7/365: Therapy Dog

Lucy has been my steadfast companion for almost a decade now, and she always seems to know when I need extra loving. She came into my room this evening, lay her head on the bed next to me, and looked so soulfully at me that I could have sworn she was telling me, just rest, you need it. Indeed I do; an old back/shoulder injury has been flaring lately and the pain is intense, even waking me up sometimes. Having Lucy beside me is the best medicine... she always gives, never complains, but I know she has pretty bad arthritis in her legs these days, so I comfort her whenever I can, too.

More amethyst (of course)

Among (many) other things, I found some beautiful, good-quality amethyst briolettes in Tucson to replenish my depleted supply. These cascade-type earrings sell very well, and I'm glad to have higher-quality gems to offer this time around. Amethyst is a quartz (silicon dioxide) colored by traces of iron and manganese. The amount and proportion of these trace minerals determines the color's hue and intensity, with darker, clear varieties considered the highest grade.

I use sterling headpins to wrap and attach side-drilled briolettes (a faceted teardrop shape) to sterling chain, and stepping the briolettes down the chain allows for the "grape cluster" effect. My variations on this theme have included darker amethyst on oxidized sterling (shown at right), which I'd love to repeat if I could only find those briolettes again. I suppose this is the downside of an eclectic approach to building one's supply, focusing on the unusual and one-of-a-kind. This simple earring style works with any briolette, of course, but we always seem to crave that which we cannot have... and so the quest continues.

Embers

One night, feeling the urge to try something new, I threw some sterling silver findings and just-finished jewelry in a stinky solution of Liver of Sulfur (an oxidizing agent), stirred it around for a while, pulled the mess out and rinsed it off, and stared at the dull grey pieces wondering what on earth I was thinking.... But then I started polishing and came up with this:



Now that's some cool transformation. It's entirely absorbing and meditative, too, to polish the pieces by hand... although I suspect that a Dremel or some such mechanized tool would speed along production of multiple pieces.