Fun In Bones Fossil Design

When I came across these lampwork beads in Tucson this year, I just new I had to have them. The creative look of a bone would really be a great design with some of my fossils. I kept creating until yesterday I came up with this latest creation using the lampwork bones.

The necklace focal is an button ammonite fossil pendant that has a toffee colored background with the fossil in black and off-white, showing just a hint of crystallization. It is polished on one side and left semi-raw on the backside. The pendant is set with supporting and coil wires in artistic non-tarnish brass wire.



The base of the necklace is the fun irregular lampwork bone beads! The colors of the bones are a begie/cream with some being slightly darker than others; I’ve accented some of them with freeform wire wrapping. Between the bones are rough cut rondelles in red star jasper, small black jet disks and round gold-tone spacers.

Find your next ‘bone’ treasure among our artisan designed jewelry!

Dichroic Glass Pendant Wonders

Dichroic glass is glass containing multiple micro-layers of metal oxides which give the glass dichroic optical properties. The invention of dichroic glass is often erroneously attributed to NASA and its contractors, who developed it for use in dichroic filters. Dichroic glass dates back to at least the 4th century AD as seen in the Lycurgus cup.

Multiple ultra-thin layers of different metals (gold, silver), metal oxides (titanium, chromium, aluminum, zirconium, magnesium) and silica are vaporized by an electron beam in a vacuum chamber. The vapor then condenses on the surface of the glass in the form of a crystal structure. This is sometimes followed by a protective layer of quartz crystal. The finished glass can have as many as 30 to 50 layers of these materials yet the thickness of the total coating is approximately 30 to 35 millionths of an inch (about 760 to 890 nm). The coating that is created is very similar to a gemstone and, by careful control of thickness, different colors are obtained.

I love working with dichroic glass, just not really good at making any beads or pendants; however I’m in luck! A very good friend and fellow artisan Anna is a premier glass designer here in San Antonio, Texas. She makes some of the most incredible, gorgeous dichroic one-of-kind pieces (I know, I personally have quite a few of her pendant sets!). I buy her pendants and incorporate them into my own creative designs; accenting with wire, metals, crystals, or natural stones; drawing on the colors of the pendant to develop the jewelry.

These two designs are using Anna’s pendants as a focal and then using the different wire and charm techniques to showcase the beauty found within each individual pendant.

In the first design, I use a free form shaped pendant that is hung below the crystals from non-tarnish brass wire as a bail. I’ve then accented with individual hand-charmed pieces in black agate, beige freshwater cultured pearl nuggets, creamy white glass pearls, and faceted swarovski crystals in erinite and indicolite. The creation hangs from an eggshell colored silk cord in a stationary position. There are little hints of wire in hanging swirls also handcrafted in non-tarnish brass wire.

The second piece I chose a nice almost arrowhead shaped pendant with accenting designs in gold, green and hint of blue against a black background. Surrounding it again are hand-charmed pieces in faceted swarvoski crystals indicolite, cosmo black, gold/black Diablo, gold, citrine, ab smoky topaz, and metallic green-blue. The all are braided on a 6 strand ribbon cord necklace; I left them a little lose as this fit better to this type of a design, you can twist the crystals around to change the colors slightly. Hidden among the crystals are a few handmade wire spirals in non-tarnish brass wire.

Find these and many other uniquely artisan crafted designs at our online shop!

*Research from various websites.

Turquoise in Mosaic

I love the colors of these beads; bit shades of green with a hint of rust or blue among them, known at mosaic Turquoise. Though not entirely a natural stone, these beads are made from composites of crushed Turquoise bits. They make beautiful matrix beads and great additions to any piece of jewelry; rather the center of attention or as an accent to natural stones, crystals, metals or ceramics.

This set is made from the small more dominate green mosaic Turquoise beads, then mixed with toffee colored ceramic beads, gold spacer disks and light gold-lined glass seed beads; the highlight is button Ammonite handcrafted in brass non-tarinish wire.

Visit our collections for available designs from an array of stones and raw materials.

