Thursday, February 10, 2011

Travelling Stones-Part 1 (Australia)

AUSTRALIA:

My first big change for me in years was leaving my full time job of 12 years. I had wanted to take time off strickly to travel. So, I was hoping to travel in a big way this year. Well I did!! I left mid January for Australia via Hong Kong and spent almost a month there. I really had only booked this trip with 10 days notice. I had other parts of my winter planned but this was more of a surprise to me. I had a chance to visit Woolengong, Sydney, Melbourne, the Outback (which is all around Alice Springs et al) and then to Perth (where Cyclone Yasi re-routed me from going to the east coasts) to do the coastline there. I saw some of the most amazing geological sights in all the years I had done field trips as a Geologist, but this time was for pleasure. Unfortunetly, with all the costs of the country combined with some of the stones not marketed as well as I thought they would be, there were mainly raw stones purchased, with a few exceptions. I however plan to work some of them up before they make it to any necklace or jewellery piece. I managed to get a few good local stones. A chunk of Crystoprase from a local market, Amethyst, Mookite, and Garnets. I even found a place in the Blue Mountains that had the neatest Opal pendants and Primodial Petrofied Algae (Zebra Stone) and some Tiger Eye items. I also saw the modern day Wollami Tree (@Wollami Gems Store) which was the results of finding seeds that were found deep in the Blue mountains, now grown into the modern Wollami tree, side by side with the its equivalent, the ancient fossil. Really cool!!

Blue Mountain Sunset

Three Sisters: Blue Mountains

The Wollami Tree and the Wollami fossil.

Some of the stones are shown below. I even bought an Ammonite Shell specimen which was actually from back home in Alberta...I had to cause it was a good one and probably a lot cheaper than what I would pay back home.

Chrysoprase

Tiger Eye Pendant

Tiger Eye Slab

Amethyst

Opal

: Raw and Pendant polished

Zebra Stone

Mookite Beads

Thursday, November 25, 2010

She-Rock Clock Love!!

She-Rock's first Rock Clock....made from one of our love garden rocks (our herb garden hosts rocks that are heart shaped, we collect them). Thanks to my husband who did the rock drilling.
Got a favorite rock, I can make you your own clock!

Day at the Craft Show

She-Rock's First Show: Nov 6th. 2010. Bowness Sports Complex.

Thanks to friends and family who came to check it out. I was there with my friend Krissy with her booth, the Calgary Cloth Diapers: www.calgaryclothdiaperco.ca

There were also lots of kids who came out to see what my sign was made from, and it was a fun thing to touch and learn about pretty rocks.

The Day went by really fast. I never even got to take out my tools and make anything on site. So display racks and rock hammer handy, I sold half my stock! Most popular items were the bookmarks and the necklace sets. So were the coasters. I even had one person who wanted the whole stock of coasters for his backsplash in his kitchen. Sorry Ken.

My displays up close

My first attempt at making a She-Rock shirt. Black with chains and Snowflake obsidian beads scattered.

Karen my mother-in-law came by just before the "old timers gala dinner" and found something to go with her outfit. She got the Red Granite necklace and earing set.