Stranded by Design

From my private collection, this beautiful ocean jasper from Madagascar is set in a partial sterling bezel.  The crystaline drusy edge is held with 2 prongs so the crystals are visible.  The hand textured sterling hangs from a 'crescent roll' sterling bail.   A vibrant red Mozambique garnet accents the reds and other colors in the stone.

Ocean Jasper is only found in one place in Madagascar and has become more scarce.  The drusy on the edge is very desirable and adds beautiful texture to the piece.

A custom pendant I made with a center focal stone of purple charoite. It appears to be blooming out of a top layer of highly textured and oxidized sterling silver accented with sterling balls with an abstractly shaped back plate.   A rolled bail suspends it on a sterling chain interspersed with segments of tourmaline beads and Bali silver spacers. 

Charoite is a beautiful stone found in Siberia.  The pearly lustre and striations of color give a wonderful visual texture.

A custom request for a very simple  Larimar pendant in sterling silver.  Larimar is a rare blue variety of Pectolite, found only in the Caribbean country of the Dominican Republic.  First discovered in 1916, it was ignored until some Peace Corps volunteers noticed it on a beach in the '70's.  It comes from one mine although it if often washed down to the sea.  The distinctive blue with white mottling is due to it's volcanic origin. and the color variations mimic the beautiful Caribbean blue.

The pendant features a textured edge and 3 sterling balls.  A stone this beautiful doesn't need much embellishment.

One of my favorite custom pieces!  I hated to let this go but since it was for a good friend, I know it would have a happy home.

Agate comes in so many different colors and patterns and the rich crimson red is so eye catching. It reminded me of a heart so I completed the other half by hand texturing the silver back plate.  Contrasting texture was created with tiny wires and then oxidized to stand out like little spidery veins.   A heavy walled bezel surrounds the heart like a moat and is joined together with a double balled rivet. The edges were hammer textured to give even more contrast.  All the elements combined to make a very inviting tactile experience.  The unique shape of the agate inspired the heart theme - it was so much fun to make.

Channel your inner Elsa from the movie "Frozen".  I couldn't help thinking of it when I saw this.  The natrolite center stone was hand cut and hand carried all the way from Moscow, as it is only found in the Kola Penninsula in Russia.  It looks like ice!  My friend Sergei sold it to me and have only a few pieces.  I made this as a custom piece and donated it to be auctioned off by clearwaterinitiative.org, a non-profit that provided clean water to northern Ugandan villages.

Keeping with the water theme, I added some faceted Iolite (known as the water sapphire) and a real sapphire as accents.  A round lapis cabochon (from Tadjikistan) sits on top of the sterling silver bezel that I hammer textured with a water silk finish.  Gold accents the bail and curved wire on top.  For a bit of whimsy and a salute to the good work of CWI, I added a tiny silver jerry can with a iolite dangle on the silver linked chain.  I left the back open so light could pass through and highlight the natrolite.

A custom order made to be worn with the dress in the background.  It was a dressy affair and the dress had such a cascade of colors it made me think of a waterfall.  I hand wired small faceted gemstone rondelles to tiny gold chains that I added to a curved gold filled square wire tubes.  At the end of each I wired small amethyst briolettes and added a larger faceted amethyst rondelle to the top.  The gemstones included carnealian, amethyst, labradorite, tourmalines, and rubies.

The effect was stunning and it coordinated beautifully with the dress.  A fun project.

A friend picked out this beautiful amethyst sage cabochon when I was visiting her in NYC.   I added a small amethyst on the bottom triangular dangle and attached them with a sterling silver hinge to give it some movement.  While I originally to oxidize it to a smokey matte finish, I stopped the process when golds and blues and greens appeared because these colors made the colors in the stone 'pop'.   

Amethyst Sage is an agate with purple and grey colorings and dendritic "branch" striations.  It's soft colors make a lovely pendant, especially if you like purple.  

Looking like a purple jelly bean, this custom pendant was made with one of my favorite, very rare stones.  It is East Java Purple Chalcedony, which cannot be mined any longer because they paved over the area.  It typically has a lot of matrix and swirling blues which give it some interesting textural diversity.  I created a very high polish to the backplate so that the gorgeous translucent purple would shine through.  A small blue topaz was added for accent to the top underneath a squiggly silver wire bail.

Another one that was hard to give up.

I love the urban industrial chic vibe these earrings have.  Brass rivets, all hand set, flow down the textured sterling strip. I created the surface texture with tiny bits of wire and then oxidized it to bring out the contrast.   I then applied a light wax to seal it.  Each earring hangs on a hand made extra long sterling ear wire.  They are light weight and sleekly modern.  These are my personal pair that I wear a lot and each one I make has slight variations due to the hand set rivets.

The earrings are about 1 1/2 inches long but I can shorten or lengthen them upon request.  They can be found for sale on my Etsy site: http://etsy.me/1JWJGFV

These 2 Lapis Lazuli cabachons were begging to be put in a contemporary earring design.  Using a heavy gauge wire I made these  s-curved earrings and attached them to a ring on the my hand made ear wires so they could swing with some gentle movement.  Simple but stylish with anything needing an accent in blue.  This works well with any stone of this size.  

Alternatively, I can shorten the curve to make a shorter length.

