Jessica Dow's MySpace Blog | Jessica Dow Design Studios

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Thursday, October 22, 2009

Sterling Silver Skull Button
Category: Art and Photography

*~*Madlight 13 Skull Button~**

Skull button carved by my mother Martha Borzoni
Casting done in house by Mark Anderson

Custom made for Mimi Mathieson's Madlight 13 scarf line.
Mimi will use these buttons as embellishments on her gorgeous velvet scarves and bags.
Check out her Etsy shop here~
madlight13.etsy.com

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Wednesday, September 09, 2009

Robert Reich Public Option Video

Spread the word!!

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Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Gem Dinosaur Bone Line by Different Seasons
Current mood:

warm

Mark and I have developed nothing short of a fanatical obsession with this extraordinary material.. GEMBONE! Recently Mark has been investing his time designing and carving models for his new production line of gembone jewelry. The first batch from this new production line are the sterling gembone rings shown among the photos below. The other pieces are various gembone jewelry Mark has made.

More pieces will be made very soon. The gold gembone ring blow is an example of top grade A++ gembone... Mark will be using material of this quality in future designs. You can see examples from our gembone collection on our new Flickr page devoted completely to Gembone~
"The Gembone Gallery"~ http://www.flickr.com/photos/gembonegallery/

If you are a FLcikr member and are interested in gembone we encourage you to join our new group "Dinosaur Gembone Lovers"~http://www.flickr.com/groups/gembone_lovers/

14k Gold Cast Ring w/ Dinosaur Gembone Inlay by you.

Dinosaur bone rings another shot by you.

Custom carved and cast Argentium silver cufflinks with gembone inlay.

Sterling Bolo Tie w/ Dinosaur Gembone Inlay by you.

Custom dino bone bolo tie cast in-house By Mark. We gave this piece to our good friend Matt Dillon:)

Different Seasons Jewelry in Jewelry Artist Magazine~ August, 2007 by you.

Jewelry Artist magazine August 2007 showcased Mark's custom Argentium sterling silver cast dinosaur bone ring.

Some favorites from our gembone collection~ NOT FOR SALE but some of these pieces are available for custom jewelry work.

Jessas Birthday Gemmy Bone by you.

Here is some very interesting and informative reading about gem dinosaur bone written by our friend and fellow gembone collector Mark Buford.

"Dinosaur Gembone"~ by Mark Buford

The best dinosaur gembone is brightly colored and has very distinct cells surrounded by web like patterns. One of the prettier patterns exhibits black webbing, which provides very colorful cell definition. This webbing is one frequently found in high grade red and yellow gembone. There are many other colors of webbing including whites, blues, silvers, browns etc. One of the more fascinating cell-pattern combination's are brightly colored pastel rich mosaics that mimic paintings. Vertebra when split correctly in half through the middle of the thickest cells make a pair of the prettiest display pieces you will ever likely see available. The best vertebra pairs to buy are the ones where the seller hasn't cut slices from the middle so that you have the entire matched pair. These cost more and worth the price. Some other vertebra like neck or tail joints are only polished on one side and pretty as well. If you are fortunate you may even come across a vertebra with a spinal chord still intact.

Cells are vessels that are replaced by silicates and a mixture of minerals. Imagine no two cells are identical! Sometimes there are even whole blood vessels visible within a piece of gembone. Occasionally these are mineral filled and sometimes hollow. The very best gembone is colored crystalline quartz or agate. Less expensive gembone is plain colored, darker, fractured or sometimes soft. Some softer bone is beautiful. The hardest gembone is close to a hardness seven on Mohs scale. Rarely it is harder then seven. Other colored gembone that contain less silicate are typically less expensive. Ebay has some killer gembone at times, but these are uncommon and expensive. If it is beautiful, colorful and has large cells it's probably worth the extra money. Weathered agate cells are frequently visible on the outside of gembone. These are not indicative of good or bad quality unless there is a new break or area showing the color and fresh surface of the interior. Freshly chipped or broken surfaces are like windows and can indicate the quality near the fracture. If it chips like flint it passes the hardness test. Cells are not always visible outside and rock hounds frequently chip a corner to closer examine the piece. Look for large cells because they can indicate potential and are desirable.

