Hand Wire Wrapped Fall Agate Slice

This new necklace set features an all naturally colored Brazilian agate slice pendant! The colors of orange and rust with some cream remind me of a deep fall sunset. I have hand wire wrapped it using non-tarnish brass wire with lots of twists at the bail.

  


I wanted this necklace to be versatile enough to wear any time of year, so I put softer bright colors within the necklace strands itself. I started with creamy smooth glass pearls, green marbled ceramic beads that hare caged in gold tone wire, and a little bit of sparkle with faceted rondelle crystals in light fall colors.

This piece is both elegant and classy using a variety of techniques; wire wrapping, caging, and mixing of ceramic, glass pearls and crystals with a lovely natural agate stone.

For more selection in fall pieces, browse our online shop to find your mixed autumn treasure!

Early Signs of Fall in Ammonite Fossil

This necklace design is from our Rock Yard Collection and features a lovely colored ammonite fossil pendant. The pendant shows crystallization in the center of the ammonite and some of the chambers. I’ve hand wire wrapped it using non-tarnish brass wire.

Also featured in the necklace are striking borosilicate glass lampwork beads with light green, white and black fine lines inside clear glass; additional lampwork beads in red and light green against a black background with bumpy knobs on the sides for accents.

The rest of the necklace has natural stones of green jasper that are accented with gold tone star bead caps and wooden beads with a thatched pattern.

Get an early start on your fall accents for the coming season; stop by our online store at Ruby Lane to browse and shop our collection of artisan crafted jewelry.

One’s Seashells Another’s Designs

Shells from the sea scatter the beachfronts and coasts in practically hundreds of varieties of shells. One type that is often sought is the volute shell. It is these shells that are most noted for variety and their distinctive color patterns, which make them valued by collectors and designers around the globe. Most are solid heavy shells but vary greatly in size and look.

 

Volutes are found in warm and temperate seas and are most common around Australian waters. All species have folds on the columella (central pillar of the gastropod shell (single shell) and visible within the aperture (opening at the gastropod shell front end). Most volutes burrow in sand and all are carnivorous (meat eaters).

This new design from our Southwest Flair Collection features square cut volute shell beads. The colored markings of dark against the soft shaded tan background are a perfect design companion with natural stone.

At the center focal I’ve used a lovely murano glass spoon pendant with soft tan, yellow and beige colors against a white background. Then I added in the shells, stacking them with the concave inward to create a more chic style; blue-green magnesite disks and bold colored cloisonné beads finish the necklace.

This style is a little flair of the southwest with a hint of the summer beach. Comb the collections of jewelry at our online Timeless Designs store at Ruby Lane! Never know what treasure you might find hidden to add to your jewelry box!

Fossilized Sand Dollars

Fossils come in many different shapes, sizes and varieties; one of the newest for us to work with in jewelry design is the Holectypus Echinoid, or sand dollar fossil. Holectypus, fossil echinoderm genus, of the extinct echinoids genus are much like the modern sea urchins and sand dollars.
 

This species are found as fossils exclusively in marine rocks of Jurassic to Cretaceous age (between 200 million and 65.5 million years ago).  The echinoids, having such an extremely long fossil record, are often used by scientist and paleontologist for dating rock strata and fossil locations.

The Holectypus was bun shaped with a flat bottom and arched back. The mouth of the echinoids is at the underside of the animal. These are rough looking fossil specimens as most have some cracking and chipping on the top of the shell, but the underside of the specimens are very well preserved. The echinoid has an exoskeleton or outer shell with no inner skeleton. This animal lived mostly in shallow seas and would have moved about on the sea floor by way of moving their long spines that stuck out from their shell; eating mostly algae. Today, many collections, both private and public, are comprised of many different species of fossil echinoids.

Our newest designs to our Rock Yard Collection feature the Holectypus Echinoid from the Cretacous Majunga Basin, Madagascar. Each one is unique and has been hand wire wrapped in non-tarnish wires. Each necklace design is unique......

....this one to the right reflects a Mediterranean or Egyptian design style with a mix of golden citrine nugget chips, faceted indian agate and amethyst crystals. 

  

...this set to the left a more chic tribal and ethnic design constructed with a couple of carved onyx stones with a matte finish, painted onyx, turquoise, and rare Arizona ivoryite.

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Ammonite Fossils – Matching Pendant & Earrings

Ammonite fossil pendants are pretty easy to come by, but to get matching earrings for a complete set that is a little more difficult. Here are a couple of wire wrapped ammonite pendants with matching earrings; they come on silk cords that can be removed and worn with on other collars, chains or cords. All these fossils come from the regions of Madagascar.

Ammonite Fossil Pendant & Matching Earrings in  Beautiful Earthy colors; wire wrapped in non-tarnish brass wire

Ammonite Fossil Pendant & Matching Earrings in Striking Black; wire wrapped in non-tarnish silver wire

 

Rugged Elegance to Wearable Earth…Check out Timeless Designs Ruby Lane shop to purchase artisan crafted jewelry!