A Mix of Turquoise

This lovely set has a mix of Turquoise; brown matrix and faceted rounds and a wavy pendant. All highlighted by Rumbled Cacilicia, Ivoryite and topaz Crystals. A nice pair of matching dangle earrings completes the set.

Turquoise: Spiritual attunement, cleansing, healing, protection, valor, soothing, peace of mind, guidance through the unknown, romantic spontaneity.

Browse and purchase many different jewelry designs in natural gemstones and wire sculpture at Timeless Designs.

Black ‘n Gold in Onyx & Pyrite

Our resident family gemologist is starting to cut, shape and polish natural gemstones; this Pyrite pendant is one of his creations. I just love the unique shape and doming affect set against the two tone non-tarnish wire of brass and black; large swirls highlight the bail. It is hung from beautifully faceted flat rondelle Onyx gemstones, mixed in a few gold Swarovski crystals and added a vermeil textured toggle and matching earrings. When I made the bail, I did it a little larger than expected -- so this pendant comes off the necklace -- wear it with or without the pendant -- 2-1 set!

Find this and other wired and natural gemstone beauties for purchase at Timeless Designs.

Traditional Properties
Onyx: Self-control, decision making, intuition, recognition of personal strengths.
Pyrite: Defense, prevention, protection from negativity, physical wholeness, memory.

New For Spring

Fresh from the design board and studio, these new gemstone jewelry designs are classy, casual, flirty, and dressy. They will work with just about any style and fit any budget.

Flavors of yellow and blue in this necklace from Petsky Fossil Coral and blue Quartz between handcrafted wire links in non-tarnish brass.

Turquoise barrels scattered among antique gold spacers and beige seed beads.

Looking for a little spice, try this hot shades of red Coral in graduated gemstones shaped like peanuts and finished with dangle earrings.

A touch of class with this beauty made from freshwater cultured pearls among Kyanite and accented by a Lapis Luzli pendant and all in sterling silver.

Accents of red Coral hidden between nuggets and nuggets of Turquoise with all sterling silver; adding a touch of southwest to your collection.

Visit Timeless Designs for these and many other gemstone jewelry designs.

Unusual Gemstone Combination

Blue Peruvian Opal and Citrine gemstones; Dichroic Pendant and Swarovski Crystals
Visit Timeless Designs for more details.

Timeless Designs custom jewelry Sale ends soon --- hurry to get in on the great deals!

Just Around the Corner

Only a few more weeks until that day of Lovers….Valentine’s Day! With a slow economy and bleak outlook there are some positive aspects to getting that special someone a gift….Timeless Designs has inexpensive natural gemstone jewelry in unique and unusual designs.

Something in an Agate….
Agates: Balancing physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual energies; perceptiveness, strength, inspiration, awakening talents.

Or maybe something in a Chrysocolla…..
Chrysocolla: Easing heartache, stamina, wisdom, peace, love, communication, vitality, inner strength.

How about Howlite a great gemstone for Lover’s holiday to show emotional expression….
Howlite: Awareness, calm, emotional expression, observation, patience, eliminating negativity.

Add a little bit of creativity and spontaneity to your relationship with Peruvian Pink Opal…..
Opal: Creativity, spontaneity, relationships, memory, happy dreams and changes

Pay attention to details with some Rhodonite….

Rhodonite: Peace, generosity, attention to details.

Or make that day special with a little Turquoise for romantic spontaneity…..
Turquoise: Spiritual attunement, cleansing, healing, protection, valor, soothing, peace of mind, guidance through the unknown, romantic spontaneity.

Browse our jewelry or sales selections for that perfect gift……

Morocco Agate, Kamaba & Sandy Jasper, Butterscotch Quartz

A few more designs from the studio, a mix of natural gemstones with wire sculpture.


The first two designs feature Morocco Agate a very nice stone that is a conglomerate of colors; one design is 3 strands of floating gemstones; accented with glass pink lined seed beads. The second design features the same Agate but mixed with copper, Swarovski crystals, and freshwater cultured pearls. Both designs draw on the Morocco Agate, but give totally different looks when mixed with different combinations of beads, glass, crystals and colors.




The third design is mixing bold Kamaba Jasper with Butterscotch Quartz, Sandy Jasper and beige lined glass seed bead accents, and then finished with non-tarnish brass wire links.

