rocks in my head?

well, maybe.....

We went to the gem show up in Denver yesterday and I was VERY restrained.

I actually went with an idea of what we needed to purchase, and pretty much stayed to it.

Some silver chain was necessary, as DH has been turning out some of the most wonderful art clay pieces, which I make the necklace parts for, and we were almost out of raw chain. We were able to get 2 different styles which will go quite well with what he's been doing, and at a very reasonable price.

The picture above shows all of the stones that I bought to work with.

The 2 pink rose quartz squares at the top left are for a pair of earrings that would go with the necklace I'm working on right now. The 2 purple ovals at the bottom left will also work for that purpose.

The blue, pear shape on the top right is a piece of Lorimar. I've been wanting to get a piece of this stuff since it started showing up in the gem magazines, but this is the first piece I've found that I could afford.

In the center row, left to right we have a rectangular sunstone with very pretty color variations, a trillion shaped ocean jasper and an oval mookiate jasper piece from Australia, all of which will probably go into smaller necklaces.

And the last two pieces on the bottom are both from Australia, the center 3 being a type of opal which I plan to turn into a necklace with matching earrings and the irregular shaped purples will also be earrings.

I was flipping through a book recently and realized I've missed a whole other design possiblity in not using any "fringes" on bead embrodiery earrings, so I'll be playing with that idea with some of these.

Today I will be writing up Ebay listings (having spent about 45 minutes in the photo studio taking pictures of things); and working on the quilt.

Its time to get moving!