Intentional Stones

Scapolite Gemstone, my bead hunting story

 

According to the Book of Stones, Scapolite's good for problem solving, sticking to goals and achievements. It's a white, brown or purplish gemstone that occurs in limestone and metamorphic rocks. It is an "alteration" of feldspar minerals, meaning that the mineral has changed because of exposure to water or oxygen. The resulting stone is clear and stunning. Sometimes it's got a catseye form.

This last year has been driven by my art and my business and getting home and family in a good balance. lots and lots of goals. No wonder this one jumped out at me while I was shopping last fall! At the time I wasn't prepared to work with them. I created a design for similar beads, but it wasn't quite the right thing for these beauties.

I shop a lot this way and my basement looks like a beadshop. I've created a central table where I can hang intact strands and i have enough display trays to lay out my cabochons and cut stones by variety. Displaying and sorting helps me when I am creatively blocked. Having a discrete space for each gemstone variety allows me to focus on design.

So far, for the scapolite i am thinking about puzzle pieces and labyrinths. Maybe I can do one of each. I definitely want to pair them with silver.

Hopefully, on this weekend's gem hunting expedition, I will not let the stones catch me off guard again.

Any requests?

 

-Simbelmynë

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A little playing with pink

Thinking about color from last week, I was experiencing a bit of a dry patch at the bench, so I decided to jump right in. 

I had pink on my mind.  Several ideas I'd had before Mother's Day really wanted more pink beads and most of what I have is a pale peach pink.  Still it's a lovely color, so I grabbed everything I could find.  Pink's a color that can come in every darkness and hue.  Some pinks are very purple, while others are nearly orange.  Pink can be intense and pale.  They're all in the piece I completed.  

 

The donut beads contain a golden rutile and slashes of pink.  The pinks are tourmaline, which is more purple, quartz that's very pale and orangish.  I balanced the different tones with whites and greys of botswana agate and rainbow moonstone. 

Pink is a gentle color.  If you're "in the pink" you're at the height of good taste and quality.  It's a relaxing and content color.  It's also a big favorite of little girls everywhere.  (My daughter's wardrobe is at least half pink, only half because I shop for her.) 

Whenever I wear pink, which is rarely since I think it's not one of my best colors, I remember the childlish glee of a bubblegum ring. 

There are a lot of shapes in this necklace, geometric and rough.  I think my next experiment will have to do more with that aspect of the design. 

The necklace is very long-50 inches and can be worn long or looped around several times or knotted.  It has a sterling silver lobster clasp, just in case you want to wear it close to your neck. 

-Simbelmynë

 

Simple sapphire

Learning new stuff I've been trying to challenge myself a lot.  Unfortunately, this last couple of weeks that's meant a lot of frustration and doing over.  I'm not ready to share that right at this moment.

So I'll share this

It's sterling silver and sapphire. just a little trinket ring, size 9, and tube set. The band is 1.4 mm wide.  Tiny, unobtrusive, fun to wear.

-Simbelmynë

 

Crafting month is getting away from us!

It's like I just blinked and it's almost gone! 

Working madly to get ready for the show, as I've mentioned, at this point I need to be making more basic items- pendants, more simple necklaces to put them on, earrings, stuff like that.  I spent yesterday taking pictures, discussing the website with Mina, makign more earring leaves and finishing my table linens for the show.  I should start making daily to do lists and small goals again.  Ugh.  Photos exist, when I have time I'll upload them!

Halloween, on Sunday, marks the last day of crafting month and time to turn to NaNoWriMo.  I should say NaNFWriMo for me, even if there's another official version of this I'm going to piggy back on NaNo for non-fiction.  (I really need writing buddies, so add me over there!  I'm the Pagan Librarian)  I'll be working on the gemstone reference page.  I'm going to work in book form and try to update here one entry at a time.  Like NaCra I know I'll get behind keeping you up to date.  Please keep being patient with me!

I hope your holiday seasons are ready to kick off on Sunday!

