The Big Holiday Showcase – Last Show of Season

In the San Antonio Area - come see us for our last show of the 2010 Season!!

31st Annual San Antonio Christmas Showcase

Freeman Coliseum

Saturday, November 20 – Sunday, November 21

Hours: Sat – 9am-5pm & Sun – 10am-5pm

Our booth is located in the Coliseum, main floor under the alcove!

Avoid the lines and traffic at the malls; come join us for the last “BIG” show of the season!! We will have all new artisan crafted jewelry collections featuring…..

• Southwest Flair; classic and modern styles in turquoise, coral, magnesite, and onyx

• Mystic Artisan; high-end elegance in agate, jasper, pearl, dichroic glass, Swarovski crystal, and more

• Wiry Legend; funky wire techniques in links, swirls, wraps, cages, and use of other metals

• Rock Yard; old earth comes to life using fossils, minerals and raw rocks

…………and so much more in pendants, necklace sets, earrings and bracelets!

So grab your list, put on some comfy walking shoes and join the holiday shopping festivities with over 500 booths to shop from featuring some of Texas’s most talented artists!

Can't make the show, get a head start and browse our collections available for purchase at our online Timeless Designs Ruby Lane Shop!
Hint…..some items are being held exclusively for the show only and will not be listed in the shop, so mark your calendars for this weekend's show!!

Fossils Become Wired Pendants

One of the unique pendants I work with is fossils; they are so incredible and each one is a gift of nature and millions of years old from the far regions of Madagascar. These beautiful pendants have been wired and incorporated into bold, chic and striking necklace sets.

This button ammonite fossil pendant has gone a little southwest; hand wire wrapped and then mixed with mosaic turquoise rondelles and two sizes of blue turquoise rounds. (to the right)

  

 

Lovely browns and greens in a fire ammonite handcrafted and mixed up with lots of hand charmed crystals of golden topaz, light topaz, metallic green, smoky quartz, and green lampwork beads.
(to the left)







Classic yellow citrine highlights this button ammonite fossil; hand wire wrapped and mixed up with green jasper, lime lampwork beads and a hint of crystals.
(to the right)

Soft colors of the earth in a fire ammonite handcrafted and mixed with golden bronzite, Tibetan ceramic beads and more hand charmed crystals of golden and light topaz and smoky crystals.

(to the left)


For these and many other artisan crafted designs in wire, browse our Timeless Designs shop at Ruby Lane!

Oco Agate with a Twist of Amber Navy Mix

Working with Oco agates you just never know what you are going to get in the pendant slice. What makes these very unique is that they are highly polished on back and front, but the sides have been left with a slight rawness, almost a feel of the mine they come from.

Each one is a carefully crafted colorful piece from nature with the centers open showing the years of crystallization, this makes the Oco agate very different from normal agate slices.

In this new pendant I’ve hand wire wrapped it in bronze non-tarnish wire, the beauty of the pendant is captured in an array of fall colors; navy blue, white, black, rust, butterscotch, and even a hint of cream.

The necklace is crafted of amber freeform chips with a high polish, faceted rondelle crystals the color of navy or sapphire and between are little gold tone pewter round beads. With the size of the agate pendant being a little smaller, the necklace is not as heavy as many of the chunky and bold pieces I’ve been known to create.

A piece of nature that has been artisan crafted to enjoy for all time….browse our online shop at Ruby Lane to find your fossil, mineral or natural stone jewelry!

Designs for the Season in Polymer Clay

A not so new medium being used by artists in the jewelry industry is polymer clay because of its pliable, bendable and sculpting polymer compound or synthetic modeling material, thus it is not really true clay. True clay has fine particles of silicate suspended in water, whereas polymer clay is fine particles of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) suspended in plasticizer, but it can be used much like clay.

 Polymer clay is formulated from polyvinyl chloride (PVC), dyes or pigments and plasticizer to keep it soft until heat cured. It is an acrylic art material and there are many brands available in the United States. All the polymer clay brands have been individually tested and certified as non-toxic art materials. Brands vary in how hard or soft they feel at the beginning of use and the softer clays are more brittle when cured, and the firm clays are more durable after they are heat cured. The working properties vary between brands and become a designer’s personal choice. Some brands or colors within brands contain white mineral clay that makes colors opaque; others contain mica that gives it a shimmer and shine to the clay. All polymer clays are thermal set plastics, meaning they are hardened with heat and do not become soft again after curing. Before being cured in an oven, clays are thermally reactive and become hard when cool and soft when warm.

  

What makes polymer clay special is its versatility for anyone who wants to let their imagination run wild. With the dozens of colors choices and a designer can blend clays together like paints into canes to make any color palette they desire. Since the color is inherent in the particles, you can also work two or more colors together without blending them, if you prefer, for special effects such as cane marbling or stoning. The clay's pliability and ductility let you use techniques from other mediums such as glasswork, textile arts and sculpture. And polymer clay doesn't dry out, so you can sculpt and form it without worrying about a time limit.

