Taste of Green Agate Slice

Agates are another versatile stone; the colors and matrix that they produce can be brilliant, delicate or bold. This Brazilian agate really caught my eye in the bold shades of green; medium to dark green with hints of golden yellow along some of the edges. It is highly polished on both sides with the edges left with a slightly rough feeling.

It has been hand wire wrapped in bright gold non-tarnish wire and is the center piece of this necklace. The necklace is artisan crafted with mosaic turquoise, toffee colored ceramic barrel beads, checkerboard faceted light golden topaz crystal rounds and scattering of antique gold pewter daisy spacers.

Just right for the picking of jewelry in March!

This and many other wire creations are available to purchase at our online Ruby Lane shop!

Boldly Artisan Crafted

This set features the lovely stone African Turquoise; though it is not really a turquoise it is actually natural occurring jasper found in Africa. Its name is really a trade name because of the light blueish-green color with an unusually dark or black matrix. Jasper’s name is derived from the Greek word meaning ‘spotted stone’. Jasper can contain many different minerals, giving it a wide range of colors and appearances, just like the African turquoise.

 






Fresh from the studio, this new design features five big barrel stones in African turquoise. I’ve accented them with lampwork rondelles in a black with swishes of cream, large silver pewter etched canister style beads. The ends have been finished with carved out onyx stones and a large hook clasp.


Browse our shop for unusual and unique artisan crafted jewelry!

The Old & New Jasper

One of Mother Nature’s most unique stones is Jasper. It is a versatile and very decorative stone haling from the Quartz family and most notable known for its interesting patterns. Jasper is often named either for its pattern or for the location of origin. Since it comes in so many different varieties, there are slues of different names, some named for the same stone, as in this case with Red Creek Jasper.

A side note, jasper was one of the 12 gems set into the foundations of the city walls of Jerusalem, and is considered a highly protective stone by many of today’s crystal healers.

Though not really an old or new find, I came across some of this Red Creek Jasper (or Rainbow Picasso Jasper as it is also known) in pendant form. The most incredible beauty about this stone is the gorgeous colorful scenic landscape patterns it produces in hues ranging from soft grays to blues, beige mustards to yellows, dusty pinks to almost true reds and a few shades of green and rust marbled together.

The real beauty of these pendants is shown against the flair of faceted crystals, cultured freshwater pearls, wild horse magnesite, cloisonné and lampwork beads, and different metals; just to name a few of the pairings I’ve done with these new designs. Each pendant is stunningly cut and has a slight matte finish.

These designs are very popular and you can see additional pictures of them in our Ruby Lane shop!

Chunky Southwest Flavor

From my trip to Tucson one of the trends (and researching the net) is that chunky jewelry is coming back into style…and it doesn’t matter if it’s bold or soft designs the chunkier the better.

This design is in a Southwest flavor in Turquoise (stabilized and treated), Swarovski Turquoise crystals, faceted golden jade, lampwork beads in shades of rust, turquoise and cream against a golden yellow background, and copper accents. The earrings are feature lampwork beads with clusters of charmed swarovski turquoise crystals.

A really sweet, sassy design to complement any dressy or casual attire!

This is just one of many different designs from our Southwest Flair collection; browse our online shop to see available designs in all our collections!

Tucson Trip Review – Day 2

As a reminder our disclosure/disclaimer: As a reviewer of the products, shows or vendors attended in Tucson is solely that of our experiences and opinions. We were in no way compensated or paid to review or provide feedback, comment or opinions for the Tucson shows we attended. With that out of the way, here’s our review of our recent Tucson trip.

Day 2 started out started out a little warmer, so we headed over to Tucson Electric Park Gem & Mineral Show. What a day, filled with digging through boxes, tents, bins & barrels, a lots of fossils, minerals, beads, jewelry, and much more! The mix of vendors at this show is unlike any other; vendors from all over the US and the globe. Our highlights included finds at Morocco Minerals, Enter the Earth, Sunwest Silver, Village Originals, and a few others. This show is open to the public, but we were able to get some great deals and even bigger finds. There main tent features more in the way of finished jewelry, a large vendor with a hug selection of tools and equipment, and many vendors with beads.

Pros: There is a lot of selection and if you are willing to dig around in barrels, boxes and bins one can find some really unusual and unique items. There are vendors from all over, which give a nice selection; however getting wholesale discounts was not always an option.