Fossils Become Wired Pendants

One of the unique pendants I work with is fossils; they are so incredible and each one is a gift of nature and millions of years old from the far regions of Madagascar. These beautiful pendants have been wired and incorporated into bold, chic and striking necklace sets.

This button ammonite fossil pendant has gone a little southwest; hand wire wrapped and then mixed with mosaic turquoise rondelles and two sizes of blue turquoise rounds. (to the right)

  

 

Lovely browns and greens in a fire ammonite handcrafted and mixed up with lots of hand charmed crystals of golden topaz, light topaz, metallic green, smoky quartz, and green lampwork beads.
(to the left)







Classic yellow citrine highlights this button ammonite fossil; hand wire wrapped and mixed up with green jasper, lime lampwork beads and a hint of crystals.
(to the right)

Soft colors of the earth in a fire ammonite handcrafted and mixed with golden bronzite, Tibetan ceramic beads and more hand charmed crystals of golden and light topaz and smoky crystals.

(to the left)


For these and many other artisan crafted designs in wire, browse our Timeless Designs shop at Ruby Lane!

Idaho’s Gem Owyhee Picture Jasper

Called King of the Picture Jasper Owyhee Jasper is colorful and popular picture jasper that probably derives its name from the Owyhee River. This material has been offered under several trade names including Owyhee Jasper Agate, Owyhee Junction Jasper, Owyhee Picture Jasper, and Owyhee Picture Rock.

Owyhee Jasper is basically petrified mud. There are three jasper mines within a mile of each other, the LED, Wildhorse and Rocky Butte. The Classic Owyhee Jasper has a wide variety of patterns and shapes. The jasper is known for its bright colored scenic patterns with and without blue sky. This jasper depicts desert scenes, high mountain ranges, winding roads and meadows or even the seas.

Where does Owyhee Picture Jasper Come From?

Owyhee Picture Jasper comes from the Owyhee mountain area, situated on the Idaho-Oregon border, along US 95 just south of Homedale Idaho. The Owyhee River begins in northern Nevada and flows north close to the Oregon - Idaho border. It eventually empties into the Snake River just south of Nyssa, Oregon, about 25 miles northwest of Jordan Valley, Oregon.

The river abruptly turns east for several miles, makes several loops and then turns north again. It finally flows into the Owyhee Reservoir. This is Eastern Oregon's high desert country in Malheur County and even spills over into Humboldt County, Nevada. Many types of picture jasper, plume agate, petrified wood, rhyolite, colored agates and saginites come from all these areas.

Owyhee picture jasper is a natural wonder depicting the great beauty of the earth it was born in.

This design features the famous Idaho gem, owyhee picture jasper in smooth polished rounds; the have been drilled on the diagonal to form the overlap, making designing with these types of cuts very difficult! I’ve hung a large puffy crystal heart in a light beige and the bail is many hand charmed crystal clusters, which area also in a few places in the necklace.

 

 

  

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Research material from mineralsnmore.com.

Old Fossils Brought To Life

Fossils are so fun to work with; they give a designer a never ending color pallet to work with. In these two new designs I’m using goniatite fossils from Atlas Mountains, Morocco. Goniatites are extinct ammonoids, which flourished from the mid-Devonian to the Late Permian (251.4 to 390 Ma). These shelled cephalopods related to squid, octopus and belemnites forming the order Goniatitida. The Gonatitida originated in the Middle Devonian 390 Ma and survived the Late Devonian extinction. The goniatitids flourished during theCarboniferous and Perian and became extinct at the end of the Permian 251.4 Ma. They were survived by their cousins the ceratite ammonoids.

Pictured to the right, earthy tones in this goniatite pendant wired in silver non-tarnish wire; accented with black agate mixed with pyrite, clusters hand charmed irregularly shaped freshwater cultured pearls.

Pictured to the left, black and white colors in this goniatite wired in non-tarnish silver wire; accented with deep dark brown almost black agate, freshwater cultured pearls, and swarovski crystals with a scattering of silver tone pewter metal beads.

Find your next treasure from the earth in our uniquely handcrafted artisan jewelry!

Different Rainbow Pyrite Design

The highlight of this necklace is the large round rainbow pyrite pendant! I’ve highlighted it with bright gold non-tarnish silver wire; nicely blending with the white/dark gray background with flecks of golden pyrite. The base of the necklace is made from faceted rondelle sandy jasper, daisy spacers, smooth green/black ceramic beads, and a few faceted rondelles olive colored crystals. A nice round cut rainbow pyrite pendant that is accented with non-tarnish bright gold wire swirls.

Pyrite: Defense, prevention, protection from negativity, physical wholeness, memory.
Jaspers: Protection, nurturing, joy, awareness; balancing of physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual energies.

