Carving the sun and stone

Summer is Outdoor Studio time and that means all the lapidary that goes on outside. ‘What? You don’t do all of your rock cutting indoors?’ My absolute favorite studio time is spent outside with the fresh air, birds chirping, ocean roaring, and not having to clean up all the rock and metal dust messes. It came from the earth, let me help it go back, lol. But seriously, this is a time when the inspiration from the outdoors flows right into the artistry of a piece. For instance, here we have the first carving of the year; an ancient ammonite form carved into Oregon Sunstone with schiller that we mined. This rock was special clear from when we first saw it, I couldn’t wait to carve it. It has now been joined by pearl and topaz in a gorgeous pendant setting. You can see how it turned out in the STORE.

Take it outside!

In addition to doing Sunstone carvings outside, I love to carve/cut/polish opals out there, work on dirty metal projects (like sanding copper) and sandbag in the sun on my back for a while too. Getting enough vitamin D? Well tell your boss to let you go work outside (my boss never argues). Unfortunately working outside affords a wonderful opportunity to clean and organize the indoor spaces while they’re getting a break. I’m sure it’ll feel good after it’s done. Working outside really does help seeing the stones and work better; a real UV spectrum helps to see things in the rocks and gems that indoor studio light might cause you to miss. Best of all, the opals look beyond fabulous the whole time you’re working them, so it serves as a great motivator to finish those projects. If weather permits, we’ll do some livestreams outdoors to treat you to some of the beautiful outdoor studio time as well.

friday night lives!

Every Friday Night at 6pm Pacific Time, we go live on YouTube to discuss all the fun of the week. You’ll see if we’ve been preparing rough stones, cutting slabs, making cabochons, faceting gems, creating jewelry, mining stones, rockhounding or whatever zaniness we’ve been cooking up. We often have guests on to discuss rock/gem/mineral/creating topics and you’re welcome to join the chat for questions in real time or to lend your wisdom to the discussion. Check out Ozone Fine ArtVentures and make sure to subscribe or become a member to never miss out on the videos and livestreams there.

Live sales on youtube

Have you been wondering how to get loose stones, slabs, or jewelry items in real time? Check out one of our live sales on our YouTube Channel. They occur once every couple of months and they’re a way for you to ask questions and see the details of a piece before you buy it. We also don’t list any stones, rough, or slab material here, so it’s a way for you to get some of those things directly, and most of the time, well discounted. Here’s a perfect poker hand of cabs we’ve recently cut (from right to left); Labradorite, Ethiopian Blue Chalcedony, Purple Cloud Agate, Petrified Palm Wood, Oregon Fire Opal. Cabachons like these and many more, along with rough rocks, slabs, and jewelry will be available at the next one coming soon!

more more more enameling

The enameling and Cloisonne’ bug are firmly established here at the studio. If it weren’t for the sun shining, beguiling us outside to work there, we’d be inside firing new enameled pieces and toasting metals for sand casting. One of the really fun variables of the enameling is integrating 23k gold into the glass to fuse when fired. It swims and ripples around, creating visual textures within the suspension of the silicates and pigments. These pair well with our Sunstones and other delightful stone beads we’ve collected over the years, such as these Purple Charoite beads from Russia. There’s a whole school of fish to dangle from your ears, as well as Surfboards, and classic shapes to fix your juicy color earring needs for summer wardrobes. Necklaces will be coming soon as well as bracelets and other jewelry designs!

New galleries

We’re building galleries featuring past jewelry projects, faceted gemstones, and some of our favorite cabochon creations. Not only will these galleries be fun eye candy, but also will serve as an example for custom work and future gem and jewelry projects. They are works in process, but feel free to check in and see what has been added as we go along! Here’s a quick link; GALLERY

We love doing rock unboxings and so do the canine staff, here at the Ozone. They’re the best rockhounds and are always on hand to help any way they can. We’d all love to hear from you, Contact Us with any inquiries of comments you may have and sign up for the mailing list so that we can keep in touch. Cheers!