Custom Piece - Blue Lace Agate Earrings

I had a customer contact me late last week asking if I could put together a particular item for her.  She had seen the Rhodochrosite pendant and earring set I recently did and quite liked it, particularly the earrings. 

Rhodochrosite and Sterling Silver
Pendant and Earring Set

She asked me if it were possible to make a set of earrings similar to the rhodochrosite ones, but with blue lace agate as she preferred the colour of the Agate. The agate has a very similar pattern to that of the rhodochrosite, but with a nice light blue colour.

The result is a custom made set of Blue Lace Agate cabochons measuring 10mm round each. Each cabochon has been set into Sterling Silver Bezel setting earrings in a Kidney Wire style. This has made a very simple but attractive set.

Custom Made Blue Lace Agate and Sterling Silver Earrings

Blue Lace Agate is a fairly common form of agate which is a form of chalcedony. Blue lace agate was originally discovered in Namibia, which today is still the main source of the gemstone, although South Africa also has a large deposit. In the past, blue lace agate has also been known as the 'Gem of Ecology' because of its blue and white banding, which can quite often look like clouds in the sky. The material is great to cut, it is relatively hard (Blue lace agate rates approximately 6.5 - 7 on the Mohs hardness scale) and finishes with a magnificent shine.

 

Blue Lace Agate Cabochon on
Leather Cord Necklace

The earrings are hopefully being delivered today. I hope my customer enjoys them as much as I enjoyed making them! I am more than happy to consider most custom orders - If I am able to source the material, I should be able to cut it for you. You can contact me via email (jakagems@hotmail.com) or via my facebook page if you want to discuss a custom order.

Until next time!

Jewellery from a Jaka Gems stone

I have been cutting stones for many years and recently I started making simple jewellery from them by either drilling a hole through the stone and attaching a bail or by gluing the stone

There are, however, far more clever people than I that can create beautiful jewellery from both cut stones and rough or tumbled stones.

Agate Cabochon

This is an agate cabochon that I cut some time ago and listed in my store. A lady from Canada bought this piece and I shipped it across there in early November.



In a small twist, I was contacted by another customer of mine from Canada, Shelley of Shelley's Stoneworks who I had sent some rough boulder opal to a little while before hand. She told me that she had been contacted by the purchaser of this cabochon and had been asked to set the stone.

This is the resulting pendant:

Wire Wrapped Agate Cabochon

This form of jewellery is known as Wire Wrapping and as you can see, it is a very effective way of setting stones. Shelley does some amazing work - You definitely need to check her stuff out! Head over to her Facebook Page: Shelley's Stoneworks. Let her know I sent you!

A Jaka Gems Christmas

Merry Christmas to all! Jaka Gems created quite a few unique Christmas gifts this year which were handed out yesterday.

Bread Knife with Stone Scales

Handles/scales for this bread knife were cut out of a form of Jasper for my Mum - It was very well received with Mum taking it straight out to the kitchen!

Swiss Army Knife with Stone Scales

This customized Victorinox Swiss Army Knife with Marble Bar Jasper scales went down an absolute treat with my Dad. His comment was 'I will treasure this! You can have it back when I die!'. I thought that was fantastic as he clearly appreciated it!









I received a last minute message from a good friend of mine on Sunday hoping to get a couple of pendants to give to her Mum. She couldn't quite decide between a couple of items in my online store so we worked a few things out and decided that instead of ready made pendants, I would cut some custom ones for her. She had been eying off a tiger iron pendant and a green banded jasper pendant in the store. I still had plenty of both materials left so she decided on one of each.

Tiger Iron and Green Jasper Pendants with Sterling Silver Bails

The Tiger Iron free form pendant on the left and the 30mm round green banded jasper pendant on the right are the ones that were given to her Mum. The one in the middle is a free form green banded jasper available for purchase through my store here.

My wife's family had a Kris Kringle this year where the theme was 'Home Made'. The person I ended up making for was my Sister in Law. As cutting stones is the only thing I am competent at as far as handmade goes, I obviously decided to make some jewellery. I ended up cutting 2 x 25mm round Northern Territory Prehnite cabochons. I set one in a round bezel pendant setting, the other I set in a round bezel ring setting so she had a matching set. I did however, forget to take a photo! If I manage to get a photo of these pieces I will update this entry! The pendant is similar to this one.


