Natural Materials
Whenever I can, I like to use natural materials in my jewelry creations. Today I'll talk about three materials. The first one would be obvious: corn! I purchased corn from the farmer who grows corn for the Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD. The corn comes in these rich colors: blue, green, yellow, black, orange, red, brown, and white. When you combine corn with glass beads people think the corn kernels are stone!
The second material is pine cones. I paid a Native artist from Pine Ridge to send me a box of pine cones he picked up on his property. These pine cones are as large as your hand and when you separate the leaves from the pine cone, they make great accent pieces.
The third material is stones. I love rock shops! I have a friend who is a rock hound here in Sioux Falls. He travels around the state collecting agates, which he takes home and cuts and polishes. It is so much fun to rummage through a bucket of South Dakota agates looking for pendant pieces! I also like to use Sioux quartzite chunks as pendants. It is a stone with pink and purple colors found in quarries in this area.
My friend, Lisa, visited an amethyst mine and the Great Lakes on vacation last summer. She brought me a bag of amethyst chunks and Lake Superior agates! My mind has been working on designs for these pieces!
The second material is pine cones. I paid a Native artist from Pine Ridge to send me a box of pine cones he picked up on his property. These pine cones are as large as your hand and when you separate the leaves from the pine cone, they make great accent pieces.
The third material is stones. I love rock shops! I have a friend who is a rock hound here in Sioux Falls. He travels around the state collecting agates, which he takes home and cuts and polishes. It is so much fun to rummage through a bucket of South Dakota agates looking for pendant pieces! I also like to use Sioux quartzite chunks as pendants. It is a stone with pink and purple colors found in quarries in this area.
My friend, Lisa, visited an amethyst mine and the Great Lakes on vacation last summer. She brought me a bag of amethyst chunks and Lake Superior agates! My mind has been working on designs for these pieces!
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