Calcite also replaces bone and is soft. Calcite produces some of the prettiest gembone and is frequently mixed together with agate; it is around a 5 to 6 on Mohs scale. This means it won't polish as well or stay polished as long. Some spray laquer on calcite bone to make it shiny.

A variety of other minerals are found in gembone. Hematite and iron are common in gembone and will bleed red when polished. Some are pretty when polished and others not. Much looks burned outside in the rough and is considered lower quality bone. Occasionally iron pyrite or marcasite is found in gembone. Interesting that it is just this iron that gives us the prettiest reds and orange gembone. Sometimes the bone didn't take just right when it formed. There are a number of other varieties of minerals and agates that replace bone including jaspers, and varieties of botryoidal agates. Rotted out bone centers frequently filled with crystal pockets. Quartz crystals and numerous other crystals have filled the centers of bones as well.

Always remember that gembone will vary in color from one end to end unless you see it has an extremely uniform nature. An odd thing about excellent quality bone, regardless of whether it is red, yellow, or even orange outside is, it is extremely unlikely the inside is the same color. Although red gembone is fairly predictable as red inside, it may have dead areas inside without cells. These dead areas are where the minerals that formed the gembone meet and look like meandering rivers across a nice background of cells otherwise. Frequently when gembone forms you end up with the finest on one end and the other end of far lesser quality. There is often a desert varnish around the outside. This varnish may be bright colored where the inside is not and vice versa.

Occasionally banded agate cells are formed in gembone under just the right conditions. Some of the prettiest looking are extra large ghostly cells of every imaginable shape and size. There are fortified cells full of crystal centers where some are banded or fortified, while others are patterned in wild fashions. Others are rounded in concentric like circles of differing colors. Others may contain miniature waterline agates within the cells. Rare gembone is multi-colored with multiple banded cells. Even better if there are multiple colored cells inside of cells scattered across an entire unfractured surface. These are the genuine stars of gembone! Banded cells come in all sizes from microscopic to enormous. When these combine with multi-colored bands scattered like stars surrounded by rainbows, you have found some of the worlds finest. Occasionally the inside of the cells will be filled with vibrant colors as well, where all one can do is appreciate the sheer beauty and say ooh or aah. Vertebras and large bone ends tend to have large cells and are a good place to seek these patterns.

Gembone comes in a multitude of colors with yellow and green being rarer colors. There is a color called candy-colored I believe that is the most uncommon which includes banded cells of every color including the yellows, greens, blues, oranges, reds, and many shades in between. It may be as rare or rarer then canary yellow. Blue gembone ranges in rarity from reasonable to extremely rare for baby blue which is seldom seen. Greens aren't always rare as there are some very pretty colors of green and some less so. Many greens are softer bone and few are hard agate. The intensity of color applies to yellows as canary is quite valuable and mustard is less. A myriad of minerals add color to gembone. Irons added reds, browns, blacks, sulfur added yellows, copper caused greens and blues, manganese caused pinks and pastels, and the silica cause whites and grays.

Fortifications usually add value and eye appeal to gembone. These are agate patterns characterized by bands of color. Such banded agates are some what uncommon and some extremely unique. Often these fortifications are a crack or opening that are filled with colorful minerals surrounded by sometimes one or more bands of agate. Crystals of amethyst, citrine, calcite, etc are occasionally found at the center of these fortifications. Such fortifications range in size from microscopic to nearly the size of the entire piece of bone. Sometimes these take on incredible shapes and almost defy nature as to their complexity. Their formation was one where each layer was built before the next was started. A bone where the center has completely rotted out can fill with brilliant colorful fortifications when the conditions were just right and the gembone already began the preservation process.