When my friend and Lapidarist Extrodinaire, John Heusler, discovered this version of agate and named it after his daughter Jessica, I knew I wanted a piece for my own namesake daughter.  I designed this for her birthday with one of the pieces I picked out from John's collection.

Because the Jessite has so many colors running through it, I decided to keep it simple and add design elements to the bail.  Sitting in a simple sterling bezel, it hangs from a textured bail layered with a plain sterling curvy strip.  Three stones are set on the bail with colors pulled from the Jessite.  The top stone is a ruby star cabachon, the middle is a rounded peridot and the bottom is a small white opal.

The daughter scores again!

A custom job for my daughter but she didn't like it so I kept it. Now that I am wearing it, she's rethinking her original attitude.  Hmmph!

Lake County Jasper has lovely patterns and I made it on an irregularly shaped sterling silver backplate (thus the daughter's dislike of asymmetrical proportions) and added design elements to mimic the dots and poppy-like coloring in the stone.  I added patina because I really hate to have to polish and this gives it a nice oxidized finish. It also brings out the stamped markings and draws your eyed down and around the bottom of the stone.

A little Asian influence went into these earrings.   The lustrous creamy white stick pearls are like arches over the shiny hammered sterling silver circles.  Petite keshi pearls hang from the center of the rings.

There is a lot of movement with these earrings and they go with everything.  Pearls are classy and the stick shape makes them more modern and less formal than their rounder cousins.

These can be found for sale on my Etsy shop: http://etsy.me/1FiNX6N

Living in the Pacific NW I am surrounded by beautiful mountains.  To honor the anniversary of the eruption of Mt. St. Helen's, I have used some of the glass that was formed from the blast.  Through a special process it has been colored and  formed into beautiful translucent cabochons.  These hang from ribbon-like bands of silver.  The ribbons of sterling have been textured and oxidized to a smokey matte finish and they are pierced by stems holding the Mt. St. Helen's glass .  

It's a modern, abstract look... simple but elegant.  Fun and sophisticated.

You can find these listed for on my Etsy site (unless they have been sold !)   http://etsy.me/1KbsMDu

I call these my Gossamer Dreams earrings.  Fluid and flexible, they create a dreamy mix of fairy colors.

Creamy white chalcedony onion briolettes anchor a flexible core covered in freshwater pearls, labradorite teardrops, and delicate multi-colored crystal rondelles including clear quartz, tanzanite, peridot, citrine, amethyst and aquamarine. All faceted and carefully hand-wired on 14K gold wires.  

They can be found for sale on my Etsy store: http://etsy.me/1DpJevf

Like my carnelian cluster earrings,these are made with Hill Tribe silver pillow beads and a cluster of lovely faceted tourmaline gemstones hanging below.  Tourmalines are some of my favorite stones for the myriad of gorgeous jewel tone colors found in them.

The silver pillows are basic to this design but any gemstone could be used in place of the tourmalines for endless possibilities.

Hill Tribe silver is known for it's beautiful workmanship and purity greater than sterling. Hand made by generations of silversmiths in Thailand using traditional tribal methods. These silver pillow beads top silver chains containing a delicate cluster of hand wired carnelian, pearls, iolite, and rutilated quartz . Lots of movement and soft jewel tone colors.

These are some of my personal favorites.

You can find these for sale on my Etsy shop: http://etsy.me/1OMVETo

Iolite is called the water sapphire and holding these up to the light you can see the watery blue glow from them.  Very delicate sterling squares are accented with small iolite beads and anchored by bigger slices of iolite all hand wired with sterling.  There is graceful and shimmery blue movement when you wear them. 

These can be found for sale on my Etsy shop: http://etsy.me/1bzAYlM

This is a plume agate, called so because it appears to have ornate plumes and moss suspended in the translucent background.  It reminds me of a fantastical coral reef.  Soft greens and hints of lavender and blue emerge so I used a celery green chalcedony cabochon paired with a fine sparkly blue aquamarine underneath a wave of hammered sterling wire.  I cut a vintage Thai handmade textured earring into the bail because I really liked the textured pattern.

See this on my Etsy site for sale.  https://www.etsy.com/your/shops/BlueFishBeads/tools/listings/view:table/231875852

This is a very eclectic collection hanging off a hammered sterling ring.  I hand formed the ring and riveted it together with silver balls on either side.   Tiny brass  balls accent the silver stems.  This is a statement necklace that makes a big statement.  

Hanging off the ring are from left to right:                                                                      Beautiful round green gem chrysocolla,  rare Ocean Jasper with a crystal drusy edge set with a sterling silver partial bezel and sterling balls,  a crystal of teal blue apatite,  a smokey pearl hand riveted to a texture sterling disc, rare vintage angel skin coral topping a moonstone cabochon.

Each element was hand made and textured by me and sanded to a silky smoothness that just invites you to explore each piece.  It is sure to be an eye catcher when you wear it with so many interesting elements suspended from the thick sterling ring.

 This is currently for sale on my Etsy shop:  http://etsy.me/1BlGE93

Beautiful rare emerald green agate Ocean Jasper with peach orbits.  Rare because material like this is no longer being mined from the one place in Madagascar it is found.  It's old stock and prized for the visual texture.

This large stone is set in sterling siver that has been hand textured and oxidized to a smokey matte finish.  Brsss rivets dot the backplate just like the peach orbits in the stone.  A wall of flat silver wire protects the stone and adds dimension.

A closeup to show how delicious this looks up close.