GETTING THE JUMP ON JUNE...

I am not going to let another month go past without jumping right into my June blog post. This is one of those months that seems to whip by every year in a blink of the eye. Kids are out of school and it just seems that the attention gets so wrapped up in vacations and so many other activities the time flies by. And to top it off this means that half a year has almost slipped by as well....geez!

Okay, in the world of gemstones, June brings us the Alexandrite birthstone. This stone was originally founded in the the Ural Mountains of Russia in or around 1830. It was given the name Alexandrite after the boy czar Alexander II and this precious stone was rare and only given to royalty at the time.



The color found in a true alexandrite gem is sensational. It has the ability to change its color from a bluish-green in the daylight to a light purple raspberry-like color in incandescent light. Since I am wrapping synthetic stones they stay the purplish color.



The alexandrite gemstone is very scarce which is mainly due to it's chemical makeup. Its formation requires a specific geological condition of blending the chemical elements of beryllium and chromium together which, as a rule are not known for being mixed together. This is a rare scenario in the Earth's history, thus making the alexandrite gemstone quite unique and rare.

It seems that the Russian deposit were thought to be depleted and no more of this gem was left. However, in 1987 alexandrite was discovered in Brazil and since then India, Burma, Madagascar and Zimbabwe have also been contributing to the future of this gem.

I have displayed for you here several of my pieces which are either wrapped in sterling silver or rolled gold.


www.MyWireWorks.com/Alexandrite

MAY FLOWERS ...OK, JUST MAY BEAUTY!

Yet again, another month has flown by and my blogging went to the back burner! May day, Cinco de mayo, a trip to Hawaii and learning all about FaceBook consumed my month. And because of that I missed sharing with you my wire-wrapped jewelry pieces representing the month of May. So here is one for the record. This 2" emerald pendant is made using sterling silver with a 8 mm synthetic stone. A beautiful piece for any time of year. Here is my offering of this May birthstone:




I think that the emerald is a perfect color for the month of May as it goes along with the signs of spring. It has such a vibrant and intense green color and it draws attention whenever it is worn.

The emerald is said to be one of the first precious stones to be mined by the ancient Egyptians. Gotta say Cleopatra loved them if pictures are to be trusted.

It is also a known fact that a true emerald (not the synthetic ones, which I use) will always show visible inclusions. If you pick an emerald and there are no inclusions then you surely are not looking at a true emerald.

There are many sites on the web that go into more detail on this beautiful stone, I just wanted to give you a hint of what its all about.

For a view at more of my pieces go to:
www.mywireworks.com/emerald.htm

Where Has Time Gone..

My oh my, where has the year gone...to hell and a handbasket for me!

To say that this past year was disasterous is putting it mildly. My family and I, like so very many others have had to overcome a plethora of obstacles. Dealing with the ups and downs of this economy. And that saying, "if it ain't one thing it's another" certainly seem to strick home. But whatcha gonna do except just keep on keeping on! However, despite it all we are surviving and can somewhat see the light at the end of the tunnel...dim, but still a light.

I recently reconnected with an old friend, who I hadn't talked to in over 15-20 years. I shared my moans and groans with her for a bit but she just wasn't gonna have it. One thing I always loved about this person was that she was one of those "get in your face with the truth" type of people. And despite the years passing, she is still that type of person and she wasn't gonna deal with the pessimistic attitude I had developed over the last two years. She grabbed my bootstraps for me, gave a good strong yank and kicked my bootie until I was standing up straight and taking back ahold of my life! She wasn't about to let go until I saw that light at the end of the tunnel. Thanks Carol!

Once I was back up, another friend managed to slap me around a bit more with a slightly different approach and now I'm feeling pretty darn good with both of my feet back on the ground. But she didn't stop there, she set me up with a really good friend of hers, and after talking to this guy for two hours, I now have a spring in my walk again, and hope in my heart. Thanks Dickie and David!

