Oco Agate with a Twist of Amber Navy Mix

Working with Oco agates you just never know what you are going to get in the pendant slice. What makes these very unique is that they are highly polished on back and front, but the sides have been left with a slight rawness, almost a feel of the mine they come from.


Each one is a carefully crafted colorful piece from nature with the centers open showing the years of crystallization, this makes the Oco agate very different from normal agate slices.


In this new pendant I’ve hand wire wrapped it in bronze non-tarnish wire, the beauty of the pendant is captured in an array of fall colors; navy blue, white, black, rust, butterscotch, and even a hint of cream.







The necklace is crafted of amber freeform chips with a high polish, faceted rondelle crystals the color of navy or sapphire and between are little gold tone pewter round beads. With the size of the agate pendant being a little smaller, the necklace is not as heavy as many of the chunky and bold pieces I’ve been known to create.


A piece of nature that has been artisan crafted to enjoy for all time….browse our online shop at Ruby Lane to find your fossil, mineral or natural stone jewelry!

Designs for the Season in Polymer Clay

A not so new medium being used by artists in the jewelry industry is polymer clay because of its pliable, bendable and sculpting polymer compound or synthetic modeling material, thus it is not really true clay. True clay has fine particles of silicate suspended in water, whereas polymer clay is fine particles of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) suspended in plasticizer, but it can be used much like clay.


 Polymer clay is formulated from polyvinyl chloride (PVC), dyes or pigments and plasticizer to keep it soft until heat cured. It is an acrylic art material and there are many brands available in the United States. All the polymer clay brands have been individually tested and certified as non-toxic art materials. Brands vary in how hard or soft they feel at the beginning of use and the softer clays are more brittle when cured, and the firm clays are more durable after they are heat cured. The working properties vary between brands and become a designer’s personal choice. Some brands or colors within brands contain white mineral clay that makes colors opaque; others contain mica that gives it a shimmer and shine to the clay. All polymer clays are thermal set plastics, meaning they are hardened with heat and do not become soft again after curing. Before being cured in an oven, clays are thermally reactive and become hard when cool and soft when warm.
  

What makes polymer clay special is its versatility for anyone who wants to let their imagination run wild. With the dozens of colors choices and a designer can blend clays together like paints into canes to make any color palette they desire. Since the color is inherent in the particles, you can also work two or more colors together without blending them, if you prefer, for special effects such as cane marbling or stoning. The clay's pliability and ductility let you use techniques from other mediums such as glasswork, textile arts and sculpture. And polymer clay doesn't dry out, so you can sculpt and form it without worrying about a time limit.
  






In these new designs we feature polymer clay beads; the necklaces are quite lightweight and another alternative for people who don’t like the big chunky styles seen in many jewelry designs today.

More Signs of Fall

These new designs are sure to take on the fall fever! Check out our online shop at Ruby Lane to browse the available collection designs for purchase!!









 Deep rich carnelian donut squares that have handcrafted double spiral coil beads in non-tarnish brass wire; accented with picasso jasper, faceted round crystals and corrugated gold tone pewter spacer beads.





















Dramatic yet fun necklace starting with a yellow agate cabochon wire wrapped by hand in non-tarnish shiny gold wire; accented with cracked agate beads in yellow with very definite black veins and faceted crystals.

Fiery Ammonites Wired

I picked up several of these Madagascar ammonite pendants in Tucson this year; I just love how the fiery sheen to them gives an extra depth of color. Each pendant has been hand wire wrapped using non-tarnish wire; here I’ve done two in gunmetal and one in shiny gold. They are very unique and the colors are absolutely striking, ranging from soft hues of earth coffee/black/tan/cream to cream/pink/burgundy/tan to a large one in olive/tan/cream/rust colors.




