Spinel is a beautiful, and in my opinion, greatly underappreciated gemstone. It forms in a large variety of colors (red, pink, blue, violet, yellow, orange, green, black, brown), and it is a very durable stone. It has a hardness of 8 on Moh’s hardness scale, and it does not fracture easily. Spinel is a magnesium aluminum oxide (MgAl2O4).
Spinel is actually a family of related minerals. Types of gem-quality spinel include flame spinel, balas spinel, pleonaste, hercynite, gahnite, gahnospinel, and picolite (chrome spinel).
Historically, spinel was not known as a separate mineral. It was usually called ruby, and many famous rubies were later found to actually be spinel. The Black Prince’s Ruby in the English Crown and the Timur Ruby in the English Crown Jewels are two such examples.
Spinel is found in placer deposits, along with ruby, in many locations around the world. Important sources include Burma, Cambodia, and Sri Lanka. Like ruby, spinel is a metamorphic mineral found in limestones, dolostones, and low-silica alkali igneous rocks.
Synthetic spinel was first created in 1919. Synthetic spinel has been used as a imitation for many gemstones including diamond, ruby, and sapphire.
I’ll be selling my jewelry and candles at two events in the next two days:
Art on the Square, Redwood City
Date: Friday, August 28, 2009
Time: 5:00pm – 8:30pm
Location: Courthouse Square
City/Town: Redwood City, CA
Redwood City is fast becoming the peninsula’s epicenter for the arts with new galleries and great places to hear live music. Art on the Square fine art and craft shows return this year with the Friday night concert series and summer festivals, where artists and artisans exhibiting their inspirational work will transform the streets surrounding Courthouse Square into an outdoor gallery. Presented by Redwood City and its Civic Cultural Commission and Redevelopment Agency, these six, juried art shows from June 19th until September 26th will bring artists exhibiting painting, jewelry, photography, glass, fiber, sculpture, and more.
At each of these art shows, you can enter a drawing to win gift certificates good to spend in artists’ booths of your choice! During Art on the Square you can find high quality work for yourself, your home, and for gifts – all while supporting the local economy and the best of handmade American craftsmanship from 5-8:30pm on Friday. You’re invited to join friends, family, neighbors, and the entire community to enjoy Courthouse Square – your new “Downtown living room” – for Friday evening and Saturday festival art shows and concerts.
Meridian Square Bazaar
Date: Saturday, August 29, 2009
Time: 9:00am – 4:00pm
Location: Meridian Square Shopping Center
Street: Intersection of Meridian and Branham
City/Town: San Jose, CA
I will be selling my handmade jewelry and candles at this fun outdoor event! Lisa Amato (of photoamato.etsy.com) will be at my booth part of the day, selling bookmarks and note cards of her own original photography.
Entertainment: By Fontain’s M.U.S.E. – 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. – Performance by Fontain Riddle and Fahran Khan – Mix of Improvisation, Jazz and Eastern Styles.
Antique Appraisals: By Nationally Recognized Antique Appraiser Mr. Steve Yvaska of the San Jose Mercury News. Dates: September 26th | October 31st | November 14th | December 12th Time: 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. Fee: $10 for 1st item and $5 for any additional appraised items.
Why: We shall beat the economic downturn that looms around us by participating in strength and working together to make it successful and profitable for all, shopping center tenants and vendors and give our community something to look forward to.
Mark your calendars! I will be selling at two different events this upcoming week:
Date: Friday, August 21, 2009
Time: 6:00pm – 9:00pm
Location: Downtown Campbell
Street: E Campbell Ave
City/Town: Campbell, CA
The Downtown Campbell ArtWalk is a casual, “tour-on-your-own” style art walk. This is a great opportunity to visit with the artists and view their exciting new works in a friendly, casual atmosphere; just get our map and brochure at any of the participating galleries.
FREE ADMISSION
I will be selling my jewelry there (I won’t know the exact location until a few days before the event). It’s sure to be a pleasant evening with music, food, and shopping.
There are so many wonderful little shops, galleries, cafes, (and gelato) – you ought to check it out!
Date: Sunday, August 23, 2009
Time: 12:00pm – 5:00pm
Location: Roe (Bar/Lounge)
Street: 651 Howard St
City/Town: San Francisco, CA
Price: $5
We have created a shopping event for all to enjoy. By combining music, art, style and creative flare, we are taking shopping to another level.
Urban Stitch is a platform for Designers, Artists, and Vendors to showcase their work & An environment for the community to shop exclusive pieces for great deals.
We are all coming together to create a staple in the industry of Creative shopping, and welcome YOU to be apart of the Urban Stitch Family!
I thought it would be fun to share this video of a bronze pouring (casting) done at Mission College (Santa Clara, CA) this spring. I’m the one on the right in the blue hard hat. Enjoy!
