All That Glitters is Not Gold: the Gemstone and Metal Blog Hop

The lovely Lisa Lodge, of A Grateful Artist, has created a fun blog hop with plenty of eye candy.  This one's theme is Gemstones and Metal.  Lisa sent me a bag of gemstones and metal for my creations.  The gemstones were yellow turquoise; the metal was brass.  (The brass, alas, gave me hives, so I'm working in sterling silver here.)

Yellow turquoise, it seems to me, is an oxymoron.  Turquoise is a lovely glowing radiant color.

It is not yellow-y greenish gray.

And while there is such a thing as turquoise with a yellow cast, as in the bottom row on this bracelet...

...these stones are not turquoise.

According to Beadaholique, "The trade name "yellow turquoise" describes this stone that is a... mixture of serpentine, jasper and quartz. It often is found in the same mines as traditional blue/green turquoise, hence the name. From China. 

I also checked in with Szarka Carter, of Magpie Gemstones, who suggested said stones are jasper.  And there's nothing wrong with jasper.  It's a good honest stone, with some lovely healing properties.  Some of my favorite charms are made of jasper, in one form or another.

https://www.etsy.com/search?q=cornerstoregoddess%20jasper

In Vogue Jewelry did a spirited rant on the topic of yellow turquoise. Check it out.

Yellow Turquoise is yet another stone by a false name, like "evening emerald" (peridot), "Indian jade" (jasper), or "Canadian lapis" (sodalite).

Some noted sellers do not even admit to it being anything but, well, yellow turquoise.  In fact, ArtBeads says "Yellow turquoise, or Chinese turquoise as it is sometimes called, is sweeping the beading world! Its popularity is beginning to rival the more traditional blue turquoise."

Um, no.

Besides, yellow turquoise makes as much sense as green ruby or black garnet or orange sapphire.

Oxymorons.

It bothers me that sellers would sell this to innocent trusting jewelry artists as a form of turquoise.  At least with pyrite, we call it fool's gold... the stuff that fooled the miners long ago.  In tribute to them, I put some "yellow turquoise" together with pyrite.  This is a Charm of Deception.

To quote Gilbert & Sullivan:

Buttercup

Things are seldom what they seem,

Skim milk masquerades as cream;

Highlows pass as patent leathers;

Jackdaws strut in peacock's feathers.

Captain. (puzzled)

Very true,

So they do.

Buttercup.

Black sheep dwell in every fold;

All that glitters is not gold;

Storks turn out to be but logs;

Bulls are but inflated frogs.

Using my "yellow turquoise," I created the charms above ans the necklace below.  

I call the collection Oxymoron Jewelery.

Any questions??

To see what the other jewelry artists created with their gemstones and metal,
follow the yellow turquoise road.  ;-)

http://gratefulartist.blogspot.com/

Your hostess:  Lisa Lodge, A Grateful Artist

Kim Dworak, Cianci Blue

Marybeth Rich, A Few Words from within the Pines

Karen Grosset Grange, Ginkgo et Coquelicot

Veralynne Malone, Designed by Vera

Katrina Taylor, I Wanna Go Out

Ann Schroeder, Bead Love

Kathleen Breeding, 99 Bottles of Beads on the Wall

Terri Wlaschin, Dances in Fog

Margaret Pelech, Big Margaret

Jo-Ann Woolverton, It's a Beadiful Creation

Kathy Zeigler Lindemer, Bay Moon Design

Heather Richter, Desert Jewelry Designs

Carolyn Lawson, Carolyn's Creations

Toltec  Jewels, Jewel School Friends

Melissa Trudinger, Bead Recipes

Shaiha Williams, Shaiha's Ramblings

Chris Eisenberg, Wanderware (May be delayed a few days)

Eleanor Burian Moore, The Charmed Life

Christine Stonefield, Sweet Girl Design

Robin Reed, Artistry HCBD

Laurie Vyselaar, Lefthand Jewelry

Cassi Renee Paslick, Beads: Rolling Downhill

Crystal Thain, Here Bead Dragons

Alicia Marinache, All the Pretty Things (May be delayed a few days)

Becky Pancake, Becky Pancake Bead Designs

Judy Campbell, Macmillanmarie Jewellery Design

Nan Smith, Handmade Jewelry Nanmade

Marde Lowe, FanciMarDesigns

Linda Anderson, From the Bead Board

Leithleach Alainn Seodra, Alainn Jewelry

Lisa E. Prewitt Knappenberger, LiRaysa Designs

Paige Maxim, Paige Maxim Designs

My Name is Rhino. I'm a Feline Kleptomaniac.

