I have very little jewelry stock left, so have to focus on that for the next few weeks. Earrings are usually the easiest to make, and the easiest to have fun with, so I started there.

Hmmmmm……why am I having a hard time?

To begin with, my hands have lost the quickness and sureness to make the same loop in the same size repeatedly. So practice is in order before I start wasting supplies.

The real problem, however, is lack of sufficient inspiration. All I want to wear, and therefore all I want to make, are relatively long, dangly earrings. I had one idea in my head, so started there.

These are a very dark green agate rondelle. I made the same earring in a dark pink agate.

These two weren’t enough. I made them in a blue triangle glass for a brighter look.

That still didn’t exhaust my desire for these 3-stroke dangles, so I made a pair, a bit shorter in case everyone doesn’t want them quite as long as I do, with an 8mm amethyst round.

Then I played with sterling silver wire. This is one version of the earrings I made.

After every pair of earrings, I felt like I was again empty, devoid of inspiration. It was a struggle to come up with something else. I kept opening my drawers of beads and waiting for something to pop out at me. I had a pair of blue cane beads that I like.

Next some hematite teardrops said, “use me.” Although the two agate pairs are my favorites, these run a close second.

After what felt like several hours at the table, I have created only 18 pairs of earrings. I need to make 3 times that many, for sure. Plus necklaces and bracelets.

Sigh.

Your turn: where do you get inspiration when you need it?

When I had my own family, we adopted several of my hubby’s traditions – using bags of various Pepperidge Farm bread blends (cubes and crumbs) as the base of the stuffing instead of white bread we’d dried in the oven, adding sausage to the stuffing, and cooking that turkey in a paper bag.

If you’re like I was that first year, you’re now saying, “Huh? Cook the turkey in a paper bag?!” Yep, you butter the inside of a brown paper grocery bag, slip Tom into it, fold the end over and keep it closed with clothespins. It really does keep in the juices and reduce cooking time. I’m sure its where Reynolds got the idea of their browning bags.

One Thanksgiving tradition that’s remained constant throughout my life? Getting that jellied cranberry sauce out of the can in one piece.

One of my sweetie’s weirdest traditions? An essential leftover lunch included a stuffing sandwich with on doughy white bread. With mayonnaise WHAT?! That’s a bread sandwich! Putting bread between two slices of bread! Yep, I agree, it’s totally wrong, but my comments never budge the practice. Nor could his insistence make me try it.

Remember the prize this month? It’s a healing gemstone talisman. Made with moss agate, amethyst, amber, peridot, and my coppery wishes for peace.

So as part 2 of the November contest, what’s one of your Thanksgiving traditions? Tell me sweet or odd, long-standing or newly-formed. If you don’t celebrate Thanksgiving, use another food-centric holiday of your choice. (You can still respond to the first part, if you prefer.)

My next show is the Elmwood Avenue Festival of the Arts in Buffalo, just two short weeks away. I really wanted to have a showstopper in my booth, a piece of jewelry that would draw lots of admiring looks, even if it was priced out of range of many customers. So I decided to make my third set of Woven Wings. Each set is individually designed and created, and each has used different gemstones. The first Woven Wings was a combination of ocean jasper, bloodstone, and Picasso jasper, with a few pieces of petrified wood thrown in.

The second set was mostly crazy lace agate, with some golden horn thrown in.

I looked at my stock of gemstones, and decided that the new piece would focus on fire agate, with carnelian & citrine, and turquoise thrown in to make it pop.  I’m really happy with the outcome. Starting with 14 karat gold-filled wire, I make the frame and then select individual gemstones that I weave through the wings using more 14 karat gold-filled wire, the stones, and 14 karat gold-filled spacers and accents. I finish the piece with by crafting a handmade clasp for it all.

These pieces have never made it to my website, they’re only sold at shows. But if you’re dying to have the latest one adorn your neck, let me know, and if I haven’t sold it, we can make arrangements for your purchase.

