I want to start by thanking everyone who came to see me at either the Vancouver Arts and Music Festival or the Washougal Arts and Music Festival. And welcome to all of you who are new subscribers. I hope you enjoy this newsletter!

Barbara Kay Jewelry News

My summer shows are now over. They are a lot of work, and every year as I am preparing for them I think I won't do them again the next year. But then the show begins, and I find so much enjoyment in talking to people about my jewelry and my processes, and in getting to know people, that even though I'm totally exhausted by the time they are over, I know I will do them again.

Still to come this year is the Clark County Open Studios Tour during the first weekend in November. I have also applied to be a vendor in the Laurelhurst Winter Bazaar, but won't hear whether I've been accepted into that until early October.

My Gallery

If you have been to my website, you may have only seen my shop. But did you know that I have created other pages as well? One of those is a Gallery of Past Work, where you can see pieces of jewelry that I have made and sold over the past years. I have updated it recently, so if you visited it in the past you may want to take another look. I will try to keep adding pieces as I find time.

If you ever consider having me make a custom piece of jewelry for you (yes, I do that!), browsing the gallery could be a good start. Although it's hard for me to copy an older piece exactly - especially if there is a stone involved - I can design similar pieces. And I am so very fortunate to have a good friend who is also a lapidary artist and who lives locally. She has done an amazing job of finding and cutting stones for me that work for my specific designs.

Or maybe you have your own stone that you'd like to have set? My gallery may give you some design ideas that might work well with your stone as well. And even if you're not thinking of custom work, you may enjoy browsing through some of the past things I've created.

Stone of the Month: Jasper

Jaspers and Agates are probably the most commonly used semi-precious gemstones in jewelry. They both are abundant and they come in so very many colors and amazing patterns that who can resist them? They also are related - and occasionally will grow together and create even more interesting patterns.

Both Jaspers and Agates are members of the Chalcedony family. But Jasper is opaque - not allowing light through - whereas Agates are translucent or even transparent. Since the Agate was featured in a past issue (see April 2024 issue) I am going to focus on Jasper this month.

Jasper is a fine grained (microcrystalline) variety of Chalcedony Quartz. The microscopic quartz crystals help make it opaque - and also make it a pretty tough stone. It has a Mohs hardness of about 7 which means it cannot be scratched by a steel pocket knife. Although it is primarily Chalcedony, it usually also contains other minerals and impurities, which contribute to color and pattern.

As with many of the rocks we've looked at, Jasper was formed when silica-rich fluids filled gaps in volcanic rock. Not only did it fill in those gaps and crevices, but it also seeped into more porous rock and eventually replaced much of it with what became quartz crystals, which then developed into what we now know as Jasper. Depending on the location, various minerals were incorporated into this mixture, causing different colors to show up in the resulting stone. In some areas, hydrothermal or volcanic re-heating warped the structures into swirls, creating some of the patterns that we love. During this time, the Jasper might also blend with other types of stones such as Agate.

The name Jasper comes from the Old French word "jaspre", which in turn comes from the Latin "iaspidem". Both mean "spotted or speckled stone." Jasper can be found everywhere in the world; my daughter and I have found quite a few pieces of Jasper in local (SW Washington) creek and river beds. It is one of, if not the, oldest type of rock that has been used by humans (or human ancestors). Primitive stone axes made with Jasper have been found in Ethiopia that date to 2.5 million years old!

Jaspers come in a lot of different colors; probably most common are browns, yellows, reds and greens. Occasionally blue can also be found. And they come with a LOT of different names. Some are named for where they are found. Usually these can be fairly easily identified due to colors and patterns - at least by those who know their rocks. Here are a few examples:

These are Stone Canyon Jasper which come from Stone Canyon near Parkfield, California. They are a type of jasper known as brecciated, which means that they are made up of pieces of jasper which over time were cemented together by translucent chalcedony.

The stones above are Biggs, or possibly Deschutes Jasper. Both Biggs and Deschutes come from Oregon, within a few miles of each other and both are very similar. A true rockhound might be able to tell the difference. These stones have amazing landscapes in them!

These are both Owyhee Jaspers, from eastern Oregon and western Idaho. They also have wonderful landscapes - I am currently working on a pendant for the one on the right, and am still thinking about what I will do with the one on the left. What do you see in these beautiful stones?

Other jaspers are named for their appearance:

The two above are, of course, Red Jasper. :-) Red Jasper often has bands of translucent chalcedony or quartz running through them.

The stones on the left above are called Leopardskin Jasper due, of course, to the leopard spots. The one on the right is a Mushroom jasper; the patterns look as if you were looking down a tree trunk that has mushrooms growing out of the side.

The stone on the left is called Spiderweb Jasper , while the one on the right is known as a Poppy Jasper. Can you see why each earned their name?

One of my very favorite types of Jasper is Ocean Jasper. When I went through my stones to look for Jaspers, I was surprised to find that I only have one decent Ocean Jasper cabochon in my collection at the moment (I probably need to rectify that). I have made quite a few Ocean Jasper pendants (and other jewelry) in the past; they tend to sell quickly. Here are a few that I have made and sold:

As you can see, Ocean Jasper (which mainly comes from Madagascar and is now getting harder to find) shows a lot of greens and yellows. Notice also the round bubble patterns. Ocean Jasper is a type of Jasper known as Orbicular Jasper, which contains different colored orbs. These orbs are inclusions of various minerals that crystallize in concentric circles around a nucleus of some type (often feldspar, quartz or other mineral). There are other types of Orbicular Jaspers as well, such as the Poppy Jasper up above.

There are so very many Jaspers out there - I could fill pages and pages with pictures, but will leave you with one final picture. Jaspers that have interesting patterns but don't fit into any specific category such as the ones named above are often given the generic "Picture Jasper" name. Here are a few - what pictures do you see in them?

I would love to hear from you. Let me know what you think, and what you’d like to see in future newsletters. What types of stones are you most interested in learning about? What techniques are you interested in seeing? Let me know, and I'll work them into future issues!