My Watercolor Journey

This was the last work in progress before my health took a nose dive so to speak. My art has taken a detour since I started this series. I find that though I have put this one on the back burner, it is never far from my thoughts. I seem to be constantly working on it in my mind.
This is the first of my Bird of Prey series which will feature one eye of a bird of prey of Oklahoma. This eye is from the Great Horned owl. I have always had a facination with eyes. I love drawing eyes and the challenge to depict them as 3d.

Oops! This is an old post and when editing it for font color and reposting it the date has changed. It should be reading some month in 2008.

Love Affair with Turquoise

I absolutely love Turquoise, especially the Sleeping Beauty Turquoise from Arizona. I found this article about Turquoise at Magpie Gemstones that I think will help anyone shopping for Turquoise. I hope you will take the time to visit her website http://www.magpiegemstones.com/home.html to see her gemstones. I am sure you will find just what you are looking for; I know I did; I found my beloved Sleeping Beauty Turquoise.

I love this article and I hope you find it useful too.

Learn About Turquoise
Where do I learn about Turquoise?

I will start with North American Turquoise.
It is the most expensive turquoise available and usually sells by the carat if it is medium to high grade material.If I see a strand of beads being sold as North American turquoise and the price is under a couple hundred dollars, I become very suspect of the true origin of the turquoise. There is turquoise mined in China that is similar in color to some of the North American mines that some vendors attempt to pass off as turquoise from the US.
When a stone is made into a bead, there is a lot of loss shaping the bead, so normally, the better quality material is not made into beads. The medium to low grade turquoise is stabilized and usually color shot too. This is the turquoise they threw away back in the 1960's and early 70's. Only about 5% of all turquoise mined is considered gem grade material, that is is both hard enough to work into cabochons and the color is good too. The rest is medium to low grade material.

The way turquoise is graded in the states is like this.
Natural turquoise: untreated, high grade gem quality used mainly in cabochons, and very upscale jewelry design.
Stabilized turquoise: medium grade turquoise that has resin added, usually under pressure, to make the material hard enough to work into beads.
Stabilized and color shot: medium to low grade turquoise that is both stabilized and color shot to enhance the color.
Reconstituted: the powder is swept up, mixed with resin and formed into beads.
Block: material that has been stabilized, color shot and pressed into blocks to make into beads.
That is the basics of turquoise in a very general way.

For the past few years, there is all kinds of dyed blue, white, pink, orange, red, etc., stone coming out of China that is labelled as stabilized turquoise. Some of it has copper or black colored lines (fake matrix) on the surface of it. Most of this product is dyed magnesite or something of that sort. Not turquoise at all. There was a big problem in Tucson at the gem and mineral show around this stuff 2 years ago as many Chinese vendors were passing that stuff off as turquoise. It was tested and this year many vendors were required to fully disclose the product.
Another thing they are doing from China is calling turquoise that has been clear stabilized as natural turquoise. According to the standards in this country, it is not natural turquoise, but clear stabilized. It is nice turquoise and affordable, yet it is not natural. The Ma'anshan AB nuggets in the stores are from China. Szarka has been dealing with this vendor for the past 10 years. This is low grade mine run that is color shot and stabilized. It is very affordable and she's sold literally a ton of it. The larger oval nuggets are mainly Hubei from China, most being clear stabilized. Nice for the price.
Magpie does sell some faux turquoise in white, or sometimes in blue too, and it is identified as dyed magnesite , or wannabe turquoise. If you google turquoise mines, American turquoise, turquoise treatments, etc., you will come up with more info than you can imagine. The information is out there. I hope this helps a bit.

One of Magpies' customer,s emailed her these questions that I think will interest the reader along with Magpies' answers. I have left off the customers name, because she does not give a website or a link of any kind to link back to.


"There is one area that continues to interest me........... Are the different colours of sky blue, green blue and very green just that...........various colours , some of which are preferred by individuals, or are there quality differences based on colour?"
Ok, lets approach this one answer at a time.
Yes, the various colors are preferred by individuals and within this there are quality preferences based on color. Turquoise is one of the gemstones that seems to attach itself emotionally to a person (or the other way around) so the individual preferences vary from all the blues to all the greens.

Some areas of the world do have regional preferences. The Southwestern United States seems to lean towards a popping blue with black matrix as turquoise that was very popular in the past was blue with black webbing, or matrix. There isn't that much of this turquoise around these days so black rouge or even black shoe polish is sometimes used to make the turquoise appear to have black webbing. Persians I do believe prefer the clearest of the blues, and China values the clear blue over others.
Also, within the same mining operation, sometimes within the same vein, both greens and blues will be found. The blue is the copper, and greens are molecules of zinc or iron..

"Same query as it relates to matrix.......is the black veining preferred, or is the 'pure' or non-marred versions considered more valuable?"I touched on this above with Southwestern preferences. Persians used to value clear over webbed, as well as China.

The most expensive turquoise I know of is Old Lander which sells for hundreds of dollars per carat. The rarity of Old Lander (less than 100 pounds mined) and its beauty make it a valuable collectable turquoise and has webbing or matrix. The pictures that I have seen of it does anyway. I have not held Old Lander in my hand.

"And lastly, is there ever a genuine white turquoise, or is it always some other 'massaged' gem? The other colours purported to be turquoise....red, orange, etc., are these genuine, or does turquoise always stay in the blue green family?"I have personally never seen white turquoise. I have seen something reputed to be white turquoise offered for sale a few years ago. I did research and the majority says no such thing yet there are a few folks out there who say there is.There is much debate in the turquoise world whether some specimens are turquoise or something else. A lab analysis of the questionable material would identify the stone properly.

