Morris Minor Miracle...

How do you get from this....

...to this?

My friend Dave Adams, that's how! Dave's business is taking old cars, and restoring them to pristine condition. He specializes in old British cars. This particular Morris Minor was number 1,000,001 to roll off the assembly line in 1960. 

The Morris Minor was the first car in Britain to hit the one million mark of cars produced, and of course the company figured they would make a big deal out of it, would't you? They produced a limited edition of 350 cars. They all had white leather interiors and lilac body paint, and sported Minor 1,000,000 badges. Only 30 were built with left hand drive, and only 20 of those came to the US. You can read about the Minor Million cars at the official website here.

Looking better already...

Coming right along old chap...

Dave's car was on display at the Forest Grove Concours d'Elegance last month.  

His little lilac car won first place in it's class, people loved it!
I can totally see myself in the drivers seat...

Cufflink Season...

This week I finished up a group of cufflinks that will head down to Silver Blue & Gold gallery in Laguna Beach. I was invited to submit work to their upcoming cufflink exhibition in this father's day/graduation/wedding season, and as I've always loved  making cufflinks, I was only too happy to be a part of it! Imagine, a whole show just devoted to cufflinks! 

This batch consists mainly of fossils. 

On the left is Hell's Canyon petrified wood (sequoia) from Oregon, next is fossil coral and the pair on the right is Owyhee jasper, also found in Oregon.

Fossil palm on the left, and on their right is more petrified wood, this time hickory.

I'll still have a good selection of cufflinks in my shop, and I'm sure I'll be adding a few more prior to Father's Day if you're looking for a special gift for your cufflink wearing man!

a trip to the museum

While in Denver this week visiting my daughter, I was introduced to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.

The museum has a really nice permanent gem and mineral collection with Colorado rocks as well all kinds of other stuff. I was intrigued with the rhodocrosite that is native to the state. Lusting after is probably a more accurate description I think...

This is a huge rock, and the first thing that greets you when you enter the exhibit. Below is a photo from the museum website to show you the scale of these crystals!

I really wanted a specimen to take home with me and thought I might find one in the gift shop, but no. Apparently these beautiful native crystals from the Sweet Home mine are really pretty rare and expensive. Darn!

 the middle photo shows the rhodocrosite along side florite.

Aquamarine is the state gemstone of Colorado... and my birthstone : ) I'd take this specimen any day!

There was crystalized gold and rocks with wide veins of silver running through them...

silver veins

of course, I can't resist the jaspers...


The following day we visited a rock shop where I made a few purchases that helped me get over the fact that I couldn't take any of the museum exhibits home with me.

No rhodocrosite specimen, but I'm not complaining!

new work

After making jewelry for more years than I care to count, I've finally come to the realization that it might be nice to create collections of jewelry as opposed to jumping from one random stone to the next just because I want to bezel every stone I see! So I reigned myself in this past month, and came up with these two collections so far.

Beautiful Willow Creek jasper that was part of this group, and

ended up as earrings, a pendant, and a ring. Most of these went to Imogen Gallery in Astoria, Oregon.

And this pink collection, mostly Mookaite from Australia, and the center pair, fossil palm wood. 

This bunch of cabs I bought most recently with this group and turned out some 

earrings, a tweeter bird pendant and a ring. These will be available in my etsy shop.

Since I'm rather liking the cohesiveness of these two collections, I think I might work through the Sonoran sunrise I bought last month. It's quite stunning! 

And of course, I'll always find time to slip in something totally unrelated...

more treasure

It's no surprise... at least not to me... that I'm back with more stones. I sat down with my favorite stone dealer yesterday, someone I've done business with for many years, and came home with a treasure trove! I'll probably stop buying stones for just a little bit. If I keep myself from looking at them, I won't be tempted to buy...  ; )

Some beautiful Sonoran dendritic rhyolite with a smokey blue field really caught my eye, and of course, the ever popular Cherry Creek jasper. Lovely earring pairs, all!

