> GEMMOLOGY AND LORE: SPINEL

Finally, a new post! Gosh, I'm really behind on my self-given promise not to let go by more than a day without a new post. Huh. Guess that's what you call 'real life'. ;)

So, today, a new favourite of mine is dragged into the spotlight: the spinel. Recently, I added black faceted spinel briolettes to my stash, and I love them! They sparkle like mad and look almost like black diamonds. 

Again, to get the necessary raffle out of the way: The supposed healing properties are in no way scientifically proven and don't replace medical treatment. A doctor should be consulted in every case. I don't advertise the so-called healing properties of stones, I just report the different opinions of others to create a comprehensive picture. Yadda yadda.

During the 16th century, the name spinel was coined and given to any red gemstone, allegedly meaning spark stone (Greek 'spinos' = spark). The mineral that is known under that name today got it around 1800. However, spinel can not only be red, there are also orange, yellow, green, dark green to black, brown, blue and purple versions of this stone. To make it even more difficult (and interesting ;)), each color also has its own name(s):

'Black Diamonds' - Faceted black spinel briolettes

Red: Alabandine Ruby, Alamandine Ruby, Alamandine Spinel, Balas Ruby, Precious Spinel, Garfunkel, Ruby Spinel, Spinel Ruby
Orange: Vinegar Spinel (not sure about THAT translation ...), Rubicell, Vermeille
Yellow: Rubacell
Green: Chlorine Spinel
Dark green to black: Candite, Ceylonite, Pleonast, Zeilanite
Brown: Picotite
Blue: Sapphirine, Sapphire Spinel
Purple: Eastern Amethyst

Spinel often appears via contact metamorphosis in marble, dolomite marble, crystalline slate, gneissic rock and serpentinite. Since it's quite hard, erosion doesn't affect it much, and so it is often flushed out of its original mother rock and found in river sediments (placer deposits). Spinel is mined in Russia, Sri Lanka, Birma, Thailand and the USA. Big red crystals have also recently been found in Russia, Afghanistan and Pakistan (Pamir Highlands).

Spinel mostly grows octahedrons, sometimes also cubes or rhombic dodecahedrons (... I'm too lazy to google it right now, but I'd really like to know exactly HOW this assemblage of vocals and consonants is supposed to look like ...). 

The mineral is a magnesium-aluminum-oxide from the spinel group and the mineral class of oxides. The blue colored variant is because of more iron and less magnesium, green is created by a bit of magnesium being replaced by copper and aluminum being replaced by iron, and red by chrome instead of aluminum and manganese and zinc instead of magnesium. Larger iron percentages in the make-up create brownish and black colors.

Mohs hardness of Spinel is 8, denseness is between 3,58 and 3,61, it has imperfect fissionability and white streak color.

Apart from the possibility to mistake spinel for alexandrite, amethyst, chrysoberyll, garnet, ruby, saphhire or topaz, there are many imitations to be had. They are synthetic spinels, which are also used to imitate a number of other stones. Apart from that, natural spinel can also be burned to achieve a different color, so if in doubt, your best bet is a gemmological examination.

Although the supposed healing effects of spinel are not up to par with ruby or garnet, the spinel is nevertheless used to achieve a positive attitude towards life and helps with accepting yourself as you are. It lends stability to fickle personalities, and is supposed to lighten the mood and lend courage and confidence. It is also said to cleanse the intestines and the skin and to re-awaken numb or paralysed body parts.

> STRIKING EVENING JEWELRY

Shoulder duster scalemail earring base

Ah, what a great day! Ordered a bacon burger from the local burger place, and guess what? Got fries for free! :D Not intentional, mind. But, since the bag was already stapled shut, I thought I'd save them the hussle to open it up again. Using a second paper bag wouldn't have been good for the environment anyway.

I was feeling creative yesterday evening. Remember the dress fiasco regarding the wedding and the cocktail party? I changed tack and now have a different dress for each event. 