As far as the pinks, purples, reds, mosaics, and oranges go, I know of no turquoise coming out of the earth in those colors. I do know of one North American processor that does stabilize and dye load grade mine run in various colors. I also know these are more than a few bucks a strand too!
Almost everything I have seen is dyed magnesite and sometimes howlite.
There is a turquoise from China that is yellow/brown.

To sum this up, turquoise is emotional and every individual will have their personal tastes. I like all turquoise, from the eye popping green of Orvil Jack to the whispey purple smoke of some Lavender Bisbee to electric blue or webbed from China, or sky blue from Persia.

I hope dear reader that you found this article as useful as I did. Please go visit Magpie Gemstones you'll be glad you did.

OUCH!!!

Today started to be a very good day. The sun was shining and the birds were singing. I was accomplishing lots of my `have tos` on my list of things to do. Puppy and I were taking a play break, where we played tag, by taking turns chasing each other, through the kitchen and dining room. The third time for me to chase him I felt and heard a loud pop. It happened just below my calf muscle. I screamed from the pain and was frozen where I stopped. I couldn't move. My first thought was "I don't need this, I have to be able to walk and drive." Second thought was "oh no, my DH has plans for all evening, I just can't ruin his plans." My third thought was "oh, I wanted to go to the bead shop and craft store for the yarn for my next project."

It amazes me how things can change in the blink of an eye. Wow, how we must adjust and adapt. It seems that for weeks everything is the same from day to day and then bam your down and your routine has come to a halt.

It serves as a reminder how truly trivial my routine really is in the grand scheme of God's plans. It has made me look at my daily life to find where am I praising God and sharing His love. It should be in everything I do, say, and think. Am I seeking first the kingdom of heaven and believing that He will provide everything else?

I am looking for ways to share His love through my arts, craftmanship, and social networking. I want to share the skills God has given me with anyone wanting to learn. I believe that in this way I can share God with others through my teaching. I want to sow the seeds of love through my art.

Well, I will be laid up for awhile with nothing to do except communing with God and working on my arts and crafts. That doesn't sound too bad does it.

New Jewelry Set

I have a wonderful aunt named Gerry Hannah, she and my Uncle Dean live in Cove, Arkansas on 30 acres of Arkansas forest. My hubby and I recently spent a couple of days visiting them, which was a much needed break from the city for us.

I created this jewelry set for my aunt. We both share the love of blue as well as journal keeping.

I hope she enjoys this as much as I enjoyed creating it for her.

Playing Catch-Up

I am behind in my blog posts. I have lots of journals to share and the making of art journals. I have also been busy creating jewelry through the techniques of off loom bead weaving and wirewrapping. I made my first sterling silver ring today and I'm fairly pleased with the results. The pics will have to come later. It seems to take so long to take the pic and do the adjustments and then upload them to my blog, that I tend to do several at once. I am enjoying making my own jewelry and especially creating my own designs.

I will be adding some new favorite websites as well, so look for them later too.
Today I am waiting on the AC service repairman to call so we can set up an appointment to have our ac repaired. Yes, it quit doing it's job.
I have heard that many ac's are on strike, because we have had too many 3 digit days of heat. The service repairmen may follow soon with a strike of their own. Hotels and motels are love'n it though, being filled to capacity. I have a cool room to go to tonight, so I will have sweet dreams for sure.

Well, it is back to work for now. Stay cool dear friends.

New Works in Progress

Here are two images of works in progress. The two black and white pictures are of the same image only one is a detail shot. I am enjoying working on these, but it is slow going. I have to rest my hand frequently, so that I don't aggravate the carpal tunnel in my wrist. The black and white measures 12 x 15 inches. The one in color is also an ink stipple, but with watercolor washes. It measures 20 1/2 x 13 1/14 inches. I will post an update on these two in about one week. My photography is not very good on the colored one. Maybe I'll do better next time.

PhotoJournalism: How to prepare and submit a press release to media

Artists are having a very busy spring in our art community. I have already organized two art exhibitions and have another in June. Sometimes as artists we get so busy with last minute framing, sending out post cards, readying contracts, etc. that we forget our most important task and that is to have our press releases ready in advance. What good is an exhibition if the public doesn't know about it. You need to send those press releases with enough lead time for the journalists to write your story. Don't forget the community calendars that local television stations post online.

You are probably saying Ok, I write press releases, but they never get published. Have you ever thought that maybe it is your writing. I just read, and suggest that you do too, a wonderful blog called PhotoJournalism: How to prepare and submit a press release to the media. Here is the link: PhotoJournalism: How to prepare and submit a press release to media
If you really want to further your career and get into print, be serious about writing effective press releases. I really like the advice, that I already use, about calling the papers or other media and finding out to whom and where you should send those press releases. There is nothing like speaking directly with your contact. It is a start in establishing a relationship. The more you call the more you will be remembered. Please, be courteous in respect, with the journalists time, which is very limited. Know what you are going to say before you call and keep your phone calls very short and to the point. I would advise that you find out when their deadline is and submit those releases well in advance and somewhere at the top of the release include the publish date you are writing your press release for. If it is for immediate release say so.

You might consider keeping a notebook for press deadlines, the person you talked to , email addresses, size and format of the submitted photos they prefer. Always ask if there are any restrictions concerning press releases. Your willingness to be cooperative will be looked on favorably and anything that makes the journalists job easier will be in your favor. I also suggest that you keep copies of the press releases you send. You might be able to use them as templates or guides to help you write future press releases.

Keep writing; the more you write the easier it is and the better writer you become. I continue to learn with each press release I write, so that someday I will truly write effective press releases.