Autumn and mookaite are made for each other. Richly saturated dark red and yellow mookaite is not for the meek. Confident women wear mookaite; women who want to attract attention. And in my opinion, mookaite is an underappreciated stone that deserves more attention, so again "made for each other". A sedimentary stone formed in ancient sea beds, mookaite is a jasper that gets its name from the Mooka Creek area of Australia where it is mined. Its beautiful and wildly bold coloration is from the organisms and minerals that were contained in the sea sediment.
My bracelet design features a dramatic combination of faceted mookaite nuggets, vintage green heart trade beads in coordinating brick red, a strand of African solid brass beads, more vintage Czech seed beads in dark plum tones. Ceramic end caps repeat the colors of the stones, and a large rustic copper toggle clasp finishes the design.
Natural edge slabs of mookaite, cut so that the image on the stones mirror one another, wrapped in oxidized copper wire. These slices of stone really show off the range of color in mookaite, with the mustard yellow being the dominant color and even including some tiny droplets of rusty orange on the lower portions of the stones. I added a burnt orange bead to the wire wrapped connectors to pick up the naturally contrasting bits of color in the slabs.
Mookaite doesn't need much help to make a statement! To the mookaite stone nuggets, I added some of the same elements that I used in the bracelet design. The brick red (green heart) trade beads, African brass and vintage Czech glass seed beads. For an unusual touch, I wrapped brass cones in recycled sari silk echoing the burgundy tones, and bronze wire. A large Saki bronze toggle clasp adds to the exotic character of this choker length statement piece.
Gloria Ewing
