September marks Prostate Cancer Awareness month and it is a good time to learn more about Prostate Cancer and early warning signs. To learn more about prostate cancer, visit www.zerocancer.org and remind someone today about screening for prostate cancer. Please also check out our prostate cancer awareness bracelet below and show your support!

We have piles and piles of rocks sitting in our work area where the lapidary equipment is located. Every once in a while I go out there and start digging through the rocks wondering if the rough would make a good cabochon. So the other night I was really motivated to start cutting some of these rocks in half to see what was inside these gems. The first rock we decided to cut was amazonite and we cut a beautiful slab. the color is a gorgeous blue green with matrix throughout and we were so surprised at the beauty of this one. I found another black rock that seemed to have a vein of pink running through it, and I guess it is rhodonite but it will make gorgeous cabs.

I also tried slabbing a rock that we had found on the beaches of Cape May Point hoping that it would be translucent or have a neat pattern to it, but it ended up just being gray inside, not too interesting. I did however cut some of the quartz we found on the beach, like the pieces that are way to big to tumble and wire wrap. This piece does look really neat, but I need to polish it up to see what it will actually look like and if it will make a nice centerpiece in jewelry.

I do have to say that playing with the rocks was so much fun, I felt like a kid again. It makes me want to go rock hunting to find even more!

September is National Ovarian Cancer Awareness month. Take the time to read about ovarian cancer and education yourself about potential signs as Ovarian cancer is known as the “silent killer” as often times there are no signs and to day, there are no screening procedures for early detection.

Please check out our Ovarian Cancer Awareness Bracelet and spread the word about ovarian cancer awareness!

It took a while, but the beginning of the Cape May jewelry line is starting to be updated. We just added a bunch of pendant necklaces from clam shells, sea glass and stones. Check it out here!

We have been packing and making and sorting and all sorts of great stuff for the past few weeks. I have TONS of jewelry made from Cape May Diamonds and Cape May stones as well as shell jewelry and sea glass. I have been stockpiling for the big show, but once the show is done – what is left will be going up on the site for everyone to see!

If you are down in the Cape May New Jersey area this weekend, please stop on by the Promenade on the boardwalk and come say hi! Saturday and Sunday (8/15-8/16) we will be there from 10AM – 5PM.

Looking forward to seeing you there!!

We had a great weekend down in Cape May Point and lucked out on the weather. We are gearing up for our show on August 15 & 16th down in Cape May on the Promenade and we are really excited. Every time we found something neat on the beach we all got excited thinking about what we can make with it! My 3 year old daughter really got excited about collecting Cape May Diamonds off the beach, however it was real tough this year as its very rare that you can find a nice big clear stone. She was finding some very very tiny clear stones but I was just amazed she knew what they were!

We took a detour this time and decided to check out Higbees Beach in West Cape May and loved it until we got rained on. There were a ton of nice smaller Cape May Diamonds to be found on that beach and we love finding those “diamonds” in the rough! Here is a snap shot of one that we found, although the stone is not really clear.

Check out our line of Cape May Point jewelry and don’t forget to stop by our tent if you are down in Cape May on August 15 & 16 on the Promenade!

The tumbler is almost done and the Cape May Diamonds will be ready to wire wrap and make into jewelry. I found a bunch of larger Cape May Diamonds that have been hidden away that I am now in the process of wirewrapping into pendants. I am also starting to wirewrap some seaglass all in preparation for the show we are doing in Cape May on August 15th and 16th. So I am on the porch enjoying the beautiful day wirewrapping away!

Back in April I decided to submit a few sketches to Jewelry Artist for their column “Your Turn” in which they ask the readers to send in sketches of jewelry ideas based on a theme that they chose. As I was thumbing through the July edition of Jewelry Artist I noticed that they chose my design as one of the sketches to publish on the Your Turn page! I was so thrilled that they actually chose my sketch now I am motivated to go ahead and make it to see how it turns out! For those of you who subscribe, check out the July 09 edition of Jewelry Artist on the :your Turn” page to see my sketch in the middle of the page.

I have been sick with killer headaches for almost two weeks now and they have now finally subsided. Made it really difficult to even think more less cut any new stones or work on new pieces. So I am looking forward to this weekend and hoping to steal some time away cutting cabs. A few weeks back we found a piece of obsidian that appears to be green obsidian but has a rainbow hue to one of the pieces we cut. The other pieces we cut have iridescence to them which is also pretty cool but still not sure what to do with it! My husband who has now been helping cut stones has found a bunch of coprolite which is the name for Dinosaur dung! We found these beautiful pieces of agate/jasper that had gorgeous strings of red, orange and yellow throughout and what looks like light blue agate in between making it a stunning cab. After doing a bunch of research we found out it is coprolite so now my husband is on a quest to make a bunch of cabs out of it because he is so enamored with the stone. Hoping to update soon with some new creations!

We got such a great deal on this old lapidary machine and day after day I am still in awe at the fact that it is still working as it has to be at least 30 years old if not more. So the last few stones we did had surfaces scratches we just could not get out. It was really frustrating until we realized we needed to replace the sanding drum and the grit was practically gone! Well that is actually where the problem started, see this is a Craftool lapidary machine and there are no old manuals floating out there so we are guessing at what needs to be done to get the sanding drum off for replacement. So for two nights now we have been playing with the machine to guess how the sanding drum comes off or loosened to replace the sanding belt. Finally this evening we figured it out as this type of drum is thankfully still used today! After I figured out how to get the paper off, the next step was to try to figure out what grit to use for the drum. We are guessing because like I said, there are no manuals floating around so we ordered two different grit types to see which one will work the best right before the polish step. So….now we have to wait until it arrives before we cut any more stones. I am almost at the point that I am going to put the cut stones in the tumbler, but too afraid they may chip because I only have a few!