Clouds At Luna Lake

High Mountain Clouds are amazing. Sometimes they are so low you are actually inside them and in the evenings they settle down into the valleys. It feels like fog but its actully clouds.

Thank You

We received our first web order yesterday - how exciting!! Thank you Rita - we hope you enjoy your piece!

This made me think of how thankful I am for the people that have helped us get to where we are.

Kristen - Thank you for helping us build our company identity from the very beginning. You have such a creative eye and your work has such class. Thank you for building our beautiful website so we could go live Feb 2008. Thank you for the ongoing technical help and MOSTLY your friendship. I only hope that as I take the website from where it is that I can come close to your artistic vision.

Tom - Thank you for your photography services right from the beginning of our business. Thank you for all the in-person and phone advice as I go forward doing our own photography. Thank you for your availability and patience. Thank you also for always being there just to chat - share excitement AND dissapointment. I'm grateful you're my friend.

Bruce - Thank you for being a constant souce of beautiful stones that you've cut. Thank you for the great business phone conversations - it's great to be looking out for each other as our businesses grow. Thank you for being such a good Brother-In-Law. Much success to you!

Herbert - Thank you for your ongoing advice on business and personal matters. I am so fortunate to have worked for you for eight years and also to have Steph and you as my family to this day.

Frank & Phyllis - Thank you for all your business advice - it's so respected and you understand - being self-employed yourselves. Thank you for your patience as you explain the details to a creative person trying to wrap her head around something technical. Thank you most of all for your friendship of 12 years and being my family away from home in my new home. :)

To All Our Customers - Thank you for liking what we do, seeing the quality and care we have in our jewelry and wanting to own a piece of it. We really want to create heirlooms that you enjoy for years and years. Thank you also for stopping in to see us at shows or on our site. We enjoy meeting you. Even if we just meet you once it's such a great connection.

To All our Suppliers - Thank you for your great service and working with us as we grow. You have faith and interest in Mark & me and care about us and it's appreciated.

Dad & Mum - Thank you for the (sometimes daily) phone calls - sharing my every up and down - but always believing in me and what I'm trying to do. I love you.

Bisbee Turquoise

Beautiful Natural Bisbee Turquoise. We have some gorgeous Natural High Grade Bisbee Turquoise Mark will be creating with. The larger stones to the right have been sitting for a while - they need the right design and range from 14 - 23.5 cts. The group below we just received from Mark's Brother - also a lapidary master - and range from 2 - 7.5 cts. These high-grade stones are rarer than diamonds, untreated and are always set in 18k gold. Can't wait to see what designs we come up with!

Alpine Critters

This has got to be the smallest horned lizard I've ever seen. I think they're called Pygmy Horned Lizards. Found him/her on the sidewalk by Luna lake ready to get squished so we helped relocate to a safer spot.

Gem Chrysocolla Earrings

We LOVE Gem Chrysocolla. The spheres on these earrings are also from Globe, AZ. They are completely articulated - the top stones are Blue Zircon set in 18k, the middle 'Scroll' is 18k white with diamonds and the bottom Chrysocolla is capped in 18k yellow gold with yellow diamonds all hand wrought by Mark. (1 3/4" long) They are so much prettier in person!!

Frogs Are Singing

It is officially Spring! The frogs started singing in the meadow. Soon we'll have Summer rains and the daily rainbows.

New Jewelry

Mark has made a lot of great new pieces this year. I love this one. It's Crystal Opal from Australia, Gem Chrysocolla from Globe, AZ and Holly Agate from Oregon. All 18k except for the bezel around the opal which is 24k. There are yellow diamonds around the top stones. Altogether about 1 1/4" long.
Gem Chrysocolla is very rare. It is actually Chalcedony colored by Chrysocolla making it a fairly hard stone - and it's another treasure found right here in Arizona!

Gone Fishin'

This is where you can find Mark when he's not
working on jewelry. He's anxious to get out on the lake again - only 2.5m from home.

Rockhounding

Another reason to be happy that spring is almost here. (Although it was 18 degrees this morning!) We can go searching for our beautiful but elusive agates again. Time to set up our lapidary machines outside and cut these nice pieces we found before winter set in last year. The Luna (NM) Blue agates above are white, grey and blue and the one on the right (from by our home) is various shades of brown. First thing we do is slice them - like a loaf of bread then start shaping stones out of that. Once we aren't at risk of freezing fingers (you cut rock wet) more pictures will come. We hope to get lots of sets of necklace and bracelet stones!

Wildflowers

These are some of our beautiful wildflowers we get in the fall. Should be meadows full of them after all the rain and snow we've had 2007-2008.

Belle & Sam - Shop Dogs

These two family members give us so much love. So happy that spring is almost here. Now they get to go on their long walks by the lake again. As soon as the keys are in hand they're ready!

Belle the big black dog just turned ten. We've had her since she was 6 weeks old. She's our Beelzebelle, Jelly Belly, Tinkerbelle, Bellinski, Stinker Belle, Pooky Boo Boo, Pookster and Pookinski - depending upon her mood. The fuzzy guy is Sam. We rescued him when he was 6 1/2 - now he's 9. Since we moved to the mountain he's become a different dog. Every day some new personality pops up. He was probably too hot in PHX. Loves the cool weather here. He's our Samster, Saminksi, Sambo, Samboni, Sammy Whammy, Little Buddy and Sponge Paw Fuzz Pants - depending on his mood. Puppy Love.

Day in the Mountains

My first BLOG. We've had a long winter this year and possibly some more snow today. :( It's beautiful when it's fresh and new but after a while it gets old. We've had probably 48" total this winter. But spring is almost here. It's been melting and the Bluebirds have just come back to check out their nest box.