There are a couple of different theories regarding the formation of gembone. I tend to adhere to two different theories. Consider the only bones likely to have turned into gembone were those quickly buried, otherwise they could have been eaten, crushed, or just eroded away. One theory is that gembone formed in a pressure or vacuum. It tends to reason since bones are made to transport blood, one might suspect minerals easily replaced empty cells and spaces. The most colorful only occured under certain circumstances when exposed to mineral rich baths. It is thought the water was much purer back then the water of today and was able to become far more saturated with silicates. These baths would drain or dry up over time due to weather and ground conditions; once again new minerals were introduced altering, adding, and evolving the process. This is one of the fascinating reasons for so many colors. Many times calcite would arrive and be deposited in the remaining voids. It's common to see botryoidal and other agate pockets filled with calcite..

Hydrothermal activity is thought to have created gembone as well. During this process petrified bone was exposed to super heated gases or liquids. This activity carried minerals that replaced cells to varying degrees. Super heated fluids were essential in the creation of some of the finest gembone. Remember there was a great deal of volcanic activity during the time it was created. There is also a possibility of a large meteorite(s) causing incredible heat over vast areas where dinosaurs lived and died. Surely many times gembone was created and reformed this way; this explains some of the extended and twisted cell structures we find, some of which are discombobulated or nearly indistinguishable.

Ancient river beds, conglomerates, sedimentary deposits, and Morrison clays are where most gembone is formed. Today these ancient bone deposits have often eroded away carrying fragments down gullies, washes, and rivers for miles. Immense amounts of volcanic ash helped create Morrison formations which covered hundreds of square miles . Often ancient rivers swept dinosaurs downstream until jammed and locked up into river bends where they lay buried frozen in time. Consequently a great deal of gembone is found with river gravels and sediments attached.

Gembone is unique to the four corner region and Patagonia.

For more of Mark Buford's writing on the subject of gembone~ http://search.reviews.ebay.com/members/mlbuford_W0QQuqtZg

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Saturday, May 02, 2009

Cloe Rolling over at two weeks

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Saturday, May 02, 2009

baby cloe in her new rainforest swing!

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Saturday, February 07, 2009

FIre Agate Mining at Deer Creek
Current mood:

accomplished

Our Deer Creek Fire Agate Mining Adventure!!!

This year Mark and I added a bit more excitement to our annual trip to the Tucson gem show with a pre-show detour to the Deer Creek fire agate mine. The mine owner extended a personal invitation to the mine's "Deer Creek Fire Agate Invitational" that we couldn't pass up. We stayed at the mine overnight with one of America’s most experienced pioneers of the gemstone industry, mine owner David Penney, his family, and his mining Partner, Sarah Heather Scholz.

Dave Penny and Sarah at the Deer Creek mine

Deer Creek mine owner Dave Penny and S. Heather Scholz

We were able to rent the machine they call the "Gem-A-Nator" for an hourly rate. This is a thrilling experience! The Gem-A-Nator sorts and wets the rough before it comes down a belt where you can grab the chunks of rough fire agate. One of the professional miners will be scooping fresh material into the Gem-A-Nator using a small bulldozer. The miners take material straight from the best areas of the mine and pour it into the Gem-A-Nator. This is material that has not been touched or picked through, giving a rare chance at getting the best material the mine has to offer.

Mark on the Gem-A-Nator

Sarah and Mark have great eyes for spotting the higher quality rough as it comes down the belt...they had the front spots on the Gem-A-Nator.

Dave Penny getting another scoop of rough for the Gem-A-Nator
We also were able to explore the mine a bit with Dave and Sarah. We collected rough directly from the base of a small mountain with a wall of exposed fire agate nodules... some were loose enough to grab up and a few had to be removed from the rock with a small pick.

