A few new projects

Ive been rather busy lately and have not gotten a lot done. the projects I have had a chance to complete are disappearing faster than I can get pictures of them however. It does not help that my digital camera took a dive and now takes pictures more reminiscent of a Picasso painting than an actual photograph. :( So, until I get them money for a new camera I am stuck with these for now. They are not the best but they do show the color of the shell which is the important part.

This piece of Red Abalone is roughly shaped like a spear point. The color and luster are unmatched by any piece of shell I have yet worked with. This piece is spoken for, however if that falls through you can purchase it for $35.00

These are a pair of post hole earrings that I may have posted before but the color and luster are incredible. Definitely worth seeing again. This set of earrings sells for $16.50

This is a free style piece of Red Abalone. It is reminiscent of the sea or a dolphin in some aspects but is really just a free style design that I liked a lot This piece sells for $25.00

This little 2 inch flower pot makes a wonderful desk accent piece. The sunflower design is made from Blue Green Abalone found along the southern California shoreline area. This piece also is spoken for but I can make similar pieces for around $25.00

Humming Bird Update

I added a few things to my humming bird sculpture a while back. I think that with this addition it is complete. With possibly one more flower being added in the future this is how it will look

Copper Silver and shell

These bracelets are the first in a series of similar styles that I am experimenting with. I’m hoping to get around $25.00 for these

Precious Cargo

My latest earrings.

"Precious Cargo"

Red abalone heart....Hematite beads Sterling silver wire and hoops. These sell for $15.50

Some new Cabs and Earrings

Some of the nicest shell I’ve worked with yet. These will mostly be earring with one or two pieces becoming a pendant

Moon and Stars

Here is a piece of red abalone that is truly amazing. The Jump rings in this piece are chromed steel. The wire is sterling silver. This piece minus the chain sells for $75.00

Red Abalone Earrings

This shell is fast becoming my favorite to work with. The iridescence and sheen far surpass anything I have worked with before. The small sets sell for $16.50 The larger earrings which are not finished yet will sell for $40.00 I will post pictures of the finished set.

This little serpent though not an earring was just too cool not to post a picture of. No pricing information yet on this piece as I have not strung it yet. Will update later with more info

The Duke of Pearl

I have been searching everywhere for a place that I can purchase shell here in the US. I have only found a small handful of people or businesses that actually sell usable amounts of shell. I can import abalone or oyster shell if I want to purchase quantities as small as a mere ton from several suppliers but could not find a place that sells to small businesses like mine. Until now. I recently met a gentleman named Chuck Erikson who has a company called The Duke of Pearl. I was very impressed by the quality and the variety of shell blanks, dots, feathers, and other inlay pieces that are available from their website http://www.dukeofpearl.com/

This business is geared toward making products for inlay on musical instruments. They do however sell some raw shell as well as blanks of several thicknesses that are perfect for the the type of bone inlay jewelry that I make. They also have instructional guides as well if I remember correctly. I definitely want to put the heads up out there for anyone that works in the shell and or jewelry industry that this is the place to look for quality shell inlay materials. Its definitely worth checking them out

Creepy Crawly Critters

These are some fun artistic creatures that I have created using various methods. They are a lot of fun and are made from some of the nicest pieces of shell I have come across.

Red Abalone

I recently purchased a red abalone shell. This shell was a large shell picked up by a local collector 20 or 30 years ago out in California. No telling how long it sat around his shop before I came a long and destroyed it. :o) It was a truly beautiful shell, but probably would have been graded medium quality at best as far as those things are rated. Still even this shell was amazing in comparison to the color of fresh water shell. Here are two of the pieces I have made so far with that shell. Once I get my earrings posted you will see why abalone is the king of shells, but these pieces certainly show the incredible depth of color and some of the iridescence of pure natural abalone I am definitely looking forward to purchasing more of this incredible material.

Araogonite Arrow Head

The scanned image looks darker only because it is poorly lighted they are the same piece of stone

Is South Eastern South Dakota there is a lot of mineral called araogonite. It typically forms in what is called a septarian nodule. An interesting bit of geological history if you will. Calcite is created by an acid that forms when limestone and water come together. The calcium deposited by ancient sea shells is the material that makes up lime stone. This calcite seeps into the cracks left in the dried mud of an ancient ocean floor. Aragonite is formed when heat and pressure come together to metamorph calcite into something different. Similar to the process that turns carbon into diamond but on a less magnificent scale. Septarian Nodule in a mixture of fossilized mud matrixed with Calcite and aragonite crystal. Kind of ironic in a sense that this rock that I carve is or at least was at one time a seashell. This arrow head is one of the first arrogonite carvings that I have done. I latter went on to add a feather made from beaten copper plate and copper clasp. This also is a favorite of mine and can be purchased for $40.00

