Lumps of coal!

...I grew up with the belief that I could get those horrible, dusty, dull, lumps of coal in my stocking if I misbehaved. At least that's what I thought coal looked like. Like bbq briquettes, right?

Until I saw this on ebay. THIS was coal?

Gosh, It's kind of pretty. And shiny, and interesting! A pure form of carbon, it's called Anthracite, from the Eastern Middle Coal Fields in Hazleton PA.

Out came the wire! I just HAD to wrap some. Out came the Workhorse to cut up a couple of lumps of coal into more manageable sizes. A bit of sterling, but mostly colored copper. Fast, fun, and perfect for the holiday gift giving~

ARIZONA HEATWAVE

 
We made the bi-annual trip to purchase turquoise and other rough, with a stop-over in Kingman. We spent the morning with my better half talking chickens with the friendly folks there, and giving ME more time to look over the overwhelming room of turquoise goodness!

This time I came back with rough, slabs, and cabs! I think it's a good thing that I'm not a local. It brings to mind the feeling I had as a young child going to a bead store with my mother. Infinite possibilities and magic everywhere I looked.

This year, after Kingman, we headed to Tucson. Tucson has loomed large on my bucket list as the location of the world famous Tuscon Gem and Mineral show that happens during 2 weeks in Jan/Feb.

We were able to hit a couple of local rock shops, since we were there at the end of June~

More than that, we've dreamed of Tucson as being the place for us to relocate and retire to. We love the desert, the open sky and spaces. We found the friendliest people, delicious food, (including the BEST barbecue we have ever had), and a charming city with a small town feel.

This was the trip to make that decision.

The first night we were there we saw this:

A rainbow! I knew then that Tucson would be the place for us. And to make sure, we survived a trial by fire from experiencing a week of 110-112 degree weather. And...it wasn't too bad. Dry heat really does make a difference. :)

A nice pool to dip in in the afternoon doesn't hurt either. Ahhhhh.

Gift for a Student

Although my degree and passion is design, that's not how I earn my living. For that, I followed the observation of a psychic over 30 years ago.

She said a had a big place in my heart for children.

I'm a public school teacher and have now taught for about 22 years. All told, I've had over 600 students share my life, and I remember every face, if not their names. :)

Some stand out, for one reason or another. Such was the case with this particular child.

She was a pixie of a girl. Wide set eyes, and short brown hair. In a nutshell, she had more artistic talent in her little finger than I had in my whole body! She was keenly observant, often wearing black furry cat ears to class,

One of her observations was my wire wraps, unbeknownst to me. Because one day, she solemnly handed me a big bag of shell pieces. The kind you buy at a craft store, for filling jars. I can't imagine how she convinced her mom to buy her teacher a bag of shell pieces out of the blue, but there it was.

That was 3 years ago. Now she's about to 'graduate' from my school as a 6th grader. I don't see her much, being on the other side of the campus with 2nd grade.

But at this year's school auction, I was thrilled to see that her family had bid and won my teacher auction of handknit socks. Simply, the winner gets to dye yarn with me one afternoon, and I knit them a pair of socks with the yarn.

Here are the socks:

And with the socks, here is a special wrap. I hope she likes it!

Newest wrap!

How I love thee, Boulder Opal! Thank you Gene McD, for braving snakes, giant spiders, heat and the multitude of dangers in the Outback of Australia, to bring this back to us!

Even without the pockets of opal, the ironstone matrix by itself is worthy of admiration. It's tripled in price, since I first started purchasing auctions from Gene, as more and more get entranced by this stone. And NO, I still don't have enough!

I am still woefully behind in wrapping. Just like when I first started wrapping. Lapidary came first, and it was only after I had a sizable pile of cabs with nothing to do with them, did I take to wrapping.

Pulling the cabochon from rough is so very satisfying.

BUT I was very good recently, and prepped lots of sterling and copper, to start a number of wraps.

So besides wrapping and lapidary, I started running about 3 years ago, for the first time in my life. This past weekend I ran in the Capital City Classic in the 5K. I got first place in my age group!

I still relate to myself more as a cyclist, but I was always slow as a cyclist, so it's pretty funny to find out that I'm not so slow of a runner. :) Zoom, zoom.

The Jade Man

Capay Valley is about an hour from where I am. It's an absolutely beautiful Valley, with organic farms, wine, Cache Creek Casino, a great diner called 'The Roadtrip' and now an annual trip for me to buy jade from The Jade Man, Mike!

I was guided to the house first, where they had a beautiful display of jewelry and jade specimens.