You can see these and more of our new (and current) designs available for purchase on our website!

My Picks for Spring-Summer 2009

After researching the internet and reading the latest fashion, gemstone and jewelry magazines; my picks for Spring-Summer 2009 are a little different than what the ‘experts’ are suggesting…go figure!

Colors Trends: For color trends I still see the staples of black, white and beige which never really go out of ‘style’ they just are either hot or cold. However, I think there will be some undertones in softer pastel colors; such as yellow, pale pinks and blues, and greys; all highlighted by darker tones in navy, purple, red and turquoise. These colors to be seen more in the Spring, which will later give way in Summer to your darker, brighter and deeper tones of turquoise, salmon coral, hot pinks-red-orange-yellow combinations, mixed with hues of purples, greens and blues; all accented with softer beige, grey, cream and white.

Gemstones & Jewelry Trends: As the economy has taken a spiral downward, the days of having high priced jewelry in precious gemstones; Ruby, Emerald, Sapphire, and Diamond are going to be less attractive. I see the trend turning to more natural gemstones, a much more economical answer to trending jewelry. Turquoise, coral, agates, jaspers, pearls, and quartz will all play big parts in jewelry this Spring-Summer; mostly because of their vast variety in different colors schemes. Any of these stones can go with just about anything and any metal from gold to silver to copper to brass….also something we will see more of in the coming year.

As for the jewelry itself, I think we will see more trends in the traditional uniquely handcrafted pieces reflecting more one-of-a-kind pieces verses the mass produced overseas jewelry. Necklaces will be longer in multi-strands; charmed and chunky, with pendants making a comeback as well. Earrings in a longer sleek look; chandelier, charmed, and multi dangle. Bracelets will be a mix of gemstones, metals being large or small. Whatever the look for the season one thing is for sure, no woman will be without her accessories in jewelry designs; a mix of chains, wires, glass and all kinds of natural gemstone completing looks in classical and casual or sassy and chic.

Remember, whatever your look, just be yourself and do what makes you feel good! And if you’re in the market for a new necklace, pair of earrings or bracelet, wonder over and check out our selection of uniquely handcrafted gemstone jewelry!

Turquoise Agate & Pearls

A brand new design for 2009 and in to two of the most requested colors/gemstones of Turquoise and navy blue. A natural gemstone combination of China Turquoise with a nice brown/rust matrix grain, navy Madagascar Agate that is slightly marbled in gray and cultured freshwater Pearls shaped in natural teardrops; all accented by glass beige lined seed beads and sterling silver open spacers.





This piece is bold and classy for the Spring/Summer 2009 collection and would look just great with any business suite or a pair of jeans, white t-shirt and jacket. Whatever the occasion, this little number will add a touch of spice to your outfit!


Healing and Traditional Properties
Agates: Balancing physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual energies; perceptiveness, strength, inspiration, awakening
Pearl: Purity, faith, charity, innocence, integrity, focus, wisdom, spirituality, sincerity, fertility.
Turquoise: Spiritual attunement, cleansing, healing, protection, valor, soothing, peace of mind, guidance through the unknown, romantic spontaneity.

It is available for purchase along with many other designs on our website. Bookmark and watch our website, this is the first of many more designs to come for our Spring/Summer 2009 collection!

New Year Growing Pains

As Timeless Designs experiences growing pains, everything goes through development, expansion and upgrades. Our website and blog are no different and as a significant part of our business, we’ve spent some time working to create a website and blog that reflects Timeless Designs. We did research looking at all different kinds of websites, read numerous articles, books and gathered website developers-programmers-usability analysts insight and finally……we are ready to release our re-designed website!

Ushering in the New Year, we have done some significant re-design to both the blog and website. First, we launched the re-designed blog last week with a few miner changes. But today, we (nervously) begin the 1st week of January with the release of our newly re-designed website.

Some re-design highlights:
Softer background and easy to read text
Added a gallery on the front page – no more staple single pictures
Simpler navigation – we’ve combined, added and deleted a few buttons
Made it easy to find information such as policies and links
Links now have a few details added about each site
Revamped the tags and descriptions for better results in search engines
And more……….

