rock tumbling

Gemstones and Wire-Wrapping – or What I’ve I Been Up To Lately!!!

May 8, 2017 by Bill Stuart Leave a Comment

I’ve been reading, doing a little writing (revisions on The Gemstone Chronicles and a new work-in-progress) and I haven’t done a post about gemstones in quite a while. So, I wanted to share some of what I’ve been up to with my gemstone collection (which keeps growing!). Because I have so many rocks now, I decided to take up wire-wrapping. Before I get to that, though, I wanted to share pictures of a few tumbled stones that I really like. I believe three of the rocks shown below are obsidian, but the fourth one is a smoky quartz. I would love to show you the light shining through it, but the picture just wouldn’t work.

Round Tumbled Obsidian Wire — Round Tumbled Obsidian

Rectangular Tumbled Obsidian Wire — Rectangular Tumbled Obsidian

Tumbled Obsidian and Smoky Quartz Wire — Tumbled Obsidian and Smoky Quartz

In the picture above, the smoky quartz is in the upper right and looks similar to the other stones. However, when the light shines on it, you can see through the stone.

Those are just a few of the stones from my tumblers (which run 24/7). Having all these tumbled stones led me to try my hand at wire-wrapping as I mentioned above. It’s a lot more difficult than I thought it would be and I watch a lot of videos about different types of wrapping. I try to keep mine fairly simple, since I am still learning. Below are a few examples of my efforts.

Onyx Gemstones Wire — Drilled and Wrapped Onyx

Drilled and Wrapped Pencil Quartz Pendant

The quartz stone below were drilled using my Dremel drill press stand. It did a great job and made a clean smooth hole in the center of the stone. Perfect for wire wrapping! Here is a picture of my setup

Drilled and Wrapped Quartz Gemstones — Center Drilled and Wrapped Quartz

Aventurine Gemstones — Wrapped Aventurine

I know I have a lot of work to do and much more practice to go before the techniques are learned and the results acceptable, but I’m having fun!

Because I need some thinner pieces (and you can’t count on finding those in a natural state), I’m going to start using my tile saw to slab some of my larger rocks. I’ll do a post on that soon. After cutting the slabs, I’ll use my templates to get rough shapes and then throw the stones in the tumbler to polish them and get them ready to wire wrap. I won’t make perfect shapes, but that’s fine by me. I prefer a more organic look anyway!

So, there you have what I’ve been up to with my gemstones. Like them? Leave me a comment and let me know or drop me an email at bill@williamlstuart.com. And, if you don’t want to miss any of my posts, consider subscribing to the blog. Lastly, if you are on the socials and want to connect, find me on Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, and Pinterest. I’m always looking to meet new friends!

My Collection – Gemstones and More Gemstones!!

January 25, 2016 by Bill Stuart 5 Comments

After digging through a box the other day, I decided I finally needed to organize my collection of rocks garnered from my many trips to the North Georgia Mountains. I was surprised and excited when I went through my plastic bags and grouped the stones together. I didn’t realize all the cool stones I had!

Let’s start with hematite. If you recall a previous post on hematite, this stone looks like a dark gray lump, but, once tumbled, turns into a beautiful silver color. The cool thing about hematite is that when rubbed against sandpaper, it leaves a red streak (hence the name hematite, which comes from the Greek root word for blood). Hematite is one of my favorite stones!

Quartz:

Quartz is a great stone, too! It comes in many colors and I haven’t found one I didn’t like. In my collection, I have clear, rose, lemon (yellow), smoky, and the cool pencil quartz. I had clear quartz cut into round brilliant cut stones and they are gorgeous!

Round-Brilliant-3-Carats-Web — Round Brilliant Cut 3 Carats

Faceted Gemstones Round Brilliant Cut Quartz — Round Brilliant Cut Quartz Pair

The stones below are quartz as I found them. I will start with the pencil quartz. It is a misleading name, as some of the crystals are much larger than a pencil!

Pencil-quartz-Jan-2016 — Pencil Quartz Collection

I think some of these would look great just hanging from a chain, but a couple of them are too big for anything except maybe a paperweight! Below is a picture of one of the large crystals.

Large-Pencil-Quartz-Jan-2016 — Large Pencil Quartz

Clear and lemon quartz are beautiful stones, too. I think I might send my gem cutter a couple of the lemon quartz to see what he can do with them. I expect they will be gorgeous! Here are some of each.

Clear-Quartz-Jan-2016 — Clear Quartz Collection

Aventurine:

Aventurine is another quartz stone and usually has bits of mica or other minerals that give it a shimmering appearance. Here is my collection of aventurine.

Amethysts and Citrines:

Amethysts and citrines are other forms of quartz. I have a nice collection of each and I have some large amethysts. Which are your favorites?

The two large amethysts are shown on the scale below. Using the conversion of 5 carats per gram, the first stone is 630 carats and the second is 575 carats!

Collection 630 Carat Amethyst — 630 Carat Amethyst

Collection 575 Carat — 575 Carat Amethyst

Both of these stones are too fractured to cut into gemstones, but I love the deep purple color of them.

The citrines are a golden version of amethyst. I like the lighter color ones, but the darker ones (second picture) are the ones I might send to the gem cutter to see if he can get anything out of them.

Collection Citrine Dark Tips — Citrine Dark Tips

Emeralds:

I have a large number of emeralds, too. One of my all-time favorite stones, these are rough and ready to tumble. I might have a few that are suitable for gem cutting.

Collection Emeralds to Facet — Emeralds to Facet?

Moonstone:

If you recall from The Gemstone Chronicles Book Two: The Amethyst, Laura used a moonstone to turn her friends and family invisible during a battle. Now, I haven’t tried invisibility with these moonstones, but I like them!

