Inlaid stones and bone

I love cabochons inlaid with other stones - or bones. One of my favorite lapidary artists and goldsmiths is Michael Boyd, whose creations are astonishing; he layers gemstone over gemstone set in gold and silver, to create lavish and yet somehow organic jewelry.

His work introduced me to Arizona black jade, which is a delight to cut and polish. I think everyone buys it from a quirky guy named Robert at Sweetwater Mine. I regret I haven't kept any of my earliest pieces, but several are with friends and family - and I still have some nice rough to work with. Black jade cuts easily but polishes to a lovely glassy shine quickly; the natural unpolished rind is so beautiful, I often leave it natural and just polish the sides.

When muse-friend Debra gave me a little carved bone moon face and some cubic zirconia to play with, I knew I had to make a "Moon and Stars" piece. Here is my very first Arizona black jade piece, and I hope to return to the cutting wheels again soon; you can see the nice texture of the rind and the highly polished edges above the bezel:

I also made this piece very early in my jewelrymaking, for Debra - combining flat carnelian beads with Arizona Sleeping Beauty turquoise (including a cabachon 'inlay' aided by epoxy) in "East Meets West":

An early appreciate for nature & beauty

Are creativity and curiosity innate, or learned? Perhaps a combination. My parents are both very creative and appreciative of nature, beauty, and art. They passed that on to their children - all of us are creative in different ways, and interested in the world around us; I see it in the my nieces and nephew, too.  My dad loved rockhounding in the Southwest, and took us kids with him on trips to search for geodes, desert roses, chalcedony nodules, agates, and pyrite. That's me circa 1972 or so, with my little collecting bag, probably filled with a hammer and some unknown rocks. Dad cut rocks into slabs and made them into cabochons, and then made jewelry. I loved hanging out in his workshop - it smelled of dusty rocks and machine oil. Little did I know I would pick up the thread decades later and become a lapidary and jewelrymaker, too. All those weekends exploring the deserts around our home also rubbed off on me - nature is an enormous inspiration to me, a real passion. I'm so grateful to have a spouse who shares that, and a wonderful retreat in the desert where I am surrounded by the things I love the most.