A few quick facts about these healing gemstones.
Fire agate encourages self-expression and enthusiasm.  Carnelian provides a sense of well-being and provides protection against negativity.  Citrine boots confidence, generosity, and happiness.  Turquoise promotes friendship, loyalty, and peace of mind.  I have more information about healing gemstones on my website, just waiting for you to download it.

Don’t forget to enter the August contest – there’s only a few days left, and you could win!

Moss Agate

Moss agate is a great healing gemstone for spring. Its blend of greens and whites not only physically resemble the shades of the season, moss agate’s properties are in keeping with spring, too. Carry a moss agate talisman with you to enhance your fertility and prosperity, promote restoration and healing, and draw in abundance. Moss agate has also been used to build confidence and strength, to strengthen a connection with nature, and to help turn negative patterns in to positive ones.

Moss Agate Talisman

So here’s the contest. Take the two-word phrase “healing gemstone” and rearrange the letters as many ways as you can. How many words can you make out of these letters? Here are the rules:
–All words must be standard English words. (If in doubt, I’ll check them in my old American Heritage Dictionary.)
–No proper nouns or otherwise capitalized words.
–All words must be at least 3 letters long.
–Only one entry per person during the month.
–All entries must be received by noon (EDT) on Thursday, April 30, 2009.
–Please use Free Gemstone Contest in the subject line of your email.
–Please include your first name and location (city/state/country) with your submission.

The winner will be the person with the most points. How will you earn points?
–One point for every legitimate word formed.
–One EXTRA point for every word formed that’s related to gems. So, for instance, let’s say that you could make the word “quartz” out of the rearranged letters. That would earn you TWO points (one for the word, and a second for the fact that it’s gemstone related).

It obviously wouldn’t work to post your answer as a Comment, ‘cuz then everyone else would be able to see them. So instead, send me an email with your answer. If, for some reason, the link doesn’t work for you, leave me a note in the Comments and I’ll work with you to get your submission in. I’ll respond via email and let you know I got your entry, so depending on how high your spam level is set, you may want to check your junk mail to see my response. And you’ll want to get an email from me, because I’ll send a second email letting you know that you won, and will post the winner’s first name and location.

If you have any questions about the contest, please post them in comments. I’ll post responses there so everyone can learn from our dialogue.

GOOD LUCK!

Now I know that many medical professionals will tell me that my mother wasn’t necessarily right, that I can’t GET a cold from BEING cold, but somehow that doesn’t feel true. I can’t get over many of the things mom taught me. Anyway, it certainly is true that the easiest way to get a cold is from someone who already has one. They cough or sneeze and those airborne germs fly through the air to us. Or, even easier, we shake hands with the person with the cold, or touch the doorknob they just turned, and then touch our faces – eyes, nose, mouth – giving the germs an easy entry into our systems.

In the end, it doesn’t matter how you got the cold, once you’ve got it, you’re sick. You’re coughing, sneezing, and blowing your nose till its pink and raw. Breathing through your mouth is likely to result in chapped lips, a sore throat, and disturbed sleep. If you’re like me, you’re doing lots of things to minimize the cold’s impact on your life; things your mother told you, things your doctor told you, things you heard from your friends. So I’ll drink hot lemon & honey, slather my neck and chest with a menthol vapor rub (both from mom), take zinc, extra Echinacea, and munch raw garlic (friends), get plenty of rest and drink extra fluids (doctor). All those things are commonly known and help.

But gemstones? Can gemstones help you get over your cold? I think they can.

What are your symptoms?

Gems for a cold

Common cold? Get some fluorite or red coral. Or if you’re lucky enough to have any of these three lovely gems, use yellow topaz, jet, or emeralds.

Watery eyes? Aquamarine and onyx may offer some relief.

Swollen glands? Blue lace agate, topaz, and aquamarine are the gems to try.

Sore throat? Carry amber, blue lace agate, or aquamarine to speed healing.

