Autumn Mookaite

Mookaite Bracelet

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.

Mookaite Earrings

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 Statement Necklace

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

Wire Wrapped Matched Pairs

I am not a trendy person. But I have to make an exception when something comes along that fits perfectly into my genre of rustic, tribal and primitive jewelry. Sets of matching stones are nothing new, but in the past year or so more natural edge slab cut stones are hitting the scene. Cut with the intention of being used in earrings, they often have mirrored patterns like the traditional matching pairs and are fairly thin so that their weight would not be prohibitive in an earring design. The fact that they are left with their organic looking natural cut edges is what sets them apart and makes them irresistible to me.

Because I am not the first or the only artist who loves these stones and uses them in earrings, I try to come up with a variation from the straight wire wrap presentation. Each pair will have a distinctive twist to identify it as mine. I'm having fun with these stones, and I hope you like the end results as much as I do.

You can find the earrings in the collage in my Etsy shop, Chrysalis Too!