Jewelry by NaLa

Last Updated on Wednesday, 10 March 2010 09:33 Written by JewelrybyNaLa Tuesday, 9 March 2010 10:51

The artistic/creative side of my brain is dominant, and I have the math skills to back me up on that! I’m just a natural born crafter. Jewelry making is not my first venture into the world of crafting, but it is definitely my favorite. I think my customers want their jewelry to make a unique statement about themselves and enhance their own personal sense of style. My jewelry is designed with that in mind. Aside from my ready made collection, I also love the challenge of creating jewelry specific to individual tastes, and I’ve been known to “tweak” existing pieces in my collection into custom ordered designs. All someone has to do is tell me what they have in mind, and I will work together with them to see if we can come up with exactly what they’re looking for. I love making people happy like that. Here are a few examples of my work. If you’d like to see more, please consider visiting my Etsy shop: http://jewerlybyNaLa.etsy.com

Art of Lapidary.

Last Updated on Thursday, 11 March 2010 08:18 Written by dreamriverdesigns Saturday, 23 January 2010 05:23

WHAT IS LAPIDARY?
The word lapidary is derived from the lapis or stone and means “of or pertaining to stones” or “one who cuts and polishes Stones”. Not all stones are worthy of cutting and polishing and although all can be cut by one method or another the lapidary is concerned only with those stones that are capable of being polished.
Essentially the lapidary process is one of shaping the material with a coarse grinding wheel or disc; then regrinding to obtain a smoother surface until a glossy surface is obtained. The polishing operation is done with various mineral oxides. Some compounds work well on one kind of stone while other compounds work on other kinds of stones. Tumbling is lapidary treatment given to irregularly shaped stones by a mechanical process of continuous agitation or “tumbling” of the stones with a series of coarse to fine grits usually with water and culminating with the polishing of the baroque shapes. Tumble stones are inexpensive and are used in simple jewelry, as “feely” stones and for making novelty items such as key chains and “critters”.
Among the many other types of treatment given gem materials the beginner usually learns first how to cut and polish a cabochon. The cabochon or for short “the cab” is a gem with a flat back, rounded or domed top. It can be round, square, rectangular, or oval in outline. Colored, opaque or patterned stone or stones displaying some interesting phenomena are usually cut as cabs. Jade, petrified wood, agate, and opal are examples of stones that are usually cut “en cabochon”.
Transparent colored or colorless gems are most frequently faceted. This is characterized by a number of flat polished surfaces arranged in such a way that the stone reflects light which enters the stone through the polished surfaces, back to the viewer in hundreds of sparkles. The reflections may be colored as in a colored stone, white as in a clear stone, or in many hues as in a diamond or rutile. The rainbow colors are caused by light being broken up into its component colors within the stone.

I thank Taogem  http://gemstone.smfforfree4.com  for the use of this article.

Featured Artist – Suzanne Stevens Creates

Last Updated on Saturday, 3 October 2009 03:47 Written by Manic Butterfly Wednesday, 7 October 2009 09:00

My entire life has been built on a creative foundation. I’ve always enjoyed creative arts, whether in writing (which I did professionally for most of my life), painting (which I’m looking forward to taking up again), jewelry design and, occasionally, acting. I feel a life without art is not really living.

Jewelry design is a new venture; I’ve been doing it for several years now. It all started when I wanted a ‘cool’ eyeglass chain! Like a magpie, I’m attracted to colorful, shiny things and can’t seem to stop ‘collecting’ them (this is true of all my creative outlets!) and channel it into my jewelry designs. Sometimes, even the smallest thing–like a single bead, crystal or stone, will get the creative juices flowing!

I believe that people should be able to have nice, lovely things and original jewelry and art without giving up their first born child, and I try to price my items accordingly. I also believe that owning handmade items beats mass-produced any day!

Basics? Well, I have a bachelor’s degree in written communications and linguistics; I’m married and have four cats. I love traveling and am an unapologetic Anglophile.

Because I’ve been a juvenile (Type 1) diabetic for 43 years, I’m pledging to donate 10% of my Artfire sales to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) in the hopes of finding a cure.

Check out my work on Artfire.
Read my blog.