The dress for the cocktail party is dark grey in colour, with dark red roses across the bust and the lower part of the skirt. The shoulder part is decorated with a few sparkling green rhinestones. The earrings I saw on a favourite showmaster of mine yesterday evening (huuuuuge dangling sparkling pieces) inspired me to the jewelry I plan to wear with this dress. And naturally, I too started with the earrings. :) The base is made of red and green aluminum scales, and they'll be embellished with some gemmies - probably faceted labradorites, deep red faceted garnets or highly polished hematites. Something flashy, in any case. :) Not sure if the base design is going to stay that way, but yes, they will be long, from ear lobe to collarbone. :D I love statement earrings!

That's it for now, keep an eye out for project updates. :) 

> PROMOTION TIME: BELLA D'LUNA

First off, I updated the treasury lists. :)

Second, it's TGIF (!) and a week into the daycare strikes. Would be really happy if they'd finally came to an agreement. Although our little one seems to enjoy it immensely, today a whole day with my parents, next week a whole week with my mother-in-law. How will I ever get her back to normal after she'd been spoiled so much? :D

Summer Sky Bindi - Bellydance body jewelry

Third, PROMOTION TIME! :)

In this issue, a fellow jewelry artist is featured. She goes by the name of Bella D'Luna and has a shop on Etsy by the same name. 

Her focus lies on goth, steampunk and bellydance jewelry, so she's an artist right up my alley. :) If you'd like to know more about her, please refer to the Featured Pages From Fellow Artists And Artisans. Enjoy! :)

> GEMMOLOGY AND LORE: LAPISLAZULI

Ugh, sorry for the long gap between postings. Had a busy weekend, and on top the daycares are on strike, so my husband and I had to juggle child and work. But we manage. :)

Today, I'd like to do a post on gemmology, describing a certain stone, its different appearances and supposed uses in healing and stone therapy. 

To get the necessary raffle out of the way: The supposed healing properties are in no way scientifically proven and don't replace medical treatment. In every case, a doctor should be consulted. I don't advertise the so-called healing properties of stones, I just report the different opinions of others to create a comprehensive picture. Yadda yadda.

One of my personal favourites is lapislazuli, because I love the deep blue dotted with the typical golden pyrite specks. Sadly, I don't much use it in my designs, simply because there are so many treated stones on the market that it's hard to tell the difference, other than maybe that the untreated stones are usually unremarkable and not as beautiful and therefore are harder to sell. Figures.

Milky Way - Earhooks with lapislazuli chips

The name means "blue stone" in Latin, which is also mirrored in the mineralogical name lazurite. Sometimes, it is simply called lazuli.

The stone has been used for jewelry and healing for over 9000 years! The earliest findings were somewhere in the Indus valley. In ancient Middle Asia cultures and throughout antiquity it had been used for cultic rituals and as a colorant.

Lapis is formed in the contact zone (metamorphic zone) of just forming magmatites and metamorphously changing sediments (metamorphite; = marble). Important mines are in Sar-e-Sang in Badakshan/Afghanistan (which also produces the best quality) and in Chile and in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).

The crystal form of lapislazuli is cubic, although visible cubes are a real rarity. It is a sulfurous aluminum silicate, is a rare representative of the sodalite-nosean-group and is a framework silicate. In its raw appearance, it is of a deep blue, with golden (pyrite) or yellowish-white (marble) specks.

In terms of technical specifications its mohs hardness is 5-5.5, the density 2.4 (can also be up to 2.9 due to inclusions), it has a imperfect eminent minerlal cleavage, shows shell fracture and has a weak blue steak colour.

Sometimes, sodalite is mistaken for lapislazuli, but the easiest way to resolve the problem is to check the streak colour, which is white for sodalite.

As I already mentioned, lapislazuli is often imitated and treated. The usual methods are artificial colouring to achieve the much demanded deep blue hue, or actual imitations with coloured calcite, quartz (chalcedony, jasper), magnesite (also often used as imitate for turqoise), china, glass, synthetic spinel, plastic and many more. Sadly, many forgeries can only truly be confirmed through gemmological analysis.

