Editors’ Picks: Favorite Projects from Lapidary Journal Jewelry Artist

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Summer wins the contest for season with the most fun colors for me. Where I live, that’s when you can see the splashiest, showiest flowers blooming against their rich greenery. Here are a few of the colorful or otherwise outstanding jewelry projects in Lapidary Journal Jewelry Artist that continue to catch our eye.

ABOVE: Detail, John Heusler’s Pectolite & Pearl Pendant; photo: Jim Lawson

Summer Favorites from Merle White

It’s more than intense color. The summer sense to me is about abundance — of intensity and color, but also time, warmth, choice. It’s about relaxation and contentment.

Dive In

This dreamy pin is the jewelry equivalent of the perfect beach book. Lapidary and jewelry artist John Heusler says that the best gem pectolite, also known by the trade name Larimar, makes him think of the ocean and travel to exotic places. Me, too. And just in case that dancing light on that Caribbean blue surface didn’t do the trick for you, John has thoughtfully added a definite island paradise touch to the back. Ahhhh!

Lush Green and Mayan

Roger Halas created this ring as a commission piece for a friend, who wanted him to replace a special jade ring for her father. I don’t know what the original looked like, but I think the new one is a knockout. “Inspired by all the hoopla then in the press about the coming Mayan calendar event,” Roger says, he “gave the ring a quasi-Mesoamerican style.” Don’t remember that December 2012 event? “It was hailed by some as a prediction of the end of the world, though more scholarly interpretations deemed it the end of a complex astronomical cycle,” explains Roger.

“I substituted the original’s jade gemstone for a cabochon of maw-sit-sit, a lush green stone that is a sort of cousin to Burmese jadeite. The result I think is worthy of a beloved patriarch — maybe even a monarch!”

By the way, there’s an update on that calendar event. Recent reports from mid June of this year describe a new reckoning that puts that Mayan calendar event on June 21, 2020. So if you’re reading this, I’m guessing it wasn’t the end of the world this year, either.

Wearable Flowers

Kirsten Denbow says she was inspired by the coming of spring for this necklace featuring torch-fired enamel flowers, but that’s close enough. They’re vibrant, 3D, and lovely. Hunting for the perfect gemstone that will work in your design is half the fun, but having the ability to mix your own colors in this jewelry project is pretty sweet, too.

Season for a Big Heart

Red hearts do kind of say Valentine’s Day, but I just think this ladies’ bolo is so extravagant and colorful, not to mention sparkly, that it deserves inclusion here, anyway. “I’m a cowgirl from West Texas,” Lexi Erickson introduces this project. “As I grew older, I sought to leave those tomboy days behind, yearning to be cool and sophisticated. About 20 years ago, after reading something about being your ‘authentic self,’ I realized I would never be the Grace Kelly type: I was still the cowgirl from West Texas. So here’s to all the girls of the Golden West . . . a golden heart for you!”

Karla Rosenbusch’s Favorite Jewelry Projects

We’ve featured so many great jewelry projects in Lapidary Journal Jewelry Artist that coming up with my favorites was really tough. But after wracking my brain, I did come up with three that I particularly love.

Prehistoric Winner

Roger Halas is one of my favorite jewelry artists, and his Prehistoric Winner bracelet (from the May/June 2018 issue) is probably my favorite of all of his designs. It’s a relatively simple but very elegant brass and bronze bracelet. It just happens to feature this really awesome dinosaur head silhouette. It’s unexpected — and that’s the part I love.

Dragonfly Cross

I’m also a big fan of Michael Anthony Cheatham’s Dragonfly Cross Pendant. It appeared in the November/December 2019 issue of Lapidary Journal Jewelry Artist and was also the jewelry project featured on the cover of that issue. The clean lines and the beauty of the silver add up to one very gorgeous piece.

And Thereby Hangs a Tail

But I’d have to say that my favorite jewelry project of all is Betsy Lehndorff’s And Thereby Hangs a Tail necklace from the January/February 2019 issue. It’s my favorite for so many reasons. First of all, it uses my favorite stone, Leland Blue. This incredible stone is actually recycled industrial slag from a Michigan iron ore plant. How cool is that?

Second, it includes picture cabs, and I love to make my own picture cabs. And the entire jewelry project — with its awesome leaping trout — is a tribute to my home state of Michigan (which happens to be where Betsy lives, too).

Merle White is Editor-in-Chief of Lapidary Journal Jewelry Artist.
Karla Rosenberg is Managing Editor.

Check Out the New Tool Issue!

Lapidary Journal Jewelry Artist July/August 2020 is this year’s special Tool & Supply Issue. Learn about hand tools, big equipment, and supplies for metalsmiths and lapidaries–plus more great jewelry projects!

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