But I was interested in rough and slabs. So I headed down the hill, past a couple of vintage white buses, to where the rough was. First thing that catches my attention are a couple of huge boulders of jade!

I was quickly supplied with my own spray bottle, and a bin. Then the real fun began! There were 6 six foot tables piled high with rough, and a few bins of slabs. There were a couple of crates, and even more jade off to the side. 

Hours passed all too quickly! I had to get back, so I brought my modest bin over to Mike, who went over the contents, and he told me where each piece came from (and labeled them as well) and complimented me on one particular chunk of Feather River Jade and he smiled and said he usually puts aside a piece like that for himself! It came to 10 pounds. Here is my very own little pile of jade!

And some close-ups.

Feather River Jade that Mike admired

Darker Feather River Jade

British Colombian Jade

I absolutely love jade, California jade in particular. Hopefully I'll find the time to get out to my workshop before the end of the school year and get the saws running again, now that the weather is warming up. 

Enough Rough to be set for LIFE... many lives.

Rainforest Jasper

My name is Studiodct, and I'm addicted to rocks. I confess that after a good decade of purchasing rock from around the world, I can go out to my modest rockpile (I'm looking at you, Jason!) and find the best stuff!  This is a chunk of Rainforest Jasper from Australia, that is a couple of inches thick, when I brought my 60# boulder of it into Sacramento Mineral Society's Workshop to cut on one of their monster saws, so I can cut it on my 12" saw. I love this stuff! The agate pockets are delicious.

Another huge favorite of mine is Mexican Crazy Lace. 

Mexican Crazy Lace

So why am I not playing with my saw and cabbing machine? Because I'm like a year behind on wrapping!

What's a gal to do?

Shhhhh. I'm going to a Jade Sale next weekend. I'll take pics, I promise.

Copper with copper! Back to the wire.

Every Thursday afternoon, I meet a few girlfriends at the local coffee shop. We can bring anything we want to work on, or nothing at all, and just chat. I love my Thursday get-togethers. Because sometimes, I just don't feel like doing anything but play solitare. For hours. I'm stressed, I'm tired, I'm grumpy. Usual stuff. The muse took a vacation and left the building.

Sometimes, just starting (the hardest part) can get the creative juices moving again. Or if I really don't feel like wrapping, and just playing with beads, I can 'plan' my Thursdays, and bring only wire.

Such was the case today, and here's the result. I had a small Copper Fire Brick cabochon I purchased probably over a year ago. I had prepped a number of wraps:

...and honestly, this seemed the least interesting of the bunch. But girlfriends and coffee did their weekly magic, and the piece flowed! I'm very happy with it.

Ah, and here is another dragon, I altered the pattern, and used much better beads. I think more need to be 'hatched!'

This was it's 'aren't I cute?' and 'how can you resist?' pose!

My eyes!!

I've forgotten how tiny these seed beads are. And these are 11's, not even 15's.

Took ALL morning. And I'm sort of thinking that's crazy, because now my vision is fuzzy, and seeing the picture, it seemed like I did contained twice as beads than I see now...lol.

But I love how he turned out!

I also learned that I much prefer what's called 'Freeform Peyote' because I can't follow a pattern for the life of me. I tried to make those very precise triangular geometric shapes, and it was no fun. Cool result, but it took me 3 tries to get every bead in it's proper placement.

For this little guy, I followed a tutorial from a beader called Rrkra on deviantart. Linky  I decided to secure the tail to the body, and used what beads I had to make him. I may add scales later that I have on order from Bellomodo.

It's a fabulous size to wear, and I'm going to wear it to class on Monday. My students will love it!

Love at first sight. These beads. Those faces! Happy rings.

It all started because it was my sister's birthday. She creates beautiful beaded pouches. So for her birthday, I bought her one of those many-containers-in/with-another-container bead sets, with coordinated colors of sparkling potential. Then I found a pattern that reminded me of her origami kusudama balls, and purchased and printed it for her as well. Before I knew it, I had caught it.

The Seed Bead Bug.

Drawn to the small, ever so tiny, vials of seed beads. oh my. MUST GET SEED BEADS, never mind that I haven't worked in them for years, and have a faint memory of giving away a good shoe box filled mess of them to .... some young beader, and declared myself quite done with that phase of my life.

You'd also think that after 55+ years, I'd know myself better, and I would find myself rotating back around, as I am wont to do. Aging eyesight? Stronger glasses!

So I'm being quite obsessive about seed beads at the moment.

SO much fun!

For a trip down memory lane, here is the very first rock from my very first lesson at lapidary at the UCD Craft Barn, some decade ago. Leopardskin Jasper, freeform, backed on leather with seed beads.