The supposed therapeutic effects of lapislazuli include dissolving of insecurities and the easier acceptance of criticism and to find the courage to voice inconvenient truths. For the latter three aspects, it should be worn around the throat. It is fittingly also called "stone of truth".
Since it's uses are focused on the throat, it is also supposed to ease raw throat, swallowing difficulties and colds. Furthermore, it is said to lower the blood pressure and slow hormone cycles.

> NEW ARRIVALS

Sometimes, there are just too many good opportunities to pass up. While browsing stores (both real and virtual ;)) for gems for a custom project, I found a number of orphans that begged so much for me to adopt them. And I, being the kind soul that I am, just couldn't resist. :D

So, please welcome the new arrivals to my stash:

A few new donuts. Because I like them and also because beautifully wrapped donut jewelry never gets out of style. :) There are some nice mottled green dendritic agates, three nice flashy bronzite donuts and two blue quartz specimen. The blue quartz are the only ones that kinda annoy me (purchased online), because while they both have 3cm diameter, they don't match in thickness, and one is visibly darker than the other. Oh well. Goodbye earrings, let's turn them into pendants ;).

Next we have two small but sparkly crystal druzies and one crystal stick. Bought them at a local shop in my hometown, and the stick was even mined locally, which means it's franconian. :) Then, we have a small lot of double-drilled oval tiger eye beads, which I quite liked and decided to buy more of after finishing the custom tiger eye choker. 

Last, six new strands have been added to my collection. The silver one is highly polished hematite, which always makes for a nice spacer bead and of course also looks fabulous by itself. Then, we have twin strands of teeny-weeny deep red garnet beads. They were so tiny but cute that I had to buy two of them, and besides, the small beads are always the first that run out. The strand with the rectangular beads is made of mother-of-pearl-pieces that have been glued together with the iridescent side facing out, so that you get beads that showcase the nice mother-of-pearl-colors front AND back. This strand has oh so many utilisation possibilities. The three strands I'm most fond of are made from faceted bronzite, faceted glimmer and engraved onyx. I already possess engraved crystal beads, which show a silver phoenix, and the engraved onyx ones show a golden dragon. I'm positive they'd look dashing when combined in a design.

Should any of these beads implore you as strongly as they did me to take them home, drop me a message and I'll whip them up into shape for you. :)

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Manchmal gibt es einfach zu viele gute Gelegenheiten, die man nicht einfach verstreichen lassen kann. Während ich einige Geschäfte (sowohl virtuell als auch real ;)) für Material für einen Kundenwunsch durchforstet habe, habe ich eine Reihe von Waisen gefunden, die mich so angebettelt haben, sie zu adoptieren, dass ich, gute Seele die ich bin, einfach nicht wiederstehen konnte. :D

Heißt deshalb die Neuzugänge zu meinem Fundus wilkommen:
Einige neue Donuts. Weil ich sie mag und weil schöner Draht-Donut-Schmuck einfach nie aus der Mode kommt. Hinzugekommen sind zwei schöne Baumachate, drei Bronzite und zwei Blauquarze, wobei letztere (Onlinekauf= der einzige Posten meines Gesamteinkaufes ist, der mich stört. Sie haben zwar beide 3cm Durchmesser, sind aber in der Dicke deutlich unterschiedlich, und einer ist sichtbar dunkler als der andere. Na ja. Goodbye Ohrringe. Machen wir halt Anhänger draus. ;)
Als nächstes haben wir zwei kleine funkelnde Bergkristalldrusen und eine Bergkristallspitze. Ich habe alle drei Stücke aus einem lokalen Geschäft aus meinem Heimatort, und die Bergkristallspitze wurde sogar dort in der Nähe abgebaut. Was bedeutet, dass sie eine Fränkin ist. :) Dann haben wir eine kleine Menge an doppelt gebohrten ovalen Tigeraugen, die ich gekauft habe, weil mir der Stein aus dem Tigerauge-Choker so gut gefiel.
Zu guter Letzt kamen sechs neue Edelsteinstränge zur Sammlung hinzu. Der silberne ist hochpolierter Hämatit, der sich immer gut als Zwischenteil oder natürlich auch als Alleindarsteller macht. Dann haben wir Zwillingsstränge aus klitzekleinen dunkelroten Granaten, die mir so gut gefallen haben, dass ich gleich zwei gekauft habe. Außerdem sind die kleinen Perlen sowieso immer als erste weg. Der Strang mit den rechteckigen Scheiben ist aus Perlmutt, und die einzelnen Perlen bestehen aus zwei dünneren Scheiben Perlmutt, die mit der schillernden Fläche nach außen aneinandergeklebt wurden. Dadurch entstehen Elemente, die nach vorn UND hinten die schönen Perlmuttfarben zeigen. Aus diesem Strang kann quasi alles gefertigt werden. Meine drei Lieblingsstränge jedoch sind aus facettiertem Bronzit, facettiertem Glimmer und graviertem Onyx. Ich habe bereits Kugeln aus graviertem Bergkristall mit einem silbernen Phoenix, und die Onyxkugeln haben einen goldenen Drachen. Ich bin mir sicher, dass beide kombiniert einfach unschlagbar aussehen.