Ammonites are an extinct group of marine animals belonging to the cephalopod subclass Ammonoidea and are excellent index fossils. They are utilized by geologists and paleontologists to link the rock layer in which they are found to specific geological time periods. The closest living relative of the ammonite is not the modern Nautilus, which they somewhat outwardly resemble, but rather the octopus, squid and cuttlefish. Their fossil shells usually take the form of planispirals, although there were some helically-spiraled and non-spiraled forms (known as "heteromorphs"). They ranged from the lower Jurassic (200Ma) to the Upper Cretaceous (65.5Ma).


The designs are a mix of old world in Tibetan and ceramic beads, crystals, jasper, and agates. Browse and purchase our uniquely artisan crafted jewelry designs online exclusively at our Ruby Lane Timeless Design shop!

Cluster of Crystals & Dichroic Glass

This is a different and new design in that it is a melt of different techniques. It starts with a focal pendant in dichroic glass from one of the premier glass artists in San Antonio; soft shades of lime green, gold, pink and cream set against a black background.


Surrounding the pendant are 36 individually hand-charmed pieces; in accents of faceted Swarovski crystals hot pink padparadscha and glass pearls in complimenting colors of cream, mauve, copper, tan, and metallic green crystals. Between are hand-swirls spirals in non-tarnish brass wire and non-tarnish brass spiral ends for accents. It is set stationary onto the silky 18” tan cord and has matching dangle cluster earrings.


Keep watching as we’ll be doing this design using many other pendants, cords and techniques!


Eclectic artisan crafted jewelry from fossils, glass, and stone incorporated with metals and wire techniques; visit our online Shop for available pieces to purchase!

Jewelry Trend Watch: What’s Hot for Fall 2010

What’s hot for some people isn’t always considered hot for everyone, which means the trends in fashion, jewelry or even home décor and paint are changing with every season. Most people stay within their comfort zone, while others are watching with great anticipation for the latest trends in magazines, TV and the runways. For fall 2010, the jewelry trends are mixing it up slightly, more a mix of cross-fashion confections. Read on and determine your own trendy style as predicted by the experts.

If you are one who is into bold statements then this fall season is just for you. According to the runways, fashion magazines and websites, big, bold and eye-catching statement necklaces are going to be all the rage. For added spice, heat it up by stepping out with mixed metal and non-symmetrical looks. This means mixing it up with jewelry designs that feature multi-layers in stones, beads and chains mingled together; the more unique and unusual the better the look.

Sizzling mixes in metals is going to be another big trend and with the price of sterling silver and gold higher than ever before many designers are moving towards untraditional metals such as copper, brass, antique plated metals, and colored overly metals. For more versatility, many are blending textured or burnished patterns of plated metal into designs in place of the expensive traditional and contemporary shiny metals of sterling and gold.

Earrings step it up this fall season with much longer lengths; though small to medium earrings will remain the staple for some, the move is toward much longer looks. The look will be toward 2”-3” chandeliers made of links, chains, clusters, and charms in fashionable earrings. The key for the jewelry designer will be to keep these longer earrings lightweight, fresh and colorful.

Last but not least it appears that all roads this fall are leading back to complete sets; as in matching necklace, earrings and bracelets for an entire ensemble and less about the mixing and matching from multiple pieces of seasons past.

As with all trending watches, whatever your style it’s about the color and feeling comfortable that you’ve completed and captured the look you are going for. Whether it’s casual to classic, chic to trendy, spicy to bold, make your own statement and step out to any event in confidence.

Visit our collection online to find your next jewelry design to make your next statement!

Richly Stunning Crystals

This one is a lovely set enchanted with rich deep color for a classy and elegant look. Handcrafted from faceted pink, yellow and purple crystal rondelle charms; some have been cluster. At the base is a focal of mookaite smoothly polished pendant; small accents of peacock freshwater pearls and smoky faceted oval crystals completes the entire necklace.





Mookaite is an Australian Jasper and a very grounding crystal. It is said to help with self-esteem. Can help with dreams and meditation and moving forward in life. Promotes balance for the day and allows one to remain open and honest about all new ideas.

