On My Path: May 2010

I like a good Zentangle session ... Do You?

This is my 5th Zentangle. What is a Zentangle you ask? Well, my answer is a kind of meditative, repetitive, organic doodle. The concept was created by Rick and Marie over at Zentangle.com. I don't work for them or anything, though they do certify folks to become Zentangle teachers. They don't know me at all, but I sure like this thing that they have created!

I think they started it a number of years ago and I have no idea how I heard about it, but once I went to their site, I was hooked. It's so perfect for me - doodling with a fine ink pen on nice little squares of paper. I LOVE it! When I first started looking zentangle up online I saw all kinds of neat example so I started to experiment and try to figure out how they make all those neat patterns. I quickly learned that I could do their patterns or create my own - I like to do a little of both, but usually use theirs. Here I am talking like I'm a seasoned pro but I've only made 5 of these things!

I'd like to make it a daily ritual, sitting down and making a ZT (I'll call it a ZT because it's easier on my poor little typing fingers). They give all kinds of reasons for why creating them can help you, but the bottom line for me is that it helps calm me, focus me, bring me to the present. That's something that is always good for me

I'll leave it up to you if you want to check it out at all. I just figured since this is my creative blog kind of thingie, I might as well share these:)

Here are my first 4.

Oh, by the way, these are each on a square 3.5 inch piece of paper. The one at the top of the blog is done on a specially cut piece of quality paper from zentangle.com. They're neat little squares with a kind of washed looking edge, though you can't see that in my photo. The others are on scrap paper I had.

Happy creating and let me know if you get into Zentangling too!

Shay

More on "Green Amethyst", or Prasiolite

In my last post, I shared a photo of this piece that I made for my mother. My dear friend Swati, commented to the effect that I was teaching her something new in regards to "green amethyst", and I realized I better get my butt in gear and do some research so I'm not sharing false information!! So this post is a little about this green stone :) I am not a specialist - just explaining as best I understand. I welcome anyone to add more or correct me!

The first thing to know is that it is a variety of quartz - just like amethyst, citrine, and rose quartz are all different types of quartz. Some quartz has a specific iron compound that when heated turns green. Without that compound, heated quartz will usually turn a yellow or brown color. I believe that even though it is called green *amethyst* it didn't have to be amethyst (purple/lavender) first; it could have been heat treated from a clear quartz. From what I read, most prasiolite that is sold on the market has been heat treated by man rather than found naturally green. There are instances of naturally heated green quartz -- due to some geological event heating up the appropriate quartz, but this is much less common in the gemstone field.

And that's about it for my knowledge!

Now the more scientific people may smack me on the head for my simple interpretation...

Whatever it is, it's pretty don't you think?

Recent Orders and Gifts

I've been working away at orders and swaps and "create it forward pieces." I'm having lots of fun and thought I better just stop in here and update you on what I've finished!

I suppose I won't share any of the "create it forward" pieces until they are all done and out to their peeps so you'll have to wait to see those :)

I recently did 2 pendants for my mom's birthday which she got today. Happy Birthday Mom!!!
These are the two that you see above. The first one is black onyx with a tiny faceted black spinel up at the top. She had been wanting something in just black and silver so this is what I came up with. Hope she likes it!

The second one is a "green amethyst" briolette. Green amethyst is a treated amethyst - there are natural ones (Prasiolite), but very rare I think. When she picked out this stone last time I went back east to visit, I knew I wanted to wrap it using a tutorial I had purchased from "Earrings By Erin" on Etsy. Here's a link to the tutorial: Erin's Vintage Briolette Tutorial.
It was a very well done tutorial and I'd suggest it to anyone who wants to give it a shot. I quite enjoy Erin's work! I had to change a couple of things to adapt to a different sized briolette than she used (mine is smaller), but it has a quite similar look. I thought about oxidizing mine, but mom had made the comment in the past about a bracelet that I gave her, that she likes to watch it darken, so watch she will:)

Happy Birthday Mom!! One of these days I'm going to get her to actually post a comment on my blog. You hear that??!

Okay....
The next items to share were all ordered by a lovely woman who happens to be a good friend of my mothers and probably rivals her in how many pieces of my work she owns.
She had selected a piece of petrified wood (fossilized wood) when she and my mom visited me here in CA some time ago. When I went back east we then picked out a herkimer diamond that she wanted to pair with the wood. She didn't have a particular thing in mind except that she wanted them together - possibly with the herkimer below. I decided to go with a fairly standard style cabochon wrap for both pieces, and used round wire to keep the soft look of the petrified wood. So, here she is front and back or front and front, whichever way you choose to look at it.
Hope she loves it!

The final photo shows a selection of pieces that she ordered to give out to a group of women with whom she celebrates a bit of the supernatural each year. In my mind I think if them as "The Unofficial Coven" though they do not profess themselves to be witches or anything like that.
The do get together yearly to photograph Orbs and call to their ancestors and other friendly spirits. Of course, this is my abbreviated version since I've never accompanied them, but I have been invited and my just have to do so next year.
I had so much fun making these for them!

The stones used in these pendants are: prehnite, amethyst, quartz, amazonite, fluorite, kyanite, mookaite and aventurine. I think she has inspired me to do some more individual group pendant sets. It'd be fun if someone bought a set to give to their friends or keep for themselves if they want.

Okay, one more for the road. This is a piece I made out of sterling silver and aquarmarine crystals - just for fun:) Well, it's all fun really, but I suspect you know what I mean.
Happy creating to you!
Shay