Wenn einer dieser Edelsteine euch so stark anfleht, ihn mit nach Hause zu nehmen wie sie mich angefleht haben, schreibt mir eine Nachricht und ich bring ihn in Form für euch. :)

> PROJECT: REVAMPING

I am so never buying a dress online again. Never ever. I needed a dress for both a wedding (no black/white) and a cocktail event from work. I found one online, and bought it, believing the information provided by a size chart. It should have fit. Emphasis on 'should have'. 

Anyway, my daughter watched her first Star Wars movie yesterday. Well, kinda watched. She lost interest pretty soon. :P However, after the first scenes, when Princess Leia's ship is being boarded and the blaster fight ensues, she saw a few men topple over and she just said 'Hoppala', which basically translates as 'oooops'. :D (I always automatically say that when she falls, which is way better than 'ouch' and somehow takes the crying impulse away.) We laughed so hard. :)

Sooooo, back to business. I got a new task: revamping earrings. Or more correctly, revamping the stones from the earrings. A friend really wanted a jewelry piece with spessartine (an orange variety of garnet), so she bought a pair of earrings. On the picture, they looked really pretty, silver ovals with a faceted oval gemstone in the middle. What the picture didn't show, however, was that the gemstone setting was not flush with the base oval, but in a raised bezel on top of the oval. All in all, the earrings were quite massive, and she didn't like them at all. We debated sending them back and getting some spessartine for our own creation, but sadly, we couldn't find nice specimen that also were affordable. So, we decided to try to revamp them. 

One stone was easily liberated from its bezel, the other will require some more persuasion. The plan is to give them a nice new wire wrapped bezel and remodel them as a double pendant for a midi-length necklace. I also plan to recycle the silver pieces, but have not decided upon the final design. I will get you posted on further developments. :)

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Ich werde nie wieder ein Kleid online kaufen. Nie wieder. Ich brauche ein Kleid, das sowohl für eine Hochzeit taugt (kein schwarz/weiß) und aber auch für ein Cocktail Event meiner Arbeit. Außerdem soll es kein Standard sein. Ich habe auch ein entsprechendes Kleid gefunden und es bestellt, den Angaben einer Größentabelle vertrauend. Es hätte passen sollen. Die Betonung liegt hier auf 'hätte'.

Egal. Meine Tochter hat gestern ihren ersten Star Wars-Film gesehen. Na ja, quasi gesehen. Sie hat relativ schnell das Interesse verloren. Aber, bei den Anfangsszenen, in denen Prinzessin Leias Schiff geentert wird und ein Blastergefecht stattfindet, hat sie logischerweise ein paar Leute umfallen gesehen - ihr Kommentar war nur "hoppala". :D Ich sage das immer automatisch, wenn sie hinfällt, da es irgendwie besser als "aua" ist und auch nicht das Bedürfnis zu weinen aufkommen lässt. Wir haben so gelacht. :)

