It's a Mystery!!!

And I do mean a MYSTERY -- the past few months have found me scouring books on rocks and semi-precious stones to no avail.


When I received an order from Fire Mountain Gems in January, I was so excited to discover just what would be in a large assortment of cabochons. I was able to determine all of the others but the majority of the stones I received were those pictured here.


I emailed Fire Mountain Gems to see if they could answer my riddle. The first contact thought the stones might be brown zebra stones. The second response was certain they were red "malachite". After researching both suggestions, I doubt seriously these stones are either of these.
















Thoroughly frustrated, I began to wonder if the wood-grain appearance was a faux finish. So, being a good detective at heart, I took a hammer to one of them and sure enough, the surface grain runs straight through the stone.


If anyone has any idea what these stones are, I would love to hear from you. In the meantime, I am still trying to puzzle out just what to do with them!

Kara's Bracelet Commission

I can finally post about this commissioned bracelet. Way back in February, a lovely young woman in Knoxville, Tennessee emailed me and asked if I would make her an earth/sky theme bracelet. Unfortunately, I was smack dab in the middle of publishing my novel and this wonderful project got put on hold for quite a while.

















After five false starts, I finally settled on these two designs. Somehow, in between
proofreading the galleys for the book and life in general, I started work on both
bracelets at once.


Kara had her heart set on turquoise as a focal stone and the most beautiful piece I had was a bit too large for the cuff size. But, she asked me to go ahead and try it anyway. To make a long story short, Kara chose the bracelet with the larger piece of turquoise pictured here in the last two photos. Guess who gets to keep the other one? And guess which one was my favorite in the bargain?

The bracelet in the upper photos was made with antique Egyptian turquoise,
adventurine, jasper, amazonite, carnelian, cultured pearls, vintage crystals, and assorted sizes of glass beads.














Kara's choice was made with turquoise, carnelian, petrified jasper, fossil stone, antique Egyptian turquoise nuggets, sunsitara beads, cultured pearls, vintage crystals, carnelian beads, and assorted sizes of seed beads.


Kara's bracelet is on it's way to her!

A bit of catching up here . . .

Since our daughter Mandy's birthday is today, I can finally post her gifties. Hard to believe the youngest of our six kids turned 29 today.

All these birthday goodies were completed a few weeks ago before I came down with some strange sort of flu. Only good thing about being tied down with an achy body and sore head was getting to finish several great books.

We are experimenting with different methods of photographing beadwork here, hence the different shots and exposures.



For those of you who have asked about the Comfort Doll Workshop that I gave last month, believe it or not I was so darn busy helping folks I forgot all about my camera until I unloaded all the workshop supplies back home! Quite a few of the workshop attendees had never even threaded a needle let alone do any beading previously. But they became the most enthusiastic participants of all.

One of the sample practice dolls I used in the workshop has become yet another birthday present for the Mandy daughter. Pictured below, she is decked out in July's birthstone color -- a color I knew Mandy would never wear in a bracelet but would enjoy in a doll.

Will have more projects to post soon (I am knee-deep in them at the moment!) and a few more of the sample practice dolls that have been developed further since the workshop.

77 Days of Elving . . . more or less!

Well, the Vorenberg Workshop elves were a pesky lot this past holiday season. Nag, nag, nag -- and bicker, bicker, bicker over their employer's project list. Then they dragged their heels about leaving, insisting that there surely must be just one more thing to make.

No photos were taken of all the knitted and crocheted headwarmers, caps, shawls, scarves, and toddler and baby sweaters nor of the wardrobe of handmade dolly clothes but those rascal elves did allow time for quick shots of most of the beaded items.


This is the Mandy daughter's Christmas bracelet, the first cuff bracelet I have ever made. It is titled "From Sea to Shining Sea" because it was conceived and executed throughout the 2007 World Series baseball games and you just know which song is played during the 7th-inning stretch of every game, right? Mandy holds an MFA in media arts so I took great license with the design which was centered around a misshapen face I molded, then stained. Vintage rivolis and flatback peridot gems flank the bracelet.

Our daughter Melissa loves green nearly as much as I do and her Christmas bracelet is entitled "In a Zen Mood". Yet another handmade face finished with a copper patina is surrounded by Chinese chrysophrase nuggets, green turquiose chips, polished green stone nuggets, and vintage rivolis.

Elena, our oldest daughter, fell in love with this necklace design in a beading magazine while visiting last summer. It only seemed logical that it must be made for her. The necklace was made up with a "gazillion" Swarovski crystals, black charlotte beads, black and crystal seed beeds and finished with a sterling silver S clasp.

We have eight December birthdays in our family now with the addition of tiny Baby Natalie on December 15th, who is the granddaughter of our daughter-in-law, Shelley, and our son, David. Shelley's birthday is two days before Christmas and we always strive to make it extra special. She is a burgundy girl and this bracelet features vintage rivolis surrounded by freshwater pearls, garnet chips, and crystals.

Son David's birthday is the week before Christmas and he is always a great challenge to make an interesting gift for. A beautiful edition of The Tolkien Miscellany was accompanied by this "Tolkienish" dagger bookmark which I crafted out of another face I molded and gave a bronzed patina. The hilt of the dagger features a piece of faceted Tibetan turquoise held with bronze metallic beads and the blade is fashioned out of the same beads in peyote stitch.




Daughter Jennifer is a blue person and this bracelet's design seemed a natural fit especially with all the snow she experienced in the northern part of New Mexico in the weeks before Christmas. Her cuff bracelet was done in a different manner in that I made a peyote strip the width and length of the brass blank, then embellished it with freshwater pearls and cobalt blue glass beads of every shape and size. It is titled "Arctic Blooms".

"Winter Zen" was made in a similar manner to most of the gift bracelets utilizing a winter palette of colors. It, too, has a handmade face and vintage rivolis, freshwater pearls, and green sea glass pieces. Since it has not gone to it's intended recipient yet, she shall remain nameless here . . .

Alas, my dear husband's new sweater is far from being finished. Knitting for a six-foot, seven-inch tall man is a great challenge under normal circumstances but with all the handmade gifties being churned out by those boisterous elves here, I am sorry to say that only twelve inches of the back of Jim's sweater has been completed.

Knew I shouldn't trust those elves to get it done . . .