Every Christmas the question is; “What should I make for Bonnie?” Bonnie is my bride of 44 years. She already has her choice of thousands of Pendants, and hundreds of beaded treasures she makes for her Etsy site. I have to start thinking way ahead, when it comes to a special Christmas gift for the jewelry maker’s wife.

While cutting, from my large selection of rocks and minerals, I will usually discover a very special piece of material (or several), worthy for a Lapidary Artist’s wife to wear.

Bonnie enjoys wearing simple, yet elegant, pendants; not too showy, but noticeable, none the less. She has a massive collection of “jewelry shirts”. These shirts are usually solid colors that can show off a Pendant, or a set of beads with a wide variety of colors and patterns.

This past summer’s shop work first produced a very special Petoskey Stone cabochon. Sometimes Michigan’s State Stone is surprising in its multiple variety of colorations, patterns, and uniqueness. The quality of a Petoskey Stone is very subjective, but in general high quality Petoskey Stones are mud free, solid, with a clear patterns.

The primary thing I look for in a fine Petoskey Stone is clarity of pattern. It is not very common to find a solid Petoskey Stone, showing perfectly clear patterns within all the individual Polyps. In most cases the “eyes” of the Polyps, (that are actually mouths), are filled with mud to some extent. This mud can seldom be removed. I usually do not use Muddy Petoskey Stones, but in the case of this stone the “mud” was a good thing, and added some character to a stone. It was a case where Black mud is good.

In the Petoskey Stone I chose for Bonnie’s Pendant; the mouths were filled with Petroleum-rich material, making them almost solid black, BUT the rest of the fossil displayed beautiful, perfectly clear Calcification. The black “Eyes” were so striking; so stunning; that I immediately knew I had the start of a spectacular piece of jewelry. I imagined one of the little Polyps talking to its neighbor; “Hey Harry, you should try some of this grease, it’s really tasty”.

The darkness of a Petoskey Stone, is indicative of the percentage of Petroleum that permeated into the Petoskey Stone during Calcification. Darker Petoskey Stone exude a strong petroleum odor when they are cut. The odor this stone emitted was strong in its a petroleum scent. Petroleum-rich, dark Petoskey Stones also take a better polish than light colored Petoskey Stones, simply because of this petroleum content. This cabochon took an excellent glass-like finish.. OK, I hid this stone from prying eyes for a few months. Hiding any stone in my shop is a dangerous proposition. Fortunately, I was lucid enough to keep track of it for a few months.

Do I just want to wrap a Petoskey Stone and call it good? NO WAY! A jewelry showpiece, for a special lady, needs more bling than that. Michigan’s State Stone (the Petoskey Stone) needed to be accompanied by Michigan’s State Gemstone (The Isle Royal Greenstone). Several Greenstone, from a decades old collection actually from Isle Royale, were polished and drilled for the top of this pendant. I make them on a bead drilling machine. I admit, drilling Greenstones is a bit extravagant.

The bottom segment of Bonnie’s Christmas Pendant involved Drilling Datolite Beads (from one of the Isle Royale Mines behind the Houghton Walmart) and Unakite beads, (made from Lake Superior beach material) were also added to the pendant mix. I just kept piling on the goodness.

The last stone added was a Copper rich Datolite. It was a gorgeous white Datolite with lightning-like streaks of Copper exploding within the Gemstone. Like the Petoskey Stone, this special Datolite told me it wanted to be part of this project. The Datolite was shaped to add as a second component to the Pendant. Bonnie is very fond of copper in her Datolite. The Lightning Datolite swings freely from the bottom of the Petoskey Stone. This configuration is one of my signature features in many of my pendants.

My choice of gold and silver wire allows this pendant to be worn with any color chain or cord.

The blog pictures may be a bit out of the order they were accomplished, but you’ll get the idea by reading the text under each picture.

TURTLES

Let’s talk about one of the most challenging Pendant projects I’ve ever finished; TURTLES!.