Update 28/12/12: I managed to get a photo of the ring/pendant set:

Northern Territory Prehnite Cabochons set in silver plated settings

There were many other pieces from the Jaka Gems store that went out as Christmas presents for others. I hope that the recipients of these enjoyed their gifts as much as I enjoyed creating them! If you recieved a Jaka Gems stone for Christmas, drop us a line and let us know what you think of it!

Until next time, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and I hope everyone has a safe holiday season!

Custom Goldstone Pendants

About 12 months ago I cut a small oval monkstone cabochon for a friend of mine at work. It was a fairly small stone, from memory perhaps 34mm x18mm, and it was cut at her request as it was one of her favourite stones. Her intention was to have the stone set by a jeweller.

Goldstone (sometimes referred to as monkstone) is a man made material with official origins dating back to seventeenth century Italy. The 'stone' sparkles or glitters as a result of the tiny metallic copper crystals within. The most common form of Goldstone is a reddish brown colour but it can also be found as a deep navy blue.

Unfortunately, not long after I cut the stone for her, her house was robbed and her jewellery box was taken. The stone I had cut for her was inside the jewellery box at the time. I only discovered this recently when she asked if I was able to cut her another piece. This pendant is the result:

Free From Teardrop Goldstone Cabochon Pendant

Although this picture isn't brilliant, you can see the sparkle or glitter within the cabochon. The material is made by melting together silica, copper oxide, and other metal oxides. This mixture is melted down in a vat to chemically reduce the copper ions to elemental copper. The vat is then sealed and the material is allowed to remain liquid long enough for the crystals to form. Once opened, the material hardens into what is seen above. You can find more information on Goldstone here.

Subsequently, my friend has asked for another couple of pieces which I have now cut for her.

This is a blue goldstone heart finished with a sterling silver bail:

Blue Goldstone Free Form Heart Cabochon Pendant

And this is an 18mm round Amethyst cabochon which she is giving to her daughter in law for Christmas:

18mm round Amethyst Cabochon Pendant

The amethyst is set into a small silver plated bezel setting.

For more pendants and cabochons please check out my facebook page and Storenvy store. You can also follow my blog to keep updated with all my lapidary work!

Bye for now!

Opal for a friend

I recently received a fairly cryptic message from a good friend of mine. Something to do with wanting a 4 carat opal cut for a ring she wanted to get made. She sent me a couple of pictures of a ring with an opal surrounded by what appeared to be rubies, or perhaps garnets.

Opal engagement ring which belonged to actress Sharon Tait

She told me after a few more messages that the ring in the picture belonged to actress Sharon Tate (Sharon Tate on Wikipedia), who was wearing the ring when she was murdered in the late 60's.

We figured out that without knowing the exact measurements of the stone, I wouldn't be able to get it exactly the same size, which was no issue. I also mentioned that the opal in the picture appeared to be of pretty high quality and that whatever rough opal I had would not be of the same standard. This was also of no concern.

As this person is one of my closest friends, I went pretty much straight to work. I picked out a nice looking piece of rough jelly opal from Coober Pedy (South Australia). Here are some photos of what the end result was (bearing in mind that all I had to work on was the picture above):

Opal cabochon for replica of Sharon Tate's engagement ring

Opal cabochon for replica of Sharon Tate's engagement ring

Opal cabochon for replica of Sharon Tate's engagement ring

This opal is what is known as Jelly Opal and it originates from Coober Pedy in South Australia. 97% of the worlds opal is mined in Australia with 80% of that coming from the mines of South Australia including Coober Pedy, Andamooka and Mintabie.

Unfortunately I am hopeless at taking photos of opal to get the colours to show. This piece does actually have a fair bit of flashy reds, blues and greens, but they don't really show up in these pictures. Clearly the stone is not the same sort of quality as Sharon Tate's ring, but I think I got the shape pretty much right. The one I cut ended up being roughly 6.4 carats and valued at around $25 AUD per carat.

I will be heading up to Sydney for a few days next week and will be handing over the stone to my friend while I am up there. She has already organized for a jeweler to make the replica of the ring for her. Hopefully it all works out and the ring turns out as nice as the original!

You can check out more of my opal cabochons in my store by visiting www.jakagems.storenvy.com or on facebook at www.facebook.com/jakagems

Thanks for viewing!

Until next time!