  

In these new designs we feature polymer clay beads; the necklaces are quite lightweight and another alternative for people who don’t like the big chunky styles seen in many jewelry designs today.

Wired Double Spiral Coil Pendant

I really like the double spiral coil and depending on what mandrel it’s coiled on, you can make it just about any size to fit any project. In these two designs I’ve spiraled on a large mandrel to get a both a medium and large focal pendent.

Designed in all natural Chinese turquoise, the center a medium double coil spiral is hand wired in silver non-tarnish wire. I’ve included a few smooth polished tube silver tone pewter beads as accents.

The colors of the turquoise are so striking, when I saw this strand in Tucson I just new that it would turn into something incredible. The mix of green mixed with rust, black, brown, toffee, and a hint of blue in some stones cut in a flat disk shape carry very well with this necklace.

This one is I’ve done the same double coil spiral a little larger than the first, also created in silver non-tarnish wire, again as the focal pendant. The necklace is then made from blue magnesite barrels and lampwork beads that are toffee background with red swish marks and silver tone pewter beads.

Browse our collections of uniquely handcrafted artisan jewelry for purchase at our online Ruby Lane shop!

Idaho’s Gem Owyhee Picture Jasper

Called King of the Picture Jasper Owyhee Jasper is colorful and popular picture jasper that probably derives its name from the Owyhee River. This material has been offered under several trade names including Owyhee Jasper Agate, Owyhee Junction Jasper, Owyhee Picture Jasper, and Owyhee Picture Rock.

Owyhee Jasper is basically petrified mud. There are three jasper mines within a mile of each other, the LED, Wildhorse and Rocky Butte. The Classic Owyhee Jasper has a wide variety of patterns and shapes. The jasper is known for its bright colored scenic patterns with and without blue sky. This jasper depicts desert scenes, high mountain ranges, winding roads and meadows or even the seas.

Where does Owyhee Picture Jasper Come From?

Owyhee Picture Jasper comes from the Owyhee mountain area, situated on the Idaho-Oregon border, along US 95 just south of Homedale Idaho. The Owyhee River begins in northern Nevada and flows north close to the Oregon - Idaho border. It eventually empties into the Snake River just south of Nyssa, Oregon, about 25 miles northwest of Jordan Valley, Oregon.

The river abruptly turns east for several miles, makes several loops and then turns north again. It finally flows into the Owyhee Reservoir. This is Eastern Oregon's high desert country in Malheur County and even spills over into Humboldt County, Nevada. Many types of picture jasper, plume agate, petrified wood, rhyolite, colored agates and saginites come from all these areas.

Owyhee picture jasper is a natural wonder depicting the great beauty of the earth it was born in.

This design features the famous Idaho gem, owyhee picture jasper in smooth polished rounds; the have been drilled on the diagonal to form the overlap, making designing with these types of cuts very difficult! I’ve hung a large puffy crystal heart in a light beige and the bail is many hand charmed crystal clusters, which area also in a few places in the necklace.

 

 

  

See this and many other uniquely artisan crafted designs at our online Timeless Designs Shop!

Research material from mineralsnmore.com.

Enter Peruvian Pink Opal

Peruvian pink opal is relatively rare and is only found in the Andes Mountains near San Patricio, Peru. The pink opal derives its color from trace amounts of included organic compounds known as quinones. These opals range from opaque to translucent, and depending on how the stone is cut, the color will either be clear or show the stone’s matrix and inclusions. (Like agates, some Peruvian opals show the scenic fern-like dendritic inclusions.) Peruvian opal is also known as Andean opal.

Opal was formed many millions of years ago, when a combination of silica and water flowed into cracks and spaces in the ground. This then gradually hardened and solidified to become opal. Opals contain water, which makes them very sensitive to heat. They are soft and can be cracked or chipped easily.

Traditional Properties

Pink Peruvian Opal is a stone of love and gentleness. It brings energies of gentle love and kindness to both romantic relationships and relationships of other kinds. As with other opals, it also brings inspiration, imagination and creativity. It can help release inhibitions and brings happy dreams. It also eases the process of change.

This is an absolutely striking and very beautiful necklace; I just love the pendant it really sets off the whole piece. I started with a rare peruvian pink opal pendant that is highly polished, faceted and cut in a shape called the ax. It is really quite striking and one of my favorites. The base of the necklace is crafted of onyx cut on the diamond and then overlapped, between are several clusters of hand charmed pink faceted crystals. The whole set just says dramatic, chic, just sophisticated.

Browse our collection of artisan crafted jewelry and purchase your next piece of treasured earth!