Hiya,
Just a short post this morning. Lots going on at the moment with jewellery and my latest van conversion but nothing I'm ready to put into a post yet!
Instead here's what I got up to over the weekend. There was a rock and gem show out in the sticks my friend spotted so we decided to go. I've never actually been to a gem show before despite working with them for several years so it was quite an exciting outing.
I didn't have a great deal of spare cash to buy things so I had to be sensible with the few items I bought.
There were lots of the usual tumbled polished stones I'm never very interested as they all look the same. However, there were a few stalls that had some really unique pieces and stones I'd never seen before.
I bought a small piece of this stuff, Peitersite. I'd never come across it before and it's beautiful. Kinda reminds me of tigers eye.
I'm probably going to wrap this in silver as that should compliment the smokey blue colour.
I also bought a nice petrified ammonite and some damaged quartz points for 30p each, at that price I bought a bag full as they're always useful to have around to add to designs.
Now my favourite purchase of the day was something I found whilst checking out a stalls nice Moldavite collection. off to one side the seller had a box of this stuff. Zincite.
Zincite
Polish Zincite Crystals from the Moldavite Mines collection.
Zincite crystals of this calibre only come from the zinc smelters of Poland. Red Zincite crystals are unique and very scarce. Zincite crystals are synthetic, the accidental fusion of natural and man-made. I was given the opportunity to select the highest grade red Zincite crystals from a large old collection.
So the man selling this stuff explained its a man-made crystal. His source was actually from a metal factory in Poland, When the building was demolished they found a huge stash of this stuff growing inside the chimneys. It's likely some of the chemicals from the factory combined and as they were hidden in the stack they were able to grow undisturbed.
From examining some of the specimens I noticed they look like glass but have the weight of metal. It's an odd material, my sort of thing!
Here's the piece I bought, I already started working on a design for it in Sterling Silver.
I'm hoping to have this piece finished in the next couple days so I'll get it posted up alongside another couple bits I've nearly finished.
I love pietersite! It’s definitely unique! I can’t wait to see what you come up with. I love to see fellow jewelry artists progress. By the way, what’s the biggest gauge wire you use? My fingers hurt with 16 but I like 16 gauge. It looks like you use a much bigger gauge. Have a wonderful day.
id never come across it before, it is beautiful!
biggest i have is 6mm which i bought in error as its just silly and near impossible to work haha but biggest i use regularly is 2mm. its good for the starting frame to build everything else off of.
Haha 6mm, that is impossible to work with. I forgot you were in the UK. We measure by gauge. 2mm is a pretty thick size. I use 16 gauge and that’s 1.2mm. I’m not sure if I can work with anything larger. Im thinking 1.6mm will be the largest I will get.
the 2mm is pretty heavy but it is really useful for the base, its hard to add in later as it bends everything out of shape trying to work it but if you use it as your very first wire it can be a useful solid frame.
I love your stuff, it's really nice to read about the process of choosing and deciding what to do with which materials. I'd love to see the finished work :-)
Ah thank you! :) I don't think i'll have time tonight but im hoping to finish this piece off in one more session tomorrow evening. I'll be sure to put some photos up when its done
Ok anyone gem/crystal savvy would have noted my comment on the Pietersite about it reminding me of Tigers Eye, after a little online research it turns out that is what its partly made up of!
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