Jewelry

[Kachina624]

@AliJoi5.  Love the tufa bracelet, Ali.  I like the inside too.  There are cliff above Santa Fe on the highway coming down from Los Alamos in the Jemez Mountains that are solid tufa.  You can pick up all you want.  The cliffs are pockmarked with holes of varying sizes.  I always thought they'd be wonderful nesting places for birds.

There are also several prehistoric Indian ruins in that area including Bandelier Nat'l Monument which made use of caves in the tufa.

My mom had a bracelet made of Blue Boy varicite (very green with rusty brown & white matrix) that was cast in tufa.  She had the mold but I never found it after her death so she probably threw it away.  She took great delight in telling me I'd never be able to wear it because it was too small for me.  Believe me, I figured out a way to adjust it.  She also had a matching ring and kachina pin/pendant.

I'll have to get those pieces out and photograph them.

[Kachina624]

Here is my mom's Blue Boy varicite ring on the middle finger.  As you can see, it's not blue.  My Lander Blue ring is on the thumb.  The big ring is #8 turquoise in a ring made by Jim Sanders.  The little finger ring was my dad's, I had a sizing bar put on it.  I think it's Morenci and was made by George Henriquez.  George, now deceased, was our "family silversmith".  He also made the Blue Boy ring.

[Justice4all]

@Kachina624

Beautiful turquoise Kachina, and thanks for the info.  I remember the hand from the previous thread, and the rings, and someone mistaking it for your hand!

[Kachina624]

@AliJoi5.  Ali, if you ever decide you want to size this ring, I can highly recommend Harris Jewelers in Rio Rancho, NM.  You can google them.  They've been around for years, have a great repair staff and best of all they have a laser welder so they can size without heat which can be the kiss of death for turquoise.  They've sized many of my rings...they're accustomed to working with turquoise.  They are not cheap but they do a beautiful job.  It's owned by a married couple; I believe her name is Karen and she runs the place.  You could call and talk to her.

[AliJoi5]

@Kachina624  Always a pleasure to see your pix!!  I'd love to see a shot of your charm bracelet on the wrist.  Did you purchase that piece back in the good ole days of turq glory?    (I missed the thumbs-up emotie so much, I had to seek him out.)

Did I ever mention how much I love morenci (great ring... nice size!)?  That was the very first vein of turq with which I ever really became enamored.  The tell-tale pyrite inclusions make it so interesting, IMO.  Here is a morenci collar of mine... some of the pyrite is showing dark in the pic due to glare, but it's silvery in person.

[AliJoi5]

Thanks so much for the suggestion, @Kachina624!  I always try to make sure I have a referral from a trusted source before sending in any pieces for work.  I recently used Old Town Jewels in Scottsdale to repair a necklace for me.  Harry Yazzie is their in-house silversmith.  Did a wonderful job!  I just hate mailing these things out.  I always say a little novina before I hand it over to the USPS. 

[Kachina624]

Ali, that necklace is absolutely gorgeous.  I'd love to see it IRL.  It's a shame pyrite doesn't show up in pictures.

Did you know when they closed the Morenci mine, they delibertely put a chemical on the turquoise-bearing rock to destroy it, then back filled the mine with tons of dirt?  I want to cry every time I think of it.  You don't see much Morenci these days.

I got the charm bracelet a couple years ago on eBay.  This guy, who's a dealer, had just posted it when I found it late one night.  He wanted $5,000, for it.  We did some serious negotiating before I agreed to buy it for much, much less.

[AliJoi5]

Yes I read all about the morenci mine!  The company that owned it at the time buried the entire deposit in favor of mining the copper ore.  I shutter at the thought! 

Sounds like you did well on that bracelet, Kachina!  If and when you're taking pix of your mom's variscite pieces (would LOVE to see them), I'd be interested to see one of your bracelet on the wrist.  Looks like a huge piece!

Since you mentioned kingman earlier (and it tends to get a bad rap these days), I thought I might post some of my pieces.  They are all unstabilized/untreated.

This one has a very traditional leaf/raindrop motif... not for everyone I suppose!  But the turq is vintage "old kingman" nuggets.  You don't see this color, size, and hardness coming out of the mine anymore.  The nuggets are gigantic (the bottom one measures 2") and the piece weighs 178.2g.  Not exactly comfortable, but I just love lookin at it!  I'm a rock hound at heart, as you know. 

Here's the matching ring... it's around 1-3/4" L.  You can see a little quartz in there.  I love the high blue of this set.

[AliJoi5]

More kingman!  lol

This is my very favorite piece of turq.  The pendant is around 3-3/4" L.  It's natural red web kingman.  I just thought the matrix was perfection... and the color has a lot of "zat."  I definitely didn't get a good deal on this one.  But it's difficult to find anything like it around these days.  I don't recall its exact weight, but I know it is 70+g.

Here's the ring I bought to go with... different artist but similar quality red web kingman.  28.1g

[AliJoi5]

Then I commissioned the artist who had made the ring (Thomas Jim... wonderful, wonderful, WONDERFUL man to work with) to make a matching cuff.  Chose the stone (a little bluer than the others... phenomenal) and told him what I liked about prior pieces he'd made.  I love what he came up with here.

ETA: Since I gave weights of everything else... the cuff weighs 108g.

On my wrist for scale... and, yes, I'm Italian.   

 

Last kingman piece and then I'll quit!  You guys got me all excited now. 

"Birdseye" stone... nice true blue, super tight matrix.  Piece is about 2-3/4" L total.