This weekend, we’ll be at the Springmaid Beach Resort Arts and Craft Festival in Myrtle Beach, SC.  So, we packed up the truck today and headed for the beach to set up!

We have a nice space near a sunny corner with a great view of the ocean.

Our kiosk is all ready to display pendants, earrings, ensembles, keychains, tie tacks, pins, and pet and purse charms.

Inside the kiosk, underneath, is the gnome house that decided to come to the show with us.

We’ll have a few more gnome houses along with some beautiful stone jewelry pieces on these tables.

This will be our home this Friday through Sunday, Dec 2nd, 3rd and 4th.

Here are a few of the wraps we’ll be taking with us.

Rainbow Obsidian Hearts in 14k gold-filled.

 

 

The wonderful folks here at Bass Lake RV Campground in Dillon SC, were kind enough to sell my jewelry in their store, and asked me to make some displays.

This has to be one of the friendliest, well run campgrounds we’ve ever visited.

And so I embarked on the creation of the display.  This is a tray made from pine cones, walnut shells, sweet gum balls and acorns that will hold tumbled glass pendants that I call “Earth Glass”. .

 And here it is in the store.  Earth Glass is broken glass that I found in creeks and on the ground on my walks with Angie.  By cleaning up the environment, and tumbling the glass to a smooth satin finish, I re-purposed it.  It looks very much like sea glass, but it’s not, because it comes from the Earth.  Artfully wrapped in colored silver plated wire, they make lovely pendants.

Then I created an earthy Earring Holder.

 A Gnome House…

…and a Gnome Cottage, all made from materials found around the lake.

The whole display.

This is our Gnome Lapidary Shop (where Gnomes and Nuggets jewelry is made).

Made of assorted Barks, Pine Cones, Walnut Shells, Tumbled Stones, Sweet Gum Balls, Lichen and a beautiful Blue Quartz from Pennsylvania.

It will be part of our display at the Springmaid Beach Resort’s Winter Arts and Craft Festival, Dec 2nd – 4th 2011, in Myrtle Beach, SC.  We’ll be in Booth #603 on the First Floor and we’d love to see you there!

The link for information on the show is here.

I’ve been working on a pair of sister pendants made from a Rose Quartz that I found in Pennsylvania before we embarked on our RV life.  The color of this beautiful  stone was so impressive that I saved it for the most special pendants.  Rose Quartz is the stone of love and the pink-salmoney shade of this stone exudes it.  Enjoy!

Wrapped in Sterling

Wrapped in 14k Gold-Filled

Both Pendants Side by Side

Rose Quartz – Rough

Chrysoprase – Tumbled

Rose Quartz – Tumbled

Aventurine – Tumbled

Yellow Calcite – Rough

Leopard Skin Jasper – Tumbled

Amethyst – Tumbled

Sodalite – Tumbled

Quartz Crystal Points

Selenite – Hand Polished

Amazonite – Tumbled

Amazonite – Tumbled

Ruby in Fuschite – Tumbled

Green Beryl (Emerald ) – Rough

Utah Jasper Arrowhead Points

Dinosaur Bone – Utah

Amethyst and Smoky Quartz Points

Blue Kyanite

Smoky Quartz Crystals in Matrix – Slices

Citrine, Amethyst and Smoky Quartz – Rough and Tumbled

Selenite – Rough and Hand Polished

Amethyst Lace – Rough

If you are not familiar with tumbling stones, the hobby is very popular, and some enthusiasts get pretty serious about it.  It is family friendly and fun, but requires patience.  Good tumblers (and I suggest anything made by Lortone, Thumlers or Lot O, nothing else) can cost $100 – $400.  The harder the rock, the better it will turn out (on the Mohs scale of hardness).

For tumblers and supplies, I highly recommend The Rock Shed (www.therockshed.com).  Shawn is very nice and helpful there.  To learn the ins and outs of rock tumbling, I recommend the forum, Rock Tumbling Hobby (http://andy321.proboards.com/index.cgi).  Lots of good folks sharing their knowledge and passion for the hobby.

See a great collection of pictures showing the progression of polished stones in a Lot-O vibratory tumbler here.  This was done by my friend and pro-tumble artist, Connrock.

I started this batch at the end of last May with the rotary tumbler I bought during my trip to Rio Grande (May 27th blogpost http://thinkcarebelieve.blogspot.com/2011/05/rio-grande-supply-in-albuquerque.html)  I started with four batches in the rough grind and by the time they finished polish, they had ground down to 2 batches.  I’m calling them one batch though… all were picked up during our travels over the past year. 

So… without further delay… here is the batch!

In that big, super, mega batch there is some Petrified Wood…

Some flint from my friend Teresa’s farm in Alexandria, Tennessee…

Some Royal Sahara Picture Jasper…

Some Owyhee Picture Jasper…

Some with shiny metallic Hematite in them…

Various Agates…

Fancy Bloodstone…

Some assorted tiny, little guys…

Now for some pictures of individual stones… Enjoy!

I made a little collage of some of the tools I use to take rough rock and turn it into jewelry.

Top left is my setup for shaping and polishing stones. Saw and flat lap hand cabber. Top right are my hand tools for working with wire.  Bottom left are the two types of silver wire that I use. Square in foreground that I sometimes twist by hand, and in the background is halfround wire and it is shaped just as it sounds, it is a half dome. I use this wire for binding my wrapping wires together.  Bottom right are three types of copper wire that I use. In the foreground is halfround, square in the middle and round wire in the background.

I just have to say that anyone wanting to cut and grind rocks needs to be forewarned that they will sacrifice their fingernails and may sometimes draw blood on their fingertips, but do so willingly, as the thrill of cutting open and shining up rocks soon becomes addicting.

If anyone would like to learn how to wirewrap, I would refer you to the person from whom I learned, Randy Emerick.  Randy sells cabochons for wrapping and finished jewelry.  His ETSY shop is here:  http://www.etsy.com/shop/Rockhobby

Randy produced a pdf tutorial for learning to wire wrap.  I direct every person who tells me they want to learn here.  Start with a basic wrap and then work on it and add your own style.  Here is the tutorial: http://imageevent.com/jemcraft/silversmithing?p=15&n=1&m=16&c=3&l=0&w=4&s=0&z=2

After a wonderful month in PA, we said goodbye to wholesome Amish Country.

We headed south toward Virginia Beach and crossed the Bay Bridge Tunnel.

I got to spend time with my buddy Randy who is a rock star at wire wrapping and rock polishing.

 We had the chance to cut some new rocks.  Rocks that had pretty purple coloring and beautiful lacy patterns.  Amethyst Lace is made up of Amethyst crystals with zig-zaggy layers of red and grey-silvery chalcedony.  It looks awesome when sliced.

 

Amethyst Lace

I’ve had some questions asking how I work my rocks on the road that I turn into jewelry.  This is what my work station looks like.

My Ameritool Grinder only weighs 12 pounds, but it does the job nicely.  I take my cut pieces of stone and grind them down smooth, carefully shaping them for optimal beauty.

Then, I run them through a progression of finer grit polishing pads until my stone has a nice shine.  Even though my setup uses water, I wear a dust mask to protect my breathing from rock dust.

These are slabs or rocks cut into slices.  Depending on the project, I will trace a shape on the slab, highlighting a particular pattern, and will then cut it out.

I use this small trim saw to cut my shapes that will go to my grinder.  Cutting and grinding can get messy, but seeing a finished stone and being able to wonder at it, is rewarding.

These wonders will become the focal point of my art jewelry.