Bone Shell and Copper Wire

This piece is to become my signature piece for River Treasures. The tinny Maori style hook is made from shell and inlaid along with three slanted lines of MOP from pink mollusk shell. The addition of wire wrap for the clasp and highlights makes this one of my absolute favorite pieces. This one is not for sale but it can be replicated for $40.00

Earings

Several shells produce mother of pearl of significant quality to be made into earrings. Here are several examples of the earrings I've made so far. These sell for roughly $10 to $12 a pair

Some of my better pendants

These are just a few of my better pendants All these designs are available for around $25.00 a piece

The Humming Bird Sculpture

This sculpture started out as the humming bird you see in the pictures. I wanted to Embellish it a bit as this is a gift I am making for my grandmother who lives in Louisiana. I decided that the humming bird needed a flower and from there I mounted the two pieces on piece of driftwood found near the area that the shells and bone were picked up. The humming birds body is a piece of bone while the beak and wings are river shell. The flower is nearly all shell with a few pieces of wire to embellish it a bit. And though I am not quite finished with the vines I want to trail along the driftwood made of copper, I can create another of these incredible sculptures for $350.00 and about a months time to make sure it is perfect.

Shell Claw necklace

This first image is a design that never got finished. Or perhaps I should say it evolved in to the necklace below it.

I like this necklace for several reasons. Its a bit tribal for starters

And though it is bulky the pieces of shell that make up the claws are incredibly beautiful. I noticed that a lot of women are getting the backs of their necks tattooed. And that lead me to believe that
placing a back of the neck charm may be an interesting addition that
would make this piece extremely unique. This was my first complete necklace and I learned a lot from this piece The beads added to this necklace are hematite and they offset the shell wonderfully
It sells for $50.00

Bone Draggon

This Dragon was sort of an experiment and was actually my first attempt to carve bone. It turned out so well that I gave this piece to my aunt who loves dragons. It made a nice necklace all by itself on black thong. My next dragon in bone will have lots of shell inlay and should look even better. If that's possible :o) This is by far one of my favorite pieces

Bone Bone Bone

I have done several pieces now from bone. The first one originally was a very nice flame shaped piece. I tried to add shell to it and ended up with a bit of a face in the flames. And though it is still a very beautiful piece, I liked it better without the shell. This is the only one Ive added shell too that I don't like. The next flame is a piece of river washed deer bone I believe. And it turned out far better. I like to think of this piece representing Earth Air Fire and Water. The piece to the right was designed by my daughter Brianna who is another up and coming family artist. She shows a lot of talent in her drawings. At the age of 14 she is already a lot better at sketching than I was at the same age.

Bone Pendants

One of the interesting things we came across in the river was deer, Buffalo and or steer bone. Some of which had been washing around for who knows how long Decades at least a century or more at best. Some of the bone was so worn and rotted as to crumble when touched but some was very well preserved. I started to carve a few projects from bone and later decided to add pieces of shell to them These are the result I really like the way the bone polishes and shines and the addition of the inlaid shell really makes them stand out. These small pieces would make excellent pendants or broaches. They sell for $20.00

Next Generation

From traditional tribal design, I branched out abit and started designing my own stylized fish hooks. The one on the left is Antiquated Steer bone with a piece of white river shell inlayed along the left side. The shell to the right is quite large around 4 inches long and fits in the palm of the hand almost like a small dagger. The Steer bone hook sold, but can be remade by request, the other is selling for $40.00

One of my First Carvings

These pieces carved from shell were inspired by an ancient Maori Tribal design. It is a stylized fish hook which represent prosperity,abundance, fertility and strength. They are also seen as good luck charms, particularly for those traveling over water. The Hei-Matau is a symbol of power and authority held in great reverence by the Maori people. The traditional Hei-Matau was carved from whale bone. These freshwater mollusk replicas of the design sell for $25.00 each

Introduction

River Treasures is a concept created while exploring the banks and riverbeds of Sioux Falls SD. While exploring one day my daughter and I came across a large area covered in shells and washed up river debris. We spent hours fascinated by the raw beauty of the things we found. The following pieces are all made from the treasures we found exploring at the river. So far the materials used are a crystal known as Aragonite, Several Different species of River Mollusk and antiquated bone stained by decades of being washed in the river. I hope you enjoy these treasures as much as I enjoyed creating them. Just a side note for those that may be concerned, at no point will I harvest living mollusks to use their shells in my art, all the shells I use are found washed up on the rivers banks. Some fresh water mollusks can live over 70 years, and recently a clam was found off the shores of New Zealand that scientist's guess is over 400 years old. I simply can not imagine killing something that has been on this earth longer than I have just to make a necklace out of it.