New Supplies: Shark Teeth, Spirit Amethyst, Azurite, and more

Yesterday I went to the Nederland Rock Gem and Mineral shop and bought some new pieces
Picked up a couple beautiful Spirit Amethysts, and I already made a pendant out of one of them, this evening. Wrapped it in Sterling Silver and put it on a Sterling Silver plated Curb Chain. I took a photo differently than I have before, with a Stilibite Cluster for the background, and I like how it came out. I may do this more in the future.

I still have another Purple Spirit Amethyst to work with, and I also picked up one that is a bright yellow color due to the presence of iron. It is really pretty and opalescent.

Also picked up a couple of Shark teeth from 15 million years ago. They are about an inch and a half long. Last night I made a pendant out of one, with twisted Sterling Silver wire, and it already sold to someone who seemed to really like it... his email address included the Ancient Mariner in it, and I remember reading that epic poem with my dad as a kid. He lives in Maine. I It sold about an hour ago, and I immediately packaged it up to go out tomorrow morning. I still have one other tooth to wrap.




Picked up 4 pieces I may try to use as Gem Tree / Tree of Life sculpture bases : a big piece of Green Calcite, a sliced purple Agate coaster, a piece of Lepidolite, and a large piece of gorgeous Labradorite (although i might have a hard time parting with that one!) I also finally received today, way late, a strand of Labradorite chip beads that I bought on ebay a long time ago. I might use those to make a Gem Tree on that Labradorite piece, in conjunction with some faceted tear drop shaped Labradorites I picked up at a Denver Gem and Jewelry show.

Also picked up a couple sparkly pieces of Azurite / Malachite to make into pendants. Found a couple of really nice pieces.

While I was there, I asked the lady working there for items out of the case twice. She seemed very nice. She was very conspicuous about finding a spot in a draw for a piece of Amazonite, mined in Colorado, and when i asked her for access to the Spirit Amethysts, she placed it on the counter in my view. I took the bait. It is a rich turquoise color and a very nice size and shape for wrapping, with even a termination on one end. I'm pretty sure she was trying to get me to buy it and she gave me a good deal on it.

Finally, I picked up a Citrine point with some Chevrons and other little points around the main point.

Today, I went to meet someone who came all the way from Parker, over an hour away, to meet with me about making some earrings out of Elk Teeth. I met up with him in Boulder, at a Mexican restaurant, which was easy to give directions to. I gave him the best directions ever! Anyhow, at the appointed time, he was there finishing up having lunch there, which he enjoyed. I used to live in that neighborhood and ate there occasionally. Good stuff. He was wearing a Harley Sturgis shirt though. I mentioned not having seen his bike outside -- He was supposed to have rode his motorcycle there but the high winds scared him off. I agreed - it was brutal out there. There is even right now a wildfire in Boulder that caused the evacuation of 1000 homes complicated by the wind. I sat and chatted with him about what he wanted. He has these small Elk Calf teeth that he grabbed off a roadkill while with a lady friend, and he wanted me to make them into earrings for her. I wasn't sure what he wanted at first, but after some discussion, we agreed that I would make medium sized hoop earrings out of twisted Sterling Silver wire, on Surgical Steel ear hooks, with the Elk Teeth and some faceted Amethyst Briolette beads hanging inside, a big assymmetrically. He had drawings and everything. He seemed shocked when I quoted him $18 (he was expecting at least $40) . I won't make much after cost, but then again, he wants to see what I come up with and maybe have me make a matching necklace. He had a little tooth collection - he used to hunt and also some that he found.

I also had someone contact me yesterday about making a necklace for his friend out of some faceted Moldavites. He wanted to meet up today but he has a cold and wasn't feeling up to it, so he may either mail them to me, or we might meet up next week. (Actually I just checked my email and he just wrote that he did send them in the mail today).

