Citrine Jewelry and July NWACC Class Starting

 

Hi everyone!  I love rocks.  Who could not love sunshine in a stone?  Citrine has a wonderful way of making everyone think of sunshine, honey, gold, and even warm orange in it's lightest tones.  Last week I found citrine at All Strung Out.  I immediately made a necklace in gold wire and a pair of earrings.  The strings I bought covered the gamut of colors.  Using natural rocks has always been one of my favorite ways of making jewelry.  

Our recent guest blogger, my husband, has made this hobby possible for me. Loving rocks, and making jewelry has made me very happy.  Colors are so amazing!  Citrine can be found from transparent to almost solid.

 

The honey colored tones are so interesting and add variety when combined with all  the other shades.  They can be found as cabochons as well as faceted and add so much depth to a necklace or other piece of jewelry.  The variety is amazing.  Our grandson's birthstone is citrine. When Alex was born, I made a necklace that I didn't take off- of birthstones of each grandchild--Aquamarine, Amethyst and citrine.  I also got their names in sterling blocks, and symbols for each in charms. 

What a wonderful addition to my collection!

 

This citrine globe shows the variety of color and  shades in many of the pieces.

 

This ring is a gorgeous piece of madeira citrine, probably from Brazil.  I have a pair of earrings in madeira and have yet to find a color it does not complement.  In Scottsdale I found a pair of madeira earrings at a celebrity second hand store for $10.  Perhaps someone was not familiar with the inherent worth of those earrings.  I would love this ring for my collection.  Perhaps, it would buy a car.  Color, clarity, and cut are the main attributes to ascertain the worth.

The love for these stones is addicting.  I love working with the real thing.

Class begins soon, and working with my hobby again will be amazing. I wish you all a wonderful summer, and most of all a hobby that you really love!

Here is the schedule for Chris:

Jul 11-Aug 11   10:00-12:00   RM 1001 – Making Your Own Wire Art

Here is the schedule for Greg:

Jul 11-Aug 11    10:00-12:00    RM 1004 – Getting Published

Guest Blogger Today - Greg Jackson, Writer

Greg Jackson

Jul 11 - Aug 11 10:00-12:00 RM 1004 – Getting Published.

Hello, potential students. If we get some interested parties, I will start a class on getting published on July 11th at The Crossing, NWACC.

I have been publishing in various tabloids, magazines, and books for the last 40 years. That includes around 30 periodicals and a dozen books. I also worked for a time as a writer's agent, getting things published for others.

The class will focus on the various ways an author can get published, which is the main part, the fun part of writing.

We will discuss - 

1. Traditional book and magazine publishing.
2. Academic publishing.
3. Vanity publishing (bad).
4. Self-publishing with Lulu and Amazon.
5. Blog and Dropbox publishing.
6. Website publishing.

Register early so we can get an early count. I will have plenty of resources for you to use.

Greg Jackson

PS - I earned a PhD at Notre Dame, a master's degree from Yale, and a master's degree from UOP in adult education.

Notre Dame's famous golden dome.

Yale's main library.

The Next NWACC Class Is Coming Soon

Tsavorite garnet

Hi everyone!  I've been spending time organizing all my accumulated findings and beads.  It's very enlightening, to me at least.  I'd like to go back to a passion of mine which is gem stones--garnet to be exact.  Normally you will find Mozambique red garnet which is a gorgeous luminous red.  However, it  is found in many colors like other natural gems.  

I have recently discovered yellow garnet, known as spessartite.  It comes from Bavaria, which is where I was born.  It is so luminescent the lore is it was used for light in early times.  There was enough light from yellow to read by in the dark, so goes the tale.  I looked up spessartite, and found a beautiful ring from a new line on Jewelry TV known as Stratify.  Luckily an anniversary was coming up and Gregg bought me a beautiful ring. I will wear it to class one day.  It is truly gorgeous.  Gregg and I both love rocks, and at one time Marty, our son had a rock collection from all over the world from his grandmother who traveled everywhere, and brought Marty Rocks from special places.  Echoes of the long..long...trailer? When we moved he gifted the whole collection and explanations to a small religious school.  It was loved by all.

Garnet

Rocks do become the ultimate inspiration for jewelry, since noble metals are used to encase the best stone to show off the light, and enjoy the color.

Beside spessartite garnet, is tsavorite garnet.  It is more rare than emerald, and was included in the Royal crown of England, now in the news because of Queen Elizabeth's diamond jubilee.  There is also one in Washington, DC at the Smithsonian rock collection.  It is a museum quite worth seeing, since it houses the blue Hope diamond as well.  Just in case many on you thought rocks were just ordinary.  Hardly!

See you soon.  Chris

New Ideas and Creations

Dear Friends, 

It's been a couple of weeks since classes.  I'm still picking up wire and new ideas.  The next class is wire which you see above you in a bracelet and below you as a braid.  There is such a good feeling when a braid comes out almost perfect.  

It can be a main necklace, and with the right additions, it can look different with every outfit.  

I love combining metals, and the results are very interesting.  They are sturdy and variable, and always ready for a new pendant.  The wire work, when overdone can become painful, but nowadays we are all more aware of repetitive motion problems.

Annual Walmart Meeting and Trips to the Art Museum

Celine ended the meeting with a three-song set.
No one sat down during her singing. All the cameras were flashing.

Justin Timerlake wore a hula skirt, imitating the founder, Sam Walton.

Lionel Richie and many others had the audience dancing in the huge Walton stadium,
with 16,000 cheering stockholders packed to the rafters.

Taylor Swift sang her mean song, which she blended perfectly with  smirky close-ups.

Walmart is selling Acts of Valor, an action adventure movie featuring Navy SEALs instead of actors.
The director said, "I am spoiled after working with them."

Many of the associates from all over the world toured the $1.2 billion American art museum,
not far from our woodsy home in Bella Vista.
Admission is free.

And I can see you years from now in a bar, talking over a football game

With that same big loud opinion but nobody's listening

Washed up and ranting about the same old bitter things

Drunk and grumbling on about how I can't sing.

But all you are is mean

All you are is mean and a liar and pathetic and alone in life

And mean, and mean, and mean, and mean.