Why they call me gemlady...

godiva

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Eeee!!! Rocks and gems!!!

I have an obsession with shiny things. I love gemstones... I have quite the collection of loose stones. I would love to learn how to cut and polish someday... you have my dream job, gemlady!!! Thanks for sharing.
 

laureen227

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Originally Posted by Godiva

Eeee!!! Rocks and gems!!!

I have an obsession with shiny things. I love gemstones... I have quite the collection of loose stones. I would love to learn how to cut and polish someday... you have my dream job, gemlady!!! Thanks for sharing.
it does sound like fun... i used to work with stained glass, & i liked that, except for the little glass splinters that got everywhere!
 

luckygirl

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Originally Posted by gemlady

Does the alexandrite have a nice color change to it? How big is it? I have a synthetic one and it will have to do until I win the lottery.
it's really pretty, it's purple to red to blue, and sometimes you can see a teal green color in it....it's big, but being that it's a colored gem, it was measured in mm's not carat weight... I don't know the mm dimension's off the top of my head, but if I had to guess carat weight I'd say about 2cts. I got it for a steal too. It was a trade in from a customer, in retail, the person trading in the merch gets 50% of the piece they want for the piece they are trading in.... if that makes sense. As the Regional Training Mgr I was able to buy it at the cost that we bought it back from the customer....
 

jean-ji

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Jan, thanks for explaining your name! When I was in fourth grade (in northern Indiana) my teacher brought in her rock tumbler for us to make Christmas presents. The first time I saw an obsidian snowflake, I was hooked. I recently received a azurite/malachite wire wrapped pendant from my DH.

Making rocks into things of beauty must feel like magic, I thought it was when I was in fourth grade!
~Rhonda
 
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gemlady

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Originally Posted by sherral46

here is a picture of the stones ,I only tumblered 1 time,I have to do it 2 more steps.
It has always been so much fun to take a rather non-descript, ugly rock and turn it into a thing of beauty. Many you wouldn't look at twice.
 
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gemlady

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Okey-doke, folks! It's taken over 4 months but here a couple pics of things I have done. I wish they were clearer, but I have limitations with the camera.

Charoite in gold-filled wire. I cut the stone and did the wire work.


Sodalite (fan shaped blue stone) and rainbow moonstone in sterling silver, with rainbow moonstone beads. I cut the sodalite, bought the moonstone, and strung the beads, and the silver work was done by a friend.


This was just done this past week. The 3 center glass beads were made by a lapidary member and the other beads are hematite (silver/black) and sterling.


I've been feeling creative lately, especially since I found a box of metal beads and findings that I had missplaced a couple of years ago.
 

rapunzel47

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You do some lovely work, Jan. I especially love the soladite and moonstone, but the others are lovely, too.
 

strange_wings

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Originally Posted by gemlady

I wish they were clearer, but I have limitations with the camera
Have you looked up making a light box to help you take pictures? It's really simple, cardboard box with the sides cut out and white tissue paper taped over the cut outs.
It would help bring out the color in the stones a lot.
As for the blurriness, good lighting can help with that too.
Originally Posted by gemlady

I've been feeling creative lately, especially since I found a box of metal beads and findings that I had missplaced a couple of years ago.
I love it when that happens.
Sometimes I look through whatever craft or art supplies I've recovered and it's like Christmas "ooo.. I didn't know I had that!"
 
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gemlady

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Originally Posted by strange_wings

Have you looked up making a light box to help you take pictures? It's really simple, cardboard box with the sides cut out and white tissue paper taped over the cut outs.
It would help bring out the color in the stones a lot.
As for the blurriness, good lighting can help with that too.
I've used lightboxes before with my SLR but I also have limitations with the camera lens. It's fixed. (It's an old digital.)

Originally Posted by strange_wings

I love it when that happens.
Sometimes I look through whatever craft or art supplies I've recovered and it's like Christmas "ooo.. I didn't know I had that!"
I know! I had forgotten I had obtained some sterling clasps so I used on on the glass bead necklace.
 

theimp98

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nice nice, i had to wait to get home to see the pics
i really would like to try something like that one day
 
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gemlady

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This past weekend our society had Rockfest - an open house event for the public to see what we do and members could set up to sell. I had gotten sick this past Tuesday so I couldn't do as much and prepare more, but I did set up and showed visitors what I had made and worked on some necklaces that will be future gifts.

It was held in the parking lot of our facility. On a cloudless day... I got a bit of sunburn.


Overall shot -

Our club tables - heard they did well on sales.

My table - the breeze kept blowing the table cover (despite tape) and mussing my items.


This is my Milky Way Galaxy bracelet of hematite beads - stars, moon, rings, and round beads

Necklace of red (dyed) freshwater pearls and gold beads.

More pearls ready to be made into jewelry. Maybe my SS will get something made from them...
 

lnbandcats

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Oh my goodness you are a very talented lady! I love that Hemtite bracelet - it is just stunning! Please share more of your work with us, it is really beautiful? Do you have a site in the TCS Marketpalce? You should!
 
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gemlady

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Thank you for your compliments. I even have a white dwarf (star) on that bracelet.

Maybe I should set something up in the marketplace. I need the
to get more supplies. LOL
 

lookingglass

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Originally Posted by gemlady

Thank you for your compliments. I even have a white dwarf (star) on that bracelet.

Maybe I should set something up in the marketplace. I need the
to get more supplies. LOL
Jan you should! You have a amazing talent!
 

laureen227

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Originally Posted by gemlady

More pearls ready to be made into jewelry. Maybe my SS will get something made from them...
well, i think that would be just fine, thank you, Jan! [i am your recipient, right?
]
 
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