Sooo, zurück zur Sache. Ich habe einen neuen Auftrag bekommen: die Ummodelierung von Ohrringen. Oder genauer, die Umfunktionierung der Steine aus den Ohrringen. Eine Freundin wollte unbedingt ein Schmuckstück mit Spessartin, einer orangen Varietät von Granat, haben, und hat sich ein Paar Ohrringe bestellt. Auf den Bildern sahen sie auch echt hübsch aus, silberne Ovale mit einem facettierten Spessartin in der Mitte. Allerdings haben die Bilder nicht gezeigt, dass die Steine nicht im Oval gefasst sind, sondern die Fassung AUF den Ovalen sitzt. Alles in allem waren die Ohrringe recht groß und haben ihr absolut nicht gefallen. Wir haben überlegt, ob es besser ist, sie zurückzuschicken und stattdessen uns selber Spessartin für eigene Kreationen zu besorgen. Allerdings konnten wir absolut keine Exemplare finden, die sowohl schön als auch bezahlbar waren. Also haben wir uns für Umfunktionierung entschieden. 

Einer der Steine war leicht aus der Fassung zu lösen. Der andere braucht noch etwas Überzeugungsarbeit. Der Plan ist, sie in eine schöne neue Drahtfassung zu setzen und sie als Doppelanhänger für eine Kette umzufunktionieren. Ich möchte auch gern die Silberteile recyclen, habe mich aber noch nicht auf ein finales Design festgelegt. Ich halte euch über die weiteren Entwicklungen auf dem Laufenden. :) 

> MAY THE 4TH AND CHALLENGE WINNER!

Yay, it's May the 4th! Star Wars day! :D

Program for the rest of the day: Stop working, go home, watch Star Wars IV around 16:30, order pizza, watch Star Wars V 18:00, watch Star Wars VI 20:00. Or something like that. :) And yes, I won't bother with the prequel trilogy. Hopefully the new movies will bring about something of the flair the original episodes had. 

Aaaand, we have a winner for the challenge! Please give a hearty round of applause to Laura R. from Würzburg, who offered the correct answer to my question. For all those interested, yes, the mistake was the change from silver jump rings to golden jump rings, and no, it absolutely wasn't intentional. :D
I of course will post her earrings of choice here, once they're finished. 

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Juhuu! Es ist der vierte Mai, Star Wars Tag! :) 

Programm für den restlichen Tag: aufhören zu arbeiten, nach Hause fahren, Star Wars IV gegen 16:30 Uhr anschaun, Pizza bestellen, Star Wars V gegen 18 Uhr anschauen, Star Wars VI um 20:00 Uhr. Oder so ähnlich. :) Und ja, ich werde mich nicht mit Episode I-III aufhalten. Hoffentlich bringen die neuen Filme etwas vom Flair der alten Episoden zurück.

Uuuuund, wir haben einen Gewinner der Challenge! Bitte eine Runde Applaus für Laura R. aus Würzburg, die die korrekte Antwort geschickt hat. Für alle die es interessiert, ja, die richtige Antwort war der Wechsel von silbernen Jump Rings auf goldene. Und nein, der Wechsel war keine Absicht. :)

Natürlich werde ich Lauras Ohrringe hier posten, sobald sie fertig sind.

> FREEFORM WIRE WORK

Good evening. After a great First of May Garden Party a little blogging to close up the day. :)

Many, or even most, of the wire tutorials you can find online or buy as books are very specific in what wire gauge you're supposed to use, how much wire it should take and what direction you need to weave in first.

The total opposite is freeform wire work. In general, you take a piece of wire and weave, wrap and coil just how it suits your fancy. No tutorial required. Ideally, the result should still look somewhat ... planned ... or desired. :D Personally, I tried to freeform wire wrap some stones to use as pendants, and I really didn't like the results. They didn't exist for long. :D But that's probably just because I knew I had absolutely no plan while doing it. To a different person, the result may still have looked aesthetical, if not beautiful. 

