Palette of Gems II

Working with new material is like going on a first date. Getting to know the stone, seeing its beauty, revealing new qualities by the minute...ah, falling in love. It gets serious, you're thinking you need to put a ring on that stone.

Waiting on a shipment of jewelry supplies can be frustrating when all you want to do is create more jewelry! What to do? Make more stones. Second only to the excitement of setting some of the stones from the last batch was the anticipation of getting into more of the rough stuff we got recently. Most of the dark swirls in the pieces above are the sparkling swirls of marcasite through the plumey goodness of the agate. Things that sparkle naturally, like druzy, make me weak in the knees. Marcasite is metallic so the plumes look like metal in the stone and the tiny bits look like glitter suspended in the agate. Yes, the love affair continues.