Just like our jewelry, our website is an evolving entity and will continue to grow as does Timeless Designs.
So what are you waiting for, come on over and check things out --- we hope you like it, we sure do!

Happy New Year

The New Year is here and we at Timeless Designs are gearing up and ready to go for an even BIGGER and BETTER 2009!

After a much needed vacation that energized us, the creative juices are starting to flow! We can’t wait, so watch our blog and website over the next several weeks as we release new designs, more business and industry articles, and vendor reviews…and these are just a few of the new things we have planned for 2009!

2008 in Review

We started off with a BANG and the highlight of the year with our trip in February, to the Tucson Gem & Mineral show (2nd largest in the world, 1st largest in the U.S.)!! At the AGTA show we saw many precious gems; diamonds, emerald, rubes, sapphires -- oh my!

It was like a ‘kid in a candy store’ when we hit the numerous bead shows --- every kind of wholesale vendor under the sun, or should we say tent! The street vendors were just as numerous and the mineral shows were just incredible! Looking to get your entire inventory in one location, this was the show. We hand picked (as always) all our beads, findings and inventory for the entire year….cuts and natural gemstones that I’ve never heard of or seen such as navy Madagascar Agate, Morocco Agate, Turtellia Agate, Peruvian Opals, Australian Boulder Opals, natural Jaspers; and then there were lots of old favorites in Turquoise, Coral, cultured freshwater Pearls, Mother-of-Pearl, Howlite and many Agates and Jaspers. Metal beads from copper to silver to gold to platinum to stainless steal; it was like Christmas all over again!

Our designs (see some of our favorites in the posts below) were uniquely bolder this year due in part by the stock we picked up in Tucson. Introduced where chunky and funky styles, large longer styles, more wire work and sculpture creations and of course the classic stylish favorites; we also introduced this fall a new pendant line where the pendant can be removed from its ribbon cord – such versatility! At our first spring shows, many people were delighted at the different cuts and unusual natural gemstone designs. We were on our way to blazing a new trail for our goal to produce high-end quality gemstone jewelry. We added several new spring shows this year, but will be downsizing the entire schedule for 2009 and the future. Doing a total of about 10-12 shows this entire year was a challenge and we quickly realized that restocking between shows proved interesting. In 2009, we will most likely scale back to around 6-8 shows for the season.

Also in the spring we opened our first online avenue with Etsy; an online shopping venue which is still active, but not as much so since we launched our e-commerce site in October. The next big thing for us was in September when we were published in a coffee table book, “Handbook to Handmade” with a 2-page layout and even made the front cover with one of our silver necklace link designs. You can read all about it on our About Us website page.

The fall show season started off early this year by adding the military monthly luncheons in August and September; which we love doing and hope to continue in the future! The show season was in full swing by October with Encino, Deep in the Arts of Texas, a couple of church fairs and in November Alzafar and the huge holiday 2-day fair at Freeman Coliseum; boasted as the largest holiday shopping show in south central Texas. We closed out the year with the military monthly luncheon ‘Holiday Mini-Bazaar’ in December. You can always find out where we are at next by stopping by our website Events page.

As mentioned, in October we launched our own website ‘Timeless Designs’; where you can purchase many of our jewelry collection, see what shows we will be attending, browse customer design requests, read about how Timeless Designs came to be or see our polices and favorite links. Another avenue is this blog, which was launched in July and will continue to be a staple for us – we want to keep in touch with our customers; so we created the blog. Next year we hope to bring more in the way of jewelry industry news and techniques, more business tips, vendor reviews, announce new designs and also continue to list our show information and any website or show promotions.
So, now we will be taking a breath……and for the next little while Timeless Designs will take time off to enjoy the holiday season. We have enjoyed this year more than ever! We have grown, developed, become seasoned and spiced, and met the many challenges that came our way. We want to thank all those great customers that made 2008 the best year here at Timeless Designs and helped us to achieve our goals; we hope that next year, 2009 will be even better. We have plenty in store for 2009; new designs, new techniques, and more information on business and jewelry – you will definitely want to keep an eye on our blog and website --- stay tuned!

