Chrysocolla – What is it?

Chrysocolla is another one of Copper's crystal offspring. This hydrated Copper crystal has two distinct personalities. In its purest form, Chrysocolla is brittle, soft and unsuitable for jewelry and such, without undergoing enhancements. However, if silica is available to "agatize" a Chrysocolla specimen, the resulting crystal is an enchanting stone, hard enough to cut into jewelry, spheres and unique carvings. These Chrysocolla silicates are also known as gem silica.

Colors in Chrysocolla range from greenish blues, like Turquoise, to a Robin's egg blue in clear gem silica specimens. Like Azurite, Chrysocolla often occurs mixed with Malachite, Turquoise and the above, resulting in unusually beautiful gemstones.

Where is it found?
The stone forms after Copper deposits are diluted by hydrothermal solutions, often rich in silicates (Quartz) and other minerals. This material deposits in surface stones, where it is weathered away by rains and winds. Ultimately it leaches back into Mother finally crystallizing into Chrysocolla, as well as Turquoise, Malachite, Wulfenite, Azurite and dozens of other sedimentary gems.

Some of the finest specimens of Chrysocolla Gem Silica are found in the Arizona mines. The deposits in the Keystone mine were first discovered in 1905. Though Native Americans had mined similar material from nearby locations hundreds of years earlier.

It is believed that the Copper deposits that created this vast array of mineral and crystal specimens originated in the Arizona area between the middle of the Mesozoic era and the beginning of the Cenozoic. If you remember the history of Petrified Wood, at one time Arizona was a vast shallow sea that became buried. Eventually colliding land masses heaved plains into mountains, pushing the area's primal past back to the surface and creating ideal conditions for Copper to weather and recrystallize.

Similar occurrences of these Copper crystals are found in New Mexico and Sonora Mexico. Outside the US, Chrysocolla is also mined in Israel, Zaire, England, Russia, Namibia, Australia, Chile, Greece and China.

How it got it’s name?
The Greek roots of this gemstone's name seem to have little to do with the crystal itself. Chrysos is Greek for ‘old’ and ‘kolla’ means glue. Originally the term was applied to a substance used for soldering Gold. Not a single reference indicated how this name became stuck to the stone we call Chrysocolla.

Healing & Spiritual Properties
The healing properties of Chrysocolla are said to be used for easing heartache and stamina in health. For the inner self it provides wisdom, peace, love, communication, vitality and inner strength. It is an excellent gemstone used for meditations; holding a piece in your hand one could visualize peace and health emanating form the stone. It is also highly recommended for the treatment of arthritis and believed to have detoxifying properties as well as aid in digestion.

Reprint from Ore’s Featured Gemstones.

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!

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.

Wire Favorites

These are my favorite designs done over the past year that have been accented with wire sculpture. I enjoyed making these designs and coming up with more and more wire sculputre to accent the beauty of the gemstones. Next year I'll be taking advanced wire working classes and as I perfect the designs, will be adding more wire sculpture to many of my jewelry designs!


The first is made with an unusual gemstone in Turritella Agate accented with cultured freshwater pearls, Smoky Quartz and put together with handcrafted wire coiled links made in non-tarnish silver. This was one of the first designs I did with coiled links, I later graduated into double coiled links in different designs.

The second one is a more bold, flirty and classy look all in one! This piece again has the coiled links, but in black artistic and non-tarnish brass wires. Charmed in the center of each coiled loop is an awesome faceted Sardonxy Agate in marbled colors of black, brown, white and cream. I dangled 3 of the Agates from the center of necklace to act as a swing pendant. The matching earrings are made of Agate, including a dark brown round agate and Onyx.

The next design is a favorite of almost everyone who sees it. Beautiful handcrafted spiral links in non-tarnish silver and then accented with stabilized Turquoise nuggets and a medium freeform pendant that I accented in the same wire. The earrings are made of the same wire in smaller coils and have the same Turquoise nuggets.

Affordable Holiday Gifts

The state of the economy has left many people worried, unsettled or rethinking their financial situation and holiday gift buying; but still many are looking for that unique and affordable holiday gift. That is where we come in; Timeless Designs offers natural gemstone jewelry uniquely handcrafted into one-of-a-kind pieces for the individual and at affordable prices that won’t break the bank.

