Pretty Fall Sunday

[Cudedog]

Anne, those pieces are beautiful! I went to your webpage. I love the "Gold Rush" piece! All of them are very pretty and ornate!

Thank you, Barbie. Your comments are very much appreciated.

The stone for the "Gold Rush" piece that you like is a natural quartz that I picked up off the ground at the local park as a large-ish chunk of rock in the "Gold Country" (thus the name of the piece!) foothills town where I used to live. After slicing up the chunk on a rock saw, polishing one of the slices on a lapidary machine, then wire-wrapping it, I donated the piece to the gem and mineral club I belong to as part of their fund-raising Christmas raffle.

It was fun to watch the bidding from a distance, and the delight on the face of the winning bidder as they won the piece, while I remained in the background, totally incognito!

It's kind of a long story as to how I got started with making stone jewelry, but I have been something of a rockhound since I was a child. These days I find that making pieces - I make about one a week or so - is very therapeutic. I get really concentrated in on what I am doing, and just forget everything else - at least while I am working on the piece. In that way, I find making jewelry very relaxing.

The one problem with making stone pendant jewelry is that I now "allow" myself to collect rocks. LOL. One never knows when that shape, or that color, or that weight of rock might be "just the thing" that I need. To the extent that my garage is filling up with rocks. . .

I think my kids believe I might have rocks in my head. . .

Anyway, it is a fun thing to do, and I get a lot of enjoyment out of it.

Earlier this year I had a "table" at the local Senior Center's Spring Craft Show. The director of the center came by my table, looked over my work, and invited me to teach a class there! I was very flattered, and the class is scheduled for October 17. LOL. Now I am getting scared! I have never taught a class of any kind before, so am getting a bit of the jitters! At the same time looking forward to it as a kind of "pay back" to those in the gem and mineral club (that I belong to) that were kind and patient enough to first teach me.

I was a VERY reluctant learner at the beginning, but that is another story.

Thanks again!

Anne

[Bethers]

Your students will be super lucky to have you teaching them. Hopefully some, or at least one, of them will have enough talent to make you truly enjoy it. Then some will be more like me, do those things for a day and have fun but never get good. Please put up with them, as they are me.

[Cudedog]

Your students will be super lucky to have you teaching them. Hopefully some, or at least one, of them will have enough talent to make you truly enjoy it. Then some will be more like me, do those things for a day and have fun but never get good. Please put up with them, as they are me.

I will, Beth. Thanks.

Anne

[BarbaraRose]

...is very therapeutic. I get really concentrated in on what I am doing, and just forget everything else - at least while I am working on the piece. In that way, I find making jewelry very relaxing.

That is a sign of a true artist! I get the same way when working on a craft project. Hours can go by and I don't even notice!

When you do the class, be sure to go thru the steps fairly slowly. Classes I have taken in various artistic projects sometimes go too fast and I miss stuff as I am working on the current step and they are already explaining the next one. That was the case with the painting class. Just a suggestion...

Good luck!!

[snowball]

Your students will be super lucky to have you teaching them. Hopefully some, or at least one, of them will have enough talent to make you truly enjoy it. Then some will be more like me, do those things for a day and have fun but never get good. Please put up with them, as they are me.

and me
sheila