Natural Chunk of Raw Amethyst Ring

I love this chunk of Amethyst! This large stone has a darker streak of vivid purple running thru it, a rich, wet look and a high profile. This ring is not for the faint of heart! I soldered on some sterling accents and oxidzed between them so that the black would show off the purple-yummy!

Tucson Gem Show Trip 2013

When going to Tucson, I like to stop overnight in Globe, Arizona, so that I have an early morning drive through Saguaro cactus country on my way to the first show. It's so peaceful and beautiful. And when I stopped to take these pictures, I found several great 'treasures' for my art projects that people had thrown out. One man's junk....

Tucson Gem Show

I had a very satisfying trip to Tucson, and really liked those 75 degree temps!!! I got lots of great treasures--I was especially happy to get some opal and boulder opal cabs. I also found some nice, freeform labradorite cabs, in addition to some larimar, charoite, seraphinite, and pietersite cabs. I also got some great raw aquamarines, citrines, and turquoise nuggets, and some nice mini slabs of azurite, sonoran sunset, rhodochrosite and larimar. Also, a bunch of cool beads, including amethyst, keshi pearls, spiny oyster and copal. I enjoyed seeing some of my dealer buddies--good luck with the wedding, Deb! And it's always nice to find some new dealers that I will look for next time I go. Tucson is the place to see the biggest and best amethyst cathedrals, and I rather liked these petrified wood benches...