Browse our jewelry collections for many other uniquely artisan crafted pieces!

Wired Ancient Fossil Meets Southwest

Wired ancient fossil meets a little southwest…..I started this design using a midnight black Ammonite Fossil from Madagascar, it shows a nice vein chambers in gray and is handcrafted in non-tarnish silver with coil and supporting wires. The base of the necklace is then created from Arizona Turquoise (stabilized) graduated in raw chips; all reflecting earthy colors of brown, rust, black, cream, green, and hint of blue. Scattered between the turquoises are barrels of Arizona Ivoryite, faceted smoke black crystal rondelles and silver disk spacers. The set includes the matching pair of black Ammonite Fossil earrings.

The ammonite’s name comes from the shell’s resemblance to a coiled ram’s horn (the ram being the symbol of the Egyptian god Ammon). Like the extinct belemnites and the living nautiloids, octopuses, squid and cuttlefish, they belonged to the mollusk group known as the cephalopods. The name comes from the Greek ‘kephale’ (head) and ‘podia’ (foot), referring to the tentacles they have in the head region.

There are many different species of Ammonites; Phylloceras, Psiloceras, Stephanoceras, and Caloceras just to name a few. I haven’t yet identified which group the pendant and earrings are members but they are quite definitely strikingly black ammonites.


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Wired Up Coral Mix

A wired up mess of balls are the focal of this necklace! Tightly wound balls of wire in antique brass are set along with a chunky sponge coral pendant accented with multiple layers of gold-tone cone bead caps.

Scattered between are lampwork beads with light cream/yellow backgrounds and red swoosh marks. The length of the necklace is of red (dyed) coral flat disks and finished with a gold tone twisted toggle.





Coral: Diplomacy, quieting emotions, visualization

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Trendy Southwestern Mix

Working with stones I sometimes get a desire to do multiple strand necklaces; not often, but there are times when the stones and design just come together. In this creation, I started with rare ivoryite stones from the Arizona mines; accented with silver spacers and did half the necklace in raw stabilized turquoise chips beautiful earthy tones and the base of the necklace are tiny marbled onyx tubes.


Ivoryite is a wonderful and versatile stone to work with; it is a very unique variety of extremely fine grained mineral called magnesite; it is a natural mineral and not man-made as most people think. Quarried by hand, this stone looks and feels like soft silky ivory; it can be worked with metal tools, but cuts effortlessly with diamond tools making it excellent material for inlay, cabochons and small carvings.

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Turquoise: Spiritual attunement, cleansing, healing, protection, valor, soothing, peace of mind, guidance through the unknown, romantic spontaneity.
Onyx: Self-control, decision making, intuition, recognition of personal strengths.

Haze of Purple Agate

Agates are an amazing natural stone; they come in an array of colors and the combinations incredible. This new design is in purple agates and crystals. The highly polished pendant is cut in a crescent moon shape with varying shades of light lilac and coppery veins.

The strands are of unusual heat treated faceted crystals that change color depending on the light; from deep purples to orchid and into light blue/purple shade; an incredible design with multiple dimensions; a few faceted round agates capped in sterling silver have been added for flavor and spice. The long dangle earrings include the same stones and crystals in the cluster style, that is hitting new designs everywhere.

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Agates: Balancing physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual energies; perceptiveness, strength, inspiration, awakening talents.

Dramatic Black & White Design Affect

A mix of rare and exquisite creamy ivoryite stones from the Arizona mines are strung for a dramatic design against banded black agate stones. The agate coin stones have striking banding in an almost off-white color with a hint of brown; some of the stones when held up to the light are almost translucent. Between the stones are pewter star spacers and the triangular agate pendant is hung with a silver twisted swirl bail.

Agates: Balancing physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual energies; perceptiveness, strength, inspiration, awakening talents.

Dramatic, unusual, chic, or trendy --- find your style among our custom jewelry designs!

Twisted Spiny Oyster & Turquoise

This new design is off-center and gives a dramatic non-symmetrical look. The base focal has been done off-center and you could wear it either direction and consisting of spiny oyster chips. The base of the necklace is Chinese turquoise (stabilized) heishi in a raw cut and then for textures a smattering of wavy silver disks and matching earrings.

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

Browse our online shop to purchase your uniquely custom designed wearable earth jewelry!

Bridal Classic Elegance Chic Statement

Looking for a bridal necklace that is a little different, yet still very classy and elegant; brilliantly faceted crystals in tans and blues mixed with freshwater cultured pearls of peacock, white, cooper and tan; three strands make up this stunning necklace set.

I’m working a little more outside the box with this one; the clusters are all hand charmed and in-between is set tan bicone and oval faceted crystals. The earrings are just as grand with 12 cluster charms using the same stones and crystals.




This one is definitely meant to be a head-turner, eye-catcher for anyone who is looking to make a chic and bold statement.


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