Welcome to my newsletter!

I hope you are doing well and enjoying the end of spring and beginning of summer. I love this time of year: the changing colors as various flowers bloom, the flocks of songbirds coming to our feeders, and - maybe best of all - being surrounded by so much green as all of the trees are now fully in leaf.

I have been busy with a variety of things, including making jewelry. I'm working on achieving a bit more balance in my life at this point, so jewelry has not been my only focus although I do find a little time most days to play in the studio.

Barbara Kay Jewelry News

One thing I have gotten way behind on (besides getting a newsletter out every month!) is taking pictures and listing new pieces in my online shop. But here are a couple of newer pendants that recently made it in there. If you haven't browsed the shop, you'll see other new pendants and earrings as well, and more will be trickling in over the next few weeks.

Upcoming events

​Washougal Arts and Music Festival: August 1, 2026 from 9am to 3pm. Reflection Plaza in downtown Washougal, WA.

​Vancouver Arts and Music Festival: August 7-9, 2026 (times vary depending on day). Esther Short Park, Vancouver, WA.

I have decided to take a break this year and not participate in the Clark County Open Studios Tour. Hopefully next year I'll be back at it!

New Life for Cut Outs

If you follow me on social media, you may have seen the little video I made about how I use cut-outs. I thought I'd write about it here as well.

As many of you know, I enjoy adding a little cut-out surprise behind the stones of many of my pendants - when the stone allows it. Here are a few examples:

When I do this, I end up with the little shapes and objects that were cut out. Sometimes, such as with the rose, the pieces are too small and not really a shape I can re-use. But others, like the fish, leaves and swallow, come out more or less whole. I've kept most of them over the years, and recently decided to go through them and pick out a few to try and use as an element on the front of a new pendant.

The two I picked out to play with first are not in this picture (I forgot to take a picture before starting to work on them), but they came from the backs of these two pendants:

As you can see in the pictures with all the cut-outs, the pieces all have a little hole in them. When I cut something out from the middle of a piece of metal, I have to first drill a hole in order to thread the saw blade through and start my cut. If I'm going to use these on the front of a pendant, I have to do something about that hole (and the line going from the hole to the edge). In the case of the bear, you'll notice that the back legs are separated from the body by a thin line of metal, so my cut-out bear only had two legs.

So... I decided to saw out another bear layer, both to cover up the hole and to add two more legs. This also had the advantage of adding a more three dimensional look to the bear. The picture on the left below shows the back of the two layers. It's hard to see where the hole was, because of the solder that flowed into it; it's right in the middle of the blue circle. The picture on the right shows the two layers from the front, before filing and sanding.

The mushrooms were a little easier. The holes were close to the bottom of the stems, so I just cut them a little shorter. But to give them that three dimensional look, I did add a second layer on the caps of each one. Here they are before doing any filing or sanding.

My next step was to find a stone that would work with each of these cut-outs - one for the polar bear, and one for the three mushrooms, which would stay together. Fortunately, I have a lot of cabochons to choose from, and it didn't take long for two stones to let me know they were the ones! Then I did a little additional designing to frame the cut-outs a bit in the pendant before putting everything together.

After quite a few more hours of work, here are the finished pendants. The polar bear strides across a shimmery moonstone. As you can see, the stone has a wonderful blue shine, which made me think of Arctic nights, and the Aurora Borealis. I created some dripping icicles as a frame for the bear. This pendant is no longer available.

The mushrooms are growing on top of a glorious Fire Agate, which glows with all kinds of colors, but looks earthy at the same time. I framed this one with copper branches and leaves. This pendant is currently for sale in my shop.

The next two cut-outs I think I'll create with are the frog and the swallow - and possibly one of the trees (that hasn't been decided yet!):

Stone of the Month: Turquoise

If you love turquoise, you are not alone! Turquoise has been loved all over the world for centuries. Jewelry and burial masks decorated with Turquoise have been found buried in ancient Egyptian tombs that date back to about around 4000 BC. There are some who believe it was the earliest stone ever mined.

The oldest known turquoise mines were in the Sinai Penninsula of Egypt. Turquoise was also found during about the same time in Persia. There, it was often used to cover palace domes because its sky blue color represented heaven. Persian Turquoise, in particular, was known for its intense blue color; for many years it was considered the highest quality Turquoise. The Persians believed it was a protective stone, and used it to decorate daggers and horse bridles, as well as personal jewelry.

In the 13th century, Turkish traders introduced Turquoise to Europe. It is thought that the name was coined at about this time, from the French term "pierre tourques", meaning "Turkish stone." Another possible origin for the name was the French description "pierre turquin", meaning dark blue stone.

Turquoise has also been found in Chinese and Aztec historic sites. It has been mined in the United States as long ago as 200 BC. Ancient trade routes have been discovered that ran from the American Southwest into Mesoamerica (currently Central America). Turquoise was likely transported from the Southwest to areas populated by Mayans and other indigenous peoples. In 1519, Montezuma gave Turquoise gemstones to Cortes, believing that he was the god Quetzalcoatl.