I have actually been thinking about this for a few years, but realizing how much time, materials, and troubles it would be, I’ve put it off. Admittedly I took the cowards way out—it seemed I always had something that was more important to do! I needed to get my Mojo back.

My goal this year was to create what was a roadblock in my brain.  Here is the idea. Michigan’s Official State Stone is the Petoskey Stone, and the State Gemstone is the ultra rare Isle Royale Greenstone. We live in NW Michigan where, if you know where to look, nice Petoskey Stones can be harvested.  

Petoskey Stones are sometimes referred to as “Turtle Backs” because they resemble turtle shells.  Isle Royal Greenstones are said to have an “Alligator Pattern”. Greenstone, if they have a nice pattern, also look like turtle appendages. What if I could combine these two beautiful Michigan stones and made a turtle pendant?

One of the major problems is matching Greenstone patterns so the turtle appendages have a cohesive look. 

Recently I manufactured a set of these pendants which were challenging in many ways.

Each turtle required five greenstones that closely matched  in size, pattern, and color.  This required cutting and polish around hundreds of greenstones, which has taken place over several years.  Most of the greenstones used in this project are from an Isle Royale Greenstone collection that I purchased several years ago.  These are even more rare than Keweenaw Greenstones.  Picking greenstones on Isle Royale is against National park policy.  Decades ago authorities on the island were not that particular about guests picking us a few greenstones. Today rangers are quite strict about the regulations regarding picking up rocks and minerals in the national park.  

After cutting and polishing all these small stones.  Cutting small stones involves gluing them on dop sticks or holding them in your finger with the risk of scuffing your finger tips.  Foolishly and unnecessarily I chose the bleeding option many times.  Separating them off the dop sticks, pouring out on a table, sorting for size, shape, and color, and finally choosing stones that might be used together for turtles were some of the steps taken over time. Some had to go back for shaping so they could pass muster as heads or tails.  Many of the greenstones are up to 10mm in size which makes them large for greenstones. The appendages are all nice enough they could have been used for feature stones in jewelry such as rings or necklaces.

The Petoskey Stones are found by us in several secret locations in northwest lower Michigan, but rarely from beaches.  They were sorted 2-3 times for top quality nicely patterned for the turtle backs.  They were cut and shaped, mounded in ovals, and polished to a glass-like finish.

The next problem was how to attach the appendages to the turtle; how was I going to join the Petoskey stones and the Greenstones?  I looked for a material that could be a backer.  What material could be thin enough and strong enough to do this?  Jade is strong and tough, often used for guitar picks, so it is strong even when thin. The Petoskey stones and Greenstones were glued onto green jade wafers using a strong 2 part epoxy. 

Cutting the turtles requires special lapidary tools and a careful touch.  Believe me when I tell you that this procedure was challenging, complicated, and time consuming.

After cutting the turtles out, I developed a procedure for wire wrapping them, which hides the wires behind the turtle.  When the turtles hand on a chain, you do not see the bail, or most of the wire wrapping, allowing for no distraction from the beauty of the the Patterns of the Petoskey stone and Greenstones.

It took me months of thought and work to create these pendants.

I cut out a dozen turtles, and posted them on Facebook, receiving  over 2,600 likes. It seemed everyone wanted a turtle, but not everyone realized what these turtles might cost. 

People wanted them for desk ornaments, or to add to their turtle collections. I think for a turtle collector, this may work, but for someone that wants to put a turtle comprised of sizable Isle Royale Greenstones and Jade just our on a deck; not so good. I would sell these without a bail on the back, but they are designed for wearing. 

The first turtle release will be six pendants as Christmas gifts, and perhaps more of the dozen I’ve made, depending on popularity. The scarcity of Gem-Quality Greenstones will severely limit my product every year.

Making Turtles from Greenstones that otherwise could be rings or necklaces is somewhat frivolice, and from a business standpoint, perhaps not wise; but so be it.