Below is a picture of my bronze casting just after being taken from the sand mold, with the gating still intact. It is a series of bronze bas relief mini-art pieces. I am still working on these pieces, but I will definitely post photos when I finish them.
Unlike most minerals that are used as gemstones, which are silicate minerals, apatite is a phosphate mineral. It is less durable than a lot of gemstones; it is about a 5 on Moh’s hardness scale, and it fractures somewhat easily.
Apatite derives its name from a Greek word meaning “cheat,” because it is so easily mistaken for other gemstones. Apatite is a transparent mineral that forms in a variety of colors, including colorless, yellow, pink, blue, green, and violet. The apatite commonly used as gemstone is typically an aqua to teal blue, green, or yellow color. The colors of the apatite stones I have purchased tend to be extremely vivid.
Apatite deposits are fairly common worldwide. It can be found as grains in igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary rocks. The large crystals used as gemstones are found in contact metamorphic rocks.
Prehnite is another gemstone that seems to be surrounded by some confusion. I have seen prehnite referred to as a type of garnet, or as an alternative name for tourmalated/tourmalinated quartz. I have also seen prehnite consistently misspelled as phrenite, pernite, and prenite. Prehnite is not a type of garnet or quartz; it is a calcium aluminum silicate mineral. Prehnite is a phyllosilicate. It is typically yellow-green to brown-yellow in color. (Most of the prehnite I have purchased is a celery green color.) Prehnite ranges from transparent to translucent. Prehnite does not sparkle, but it has a glow that I personally find very soothing to look at. Some prehnite exhibits a cat’s eye effect, and is best cut en cabochon.
Prehnite has a Moh’s hardness of 6-6 1/2 (about the same hardness as quartz, sometimes a bit less). It has a good cleavage, making it easier to break (and therefore less durable) than quartz.
Deposits of prehnite are found in Australia, China, Scotland, South Africa, and the United States (Schumann, Gemstones of the World.) Prehnite is found in hydrothermally altered rocks. It is associated with xeolite minerals (although it is not a xeolite mineral itself.)
Many people have been asking me lately about my migraines, so I’ve decided to go ahead and post an update on my blog.
For just over a month, I’ve been taking Migrelief (a combination of feverfew, magnesium, and B2), and Co Q-10 supplements. My migraines have generally been less severe, but I’m still getting about 3 migraines a week. (I should really track my migraines more carefully and scientifically!)
I’ve decided to increase my dosage of Co Q-10, and I’m adding a vegetarian Omega-3 supplement to the mix. I plan to post another update after taking these for about a month. Wish me luck!
I’ve seen vesuvianite mistakenly called vessonite, or referred to as a type of garnet, but it is in fact the mineral idocrase, with no relation to garnet. Vesuvianite is usually an olive green color, but idocrase also occurs in yellow-brown and pale blue. It is a complicated calcium aluminum silicate mineral, with a wide range of compositions and therefore physical properties. It has a Moh’s hardness of 6.5 (which is comparable to quartz), and it is pretty durable.
Deposits of vesuvianite are found in Brazil, Mexico, Kenya, Russia, Switzerland, Sri Lanka, and the United States (Schumann, Gemstones of the World).
Vesuvianite is found in skarns (limestones that have been subjected to contact metamorphism). Vesuvianite got its name from the volcano Vesuvius, where it was first found.
Other varieties of idocrase include cyprine (light blue), Californite (also called California Jade), xanthite, and wiluite.
According to thatcrystalsite.com: “Vesuvianite provides a link to the higher self and the information it offers to the soul in incarnation. Psychologically, it releases feelings of imprisonment and restraint. It is helpful for healing past-life experiences of being a prisoner, of extreme danger, or of mental or emotional restraint; it gently dissolves anger and alleviates fear, creating inner security. Vesuvianite (Idocrase) has powerful mental connections. It opens the mind and clears negative thought patterns so that the mind can function more clearly. It stimulates inventiveness and the urge to discover, linking this into creativity. Vesuvianite can be used to promote loyalty to mankind. It represents cooperative effort and is a wonderful stone to present to newlyweds, business associates, friends and acquaintances. It also assists in the control of the creative and intuitive aspects of the inner realm. Unlocks and stabilizes the mental faculties, helping to clear negative thought patterns from the mental, emotional, an physical bodies and helps one to recognize that which is important to further ones advancement along the spiritual path.”
I will hosting an online art exhibit for Worldwide Women Artists Online (WWAO) next month, and I have a few ideas for the theme. I would love some input, so please vote here!
If you haven’t seen Wordle yet, you might enjoy checking it out. You simply enter text or a URL, and Wordle creates an image with the words pulled from the text. You can change the font, colors, and orientation of the words in the diagram.
The image above is what I came up with when I entered my bio into Wordle. Fun!