My name is Rhino.  I am a Feline Kleptomaniac.  The furless one spends a lot of time in my room.  She plays with BrightandShinyThings like those turquoise nuggets.

I like to play with BrightandShinyThings.  And she has so many.  Little bits of carnelian.

Nuggets of Baltic Amber.

Little shiny rolling pieces of jasper.

Pieces of Chalcedony just the right size for dropping down the floor heater.

The rest I keep in my bed.  She thinks I never leave my bed, except to eat and poop.  But when she's gone, I get up and stretch and help myself to anything that's out.  Or anything in a plastic bag.  Okay.  Anything.

Then she sells them and goes crazy looking for them.  The bearded one tells her she needs a better organizational system.  She probably does.  But it's too late.  Because now those pieces are mine.  All mine!

(Insert evil cat laugh here.)

Sincerely,

Rhino

P.S.

The furless one would like to point out that these BrightandShinyThings are available in her etsy shop. Actually, they're in my bed.  Maybe she'll find them on Laundry Day.  Or not.

A Nest Full of Soon-to-Be Early Birds

Early Bird

 

by Shel Silverstein

Oh, if you’re a bird, be an early bird

And catch the worm for your breakfast plate.

If you’re a bird, be an early bird—

But if you’re a worm, sleep late.

A nest of early birds can be found here.

How the Beads Found Pieces of Harmony

Once upon a time there was a box of beads and they could not get along.



"We come from the sea, so we are better than you," said the beads of shell.



"We can do one better than that," said the mother of pearl beads, "because we lived inside creatures who lived inside the ocean."



"We lived deep in the earth, alongside the Morlocks," said the Kambaba beads.  "Clearly we are superior."



"We were shot out of a volcano!" said the lava beads.  "Need we say more?"




"We're nuts!" said the nut beads.  "We don't care."



"We come from the cradle of civilization, in Africa," the trade beads countered.



"We were carved from bones ~ the essence of life itself," claimed the beads of bone.



And so it went, with all the beads arguing and rolling on the ground.

Finally a bead of pressed glass, from the Czech Republic, spoke up.  "Can't we all just get along?" she asked.



This sounded vaguely familiar to the beads, so they stopped rolling for a moment to listen.

"It is true we come from all the corners of the earth," she continued.



"The earth doesn't have corners," muttered the resin beads.



But the pressed glass bead pressed on.  "And from the seven seas... and lots of oceans, too."

"Don't forget the islands," grumbled the beads from Indonesia.



"Hath not a bead holes?" she asked.  "Hath not a bead edges, drill marks, mandrel scratches, finishes... blasted in the same kilns, tossed by the same waters, dug out from the same earth?"



"If you drop us, do we not roll away?  If you string us, do we not make harmony with the beads beside us?  If you wrap us too tightly, do we not crack?"



"If you discard us, do we not trip the family dog?  If you string us, are we not strung?  If you wire us, are we not wired?  If you wrap us, are we not... um... wrapped?"

The beads murmured and rolled amongst themselves.  They considered the words of the Czech bead.  "She has a point!" said the pearls.



"No, that's just a flaw," said the lampworks.  "Happens to the best of us."



"She could be right," said the crow beads.



"I don't know.  I'm nuts!  said the nut beads.

But as they looked at each other (through beady little eyes) they had to agree that, no matter what their origins, they had a lot in common.



And so, without further ado, they rolled together, joined holes, and decided to bead all that they could bead.



And they all lived in pieces of harmony until the next time they had the same discussion.   (You can find these bead stars here.)