A couple of ground fire agate nodules Mark found at the Deer Creek mine.

A couple of fire agate nodules Mark found at the base of a mountain at the Deer Creek mine

Mark looking for fire agate at Deer Creek

Mark could have stayed at the mine for days exploring and hunting for fire agate on the mountain.

Dave Penny, Sarah, Wendell and Mark with a bucket of hand-picked fire agate.

Our trip to the mine was the highlight of our trip to Arizona... it exceeded our expectations on many levels. We left the mine with over a hundred pounds of rough fire agate in various grades. We'll easily be able to sell and profit from selling a small portion of our mine run. Our highest grade material will be carved into gems for our custom gold jewelry designs. We're already planning for another trip to the mine next year!These are a few examples of the exceptionally beautiful fire agate rough we got from our Gem-A-Nator run~

Dave Penny and S. Heather shared both their time and knowledge generously with us during our stay. We mined fire agate during the day and had very comfortable accommodations at night.Were able to rent a fully equipped RV at the mine with internet access, a full size bed, a shower, refrigerator, coffee maker and more. Sarah also offers her delicious home-cooked meals... yummy! She had a small menu to choose from with steak, lamb, various seafood dishes and a vegetarian dinner as well. We had a great night while we were there....Dave built us a fire with wonderful smelling local mesquite wood and we sat comfortably under the stars while Sarah-Heather grilled our steaks. Sarah and Dave brewed us fresh coffee in the morning and fed us a huge breakfast to power us up for the day of mining. The mine is nestled in a remote location with a gorgeous view. I sat, drank my coffee and enjoyed the Arizona sunrise:)

I was a bit apprehensive about my ability to be comfortable during our trip to the mine... I am currently 7 months pregnant and thought the rough conditions would be difficult in my condition. They made me completely comfortable and I enjoyed every minute of my time at the mine. Dave and Sarah are very genuine, honest people.... I can't say enough about how impressed we were with them on both a personal and professional level.

A very pregnant Jessica, Mark, Dave and S. Heather in front of the Gem-A-Nator

This unique experience is being offered exclusively to professional jewelry and lapidary artisans. Reservation time for this adventure is limited due to the personal attention given to each artist.Many of the people who visit the mine are personally invited or are referred by friends/colleagues of the mine owner. Space is limited and filling up fast... for serious inquiries about visiting the mine and rates for mining/accommodations write to Dave Penny and S. Heather Scholz at ep7@xmission.com.We'd like to thank our friend Wendell Thatcher for personally referring us to the mine owner. Wendell is a dedicated and experienced rockhound and a very talented fire agate carver. Many of the hand carved fire agate gems in our personal collection were purchased through Wendell.

Wendell Thatcher helping us during our time on the Gem-A-Nator

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Saturday, January 17, 2009

Spectrolite~ The Finnish Stone of Light
Current mood:

lazy
Category: Art and Photography

Spectrolite~ The Finnish Stone of Light

Spectrolite was discovered by accident in 1940 during the Second World War, when stones were being quarried along Finland’s eastern border to form antitank obstacles. The name Spectrolite was given by Professor Aarne Laitakari.

Spectrolite, the most valuable and rare form of labradorite, is a beautiful semi-precious gemstone with an iridescent play of color. Spectrolite is a member of the feldspar labradorite stone family, but it has many differences that set it apart from the more common labradorite. Spectrolite was entitled a gem name of its own because of the rainbow rich variety and depth of colors.The base color of spectrolite ranges from medium gray to a dark gray/black. As you move the stone in and out of light at different angles you will see the brilliant and unexpected flash of color, an effect known as "Labradorescence" or "Schiller". The appearance and disappearance of color-play is its most striking feature in this gemstone. This stone belongs to the plagioclase feldspar group. Other examples of popular feldspar varieties include sunstone, moonstone, amazonite and noble orthoclase.

