I bought two divine lodolite bullet shaped cabs a while ago, and I spent some time contemplating how to do them justice. I was waiting for inspiration to strike me, and it eventually did!
Lodolite is commonly known as Garden Quartz.
It is clear quartz with inclusions, which look like a landscape scene – garden or underwater garden!
I feel the organic vine-like nature of the ring complements the beautiful stone.
I’m looking forward to making another ring with my second gorgeous piece of Lodolite!
For a while now, I’ve had a design for a ring in my head. In part inspired by the power station we drive past a few times a week; and in part inspired by castles and towers, minarets and mosques, factories and smokestacks – I seem to have quite an industrial/architectural theme running through my head lately.
The stones are Peruvian Blue Chalcedony Briolettes, which I turned on their ends. Divine colour, don’t you think?
I learned how to flange chenier, which was fun! The briolettes remind me of puffs of smoke.
I have some little pear shaped free-form orange carnelians in my gemstone stash, and I think there may be another ring in this style coming along in the future! What do you think?
As I mentioned in my previous post on Flipside Circus, I was happy to donate a custom made handcrafted sterling silver and drusy agate ring for the recent Flipside Fiesta fundraising raffle.
John was the lucky winner, and he unveiled the prize for his wife Robby at Christmas time. I recently visited them both in their lovely home, and Robby chose her favourite gemstone from my collection – it wasn’t drusy after all, but I didn’t mind a bit!
This gorgeous stone is Unakite – I’ll do an in-depth post about that later. For now, it’s a natural stone, and isn’t it pretty!!!
Congratulations, John and Robby, well done on supporting such a great and worthy cause; and Robby, I hope you enjoy wearing your ring!!
My cousin commissioned me to make a set of earrings and a ring for his lovely girlfriend.
The design needed to be small, with a green stone, and a little bit unusual. We Facebook messaged back and forth, and together, we came up with a design which incorporated those concepts!
I hope Laura liked them, and what a nice partner she has!!! 🙂
The term “drusy” comes from the word “druse”, which refers to a rock surface (usually a cavity) covered with tiny individual crystals, such as are found inside geodes or in larger pockets of mineral deposits.
Drusy crystals take hundreds or even thousands of years to form. They form as molten rock begins to cool with trapped gases inside. The gases cause gaps in the rock. As ground water carrying dissolved silica is forced into a porous area of the rock for century after century, tiny crystals form on the surfaces or in cavities of the rock, forming a blanket of crystals.
These rocks are split open to reveal the crystals within. Cabochons are then cut from the surface of the rock capturing the drusy elements.
The most commonly found drusy is quartz (agate or chalcedony), but many other species can exist in this form.
Naturally colored quartz drusy is found almost exclusively in muted colors such as white, grey, tan and cream. Many quartz pieces, though, are dyed black or other vivid colors such as purple, red, green and blue, and some are coated with titanium or other metallic vapor which creates various iridescent finishes. You can read more about gemstone treatments here.
I love working with drusy, because as well as being incredibly beautiful, no piece is ever the same!
Some of the pieces shown here are available for sale in my online shop. I am currently only working with natural stones, which I am happy to custom-make into rings or pendants similar to the ones shown here if you would like one. Do contact me for a quote, won’t you!!
This pearl ring was a recent commission piece – a nice big Kasumi style pearl in a simple sterling silver setting.
Jade provided the design, and was just lovely to work with!
I learned a lot about pearls while making this ring. The mussel that grows this particular kind of pearl makes pearls with a lot of texture and variations in color. I really like that idea, as I like the “grown by mother nature” feel provided by some bumps and imperfections. A bit like all of us, really!!
