Mega Tree! MEGA!!

Oh yeah, oh yeah! A MEGA tree! :D

I'm going gianormous. Gia-nor-mous! Those little rock slices I got at the rock show...the piece of Labradorite that was my wall tree goal...

That silly little, still gonna make an awesome 6" x 7" wall plaque, piece...

pfft. Pfft. I mean... PFFT. So tiny. I wasn't thinking grand scale enough. Apparently. Um...

LOOKIE WHAT I GOT!!!!!!!!!

*pets*

It's a 16" diameter piece of Labradorite, cut and polished, with flashes of light blue, dark blue, green, gold, and, and, and... EVERYTHING!

My new hunka-chunka is 1 1/2" thick...

...with a slightly beveled front edge. It's like... THE BIGGEST CABOCHON EVAH!!!!

If all that isn't just cool enough, the back was milled out so the whole middle is recessed. Why? Well, back lighting of course.

Back lighting. BACK LIGHTING!

Back lighting. Whoda thunk it.

Isn't it fabulous? I got it from our granite guy at work. His wife loves my trees and when he was in the other day he tried to abscond with the copper labradorite pendent I recently made for himself. Lol I guess he really reeeeeeally liked it because he made me this hunka-chunka piece of awesomeness.

Now...I have a new goal. A wire wrapped, back lit, mega size, antique copper, Labradorite tree of life wall hanging.

That's a mouthful. I wonder how one makes such a thing. With wire. o.O

I've got NO idea. But I'll sure figure it out! It's gonna be the best wire wrapped backlit mega size antique copper Labradorite tree of life wall hanging EVER!!!!!!!

EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The end.

heehee :D :D


ETA: Pic for scale.

Wall chip tree (biggest I've made so far), Lab slab with a 1 1/2" tree pendant and quarter to show size.

Tis hugeamous. Huge-a-mous.

Growing a Cabochon Forest

Growing a cabochon forest ... is hard work! My goodness!

I've been working really hard the last week or so on making some more cab trees. Actually, not just making more but redesigning them as well. I think I finally have figured out a bail system I reeeeeally like. I've started doing them totally different, using different wire to wrap it closed and adding some embellishments to the bail.

Am totally diggin' it.

It started with my new Aquamarine tree. I wanted to do something a little different with the bail, but was afraid to try new things out on Sterling, so had to make a copper one instead. So out popped a Serpentine tree...

It worked well, so the Aquamarine tree came together in a similar fashion...

Same, only dif.

I then moved on to these two. A Rose Quartz with my first ever swirled bail, and my first chunky copper Labradorite tree.

I loved them both so VERA hard.

All of those have gone off to their new homes so I've decided to carry on and continue to grow my forest. This week I've finished 3 more. A Tourmalated Quartz, a Blue Lace Agate and last night... a Charoite.

I'm uber in love with the Charoite cab. I've been wanting to get some for many months now, but have had a hard time finding good ones for a reasonable price. I found this one at the rock show and just had to scoop it up!

It's so cool! It has this awesome shimmery thing going on in parts of the purple that I just LOVE. Not sure the tree is finished yet though. I think when I get home tonight I may antique it. The tree is overpowering the stone. Think I want to tone that down a bit. Not 100% sure yet.

Anyhoo, there it is. My new, ever growing, cabochon forest. :D

Trees-a-plenty!

W00T!

Summer Bookmark

Finally finished up a bookmark project I've had laying around for a while. A summer themed bookmark...

 ...with a sterling silver wrapped dangle on it with faceted Citrine, Aquamarine and Iolite chips...

...the actual shepard staff style bookmark is pewter, with suns, stars and rainbows on it.

Summer. Fun in the sun and all that jazz. :D

Another project down. Go me.

:D

Rock Show Goodies!