Garnets:

I find lots of garnets. The garnets are a deep red and its hard to show the color in a photo. I did manage to capture one, though. What do you think of them?

Rubies and Sapphires:

Lastly, I wanted to share my collection of rubies and sapphires. Now, I don’t believe any of these are gem quality stones, but I like them anyway. I think when I start cabbing (making cabochons) in the near future, I will do a few of these just to see how they turn out. Stay tuned for them!

Collection Rubies and Sapphires 2 — Rubies and Sapphires

Connect with me:

I have more, but these are the favorites of my collection. What do you think? Feel free to leave a comment, subscribe to the blog, email me at bill@williamlstuart.com, or connect with me on social media. I can be found on Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, or Tumblr!

The Augusta Literary Festival – Postscript!!

March 11, 2015 by Bill Stuart 2 Comments

On March 7, 2015, I attended the 4th Annual Augusta Literary Festival in Augusta, Georgia. We had a great time! We enjoyed our stay. Before I talk about the Festival, though, I want to talk about Augusta. Wikipedia says Augusta is the second oldest city in Georgia. Only Savannah is older. James Oglethorpe, founder of the British colony of Georgia, directed Augusta’s founding. Oglethorpe sent troops to build at the head of the navigable section of the Savannah River. He named to town Augusta (after the wife of the Frederick, Prince of Wales).

Other interesting facts about Augusta:

Augusta was the capital of Georgia twice during the American Revolution
Prior to the Civil War, Augusta was a leader in the production of textiles, gunpowder, and paper
in 1845, the Southern Baptist Convention was founded in Augusta
Augusta is the home of the Medical College of Georgia
Georgia Pacific was founded in Augusta
James Brown (the Godfather of Soul) grew up in Augusta in the 1930’s and 40’s
The Savannah River Site is located near Augusta (and is the source for tritium for nuclear weapons)
EZ – Go and Club Car (the world’s largest golf cart manufacturers) are located in Augusta
The Masters Golf Tournament held annually at Augusta National Golf Club

Speaking the the Masters, I keep applying for Masters tickets in the ticket lottery. Despite my many attempts, I haven’t won any, but hope springs eternal! I apply each year in May and get the results in July. One day, I hope I’ll get the tickets!

There you have a quick list of facts about Augusta. Interesting place and one I am going to have to take some time to learn more about. However, now on to the Augusta Literary Festival and my experiences there!

Augusta Literary Festival:

We (the lovely and adorable Lana accompanied me – see the picture below), arrived Friday afternoon for the Festival. We attended the Author’s Reception at the Library. The highlight was the winner of the Yerby Award. Amanda Kyle Williams won for her book Don’t Talk to Strangers.

Saturday got the ball rolling. The event started at 10 am and there were visitors aplenty! Before it started, we got to interact with the other authors. I made a couple of new author friends! I decided to do a giveaway with each book purchased. For Book One: The Carnelian, we gave away carnelians. Book Two: The Amethyst buyers received amethysts. Not a bad bonus for buying a book!

Augusta Literary Festival Carnelians — Carnelians

Augusta Literary Festival Amethysts — Amethysts

I also participated as a panelist for a self publishing discussion. My fellow panelists were fantasy writer Alicia Michaels, and Hasheem Francis, bestselling author and businessman. We spoke about the self publishing process and our own lessons learned during our independent author journey. About 40 people attended our session. I hope we gave useful advice! Who knows, we might have spoken to a future Yerby Award winner!

By the end of the day, we met some really great people. I gained new author friends, too. And, we sold a few books! Overall, we had a wonderful experience. I’ll Look for my invitation to next year’s Augusta Literary Festival!

Did you attend the Augusta Literary Festival? What about book festivals in your area (if you don’t live in or near Augusta)? Do you enjoy interacting with the authors and finding new books? What is your favorite part of a festival? Leave me a comment and let me know!

Connect with me:

Connect with me! I’m on Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads. Otherwise, just drop me a line at bill@williamlstuart.com! Stop by and say hi! If you’ve read any of The Gemstone Chronicles, thanks! If not, what are you waiting for? And please consider leaving a review. I love to know what you think of the books!

Faceted Gemstones – Newest Additions!!

February 13, 2015 by Bill Stuart Leave a Comment

Regular readers of my blog (or my books) know that I’m a big fan of gemstones. I love faceted gemstones, cabochons, and tumbled stones. My books, The Gemstone Chronicles series, use the magical and mystical properties of gemstones as the basis of the magic the characters discover. I frequently go gemstone hunting at my favorite spot in the North Georgia Mountains, Gold n’ Gem Grubbin’, in Cleveland, GA. My two rock tumblers run almost all of the time, smoothing out the rough edges and polishing the stones I’ve found to a brilliant luster. Occasionally, though, I find a special stone that can be cut and faceted. Shown below is the first stone I ever had cut (an emerald)!

Emerald:

A 2.25 carat stone, it appraised nicely, and is still loose. Lana hasn’t decided on a setting yet. The stone is gorgeous, and since it was my first find, it is extra special!

Peridot:

My brother John found the peridot shown in the photo below. I had it cut for Lana. It weighed in at about 2.5 carats and I had it set in a sterling silver ring for her birthday. Beautiful!!

Ruby:

Now, I have two new additions to the faceted gemstones family! I was hunting and found this rough ruby and sent it over to my faceting friend and he worked his magic. Unfortunately, I don’t have a picture of the rough.

After cutting and polishing, here is the final faceted stone. Not huge by any means, but still weighing in at 1.3 carats, it is a great little stone!

Note the description in the picture says sapphire, which is true. Recall that red sapphires are rubies! Gene cut the stone in a Cushion Cut, and it turned out beautifully!