The fossils. Coral and palm. Love working with these stones!

The "pink" group includes ocean jasper and Mooka Station jasper along with some of the fossil palm and fossil coral. I do love the pinks!

What I call"not your mother's tiger eye" in blue and gold with a couple of fabulous pieces in a matte finish.

A nice Pietersite pendant stone. Peitersite is brecciated tiger eye. That means at some point in it's geological history, the tiger eye was broken apart and the pieces reformed themselves giving a more mosaic look to the stone. Lots of nice blue chatoyance, or flash in this one! 

Some very pretty rutilated quartz along with a green tourmalated quartz (spoken for) and a lovely little green moonstone. These will make gorgeous rings!

And all of these little bird body shapes I'll use for my litter tweeter bird brooches or pendants. Imperial jasper, and the 2 on the bottom are ocean jasper and Botswana agate. They'll make an entire flock!

Here's one of my little sweet tweets...

My cuprite heart beats for you. Couldn't pass this one up!

Sonoran Sunrise

I purchased these Sonoran Sunrise cabs from a fellow jeweler recently. (Thank you, Karen!)  Sonoran Sunrise is the apt name given to the the red mineral, cuprite ( copper bearing) in chrysocolla. It's found in Mexico, and do these colors ever "pop" together! And this batch is probably some of the most intense I've seen! The cut and polish on these stones is excellent. Sized from large pendant/ brooch pieces to statement rings and a pair of earrings. They will be a pleasure to work with! 

  

I can't seem to keep my hands off the stuff...

My philosophy regarding stones has always been that when you see a good thing, you need to jump on it. Even if you just recently bought a slew of pretty rocks. I mean, when you're talking jaspers and agates, each is one of a kind. You just have to keep that in mind. And I don't buy everything I see, I do employ some restraint... well, a little...

This batch of beauties includes Morrisonite at the top, Montana agate, a nice ocean jasper and a bunch of beautiful Willow Creek jasper. See what I mean? How could a sane person pass these up?

And now the fun begins...

betsybensen.etsy.com

My date with the King of Jaspers

In my book, there's no better way to start out the new year then with a whole slew of new cabochons arriving on your doorstep! 

In this case, I stumbled upon a fellow jewelry artist who has a passion for stones, like moi, but she is cutting back her production schedule and needed to clear out some of her collection. I was fortunate enough to purchase some of her Morrisonite, which is one of my favorite stones, and known as "The King of Jaspers". It's also a native of my own state of Oregon.

Morrisonite comes in a gorgeous array of colors, and takes a very high polish. Some of these pieces are quite large as you can see below...

This cab measures 2" x 1" (5cm x 2.5cm). They will make some beautiful statement pieces. Several nice matched pairs will make dynamite earrings! I see a long and productive relationship with the King!

Here's a pendant I made late last year using another super pretty piece of Morrisonite.

And I didn't neglect some of my other favs in this stone purchase. Petrified palm and fern, plus some nice ocean jasper and a pair of bird's eye rhyolite. Earrings, earrings, earrings!

I'm so glad I didn't make a New Year's resolution to curb some of my stone buying and use more of what I already have on hand... well, it wouldn't have mattered, I have a zero success rate at keeping resolutions anyway...

If you're so inclined, you keep an eye on my etsy shop where some of these finished pieces will be popping up, or my facebook page where you'll get a peek at completed work before it heads off to The Real Mother Goose and Imogen Gallery.

brooch finale...

 The final two brooches in the 2013 challenge. Boy, has this year gone by fast!

 #51 is  slice of Montana agate topped with an Oregon sunstone. Not sure I want to part with this one... but it'll most likely end up in my shop before too long as there are bills to pay... plus, I'm not sure my sweatshirt will do it justice.  ; )

For the year end finale, the Blue Bird of Happiness in labradorite perched on a stick pearl to wish you all a happy, healthy, and creative 2014!

phew!