Whatever your style or personality, pick from an array of our custom chic designs.

Bling in Pearls & Crystals

This necklace designs is a lot about bling handcrafted with freshwater cultured pearls and purple faceted crystals in a graduated strand. The highlight is an ex-large trapezoid mother-of-pearl pendant in soft shades of a pale purple tint.





Pearl: Purity, faith, charity, innocence, integrity, focus, wisdom, spirituality, sincerity, fertility
Browse our collections for a design that fits your attire and personality.

Yummy Yellow Calcite

Sweet summery shade of yellow Calcite in graduated rounds and then accented with creamy pearls and golden saucers. A beautiful set from Gayle, available in our collections with many other distant designs.





Calcite: Purification, peace, calming, memory, awareness, appreciation of nature.
Pearl: Purity, faith, charity, innocence, integrity, focus, wisdom, spirituality, sincerity, fertility.

Artisan Earring Blues

Expanding the limits into different things this time...…instead of just doing simple dangle, hoop or post style earrings, we’ve designed some different single pairs of earrings in shades of blue!



Southwest Flair in glass lampwork bead as a focal center and accented with copper, pictured to the right.





Another work in Southwest Flair, this one is with 9 different shaped teal/turquoise marbled Zircon beads; all single charmed in a cluster, pictured to the left.





Mystic Artisan in all shades of blue, glass lampwork pillow beads in swirls of blue and white and accented with cool white charmed Swarovski crystals, pictured to the right.


Browse our collections for custom designed stone and wire jewelry!

Kyanite Two Strengths

Named from the Greek kyanos, “dark blue”, for its color and also because of it’s particular characteristic of developing different hardness in different directions, so it is was alos given the name disstenos (‘two strenghts’), which means dual hardness. Because of its dark blue color, the ancient Greeks identified kyanite as the protitive stone of seaferers. It was offered to those about to embark on long journeys.

Kyanite occurs principally as elongated flattened blades, and less commonly as radiating, columnar aggregates. It is usually blue and blue-grey, but can also be green or colorless. Kyanite is formed during the regional metamorphism of clay-rich sediments. It is one of three polymorphs of Al2SiO5. The other two are sillimanite and andalusite. It can be found in Finland, Austria, Italy, West Africa, Brazil, Switzerland, and North Carolina.


Kyanite is ideal for wearing round the neck as in necklaces or pendants, because it has beneficial effects on the throat. It promotes the ability to speak easily and express oneself and to learn languages. It removes enter blockages and stimulates vital energy.

Psychologically, kyanite is said to produce positive energy, sharpens the concentration and encourages calmness. It also relaxes, drives away sadness and makes life seem ore worth living.


The presence of crystal inclusions in the parent rock makes particularly powerful healing stones. Magical properties of Kyantie symbolize lightness and leads to new thoughts. It is also associated with star sign of Aries, Taurus and Libra.


Visit Timeless Designs for many unusual and custom stone jewelry designs.




*Research from various websites and books.

Molluscs Group Goniatites Ammonites

The Ammonoidea were a huge group of mollusks, mostly with coiled shells, that lived in the seas and oceans. They started to establish themselves in the Early to Mid Devonian Period, from about 400-390 million years ago. Different subgroups came and went, some becoming incredibly numerous and widespread, until the end of the Cretaceous Period, some 330 million years later. Ammonoid subgroups included goniaties and ceratites and the ammonites. Together with belemnoids and nautiloids, as well as squid, octopuses and cuttlefish, the ammonoids are included in the major cephalopod, or ‘head-foot’, group of mollusks.

To the right; black/white Goniatite wired in silver with lava stone beads, pewter chain and spacers.




Fossils are always fun to learn about and exceptional pieces to work with in jewelry. I’ve been able to wire work many pieces, including Ammonites and Goniatites. Visit our website for these and other fossil jewelry designs.

