I've spent possibly too much time over the past several days working on my one sacrificial larimar, and I've come to a few conclusions.

1. It is certainly possible to remove the matrix with lots of grinding and polishing.

2. When starting with an 8mm bead, the stone that's left in the end is substantially smaller.

3. It's hard to hold an irregular 8mm nugget bead in a clamp.

4. Gah, but this isn't worth it!

Yeah. I'd held out high hopes for improving on this larimar, but it's just not going to happen within my lifetime. I suppose it's time to learn what I've already learned about turquoise: embrace the matrix.

I mean, I see perfect looking turquoise with no matrix and think it looks fake, even when I know it's not. I have a turquoise cabochon that I picked up a few years ago when one of the local jewelry stores was closing and liquidating their entire inventory. This turquoise is really an exceptional one, I can tell, but there's just something about that uniform opaque blue that seems a little unnatural.

So give me my turquoise with some variations in color and a touch of black matrix. Now if I could just think that way about the larimar, I'd be set to go.

Labels: beads, jewelry, lapidary, larimar, turquoise

...that which we would call a rose by any other name, etc...

From time to time I get that question that probably anyone who has an acronym in their name has been asked at some point: "What does that stand for, anyway?"

Great Minds Get Angry?
Go Make Great Art?
Give Me Good Andalusite? (hey, I like that thought!)

Pleas for andalusite notwithstanding, none of these are quite right. The real answer is "Gray Matter Gone Amok" and although that last one in my hypothetical list really appeals to me, there's a (comparatively) long history behind the actual name.

About 10 years ago (I know, eons in the online world) I was trying to decide on a name for what would be my new personal website. I really wanted to divorce myself from the concept of my previous site, so I spent quite a bit of time thinking about the name. I wanted something that would reflect my content, which included various slightly snarky essays, lots of (admittedly bad) poetry, a growing collection of fractal art and maybe an unfinished novel or two. All that needed something a little more impressive than "Jenn's Website".

The concept of using one's brain was critical, hence the introduction of "gray matter" into the name. But it wasn't about sheer number-crunching brain power, it was about the creative process involved. Said process wasn't exactly "crazy" or "mad". It was more like calculated chaos.

a∙mok
adverb (in phrase run amok)
behave uncontrollably and disruptively:
stone-throwing anarchists running amok
figurative: her feelings seemed to be running amok

What can I say, I liked the word "amok". It actually made sense in the context. And honestly, it's fun to say. Go on, try it - I'll wait.

insert pause for dramatic effect here

So what does all that have to do with jewelry? Well, the obvious answer is that I already had the domain name and couldn't very well let it go to waste. Honestly though, domains are cheap now. Really, the same concepts that are involved in my writing and my artwork go into my jewelry. There's a sense of practicality there: writing that makes a point, art derived from mathematics, jewelry that can be worn in real life rather than just on a runway. But there's also the amok component, the dash of chaos that makes it all interesting.

I suppose it's why I adore baroque pearls, prefer my turquoise heavy on the matrix, and would much rather see a nifty inclusion than endless perfection.

Labels: jewelry, name, shameless self-promotion

A few weeks back I found something at my local bead store that I never thought I'd be able to track down for a reasonable price: a full strand of larimar nuggets. These aren't the huge ones; they average about 8mm each. The ones that are good quality are just wonderful, powder blue with swirls of robin's egg blue.

The others, though... you can find that coloration on them, but there's a lot of matrix. However, it looks like the matrix is mostly just on the surface of the stones, so if I can take off a comparatively thin layer, I can theoretically expose more of the good color (and eliminate some of the pitting along the way).

Jeff's suggestion was to grab a rock tumbler and go to town, but I want to preserve as much of the good material as I can in this process. So I've grabbed my sacrificial bead and the Dremel.

I've already found that using the standard polishing bits does next to nothing with this material, so I've broken out the diamond bits for this project. I do seem to be taking off some of the matrix, but it's a time consuming process. At this point, I still haven't quite gotten where I'd hoped to get with my one sacrificial bead, although it does look somewhat improved.

Pictures forthcoming if any of this effort is worth it...

Labels: beads, jewelry, lapidary, larimar, polishing

Note to self: do not use the Dremel in the presence of Jeff, as he will either mock my technique or yell at me for not using a clamp on a 4mm pearl.

That being said, it was nice actually digging out the hammer, bench block and Dremel for the first time in what seemed like forever. So much of my time is spent worrying that I might wake up a napping Erin or a snoring Jeff that I've been stuck using the manual bead reamer, much to my chagrin. But when I decided to make the earrings for this set, I wasn't about to do the reaming by hand. When you're looking to fit a 20 gauge wire through a hole drilled to accommodate maybe a 24 gauge if you're lucky, the hand reamer just doesn't cut it.



Rhodochrosite, black spinel and pearl goodness, available for purchase in my Etsy store.

Labels: bracelet, earring, jewelry, necklace, pearl, rhodochrosite, silver, spinel, sterling

Yeah, I finally went ahead and created a Facebook page as one more place to show off the shinies. If that's how you got here, it's doing its job! If not, stop by and become a fan! One can never have too many fans...

Labels: Facebook, shameless self-promotion