The first real freeform wire design I made (and also sold :D) was a wire cuff made with thick oblong chrysocolla beads. The beads were mounted on a central wire piece, and framed left and right by thicker wire. To bring the wire and the stones together in a more or less sturdy construct, I used thin violet artistic wire in freeform to wrap around both. The result is what you see on the left side. It turned out pretty well, actually, because the cuff was so heavy and also snug enough to settle on the wrist and stay there. Not much twisting and turning because of the snugness, but you still knew it was there because of the weight,which is something I like in cuffs. :) Yet, I was not totally convinced by the design, a big part of which was the freeform wire. But one of the interesting and funny things about jewelry design is that you often sell those designs the quickest you're not a hundred percent sure of. This was one of those pieces. :D But I'm happy, the customer is happy, so it was a success all around. For project part 2.0, I already have a strand of gemmies picked out that would fit the design pretty well, I just have to make the final decision to actually buy them. :) Which might take a while, since my saved shopping cart at my favourite gemstone seller basically changes daily. Decisions, decisions. 

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Guten Abend. Nach einer tollen Ersten Mai-Gartenparty noch ein bisschen Bloggen, um den Tag abzuschließen. :)

Viele, oder sogar fast alle, der Wire Weaving-Anleitungen, die man online oder als Bücher finden kann, sind sehr spezifisch bezüglich welche Drahtdicke man nehmen soll, wieviel Draht das Projekt in etwa braucht und in welche Richtung man am besten zu erst arbeiten sollte. 

Das totale Gegenteil davon ist Freeform Wire Work. Eigentlich nimmt man einfach ein Stück Draht und fängt an, zu weben, wickeln und drehen, wie es einem gefällt. Keine Anleitung benötigt. Idealerweise sieht das Ergebnis dann allerdings dennoch irgendwie ... geplant ... oder zumindest gewollt aus. :D Ich habe irgendwie wortwörtlich keinen besonderen Draht zu dieser Art des Wire Weavings. Vor einiger Zeit habe ich mal versucht, ein paar Steine in freeform als Anhänger einzuwickeln, und die Ergebnisse haben mir wirklich absolut nicht gefallen. Ihre Existenz währte nicht lange. :) Vielleicht lag das aber auch einfach nur daran, dass ich wusste, dass ich absolut keinen Plan bei ihrer Herstellung hatte. Für jemand anderen hätten sie vielleicht trotzdem noch ästhetisch ausgesehen, wenn vielleicht auch nicht hübsch. 

Das erste echte Freeform Wire Design, das ich gemacht (und auch verkauft :D) habe, war ein Armreif aus dicken länglichen Chrysokollen. Die Steine waren auf einem zentralen Draht aufgefädelt und von zwei dickeren Drähten links und rechts eingerahmt. Um das ganze zu einem mehr oder weniger stabilen Konstrukt zusammenzubringen, habe ich violettes Artistic Wire in freeform um Steine und Draht gewickelt. Das Ergebnis seht ihr auf dem Bild. Eigentlich war es gar nicht so schlecht, weil der Reif schwer war und so eng anliegend, dass er sich gut an das Handgelenk geschmiegt hat und auch dort geblieben ist. Nicht viel Hin-und-Hergewackel durch die gute Passform, aber durch das Gewicht war man sich trotzdem immer bewusst, dass der Reif da war. Irgendwie mag ich das bei Armreifen. :) Trotzdem war ich nicht völlig vom Design überzeugt, was wohl bestimmt auch zum Teil an dem Freeform-Part lag. Aber eine interessante und lustige Tatsache im Schmuckhandwerk ist anscheinend, dass man immer jene Teile am schnellsten verkauft, von denen man selbst nicht hundertprozentig überzeugt ist. Dies war eines dieser Designs. :D Aber ich war glücklich, die Kundin war glücklich, also ein Erfolg rundherum. Für Projekt-Teil 2.0 habe ich mir sogar schon einen Strang passender Edelsteine ausgeschaut, ich müsste ihn nur noch tatsächlich kaufen. Was allerdings eine Weile dauern kann, da sich mein gespeicherter Einkaufskorb bei meinem Lieblings-Edelsteinhändler quasi täglich ändert. Entscheidungen, Entscheidungen. :)