Interestingly, although silver and Turquoise jewelry is associated with Native Americans in the southwest, they didn't start creating this type of jewelry until about 1880 when a white trader talked a Navajo craftsman to make jewelry with coin silver and Turquoise. Before that time, they used the stone to make beads, carvings and inlaid mosaics.

Turquoise is found in dry, barren areas, where copper-rich groundwater reacted with minerals that contain phosphorus and aluminum. The formation of Turquoise happened millions of years ago through a process called hydrothermal replacement. This is when chemicals and minerals are leached out by water, and then are reformed in the crevices of other rocks - usually rhyolite, limestone, quartz or chert. These other rocks make up what is called the matrix.

The matrix in and around Turquoise can show up as patches or large areas on the stone, such as in the stones on the left. As you can see, the color of the matrix can vary from black, to brown, to almost white depending on what kind of rock it is. I don't know if you can see in the picture, but the matrix in the little round ones is pyrite, which shines silvery in the light. Matrix can also appear as veins running through the Turquoise. This pattern is called 'spider web'. You can see a few examples of this in the picture on the right.

Copper is always present where there is Turquoise; nowadays most Turquoise is considered a secondary ore or even a byproduct of copper mining. Copper is also what gives Turquoise its blue color. As you can see in the pictures, Turquoise comes in a range of colors from true sky blue, to robin's egg blue, teal, blue-green, green-blue and even vivid green. These color variations occur because of different minerals that got mixed up with the copper, phosphorus and aluminum. When there is quite a bit of iron, the Turquoise will be more green.

Turquoise experts can often look at the color and type of matrix in a stone and know where it came from - sometimes even which mine it came from. The stones on the left below are a combination of Blue Gem Turquoise (Nevada) and Sleeping Beauty (Arizona). These often have little or no matrix. The green ones on the right (which are even a bit more green than they appear in this picture) are from a variety of American mines. The really vivid green one comes from the Carico Lake mine in Nevada which is well known for its bright apple-green Turquoise.

Turquoise is found in many places of the world, including areas in the Middle East, Tibet, Russia, Africa, China and of course, the United States. The beads on the left below are from Tibet. The lovely pale blue and white Turquoise on the right came from Russia. Most of the Turquoise I currently have came from either Nevada or Arizona in the US.

Turquoise is a fairly soft stone. Depending on the matrix, and the mineral combinations in the stone, some can be hard enough to cut and polish without doing anything else to the stone. Often though, Turquoise is stabilized to make it stronger and harder. Natural untreated Turquoise that is hard enough to use in jewelry has the most value, although it is harder to find than treated stones.

There are a few different methods of stabilization. The one most often used is through the injection of epoxy under heat and pressure. The lowest quality Turquoise, which can be quite chalky, can be made useable through this process, but it creates a stone that has a bit of a plasticky appearance and feel.

A more expensive method is called the Zachery method. This is when natural Turquoise is soaked in a bath of minerals that are naturally found in Turquoise. An electrical current is passed through the solution. This method reduces the porosity and hardens the stone without adding any unnatural elements like epoxy. This method can only be used with higher grades of Turquoise; it won't work with real chalky stone.

Sellers of Turquoise are supposed to state whether their stones are natural or stabilized. Reputable, established sellers certainly do. I once bought a group of beautiful Sleeping Beauty cabochons at a collectors show; the seller had bought them at an estate and had no idea whether they were stabilized or not. I did take them to an expert who told me they were indeed stabilized. I've avoided using them but may take a few out soon and work with them. The stabilization process will definitely make them more useable for rings and will lower the prices somewhat for the future buyer.

There is of course also fake Turquoise out there. Some is actual stone, like white Howlite that is dyed. Some is purely synthetic. It is always best to buy from a reputable seller that you trust (as I have discovered)!!

Since Turquoise is in general fairly soft, a little care is needed to keep your stones looking good. They should be stored away from other stones and jewelry to prevent scratching. As with all jewelry, make sure lotions and perfumes are completely dry before putting on your Turquoise. Keep it out of direct sun; Turquoise can and likely will fade in prolonged sunlight. Avoid contact with any chemicals, including commercial jewelry cleaners. Instead use a soft brush (like a toothbrush) and water - preferably no soap.

The ancient Egyptians called Turquoise "mefkat", which means "joy" and "delight." This beautiful stone has certainly given joy and delight to many over the centuries, and still does today.

The Turquoise jewelry I have in my shop currently are mostly made with beads rather than cabochons. Here are a few:

I would love to hear from you. Let me know what you think, and what you’d like to see in future newsletters.

Sources used for Turquoise article:

~GIA Gem Encyclopedia: Turquoise - www.gia.edu/turquoise​
~Pueblo Direct: Learn About Turquoise - https://www.pueblodirect.com/pages/learn-about-turquoise​
~American Gem Society: History of Turquoise - https://www.americangemsociety.org/birthstones/december-birthstones/history-of-turquoise/​
~US Geological Survey: Turquoise - https://apps.usgs.gov/minerals-information-archives/gemstones/sp14-95/turquoise.html​
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