To the left, Ammonite wired in brass with tibetan and ceramic beads, with goldtone endcaps and antique brass spacers.

Charmed I’m Sure

Charmed designs in jewelry are becoming popular in many places around the country. It’s a very easy, casual style that can be either dressy or classic depending on what you wear with them or how you wear the charmed design. Here’s I’ve mixed several different charmed designs from straight charms to wired charms to tons of charms on a bracelet.







For more unique natural stone designs, visit our website.

Fossils of Morocco North Africa

Though I never left the comforts of South Texas to shop around the world, specifically Morocco to found these awesome rocks for wire wrapping, supplied of Panther Creek Minerals of San Antonio Texas. These are natural Orthoceras a fossilized squid.

Orthoceras are a famous and very large fossil deposit of animals that can be found in Morocco, North Africa. Ancestors to ammonites, Orthoceras are extinct sea creatures, and depending on what source you refer to, they date from the lower Ordovician to Triassic ages (500 to 190 million years ago). As they died, their shells accumulated in great numbers on the sea floor where they were aligned by currents, buried by sediments, and transformed over the ages preserved in black limestone. Today, this prehistoric sea floor is ironically, found in the dramatic Atlas Mountain Range in southern Morocco at the northern fringe of the Sahara Desert.

The term 'straight' cephalopods is used in this case to describe fossil examples of straight ammonoids called Baculites, straight nautiloids called Orthoceras and Belemnites. Their bodies were predominantly elongate with conical shells. Some of these creatures evolved into semi-coiled forms eventually giving rise to coiled cephalopods like ammonites and nautili. Another branch of straight-shelled cephalopods continued to coexist with the coiled forms on into the Pennsylvanian Period. These straight forms were much less diverse and abundant than the coiled cephalopods, as a whole.

Straight cephalopods were among the most advanced invertebrates of their time having eyes, jaws, and a sophisticated nervous system. These creatures were predators that swam freely using a jet propulsion system by squirting water from their bodies. They had tentacles and ink sacs also much like the present-day squid.

Except for belemnites, cephalopods had external shells with hollow internal chambers separated by walls called septa. A tube called the siphuncle, connected the body with the chambers allowing the animal to fill them with water or air, changing its buoyancy in order to rise or drop in the ocean. Only the last and largest chamber was occupied by the living animal. Belemnites were different in that they had internal shells called 'guards' which were covered with the soft, muscular tissues of their bodies. These shells were also chambered but much less complex than the straight varieties of nautiloids and ammonoids.

Straight cephalopods probably lived for one to six years, with the majority living two to four years. They fed on plankton (tiny free-floating organisms), sea lilies, and smaller orthoceras. Although many fed off the ocean floor, others may have caught plankton while floating or swimming via jet propulsion, expelling water through a funnel-like opening to propel them in the opposite direction. Because straight cephalopods lived exclusively in marine environments, their presence also indicates the location of prehistoric seas.

Healing Stones
As a healing stone, fossils are believed to increase life span, reduce toxins, anxiety, stress, balance the emotions, and make one more confident. Containing supernatural and physical healing powers, they promote a sense of pride and successes in business, leading on to be open to change and new ideas. Healers use fossils to enhance telepathy and stimulate the mind. Traditionally, fossils have been used to aid in reducing tiredness, fatigues, digestive disorders, and rheumatism.

Visit our website to browse and purchase unique styles of necklaces and pendants.

*Reprinted from various websites and rock/minerals books.

Custom Jewelry Pieces

Quite often I get a request from a customer to make a custom piece to match an outfit or dress for a special event. In this case, I recently got a request from a loyal customer who bought our beautiful Crazy Lace Agate Crystals Copper bracelet. She wore it to work and realized that she needed a matching pair of earrings! After her inquiry, I dug through my inventory to see if I see had the stones – we got lucky!