Cons: Pricing at Tucson Electric Park was average compared to other shows; not much in the way of discounts unless one is willing to buy in volume. One of the main vendors for raw stock has their own tent, however their prices were higher this year than in past.

Overall: This is still an excellent show that I will continue to attend; different selection, unique items and I love the energy of going from tent to tent on a treasure hunt.

We have already been busy with some of the finds from our Tucson trip - visit our online shop to see our latest custom jewelry designs.

New Sassy & Trendy Cascading Earring Designs

I’ve been busy in the studio logging the entire new inventory from our Tucson trip. Finally I’m now getting to those treasures we found and designing new things! Here is the first of many new designs…..classy, sassy and trendy earrings in a cascading design; free swing charms of crystals, glass, lampwork above a tiny foil glass pendant.

These two are just a few of the new earring designs, browse our collection of new designs in our Ruby Lane store; shop often for the best selection!

Tucson Trip Review – Day 1

Leaving the deep freeze of south Texas, arriving only to find Tucson is just as frigid in weather! It didn’t keep us from our mission; to hunt through shows, vendors and dig through boxes and tons of product hand picking all our new inventory stock for the coming year. We bundled up and hit the indoor shows first, hoping that in the next few days the weather would lighten up (we were granted our wish!) and get a little warmer to attend some of the outdoor shows. Here’s the first review of our trip to Tucson, the shows we attended and some of our finds.

As a reminder our disclosure/disclaimer: As a reviewer of the products, shows or vendors attended in Tucson is solely that of our experiences and opinions. We were in no way compensated or paid to review or provide feedback, comment or opinions for the Tucson shows we attended. With that out of the way, here’s our review of our recent Tucson trip.

Day 1: Due to high winds and freezing temperatures, we opted for indoor shows and started the day after arrival at JOGS International Gem & Jewelry Show (JOGS). This show has in the past always been a venue representing minerals, rocks, beads, jewelry products and finished products from all over the work; specifically their well known Amber vendors, which appeared (to me) to be a little thin in vendors than in past years. The area of Southwestern jewelry also seemed to be a little thin in the vendors, but big on finished jewelry.

Pros: If you are in the market for finished jewelry, there was plenty of it from all over, mostly overseas. The quality varied from vendor to vendor as well as pricing; you could find some products for less than $100 up to over $1000’s. If cost is no object, then sterling silver at many vendors was just the ticket; but buyer beware that the sterling silver is an overlay and not solid, I had a hard time finding the required .925 mark on most of the jewelry, though the vendors claimed it to be sterling silver. Overall, there are lots of selection but mostly in the finished jewelry products; leaving anyone who is looking for raw materials a little in the wind. This year did have a few more vendors offering displays, boxes, etc. which was nice to see.

Cons: Way too much finished jewelry (although this show usually has a lot), not enough in the way of raw materials for minerals, fossils, natural stones, or beading stock. There lacked the many large and interesting displays such as the famous meteorite from last year that this show is also known for. Some of the vendors appeared to be either packed together so close that we didn’t even get to some because we couldn’t; or strung out too much that one didn’t know where it stopped and another began. There wasn’t enough variety and too many overseas vendors offering less than quality products across the board.

Overall: JOGS is a good place to start but is quickly becoming ‘just another show’ in the arena of overseas vendors with inferior products. The cost of goods was higher than last year and many vendors were not willing to give discounts unless the buyer was purchasing in large volumes, both monetary and stock. Navigating the hall mazes we did manage to find several great finds here at JOGS; a sterling silver ring with a center stone of Mexican Fire Opal with very brilliant red, large ceramic Mexican beads, several faceted and non-faceted odd shaped pendants, quite a few of the pewter spacers and metal beads….just to name a few of the things we picked up here. I’ll continue to watch this show, but I don’t know whether or not I will keep in to my ‘must see’ list of shows in the future, since it was missing several of my big vendors that I do business.

We had several hours left in the day and decided to head over and check out Gem Mall. This is a huge wholesale only show with 2 very large tents full of vendors and their products. We only got through the first tent, so I’ll be reviewing this one later on this week as an entire show.

Stay tuned for more reviews of our Tucson trip and Adventure!!