-Simbelmynë

 

Simply gemstones and silver

Our pieces this week:

This piece by Mina in faceted  cloudy aquamarine with a purchased, but slightly modified, sterling triskel focal.

This is a very very simple gemstone pendant by Simbelmynë.  Garnet and sterling silver.

Blue so deep

Azurite

This image from Wikipedia.

Azurite is a another copper mineral I've been working with lately. 

The crystals of azurite are a rectangular prism with a parallelogram as its base, but I've only seen these in a museum.  It's an intense dark azure blue and frequently it occurs with malachite.  Over time, if azurite material absorbs water, it becomes malachite.  On it's own, azurite is another soft mineral, it's easily damaged by heat and water.  In jewelry it's usually set deep or protected by a cage of metal.  I'd recommend a little bit of care in wearing it- don't wear your azurite in the shower!  Examples of the stone, like this one, with both azurite and malachite look, like photos of the earth from space.

Azurite has been quite useful through the ages.  It's been used as a pigment in paints, and you can tell you're looking at an azurite paint by it's fading to green.  It's an indicator of the existence of copper deposits when found on the surface of the ground. 

It's a stone of vision and intellect, with a color that resonates with the third eye and  crown chakras.  As Chrysocolla was recommended for the teacher, Azurite is recommended for the student. It helps with processing and retention of new information and skills.  It helps us reach the insights that make the difficulties of the learning process all worth while. 

Azurite helps us be secure in our own self conception, preparing us to defend our own sense of self from any negativity that might destroy confidence.  It's easier to see non-judgementally when we understand the relationships in any situation.  Perhaps it helps us learn the strength of wisdom we didn't know we had. 

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Links for more information:

Azurite on Wikipedia.

And, as always, this entry is linked to our page on The Language of Gemstones and Metals

What stone won't let you go?

I asked and friends answered. 

That green stone, you know, the one I keep looking at? 

Apatite

Articles I've found identify apatite as yellow to yellow-green usually, but most of the examples I've seen sold as gemstones is usually deep green blue. While yellows are very much in the spirit of this spring season, it's those blues that won't let us walk away from the jewelry.  I'm not the only one who's confused.  The stone's name comes from a Greek word meaning "to deceive" because of it's variety of colors.

The literature I've looked at attributes amazing things to these stones.  It will help you realize your own strengths, integrate and balance emotions. According to some sources, it encourages psychic powers,  reveal past life and karmic influences, open the mind to dreams and creative problem solving.  It's a medical miracle worker-Improve declining eyesight.  The blue variety has wind energy and the green water.  Green can help us accept abundance and heal emotional problems with money.  Golden apatite can help you figure out what you really want at a confused time and with creative effort.

Here's where my own confusion kicks in.  I know I respond best to the stones when I'm most attracted to them.  Apatite was not having any conversations with me this week.  I gave rough chunk of dark green-blue apatite to two friends on pendants and we all wore them for an entire week.  To Nytesong and I it really said little.  I did have many dreams, but none of them prophetic.  (I hope that I won't be seeing my, unfortunately deceased, ) 

But to Catharine, it spoke volumes.  And, true scientist that she is, she wrote it all down for me.  She felt that she was "more able to appreciate other people's perspectives, and not stuck stubbornly only in my own viewpoint.  I feel less isolated in a crowd and notice things you usually don't about the environment."

My overall impression is that apatite is one of the choosier stones.  You're among the fortunate if it really does it's work for you. Catharine found it to be hard to wear with other stones. 

Apatite is a phosphate mineral-meaning it's primarily composed of calcium with six of PO₄ groups attached. Its different colors come from the fluorine, chlorine, bromine or hydroxy ions attached to it.  Hydroxylapatite is the greatest part of our bones.  Apatite is with us always!  When phosphate fertilizers were heavily used, apatite was a source. 