Here I’ve designed a nice pair of dangle earrings in the same matching pair of Crazy Lace Agate and highlighted it with off-set crystals and copper.


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

Interested in a custom piece? Contact us for further details or browse our website to purchase many other jewelry designs in natural gemstones.

Gemstone of Virtue

Leonardo Da Vinci said, “Amethyst dissipates evil thoughts and quickens the intelligence.” The mystery around Amethyst; it is a variety of vitreous Quartz with purple, violet, or red-purple coloration, Amethyst derives its name from the ancient Greek ‘amethustols’, meaning literally ‘not drunk’. Traditionally associated with purity and piety, amethyst has also always been favored by royalty as purple is considered a regal hue.

Ancient Greeks believed that drinking wine from a cup of Amethyst would make them immune to intoxication. This belief is founded upon the origin of Amethyst as described in Greek mythology. According to ancient myth, amethyst was created by Dionysus, god of fruitfulness and wine. Angered by the purity of a young woman named Amethyst, who preferred to pay homage to the goddess Diana, he ordered two voracious tigers to devour her. Diana came to her rescue, transforming Amethyst into white Quartz. Overcome by remorse, Dionysus shed tears into his goblet of red wine. Some of the wine spilled, running onto the white stone, which absorbed its color, creating the stone Amethyst.

It can be found in most countries where granitic rocks are exposed, amethyst occurs in alluvial deposits and geodes. Its coloration is principally due to traces of iron, and it is sometimes color-zoned due to twinning or preferential absorption on the rhombohedral faces. Major commercial sources of amethyst are Brazil, where it occurs in geodes that are frequently human-sized; but it is also found in Uruguay, Siberia, and North America.


Amethyst traditional properties: Contentment, spirituality, dreams, healing, peace, happiness, love, intuition.
Raw Amethyst cluster is provided by Panther Creek Minerals, San Antonio, Texas. It has been free form wire wrapped in non-tarnish Silver wire.

See more natural gemstone beauties mixed with wire work at Timeless Designs.


*Information re-printed from various rock, mineral and gemstone books.

Worldly Agates

Another favorite natural gemstone that I work with are Agates; giving me much inspiration to create. A common, semiprecious type of chalcedony, Agate is the compact, microcrystalline variety of quartz. In general, its physical properties are those of quartz. Most agates form in cavities in ancient lavas or other extrusive igneous rocks. They are characterized for the most part by color bands in a concentric form, and less often by moss-like inclusion (Moss Agate). The characteristic bands usually follow the outline of the cavity win which the mineral has formed. The band colors are determined by the differing impurities present, and occur in shades of white, yellow, grey, pale blue, brown, pink, red, or black. Much of the sliced agate offered on the market in particularly bright colors is dyed or stained to enhance the natural color, an easy process because of its porous nature. It is found in former volcanic regions such as Black Forest, Saxony, Germany; Brazil, Uruguay, Mexico, United States, and Indian peninsula.

History & Legend
Historically, the name Agate is derived from the river Achates in Sicily. The Greek philosopher Theophrastrus described this gem as early as 300 b.c. and in Byzantium people already knew how to enhance the color of agate by burning.

Agates are among the oldest good luck and healing of natural gemstones. Because of its layered structure, agate was often used for the cameo engraving of heads and coats of arms against deeper underlying color.

Agates enable the wearer to choose between true friends and false ones. It is said to avert storms and lightening, protect children from danger, bring prosperity and prevent miscarriages. Traditional properties include balancing physical-emotional-intellectual and spiritual energies, perceptiveness, strength, inspiration, and awakening talents within the wearer. Red agates are related to the solar plexus chakra; blue agates are associated with the throat chakra. Its star sign is for Taurus and Capricorns to sensitize and strengthen willpower. Agates should be worn directly on the skin and cleansed once a month under warm running water.



*Information reprinted from various rock, mineral and gemstone books.