Buying exclusive, handcrafted jewelry doesn’t have to be expensive; and by no means does it mean that we have sacrificed the quality of the piece for lower prices. To bring exquisite natural gemstone jewelry designs to you, this year we went direct and traveled to the world’s 2nd largest Gem & Mineral Show in Tucson, Arizona. There we shopped from thousands of vendors at hundreds of shows in the gemstone and jewelry industry. We came across and purchased some of the most unusual cuts and selection of natural gemstones and metal beads ever seen. This allows us to create some fresh, unique and individual design pieces, like no others, at affordable prices to our clients.
Shop our website and purchase necklaces, necklace sets, earrings, bracelets, and smart pendants. Choose from jewelry designs in an array of coral, turquoise, agate, jasper, and onyx; accented with our trademark wire sculpture links, twists, and spirals; then highlighted with metal spacers in silver, gold, and copper along with Swarvoski crystals, Dichroic pendants, pearls, and glass Czech beads.

Each purchase comes with a gift box all set for giving; just add your own card or wrap and you’re ready to give a one-of-a-kind jewelry design to anyone.

So what are you waiting for…visit us at our last show of the season November 22nd – 23rd here in San Antonio and chose from among our collection of distinctively handcrafted jewelry or browse our website and purchse from the comforts of your home or office.

What A Difference A Year Makes

It has been a long year filled with tons of learning, development and gaining of experience. This past weekend’s show went very well and I’m very pleased in booth display. In looking at the booth photos, it made me stop and think how far we’ve come in booth display at shows.

I found this early picture (above) from the same show a year ago; notice how cluttered and disorganized the tables look. The booth is in a “U” shape allowing customers to come into the booth; however there is no real flow among the jewelry for customers. This picture almost makes me cry to think it was so unprofessional, cluttered and in such disarray. There is almost no space for customers and us to walk within the booth; thinking back it was like everyone was bumping into each other!

A year later……
The booth is now inverted so that customer’s walk along the outside of the tables. We’ve found that displaying this way the customer’s don’t feel trapped or pushed into any sells and can look at the jewelry in a leisure fashion. There is an even flow of the jewelry from table to table and everything is displayed in a professional and organized manner. This week we received the final piece to our booth display, professional display table clothes in a natural complementing color. We can’t wait to use them this weekend, along with the new neutral colored necklace busts. With the holidays approaching, this weekend we are going to try something a little different and add touches of Fall or Holidays around the tables. The two pictures here show the booth before the jewelry was placed and the finished booth after placing all the jewelry.


I'm sure there are a few things we will continue to 'tweak' as time goes on, but for now, I think we have finally found our 'booth'!!

Black Onyx Re-Design

Sometimes a design just doesn’t work and I take the time to redesign it. This particular set looked like the first picture, a nice design with small links in different shapes.

In discussing this necklace with someone, she noted that it needed a ‘chunkier and black’ look. So, after spending time working through different necklace designs, this is the new design with Black Onyx. The new design still has the Dichroic pendant as a focal point, then accented with black Onyx gemstones, brass non-tarnish wire links in heavy 16g wire and Swarvoski crystals. I also expanded the necklace from it's original length of 19.5" to 24.5"

Let me know what you think, it is available for purchase in my Etsy shop along with many other designs!

Spiked Mother-of-Pearl

Brand new from the design board and studio! This lovely bold piece is made from natural creamy white spiked Mother-of-Pearl, mixed between greenish/black glass seed beads and highlighted by two brass wire caged Prehnite gemstones. At the bottom of the necklace are several non-tarnish brass wire spikes, as a mimic to the mother-of-pearl. Inspired by the ocean and nature, it is available in my Etsy shop along with many other of nature’s delights!

Gemstones in the Raw

Looking to add to your gemstone collection of raw material or want something new to add in those photographs? New listings in my Etsy shop for gemstone material in the raw. These particular pieces are chunky small sizes and come from Arkansas and Arizona. The chunky bunch consists of Petrified Wood, Green Fluorite, clear crystal Quartz, and a sandy/peachy/pink crystal Quartz. The single teal piece below is Chalcopyrite from Arizona. Each piece has been identified and categorized by a Registered Gemologist here in San Antonio, Texas. For any questions, please contact us.

Visit my Etsy shop; we’ll be adding more loose raw gemstone materials and loose faceted gemstones for purchase.