It’s been a great year and we are definitely looking forward to many more to come. So from our family to yours….

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!
The Timeless Designs Family

Bold & Chunky Favorites

This year I was asked many times why I hadn't created many bold and chunky designs. So, after looking for larger gemstones, I created some of the following 'bold and chunky designs'. Here are a few more of my favorites of 2008; chunky, bold and charmed describe all three of these lovely sets from the collection this year.

The first is a chunky set done in Peach Jasper, Smoky & Cherry Quartz; where I have charmed the Smoky Quartz between the gemstones. The matching earrings are of Peach Jasper and then hand wired including the ear wires.

The second one is made from Kambaba Japser, Prehnite and Smoky Quartz nuggets. Again, I did the Smoky Quartz as individual charms between the Kambaba Japser and Prehnite gemstones. I custom made the earrings for this set in Kambaba Jasper, Smoky Quartz and a brass coil in non-tarnish wire.

The next set is a chunky set of yellowish clear glass chunks mixed between purple crystals; hung at the center is a Kiwi Jasper pendant with the same color schemes and I had enough of the chunky glass left over to make charmed earrings hanging from fishhook ear wires.

The last set is made from handcrafted wire links in non-tarnish brass wire dangled with Swarovski Copper crystals and accented with teardrop gemstones in Howlite. The matching hoops have a Howlite gemstone and a couple of larger round copper Swarovksi crystals.

Enjoy some of these and many other designs at our website.

Customer Custom Requests

Though all of our designs are custom jewelry pieces; it is much more fun to have an original and unique work of art in jewelry; rather than something that is mass produced or duplicated. Making sure that we keep our designs fresh and unique is often difficult, but a challenge I take on every time I step into the studio to create.



Quite often we get customer custom requests for something a little more to their liking or personality. These requests are usually to make something in their favorite colors or gemstones and are accompanied with a request to add my trademark wire sculpture.










If you would like t0 make a custom request, just contact us for more information!

Goldstone: Old World Folklore Stone

Goldstone is an unusual gemstone in that it is manmade from a type of glass with copper or copper salts in the presence of a reducing flame. Under the right oxidative conditions, the copper ions meld into the silica to produce the transparent bluish-green or red-brown colors. When the goldstone cools, the copper remains in an atomic isolation and becomes small crystalline clusters.
The most common form of goldstone gives the illusion of being reddish-brown, although in fact that color comes from the copper crystals and the glass itself is colorless. Some goldstone variants have an intensely-colored glass matrix, usually blue or violet, more rarely green, and a more silvery appearance to the suspended crystals, whose color may be partially masked by the glass or which may be based on different metals than copper like cobalt, manganese or chromium.

Old World Folklore
Goldstone has been around for centuries and was presumed discovered by accident in the 17th century Venice by the Miotti family. Old World folklore attributes the discovery of Goldstone from an old monastery where monks were trying to make gold out of other materials, specifically alchemy. Molten copper was tipped by accident into a crucible of molten glass and crystallized out in tiny bright triangular crystals and forming a melt from which objects with golden light could be formed. It has an alternate or folklore name of ‘Monk’s Gold’ or ‘Monkstone’ from this discover before it was named Goldstone due to the starry internal reflections of the stone.
Properties
Though Goldstone doesn’t have any associated birthstone or anniversary, it does however have some associated properties. Goldstone is associated with vitality, energy and the uplifting of a persons spirits. It is known to help to reduce tension and believed to be helpful in securing love, protection, riches and inspired diplomacy. It is found in the United States, India and Russia. Has a symbolic meaning for Ambition and Drive.
Blue Goldstone is a stone for wisdom and science
Red/Brownish Goldstone is a stone for physical stimulation

I came across some Goldstone recently that the dealer called “Bad Goldstone” because there are darker striations within the beads and not totally clear starry inclusions. Looking at these beads, I felt they were unique and would make great additions to a jewelry design. Though a very beautiful stone, I have partnered it with Peach Jasper, Cherry Quartz, and gold caged lampwork beads in black-pink-cream colors. It is available for purchase on my website along with many other unique and original natural gemstone jewelry designs.