It is found in in Idaho, Tennessee, and Wyoming, in the US and in Brazil, Russia and northern asia, among other places. It is mined without harmful chemicals and pollution to the environment in open cast mines. Pits and terraces are dug and can be refilled and replanted once gemstone deposits are exhausted.  Mined materials are washed with powerful jets of water which separate the gemstones from the other rock materials. 

-Simbelmynë

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This gemstone entry is linked in the Intentional Stones Language of Gemstones and Metals page.

Also, as we learn more and more about these beautiful pieces of the earth, we'd love to hear about your experience visiting the places where they're found.  Please post your comments, links, travellogs, favorite pages, anything you like in the comments section!

Reference pages and books for today:

I always start off with the Book of Stones by Robert Simmons and Natasha Ahsian

GeoGem International Jewelers Mining information page

Wikipedia entry on Apatite

Work Behind and Work Ahead

Now that we know what we have, we know how to complete the picture. 

Capturing Chrysocolla

A new friend through this jewelry-making experience asked me if I'd worked with Chrysocolla and confided that she was interested in learning more about it. 

Chrysocolla, is an opaque, brilliant blue green stone.  It's an ore of copper.  The color is sometimes compared to turquoise, but it's more blue.  It occurs in aggregates with Malachite and Azurite.    It's a softer mineral, like turquoise, and the example in the photograph is stabilized to make it suitable for beads.  The most popular form in jewelry is in gem silica, with quartz.

It's a gemstone of empowerment and facilitates communication.  Healing and connection to self.  It's been recommended as a stone to wear while teaching, as it helps the wearer clearly convey the deeper reasoning behind your message.  It is also effective for the release of stress and fear.  It is healing to the organs of the throat and for breathing issues.  The name chrysocolla comes from Greek and a historical use as gold solder.  It was used as a protective amulet in Egypt for at least one child mummy. 

I'd seen it in it's gem silicate form- tiny and pale and lovely, and I was curious.  Then my mother-in-law gave me the most ingenious gift, two lovely strands of Turquoise and Lapis beads and a request to design a necklace for her.  As her birthday approached, so did a bead show and there was this lovely stone.  Not Lapis, not turquoise- chrysocolla.  Different and surprising in its intensity.  A designer's dream and a creative inspiration.

It can be found in copper deposits.  Commercial mines exist in the Ural mountains in Russia, Israel, US (in Pennsylvania, I sense a trip to plan!), South America, Africa and Australia.  

-Simbelmynë

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Additional Links and Resources

Chrysocolla entry on Wikipedia

Chrysocolla Mining data

This entry is linked to the Intentional Stones page The Language of Gemstones and Minerals.

Seeping Through the Cracks

Calcite is the mineralogical name for calcium carbonate. 

Mollusks use the calcium carbonate from sea water to build their shells, which geologicaly become limestone.  Here is where you can see the water cycle in mineral form.  Rainwater washes over the limestone, causing it dissolve very gradually, and then filters through the layers of the earth until it dries in caves, cracks in other stone formations, etc. until you have this:

(circumstances permitting, of course) Compressed by time and great weight, limestone becomes marble. 

Calcite is a very common mineral, found on every continent.  It's a component of limestone, marble, and many other stones.  I'm discussing it now because it forms the white lines in lower grade Lapis Lazuli and Sodalite. It is the most stable polymorph of calcium carbonate, other forms collapse into calcite when heated or put under pressure.

Calcite occurs in a rainbow of colors, depending on other other elements water picks up along the way.  It's translucency is quite variable- from clear to milky.  The crystal structure splits light, a clear prism will produce a double reflection of an image.     

In metaphysical qualities it's somewhat similar to quartz-magnifying and focusing, but, to me, it feels much more dull and subtle.  It's light splitting quality is sometimes used to double the potential of  intent. 

Particular uses vary by color:  Clear for calming and correcting your perspective, blue for soothing, green releases stress and heals, orange for creative energy, honey yellow for clarity of insight, pink for empathy and compassion, red for renewed life and vigor.

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Wiki entry on Calcite

This entry is linked to our page "The Language of Gemstones and Minerals"