Some of these look like petrified wood. I recently purchased some Megalodon Teeth at our clubs’ show in Jacksonville. Sharks’ teeth are available from dealers and divers in Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas. All sharks shed their teeth, and a new tooth rolls into the open place. A very nice tooth.Baby Megs Many of the Southern rivers and the Atlantic Ocean provide the opportunity to find or dive for these fossils. Different sharks have specific teeth, and when you find a sharks tooth, a knowledgeable person can identify the species of shark that the tooth came from. Bigger than average Meg T ..read more

The Twelve Pendants for Christmas I’m not sure why I was so eager to make some fancy pendants this Holiday season. My normal pendant production is already really nice, but I just wanted to move some pendants to the next level, and challenge myself; Experimenting and doing things I seldom, or never, have done before. I also think that there’s a lot of negativity right now. Happy pendants are a small way that I try to counter gloom and doom. Mythical Illusion The first new pendant I made was a double stone flexible/swinging pendant I named “Mythical Illusion”. It’s a white Aurora Druzy Quartz on ..read more

A soon to graduate Army Cadet contacted me for an Isle Royale Greenstone. The stone was for his class ring, and I went the extra mile to find and cut a perfect Stone. Could it be the only Greenstone Class ring at West Point, EVER? I’m pretty sure of it. The stone was provided to the largest Class Ring Company in the United States. Guess what? They broke the stone while setting it. This did not surprise me in the least. Greenstones are much softer than the more common jewels that are forced into these class rings. Greenstones require some finesse to set, and this lack of finesse broke the GS ..read more

I Wonder if I already Sorted This? This is typical of rock sorting at Snob Appeal Jewelry. It’s the time of the year where we weed out, clean out, categorize, and attempt to neaten the barn/shop area up. The procedure is, Bonnie will notice I have a slack few minutes and say “Would you like to sort rocks?”. This means one of two things; 1. I really am slacking, 2. She has found some random buckets of rocks that she believes need to be catagorized, in some way, OR 3. She needs more rocks for grab bags that we sell at our upcoming Art Shows. From the red agate on the left: Yellow Cat Petrified W ..read more

There is no rhyme or reason as to why I choose certain stones to cut and wire wrap. The recent selections were chosen simply because I was captivated by them. They were all somewhat unusual, but all spoke to me. Gorgeous Black and White Dinosaur Bone, that I found deep in a bucket of random rocks. My wife was in my shop last week, and discovered several slabs of various stones that she liked. I incorporated several of these in my recent creations. Bonnie will often put Gemstones in a dish and put a note in that dish that will say “Bonnie likes these”. Natural Spiderweb Kingman Turquoise. When ..read more

Megalodon Teeth with a signature wrap. If you want to awe and impress; these are your ticket. The blue tooth is from the St Johns River, while the tooth with the petrified wood look, came from the Savannah River in Georgia. I wanted to show you some of my latest creations. from the past couple weeks. Rough stones were selected and cut with designs in mind. My inspirations come from the gemstones. Pattern, color, and pleasing appearances, all are taken into account, in my wire wrapping; But the most important part of my creative thoughts is usually whimsy. If a pendant is not fun to look and an ..read more

The Art of it All Isle Royale Greenstones, Thomsonite, Datolite, Lake Superior Agates, Petoskey Stones, Pudding Stones, Kona Dolomite, Copper Agates, and Silver/Copper Nuggets (aka Half-breeds), have always been the base for our business. Our last blog addressed the most popular Rocks & Minerals we make jewelry from, and sell on line. This blog will show examples of what we make from those core stones shown in Part 1. A silver-Copper Nugget (AKA halfbrees. Dark eyed Thomsonite-A fan favorite. Classic “Candy Striper” These are the Lake Superior Agates that we all look for.A rough Copper/S ..read more

Isle Royale Greenstones, Thomsonite, Datolite, Lake Superior Agates, Petoskey Stones, Pudding Stones, Kona Dolomite, Copper Agates, and Silver/Copper Nuggets (aka Half-breeds), have always been the base for our business. The popularity of Thomsonte has been on the upswing. Most of the goos Thomsonte comes from secret spots on the North Shore of Lake Superior. There’s something about this beautiful, pastel pink, Zeolite, that people love. Our main products consist of Great Lakes Rocks & Minerals. Some of these core stones have been found by us, Others were purchased from collectors in the G ..read more

It’s not often I remake a piece of my jewelry I pride myself in being careful and meticulous when it comes to making jewelry. Also, while making jewelry I try to put myself into a Happy Place. I try not to watch TV as the abused animal commercial may come on; this tends to depress me no end, The happy place is where I need to be. Even though my design may seem good; sometimes after looking at the design the next day, I think “You can do better” or on rare occasions “Man, that’s butt ugly”. In the case of “Butt Ugly”, I usually cut the pendant up and start anew. I really do not want to make a B ..read more

Warning: This Brown Rhodochrosite should not be worn if you do not want to be noticed. It’s never to early to start thinking of a Valentine gift for your Valentine. I recall when I was in grade school; so far back that most of you were not yet born. One of the memorable events, I remember, was celebrating Valentines Day by exchanging Valentine Cards with others in my 3rd or 4th grade class. The exchanging of cheap cards helped make for a happy classroom. I came from the poor side of town. We lived in the shadow of a Giant Paper Mill smokestack. This was good, because the rotten smell would mos ..read more