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.

Etsymetal Project Runway Challenge, Season 9, Week 11

Things have been pretty busy here lately in my little neck of the woods, and I've had to miss the last 2 weeks of the etsymetal Project Runway challenge. (You can find some cool entries from past couple of week's challenges on the etsymetal blog if you're so inclined...)

Last week's show "For the Birds" challenged the designers to create something inspired by one of these 4 birds brought into the studio. 

And, as you can probably guess, the etsymetal challenge traveled along a similar flightpath...

I looked through my collection of stones and found a wonderful piece of ocean jasper with a colorful,  graphic design. I set it in sterling silver with 14kt gold bits and a stylized "tail".

Fun challenge this week!


Next week's challenge: "The Final Challenge" . In this episode, the designers were tasked to create a mini collection emphasizing their overall fashion vision. They went to Governor's Island in NYC to find their inspiration.
The etsymetal challenge: create a piece inspired by the sights on Governor's Island. Or, visit your local park and pick up a little inspiration there.
OK, we'll see what happens...
Meanwhile, see all of last weeks entries here!