So, after all that abuse, I am reaching back into in my life and bring back doing things that have made me happy in the past. I just love creating aesthetic things, so I am back to creating on my jewelry and this blog.

And with that I am re-introducing to you my Cubic Zirconia pieces for the month of April (even though it's almost over).

My favorite cubic zircon wirewrapped piece in this gallery is this a 6mm cz wrapped in gold filled wire. The length of this piece is approximately 2 inches. The picture may not do it justice because this piece is just so beautiful.



Please take note also of the piece that is on sale for the month. This is a 6 mm cz wrapped in sterling silver. The approximate size is 2 inches in height.



Check out all these pieces at www.mywireworks.com/cubiczircon.htm

CHANGE

Change .. sometimes a good thing and sometimes not such a good thing.

I've been working on trying to improve my website and it's Google websites ranking for several months now. I've studied up by reading blogs and many websitess on what many of the SEO's (search engine optimazation)"masters" have had to say about how to improve your website and website rankings.

Well, somehow I must have really misunderstood something someone had said, or maybe they lied to me, because I use to be ranked 5th under the keywords "wire wrapped jewelry" and right now I can't even find where I'm listed, think I might have been banned. Hard to tell if I've been totally rejected for something I changed or what since Google doesn't readily tell you if you've been banned or why you might have been banned.

So, for the last two days I have been working on improving my homepage and hope it brings me back to life. Of course I would love to have some really "true" data to operate with in hopes of finding my lost site. However, in the meantime, I've got tons of work to do in the other pages so I will forge on.

Check out the updated homepage at: www.mywireworks.com

Also, since I haven't managed to get my blogging done or any new jewelry pieces made for March, with job hunting, school, remodeling and such, I would like to just direct you to my aquamarine pieces now. Hopefully within the next few months I will be back in operation to be able to create more aquamarine pieces.


Go to: www.mywireworks.com/aquamarine.htm

JANUARY

THE MONTH
On the current day calendar, January is the first month of a new year. It is named after Janus (Ianuarius), the god of the doorway; the name has its beginnings in Roman mythology, coming from the Latin word for door (ianua) - January is the door to the year.

January is also most noted as usually having the coldest days of the year and of course if anybody has listened to the whether news at all, this has certainly been the case this year. So many people on the east coast got to have a white Chistmas, cold but still white. Check out my friends blog at http://dragon-quilter.blogspot.com and see some of her incredible winter shots. As for me, I live on the West coast in the Los Angeles area so our Christmas was ashen. We who live in the northern part of the county still continually get to wake up to ash covered sidewalks and streets. This does not make for smiling faces!

However, on with things about the month of January. Of course there are a lot of "Hollywood type" celebrities that have birthdays in January but did you know that Betsy Ross who was credited with making the first American flag was born in January in 1752. There were many other great people in history with birthdays in January like Paul Revere, Benedict Arnold, Dr. Martin Luther King, Benjamin Franklin, Daniel Webster, Robert E. Lee, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and John Hancock - a merchant, statesman, and prominent Patriot. Many great people born in this month.

And of course... January is the sign of the Capricorn and the garnet represents the birthstone of the month.

THE BIRTHSTONE
Garnet - the name may come from either the Middle English word gernet 'dark red', or Latin granatus ("grain"), possibly a reference to the Punica granatum ("pomegranate"), a plant with red seeds similar in shape, size.

Garnets can be found in many different colors orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, brown, black, pink but the medium dark red is my choice. The other colors seem to relate to other birthstones. This stone is sometimes mixed up with the ruby which is slightly darker in color or the Alexandrite which is the pinkish color.

People who are born in January often associate the with having a tendency towards energy, deep down sincere, or devotion. As a birthstone, garnet is a protective and guiding gem. The garnet remains a symbolic sign for the gift of love for those celebrating the 18th anniversary, the ideal gift for a second anniversary.

No matter the date, a garnet is always a beautiful gift to get and receive.
www.mywireworks.com/garnet.htm

Also:
References from: http://en.wikipedia.org