Spectrolite is found only at Ylamaa, a remote location in eastern Finland. The most valuable and rarest spectrolite displays an amazing combination of shades of red, magenta, pink, purple, violet, bright teal blue,green, yellow and orange.... virtually the entire color spectrum.

A video of our rainbow spectrolite gem~

Spectrolite gems polished on both sides. Photos by Jessica Dow.

This two sided polished gem is both bizarre and beautiful! This gem has the usual directional flash that is expected with Finnish spectrolite but each side is split in two and flashes separately when moved through different light sources. It's an amazing effect and this is the strongest example of a color split spectrolite I have ever seen.

Rare Cobalt Blue/Purple Cabochon

"Grape Jelly Spectrolite"

"Flaming Magenta Spectrolite"

Rough Spectrolite prior to being cabbed~

These are cabs cut from the rough shown above. Cabs by by Mark Anderson

My favorite from the batch of cabs~

*~Jewelry by Jessica Dow and Mark Anderson of Different Seasons~**~Cabochons cut by Mark Anderson or lapidary artisan Gail Clark~*

"Spectrolite Cadenza"Pierced reversible spectrolite pendant with faceted pink spinel, peridot, amethyst and spassartite garnet inset into the back of the pendant.Necklace includes a tube set gem connector which enables the wearer to flip the pendant to either side without removing the necklace. We chose a gorgeous rhodolite garnet for the gem connector which matches the spectrolite cabochon perfectly.

*~Hot Pink Spectrolite Ring~*

~Two more examples from our series of reversible spectrolite pendants~*

Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote: "A man is like a bit of Labrador Spar, which has no luster as you turn it in your hand until you come to a particular angle, then it shows deep and beautiful colors."

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Thursday, January 15, 2009

Fire Agate Gemstone Feature
Current mood:

excited
Category: Art and Photography

~*Fire Agate*~
Mark and I will be visiting the Deer Creek fire agate mine in Arizona later this month. We're participating in the Deer Creek Fire Agate Invitational offered to jewelry artists this year by the mine owners.

We're very excited to see one of the more famous mines producing one of our favorite gemstones:)

Fire Agate is described as a variety of agate containing inclusions of goethite or limonite, producing an iridescent effect or "fire".
The color layers are often described like breath on a pane of glass. The thin layers in this material diffract light back to the eye in rainbow patterns of red, green, yellow and blue. The beautiful colors in fire agate may appear as tiny pinpoints, bubbles, bull's eyes, flashes, specks, swirls or even as a combination of patterns making for endless possibilities. The world's fire agate deposits stretch from southwest United States to northern Mexico. Fire agate has been reportedly found in at least 15 locations on Arizona such as Slaughter Mountain and Deer Creek.

These are photos of various fire agates from our personal collection~

This is one of our favorite fire agate gems displaying a pattern described as "the molten effect" or the "crackle effect".
This is when the finished stone displays internal fissures of color, something like cooling lava.

This is a fire agate gem with an incredible eye-like banded pattern.
We call this gem "The Snake Eye".

An incredible fire agate hand carved to expose the gem's natural fire layer.

This beautiful Slaughter Mountain fire agate has a mirrorlike or metallic look that is very unusual.
The colors refract with extraordinary brightness including the "royalmist", which is a pink-purple,
transparent colored chalcedony layerabove the primary, opaque colors.

~*This super bright stone comes from Aguas Calientes Mexico~*

~*Powerfully purple, this gemstone comes from Slaughter Mountain Arizona~*

Purple fire agate gemstone with fringe colors of green,red,blue and yellow/gold.

