I miss him at Christmas the most

With Christmas coming up soon, I am really missing my parents something awful today. I lost my dad in 2010, and my mom passed in 2006, losing them and my grandma that next year, dealt me with a huge blow that I am still trying to recover from. They were the closest people to me in the world. When I think about them, I am always comforted that I have so many great memories of them. Since Jewelry is my life, the pieces of jewelry I have from them means everything to me.
  The item I have that reminds me most of my dad is his resin encased spider bracelet. I can remember him wearing it when I was very young, and asking him over and over “Is it real?”
Now, something you may or may not know about me is that I am absolutely terrified of spiders beyond belief. I know many people suffer from arachnophobia, but it is very severe with me.  To make matters worse we live in the woods on a farm, so wolf spiders are very common here. The free ranging chickens have cut down on the presence quite a bit, and bless her heart, my 10 year old Sonora squashes them for me.
  Being aware of all this it may seem strange that I love this bracelet so much, and I do. I can picture it on his arm, I can see his smile when he talks about it. I can’t wear it, but maybe someday it will help me overcome my fear.
About the bracelet, It is made of hand tooled leather over a metal base, the real spider is encased in plastic resin material. It dates from the late 60’s early 1970’s

Birthstones

Birthstones
January—Garnet
February—Amethyst
March—Aquamarine or bloodstone
April—Diamond
May—Emerald
June—Moonstone, pearl, or alexandrite
July—Ruby
August—Peridot or sardonyx
September—Sapphire

October—Opal or tourmaline

November—Topaz or citrine
December—Turquoise or zircon

My Birthstone is Garnet
Here is one of my favorite pair of earrings, my best friend got them for me one year

Hope

I first visited the Hope diamond, in May 2008, while I was in DC to take my diamond lab class with GIA.
I arrived at the museum at opening time and was the second person in the door, I headed strait up to the room where it is displayed.  I was the only one in the room with the diamond, well besides the security guard to was eyeing me suspiciously. The hope diamond is encased in a glass display case, that periodically  exposes the diamond to UV light which causes it to fluoresce a deep red, this is very rare.

platinum setting, surrounded by 16 white pear-shaped and cushion-cut diamonds, suspended from a chain containing forty-five diamonds

 So after drooling for quite some time, and  since people were starting to crowd me I looked at some of the other wonders of the Smithsonian.
There are many rumors and legends about the Hope diamond, I won’t go into all of them here, as there are many books and articles on it.
A few quick facts.
The Hope diamond is an antique cushion cut stone, it has 58 facets, VS1 clarity, fancy dark grayish blue in color, it’s weight is 45.52 carats!
It is the largest know deep blue diamond

2009 anniversary temporary setting

 

 

I personally can not stand the anniversary setting, I can appreciate it, but it is just not my taste

My J Peterman Company reproduction

The Titanic Movie, “Heart of The ocean” fictional diamond is based on the hope diamond story.

all alone with me!

Types of cameo shells

This is the most commonly used shell in cameo carving. It is a Red Helmet shell or
Bull mouth shell, sometimes called a carnelian shell 
The correct name is Cypraecassis rufa

This is also a very commonly used shell for cameo carving. It is a Emperor Helmet shell or Queen Helmet shell, sometimes called a Sardonyx Shell
The correct name is Cassis madagascariensis

Most white shell cameos you will see are carved from this type of shell, these carvings are commonly misnamed as "angelskin coral" which is far more rare.
This is a Queen Conch shell or Pink Conch shell
The correct name is Lobatus gigas

Lost forever

I recently purchased a lot of 3 shell cameos, all are missing their frames. The online auction stated,
"These Cameos were taken from 14K and 10K Gold Pin/Pendants. It wasn't worth it to me to sell as pendants. There is no gold. I melted the gold"  NOOOOOOO! who does this?? I purchased them for this one in particular

 It is a carved shell cameo of a maiden holding the golden fleece. I can only imagine the frame. The world is left to wonder what the full beauty of this must have looked like. So sad. I have been involved with cameos for quite some time and this is the first one I have seen with this particular subject. It is always exciting for me to learn something new.

Where can I post links

I'm very new to blogging, I am unsure on how to post links besides into a new post. I came across this fellow blogger's cameo collection. I must say WOW I'm drooling. Very pretty stuff.
Have a look
http://cammeos.blogspot.com/

Peering at a pear

Today my friend Jess had me look at her momma’s ring. Her mom is very sick, I won’t go into details as it is not my story, but my heart aches for her. I recently lost my dad and mom, I know some of what she is feeling. Her mom gave her the ring, she wanted her to have it now. Jess wanted the prongs checked out to make sure it was safe to wear, I looked at a couple of other rings as well for her. They all were quite beautiful, I know she will treasure her momma’s ring for the rest of her life. I know it will bring her comfort, when there is so much ugliness and pain in the world it’s nice to have a pretty link to look at. And that is what jewelry is ~ a link, a memory, a token of love. Jewelry is so many things, it is so much more than sparkle.
All that being said, after I had assured her the stone was secure, my friend was still apprehensive about wearing it, for fear it might become lost or damaged. I know that I have had those fears about some of my favorite pieces. Will they match what I am wearing ect.. ( and big rocks go with anything by the way J )
My opinion on this is that it is like the fine china or special linen that never get’s used because you are waiting for that special occasion. Wear it now! Use it now! Life is so short, every moment should be a celebration. Also your kids will think you look “Fancy“!