And, I hit up the craft store today, picked up a couple funky chains on clearance, some black hemp, ribbon, and some pin backings because i'd like to try making a couple of brooches. Made myself put back a bead organizer that even with 40% off woulda ran me $9. Oh well. Sometimes you just gotta draw the line. ;)

I must be nuts

..... because I took on an Alchemy custom request to make matching hemp bracelets for a girl from Belgium (its already taken up several hours, and i'm only going to make about $12 on it in the end):

"please, only post a bid when you have toroughly read my request, to avoid wasting both our times, thanks :)

Reposting this, as I am still looking for it, and I guess because of the christmas commotion, it got a bit lost.. :

a set of bracelets!
there would be one for me and one for my boyfriend.. something like friendship bracelets.

what I was thinking of is something with maybe black (perhaps hemp?) cord, and with black beads and such, may also be some silver in, we both like dark things, we like skulls, butterflies, spikes, question marks, and filigree things.. also, I would like both to have (preferably black) beads with our initials (in silver preferably, or vice versa: silver beads with black letters) and a heart in between (can be black or silver heart) and maybe a few other beads in black and/or silver.

I'd love to hear about possibilities and such :)

this would be for valentine, so you'd have quite the time to get them made ;)

(postage would be for belgium!) "

her ideal price was $5. Um, no. But i was bored so i quoted her $15, which i immediately changed to $18 plus $7 shipping and handling.
Immediately she was on me asking why I changed my bid (it was because i added a couple of exmpensive beads to the quote) and why so much for shipping (it will cost about $5.40, plus cost of mailer, plus for international shipping i have to go to the post office and fill out forms)
So after a few false starts , a bunch of suggestions, i finally realized I was going to have to make all her beads for her out of polymer clay, except some silver accent beads (plus i have to buy some black hemp - thought i had it but i don't)

I spent a big portion of the day making polymer clay beads... Well, a lot of it i spent making beads to make a different project, because i made her a rough draft black skull and while i was waiting for her to ok the concept, i started making these little white skulls, with black in the eye sockets and nose, very realistic although the photo doesn't really show it. I put little roses on the sides, and i am going to make them into earrings, maybe with some white lace tulle and/or ribbon, plus maybe some Garnets. Sort of a Lost love , corpse bride, rock and roll , gothic , theme... Not my usual thing but that is why i love the Alchemy section -- i come up with ideas and challenges i might not otherwise conceive of. It's sort of like being an art college student all over again. They were coming out great.... except i kept holding them too hard and finding that i had squeezed the skull out of shape by the end, and then ruining the detail work when i tried to fix it. The first one came out ok pretty quickly but then the second one, i must have remade at least a dozen times. Finally I took a break and a step back, came back to it later, and was finally able to break the cycle!

The black beads i made for her, also a crappy photo. I hope she likes them. I haven't baked them yet.

Today i sold my Abalone Quartz Kyanite Lepidolite pendant to a girl from Ebay who also recently won an auction for a really nice piece of Kyanite made into a pendant, too. These pieces were both ones I liked a lot, and she is very sweet and complimentary. I'm sending her a few little nice extras in the package, like a free Floating Pearl single strand necklace with a Bali Silver toggle clasp, a Ghirardelli Peppermint Bark Chocolate, and a couple other litttle things, plus i gave her a really nice Figaro chain and combined her shipping. The Kyanite is cool because it is two blades together which i have never crossed paths with before. The other piece I really like because it started off as a square piece and then all of a sudden, i just sort of scrapped what i was doing and made it into what it is now, and it's unlike anything I've made before.

Someone found some of my pieces on boulder craigslist and wants to meet me about possibly making some earrings out of Elk Teeth. He's going to ride his motorcycle all the way from Parker in the cold to meet with me about it on Wednesday. This should be interesting... I think he may also be interested in my Green Amethyst / Praisolite piece, since he asked if i still had it... I'm waiting for a reply to a clarifying email...

Well, the baby is awake now and i have to feed him and get to bed. Gotta work tomorrow...