This is rare variety of Fire Agate showcasing an uncommon spray of sagenite needle-like inclusions~

22x11 mm and runs 5to7 mm tall blue and purple fired-green sagenite 14

Fire Agate pendant by Jessica Dow and Mark Anderson
"California Poppies"

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Wednesday, January 14, 2009

ONE TIME ONLY JEWELRY SALE!
Category: Art and Photography

All of the jewelry listed on our website is for sale until January 25th. We're discounting our work in order to make some sales before we leave for the Tucson gem show.Jewelry is marked as much as $500 off!! Prices listed on our site will reflect the discount as described in each piece's description text.Visit our jewelry for sale page here~differentseasonsjewelry.com/finished/

Please write to us with any questions~ dow_jessica@yahoo.com

A quick look at the pieces for sale:

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Sunday, January 11, 2009

Agatized Dinosaur Bone!

High quality agatized dinosaur bone, or "gembone", is one of our favorite gem choices for our jewelry & lapidary art creations.Agatized bones are petrified with silica or quartz crystals which gives them their colorful, glassy appearance. This process preserves the actual cell structure of the once living dinosaur. The largest deposits of agatized dinosaur bones are concentrated in Colorado and Utah. I've shown a small batch of photos to demonstrate the variety of cell structures and colors that can be found in higher quality agatized dinosaur bone.I've also shown a few examples of Mark's dino bone cabochons and his custom cast dino bone inlay jewelry.

Custom cast Argentium silver bolo tie w/ dino bone inlay. All wax models hand carved by Mark Anderson.

Custom cast Argentium amulet w/ dino bone inlay. All wax models hand carved by Mark Anderson.

Custom cast Argentium silver rings w/ dino bone inlay. All wax models hand carved by Mark Anderson.

28.5 carats 41 by 13.5mm.jpg DINO BONE CAB

Macro shots of various agatized dinosaur bone specimens~

All photos by Mark Anderson and Jessica Dow.

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Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Framed Flowers & Blue Fire

This hand fabricated Argentium sterling silver pendant features an intricatepierced and hand engraved framed floral design. Mark cut a fiery blackAndamooka Gem Matrix opal with blue, violet and a hint of teal green asthe focal gem for the piece. The opal is set in a 22k gold bezel and weused 14k gold granulation accents. The pendant was finished off withMark's signature tension set sapphire bail design... this is the bailthat was featured in the advanced metalworking section in our articlein the current issue of Art Jewelry magazine.

These are some of our other jewelry pieces made with a framed organic design theme.
All of these designs were hand fabricated with a combination of piercing and hand engraving techniques.

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Sunday, December 14, 2008

Mark’s Opal Spider Ring
Current mood:

working

This is one of the most involved custom jewelry projects we've ever undertaken! Our client Beth Church gave us a design concept sketch (shown below). Mark was the driving force behind this project. Martha hand carved the wax model for the spider and Mark adjusted it to fit the ring and the opal he custom cut to fit the spider. Mark hand carved the spiderweb ring and did all of the gem cutting and setting.
I was expecting this ring to be bulky and uncomfortable... but Mark did an extraordinary job of making the ring perfectly comfortable.
The photos below show the ring progressing through concept sketch & the hand carved wax models to the final finished ring.

Mark designed the ring to make the spider removable. Beth can wear the ring with or without the spider. This also opens up the possibility of having more matching pieces designed at a later date.

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Thursday, August 14, 2008

Men’s Gem Inlay Jewelry Line

Men's Gem Inlay Jewelry
Original Designs by Mark Anderson
Different Seasons Jewelry

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Monday, July 28, 2008

Art Jewelry Cover:)

"Blue Velvet"
Black Opal & Sapphire Pendant by Jessica Dow & Mark Anderson

Our Blue Velvet pendant is featured on the cover of the September 2008 issue ofArt Jewelry Magazine.
The article ( pages 58-67 ) consists of threeparts pendant fabrication,
hand engraving detailing and an advancedportion on fabricating Mark's tension set "V-setting" bail.

Click Here to Visit Art Jewelry's Website!

*Thisis our 4th jewelry related article within the past year. You can see our previous articles on piercing, gem carving and gem inlay by browsing through our blog entries. We have another article coming out in the fall.. stay tuned for details!:)

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