The Very Nice Group on Facebook had a challenge to come up with designs based on the colors and textures in this inspiration collage:





With this inspiration I had some fun making new designs.  These will be in my shop once the inspiration challenge finishes tomorrow.  In the meantime enjoy!

Earthy Shades - amethyst sage agate, artisan lampwork, freshwater pearls, yarn and sterling silver


Softly Sulfured Waters Earrings - artisan lampwork, Czech glass, crystal rhinestones, citrine and brass



Sunshine, Sunset Earrings - Bumblebee jasper, artisan lampwork, freshwater pearls, carnelian and sterling silver



Whispers of Blue Earrings - blue lace agate, artisan lampwork, freshwater pearls and gold fill

Tucson - fossils and rough - day 6

I finally remembered to take some pictures today - but only at one venue :)  We were at the Howard Johnson hotel show this morning and went wandering around to see the fossils and gemstone rough.  I always like to see what the beautiful stones and gems that I use look like before the get cut and polished.  Here are a few of the gemstones in the rough.

Citrine

Peridot

Purple opal

Rhodonite

Tiger Eye

Turritela agate

And here are some cool fossils. I don't remember what the names of the critters are and I'm too lazy to look them up :)

And here's Manny from El Paso Rock Shop who answered our questions about the various stones and cracked open a few geodes so we could see the crystals inside.

And here I am in front of a mongo crystal

Tucson Gem Show 2014 - Day 1

I'm back in Tucson (along with my mom) for the fun and interesting gem shows!  We arrived this morning, had some lunch at Las Margaritas, mom got a Starbuck's mocha and then we hit the shows!  Our first stop was the GIGM show at the Howard Johnson motel.

I found some beautiful lapis at Afghan Gem Jewelry.  I don't know if I got the best price around but I liked Aman and found some nice polished and faceted lapis beads.  Here's Aman with some of his beads in the background.

Aman from Afghan Gem Jewelry

My favorite turquoise dealer/miner Shellbone and his dad are at this show every year.  I have a camera that works indoors this year so my pictures are better.  Here are Shellbone, my mom and his dad (and I did not remember his dad's name and didn't think to ask! silly me!)

Shellbone, owner of Nevada Turquoise Co. (on the right), his dad (on the left) and my mom

Shellbone has some BIG gold nuggets he and his dad got while panning in Alaska.  This year they went panning in northern California and found a few more nuggets which he showed us, but they don't compare in size to Alaska nuggets.

Next we wandered around the show some more and met this very nice man, Ibrahim, from Morocco.  I got some Orthoceras pendants (also from Morocco) from him.

 

And I just thought the size and color of this gemstone ball was stunning ... I didn't ask what the stone is and I'm not quite sure.  It resembles rhodocrosite but may be pink quartz - I really should ask when I take pictures of things like this.

Our next stop was the 22nd Street show.  I didn't remember if we ever went to this show but once we got inside we did see some familiar companies like Wyoming Fossils.  This is a great show for fossils - all shapes and sizes.  We also saw this neat art by John T. Benedict of Some Distant World.  He uses parts from cars, nuts, bolts, steel and all kinds of other metal things.  Where possible he designs his pieces so the moving parts can still move!  He even has a button you push on that lantern fish to the right of his head so the lantern lights up!  Very cool!

John T. Benedict of Some Distant World in Tucson, AZ

I stopped by Pangaea Industries to see what they had for interesting fossils and stones.  I got some cool herkimer quartz rough (for a sterling or copper sandwich - details below) and an Orthoceras coaster to replace one that got broken last year at home.

We made one final stop at the Pueblo Gem show to see my favorite larimar sellers, Jens and Cynthia of Larimar Conlight.   I did get some round larimar beads ... I have a soft spot for the beautiful, Caribbean blue color of larimar!  I did a quick check at Yaushing Gems but none of the brios/drops pulled me in.  Then I checked in at Thomas Schneider Gems and found some cool roughs in amethyst and citrine and some tumbled peridot that I'll mount in a sterling washer sandwich similar to this:

And here are the stones (not the best pictures, but they're taken in a hotel room) ...

 

Brazilian amethyst and citrine, Arizona peridot

Herkimer quartz

And below is a sampling of some of the pretties I got today ...

Afghan lapis

Orthoceras

Rhodocrosite

Turquoise and spiny oyster

Larimar