovite. It looks similar to ruby in zoisite.

Hessonite, aka cinammon stone is a tipe of grossular garnet found in Brazil, Madagascar.

Jadeite is the harder variety of real jade--the softer type is nephrite.

Jasper is a tipe of chert. Some of the most beautiful jasper in the world, such as Owyhee and Succor Creek is found in the United States.

Kyanite is a blue stone composed of andalusite and sillimanite.

Kunzite is a type of spodumene--a silicate mineral . Kunzite crustals are found in South Dakota.

Lepidolite is a lilac stone of the mica group.

Maw-sit-sit is a rare green, relatively rare Burmese gemstone mistakenly called jade.

Moukaite is a type of jasper from Australia. Its color varies from yellow, to pink, to burgundy.

Mexican jade is dyed stalagmitic calcite.

Muscovite is an apricot pink chattoyant stone . Its cat like winking quality comes from its mica content. The Moscow subway station is said to have been paneled in muscovite. It seems plausible. In Imperial Russia some decorators used malachite as we use proletarians use sheet rock.

Nephrite is another name for real jade.

Koroit is Australian opal.

Paua is abalone shell.

Prase is a non-iridescent type of green opal.

Rose de France is pale amethyst.

Peridot and chrysolite are the same green stone.

Rainbow calcite is human made.

Rhyolite is a volcanic rock.

Sardonyx is a layered stone that combines sard and onyx.

Sard is a semiprecious stone related to carnelian.

Sugilite is a purple stone somewhat similar to charoite.

Sunstone is natural and it is found in Oregon. Godstone is lab made.

Turtle shell and turritela are the same kind of jasper.

Tremolite belongs to the jade family.

Unakite is a tipe of granite containing green epidote pink feldspar.

A FEW WORDS ABOUT PEARLS.

This is an excellent article on freshwater pearls,

http://www.ganoksin.com/borisat/nenam/chinese-freshwater-pearl.htm
Not all pearls are created equal. The rarest are perfect
ly spherical, shimmering marvels that owe nothing to human interference. They occur when an irritant such as a grain of sand enters an oyster whose immediate reaction is to cover the irritant with a secretion called nacre. Eight or nine years and thousands of layers of nacre later, the pearl is finished and alas, so is the oyster.
Cultured pearls are created according to a method developed in 1883 by Japan's Kokichi Mikimoto whose dream was to make pearls affordabled to consumers in the mid-income level. The cost of today's Akoya pearls, grown in Pinctada fucada martensii oysters, in Asian and Australian seas, range from a few hundred to thousands of dollars, depending on their symmetry and the quality of their nacre orient or luster.
In the past twenty years, increased production of freshwater pearls of remarkable size, symmetry and orient, made Mikimoto's dream of pearl jewellery for the masses a reality. These are real pearls, as are all cultured pearls, but their cost is cost places them within the reach of all but a Spartan budget. I use mostly freshwater pearls in my work. Occasionally, I use Akoyas and I am open to the idea of using natural South Sea pearls of a client wishes to pay for them in advance.

CHERRY QUARTZ AND OTHER IMPOSTORS

The nomenclature of gemstones is confusing. Citrine is quartz but quartz citrine is glass. African turquoise is actually jasper. Reputable dealers make no false claims about their stock They make it clear that it clear that cherry quartz is man-made. So are opalite and rainbow calsilica. Given taht Tibet is landlocked, Tibetan coral does not come from the sea, which is a good thing. Soochow jade can be dyed soapstone, serpentine bowenite or steatite. Chalk turquoise is processed turquoise crumbs. Peruvian opal is real opal though is it opaque and displays no pleochroism--the phenomenon of different colors appearing when certain crystals are viewed from different directions.

Sandstone is man-made, but sunstone is a natural stone.

It is unlikely that Akoya pearls from China are of the same family as Mikimoto's. Faceted pearls are misnamed . Here is what a gemologist has to say on the subject,

"If it is a good pearl then the nacre would be about 0.5mm. If you faceted them, how much nacre will be left?"

AN EXCELLENT FRESHWATER PEARLS

China was one of the first to master the art of culturing. The Middle Kingdom began producing cultured pearls in the fourteenth century. In the 1960s a state-controlled industry introduced freshwater cultured pearls to the world market. Originally cultured using the wild Cristaria plicata or cockscomb mussel, initial production was of low quality baroque pearls, disparagingly known as rice crispies.

In the early 1980s, Chinese farmers abandoned the cockscomb in favor of the thicker shelled Hyriopsis cumingii or "three-cornered shell" mussel. Implantations of this new mollusk resulted in a breathtakingly superior freshwater pearl. By the early 1990s these pearls began to appear in force on the world market. Pearl culturing in China had come of age.

These new Chinese pearls are filling a niche hitherto occupied by Japanese Biwa pearls. Ironically, just as demand for fine freshwater pearls has increased, and the term "Biwa pearl" has come to connote the very finest in freshwater pearls, actual production at Lake Biwa has declined to the point of nonexistence. Pollution is the culprit! Industrialization surrounding Lake Biwa has sounded the death knell for Japanese freshwater pearls.

The Chinese are producing two types of freshwater pearls: tissue nucleated and bead nucleated. Tissue nucleation uses only a thin segment of living tissue from a donor mollusk to stimulate the development of the pearl.Bead nucleation is a relatively newer technique in China. Pearls of this type have been available only for about five years.

Tissue-nucleated pearls, which are by far the largest group produced, are mainly baroque pearls and are available in many bizarre and amazing shapes. Bead nucleation, as of this writing, has produced round pearls as large as fourteen millimeters.

ColorChinese pearls come in a variety of hues including pink, apricot (yellowish orange), peach (pinkish orange), champagne (slightly pinkish yellow), plum (reddish violet), bronze (reddish brown), and every shade in between. Unlike black pearls, these pearls can be bleached white by prolonged exposure to the sun or by soaking the pearl in a bleaching agent for several hours. Natural color Chinese freshwater pearls should be stored in a darkened environment in order to preserve the natural pastel color, since they may fade with long exposure to sunlight. Color in pearls is not a part of the quality equation. Apricot is not more beautiful than champagne. That is a question of preference and simpatico.

Orient and overtoneChinese pearls appear to have relatively opaque nacre. In smooth, relatively round pearls, the orient will exhibit itself as a slight darkening of the body color, plus perhaps a bit of pink.

Orient can best be judged if the pearl is viewed against a color that is close in hue and therefore neutralizes the body color of the pearl. Diffused daylight is the best viewing environment. In this lighting the overtone is seen in the actual reflection of the light source; the other color seen is the body color. Incandescent light can sometimes produce the opposite effect, bleaching out the color toward the center of the round pearl. In such cases, the orient may be found in the surrounding halo.

Richard Wise

Jewels of the Blue Ridge

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Works in Progress

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Pleated copper mesh cuffs

INSPIRATIONS

Brief Glossary of Semiprecious Stones

FLEX

ANALYTICS