Posted on Leave a comment

Wyoming Jade

November is here and I’m starting to ramp up for the holiday season which means building up my inventory in the shop. I’ve been using some beautiful Wyoming sourced jade. In the center of the state there is a nephrite jade deposit and the colors range from an apple green to black with all shades of green in between. One of the unique specimans to Wyoming is the “snowflake” green which has little white crystals mixed into the green. The rock hounds find it in the center of the state, in the sagebrush desert between Lander and Casper; it is usually above ground so they walk all over with their eyes glued to the ground looking for the rocks and hoping for the big million dollar boulder. A lot of people are unaware that gemstone quality jade is found in Wyoming.

I bought some Wyoming jade from a local guy this past summer and have begun using it in my jewelry. And since jade is the toughest gemstone available, it makes for a great jewelry stone and can be worn with confidence in rings.

(This is my husband looking over the rough although we bought all cut stones. We hope to learn the art of lapidary someday.)

Some of the stones show a whole different color when they are held up to a light, for example the pendant below shows a mossy medium green when held up to a light and is a forest green when held against my hand.

The pendants above show the variety of greens found in Wyoming jade, from an apple green to a dark forest green and even a grey-green.

I am super excited to have a localy sourced gemstone available for everyone and will be offerening more designs as quickly as I can get them made and uploaded to the website.

Posted on Leave a comment

Wheeee, it’s a new year! Happy 2014!

Written January 6, 2014

Happy 2014, the number 14 didn’t have much significance to me but I heard somebody say that it is doubly lucky because it is the number 7 x 2. Also, my husband said it would be a great year to hike a “14er”, one of the peaks in Colorado that is over 14,000 ft, we’ll see if we have the chance to make it down there.

Returning to work after the holiday chaos is always interesting, it’s quiet and a there is a lot of paperwork to do. I’m going to be continuing my gemology courses online and going to the Tucson Gem Show in February for further education and gemstone/bead shopping. I’m working towards becoming a GIA (Gemological Institute of America) certified Graduate Gemologist.

Hopefully I will have time to experiment with the plethora of designs that are in my head during these quieter months.

Happy New Year.

Posted on Leave a comment

New Gemstone Earrings

Written October 24, 2013

I recently purchased a pile of beautiful gemstones. Last week I hosted a Ladies Night at my store and revealed dozens of new earrings. Each pair is different and the gems are transparent and sparkly, crystaly and colorful. I will post a few on this site but in the meantime here is a quick photo:

Pictured here is a mix of: rose quartz, amethyst, turquoise, amber, citrine, flourite, garnet, aquamarine, jade and peridot. All on handmade silver earring wires.