Lots of new goodies! I tried to be smart about things this year, and was very selective on what I brought home, unlike last year where I was just walking around in a daze of "OMG TEH SHINY!" and bought everything I saw. Even if I had no clue what to do with it or HOW to do anything with it. Most of last year's haul... I still have. 

Silly excitable shinygrrl is ... silly and very excitable.

This year it seemed several Rockhounds didn't make it. There were a couple/few I really wanted to hook up with again but couldn't find them. Bummer that. Rumor had it, maybe they will be at the next one. Fingers crossed. Prices were a lot higher this year too, I think. At least from what I remember. This year's show was rather pricey. 

Boo on pricey. 

Oh well. It is what it is. And I DID get some fabulous goodies. The stash looks mostly like this...

Top: Moss Agate, Bloodstone, Jasper (2) Cacoxenite, Mahogany Obsidian
2nd: Suglite, Jade, Charoite, Labradorite (3)
3rd: Mohogany Obsidian, Blue Lace Agate, Ribbon Obsidian, Aquamarine (2), Ruby Zoisite
4th: 2 rare cabs that I can't for the life of me remember the name of. All I can remember is... it's not mined much anymore and...starts with a B. Darn it!! I've been looking thru all my books and it cooooould be... Binghamite.

The show stoppers for me were finding 2 more Aquamarine cabs. I didn't expect that at all. And oh my are they gorgeous! The other was this Cacoxenite. A rare stone and just incredible. I've been reading up on it a bit, and I /think/ what I have is an Amethyst, with cacoxenite inclusions which is the gold striations. It also has some black in it, which could be hematite, from what I'm reading. Stone of awesome.

Cacoxenite

I also got several slabs. Something I want to try this year is larger trees; window and wall size. Trying not to get too carried away until I figure out how to do it, I got 5 slabs of stone to try with, one was a beautiful piece of green and white Ocean Jasper, with sparkles in it and a couple small druzy spots on it.

Ocean Jasper

It's somewhat transparent so it may be good for a window tree.

What I hope to work up to is putting a tree on this baby. It's a slab of Labradorite, about 7" with a whole lot of blue and green flash in it. Last year I saw these everywhere! This year... it was the only one I could find.

Labradorite

Seems Labradorite is in high demand or something. It was everywhere last time, beads, cabs, slabs, you name it. This year... hardly any. :( I think there's another show in July so maybe it'll be there.

Good times at the rock show. Now... time to get a twistin' and a wrappin'.

Later taters!

New Copper Chains for Larger Trees

Copper chain has been a serious struggle for me since I began this little shiny adventure. Seems like it would be such a simple thing, but.... no. Finding real, raw, copper chain is next to impossible. Everything is either gigantic or copper plated. Last year I had finally found some real copper chain in a decent size for pendants, but sadly I can't find any more and I've run out. 

I did find some Rolo chain, I've actually been using it for bracelets. I've not made many pendants big enough for it. Last week I took a chance on some cable chain I found as well. Now with the new cabochon pendants I've been buying for the stones inside I will have some much bigger trees. Much bigger... whatever-i-feel-likes. :D They're all going to need bigger chain.

This afternoon I matched up my new copper Aurora Borealis Tree of Life with both kinds of chain. antiqued to match. 

Raw copper chain for the win. :D

I also made a clasp for them. A sort of decorative S-clasp. One thing that drives me nuts about necklace chains is how the darn clasp always ends up in the front as you wear it. So I've been playing with clasps that could actually double as a decorative component in the necklace so that when it inevitably moves to the front, it won't just be an ugly lobster claw or spring clasp, but part of the whole necklace.

Rolo Chain

Rolo Chain

Cable Chain

Cable chain

I like them both. They are pretty similar in size, the rolo looks bigger, the cable a bit lighter and more open looking. These 2 chains are both 28", but since the links are so big, the chains can actually be clasped anywhere, making it fully adjustable.

I think they're going to work out great for a bunch of things I've been working on. Necklaces, bracelets... all kinds of goodies. Yay for new copper chain! :D