I’m not suggesting that you stuff your pockets with all of the named gems. That would make your needed naps much less comfortable. Instead, think about what’s your classically weak area, and get some gemstones that are noted for healing that area. If you can strengthen your lungs, or your ears, or whatever, it will be easier for your immune system to step up to the plate for the rest of you. As always, don’t use gemstones in place of other healing remedies, use them to augment your other health care methods.

Contact me and I’ll be happy to work with you and create a talisman just for you. Unfortunately, this isn’t a quick process, and your current cold may be over by the time we’re done, but then you’ll have it for the next time those germs try to move in!

Can gemstones help you through difficult financial times? If you choose wisely, the answer is yes.

It all starts with knowing what you’re looking for. I’m not in any position to offer any advice to those who have money to buy diamonds or other precious gems as investments; that’s way out of my league.

But I can offer help to those of you who, like me, are struggling and worried.

Gemstones to bring prosperity

That being said, I do believe that gemstones can help you realize your goals. Which ones? It depends.

Gems to encourage positive thinking

But is that all that’s needed?

I believe positive thinking is at least as important as anything else we can do. Sure, we need to be realistic, but negative thinking patterns bring negativity toward you; positive thoughts and actions bring positive responses. If you think you’ll fail, chances are you will; if you believe you’ll get that job you’re interviewing for, you’re more likely to get the offer. Amazonite, garnet, and snowflake obsidian help to transform negative thoughts into beneficial ones. Rainbow quartz is particularly good at encouraging a positive outlook and helping you to see the positive possibilities of any situation.

Gems that enhance creativity

There are other characteristics that are likely helpful, too. Courage, openness, and protection are just a few.

Of course, these are broad overviews; the properties of each stone should be studied more carefully to reflect your specific situation. Contact me for personal consultation and the creation of a gemstone talisman designed just for you.

I asked if I could prepare a talisman for Benjamin, and was given the green light. So I began by doing lots of research into which gems might be of benefit. I looked for gemstones that are soothing and calming, gems that are protective, gems that enhance courage and power, gems that encourage pleasant dreams, and more. How would I decide which of these characteristics was most important?

As I was doing this research, I was thinking about the form of the talisman. This was a small child – only about 2 years old at the time. Obviously, something that he would wear or carry, particularly in bed, was out of the question. Beads are quite small, and I certainly wouldn’t want any kind of choking hazard, so something that would hang from his bedpost or get pinned to his pillowcase was also inappropriate. But I wanted it to be something Ben could see easily from his bed, whether it was before he went to sleep, when he woke frightened, or when he awoke in the morning.

Finally I arrived at a creative solution to the two problems – including multiple gemstones to provide multiple benefits and making something both safe and easily visible – a relatively large talisman that would hang from Benjamin’s window via a suction cup!

With that decision made I could proceed. I ultimately ended up with a talisman that contained 13 different gemstones, one in a particularly protective shape. Sounds like a lot, doesn’t it? Well, here’s a photo of the finished piece, which I think is attractive & tasteful. (Sorry the photo quality isn’t better – I hadn’t yet mastered my digital camera.)

Ben's talisman

I mailed it directly to Ben, along with a page that explained what each stone was and their characteristics. His mom and grandma both reminded him who I was (we’d met a few times) and explained what the talisman was. He was really pleased to receive it, and to hang it in his bedroom window.

I can’t say that the talisman made dramatic improvements, nor, even three years later, can I say that this poor little guy’s nighttime problems are completely gone. But I do know that the next time I saw him after he’d gotten the talisman, he was eager to bring me to his room and show it to me, and was clearly happy that he had it.

So what healing gemstones did I use? Amber, amethyst, blue lace agate, fluorite, green aventurine, hematite, labradorite, leopardskin jasper, peridot, rose quartz, ruby, smoky quartz, and turquoise. The green aventurine was in the shape of a Zuni bear, a powerful creature in Native culture.

I’ll be covering many more gemstones in the future, but if you can’t wait, here’s where you can learn a smattering of information about healing gemstones.