Bo's Jewelry

Gem Minerals in Matrix

This specimen is about 3 1/2 across. It is "pocket material" consisting of beryl crystals with other minerals from the North American Emerald Mine in Hiddenite North Carolina. $250

Gem Beryl Crystals from the

North American Emerald Mine

Hiddenite, North Carolina

You can see from the close up on the right, two nice crystals of aquamarine and golden beryl.

Crystals of various varieties of beryl from emerald, aquamarine, golden beryl, and goshenite are sometimes fround in the same pocket. I have even seen one crystal that had emerald at the base, then aquamarine and eventually goshenite at the terminus.

Bo's Custom Made Jewelry

Pendants
My pendants are custom designed and fabricated using 14 ct yellow or white gold or silver. I buy my gem stones either at Gem and Mineral shows or online. I had this pendant made as an anniversary gift for my wife Diana. The pendant is 24mm wide by 14mm high plus another 8mm for the bail.The center stone is blue topaz from Brazil and measures 14mm by 10mm. The side stones are green tourmaline, also from Brazil, are 9mm by 5mm. This is a nice sized pendant and as you can see from the view of the back is solidly fabricated.
The price of a similarly sized pendant will vary according to the gemstones you want and material selected for the setting. The least expensive option is to use lab sapphires, which are available in a variety of colors, for the gemstones and silver for the setting. We can also use natural gemstones such as garnets, peridots, beryl such as golden beryl or aquamarine, blue topaz etc.

Blue Topaz and Green Tourmaline; 14 ct gold

Custom designed back of 14 ct gold

'Gator' Orange & Blue Pendants
I am currently working on various designs for "Florida Gator" pendants using orange spessartite garnet and
lab sapphire gem stones set in 14ct yellow or white gold.
The cost of my pendants is primarity driven by the size and quality of the orange garnets and the price of gold.

Note: I can also make pendants for you Seminoles or any other school using appropriate colored gem stones.

So far, I have produced and sold two Gator pendants.
This was the first one. It consisted of an orange oval cut spessartite garnet and a pear shaped lab sapphire set in 14ct yellow gold. After being provided a selection of setting design alternatives, the customer requested that the two gem stones be set vertically.

This pendant was $600 due to the cost of the hard to find oval cut 9.3mm x 6.8mm Spessartite orange garnet and the 14ct gold for the larger pendant

Two alternate design alternatives are pictured below.

Horizontal arrangement with oval vice pear sapphire

Alternatives to the vertical design

YingYang with pear sapphire
point down

A Second Gator Pendant has been completed

This pendant used smaller gemstones than the first one because larger oval orange spessaritite garnets of high quality are hard to find and are more expensive. The lab pear shaped sapphire is in the second pendant is 10mm x 8mm and the orange garnet is 7.4 x 6.2 mm

The cost of this pendant when set with 14ct gold was $500.

I can get a nice selection of this size oval cut garnets and oval or pear shaped lab sapphires.

I try to keep my 14 ct gold pendants in the $450 to $600 range! I use high quality natural garnets and lab sapphires.
If I used natural sapphires of the quality of my lab sapphires, the cost of the pendant would be prohibitively expensive for most of my customers.
The lab sapphires have the same hardness and a simiar refractive index as natural sapphires.
The natural garnets are very clean (no visible inclusions to the naked eye; about VVS in the diamond scale).

14mm oval cut lab sapphire with two 7mm orange spessartite garnets- ideal for a ring

7mm pear shaped lab sapphire with two 7mm orange spessartite garnets- great stones for pendants

12mm cushion emerald cut lab sapphire with two 7mm orange spessartite garnets- ideal for a ring (the cushion cut is too deep to match the garnets in a pendant)

I currently have the two large lab sapphires and one oval cut orange garnet (6.83mm x 5.66mm) on hand.
I plan to order more oval cut orange garnets in the 7-8 mm range and a few the lab sapphires (pear and oval cuts) in the 8-9 mm range in order to provide better size matches for both the vertical, horizonal, and yingyang pendant designs.

How I determine the price of my pendants and rings
I started researching the Spruce Pine Mining District minerals, associated mines and mining history located in the mountains of the western North Carolina Blue Ridge Mountains notheast of Asheville about 12 years ago (after my retirement from the navy and teaching). During this period, I established my
Bo's Mine Tours business, attended many gem and mineral shows and worked with several jewelers, gem cutters and wrappers. I continue to attend gem and mineral shows and work with the best of these experts in producing my jewelry. I enjoy producing custom jewely as a retirement activity and as a result, I do not make much profit.

I use the following approach to determine the cost of my custom jewelry:
My cost plus shipping involved in purchasing the gem stones (Gem and Mineral Shows and online from Brazil or Thailand),
My cost plus shipping to have the ring or pendant fabricated by a custom jeweler, plus a 25% profit.

I request an advance (usually $200) from the customer which I use to purchase the gem stones! I take pictures of the gem stones and forward them to the customer for review before shipping them to the jeweler. I stay in contact by email or text with the customer and the jeweler during the ring or pendant design and fabrication process to make sure that the jeweler produces what the customer wantsI When the pendant or ring is completed and I know the fabrication cost, I ask the customer to send me a check for the balance.

bo_smith@bellsouth.net

Cross Pendants

We have produced four of these 13mm light smoky quartz pendants so far (necklace not included). My cost for each of these was $350. I used my own materials for these and made very litttle profit so they were cheaper than if I had had to buy the faceted oval cut stone.

We have one very nice light smoky quartz unmounted 14mm cross faceted round stone available for sale. If set in 14 ct yellow gold, the price of this pendant would be in the $450 to $500 range (plus priority shipping and insurance) due to the current gold price and increased gold required for setting a 14mm stone. I would estimate the price of a similar stone in a 13mm round would cost between $400 and $425 plus shipping.

These pendants can be made of various varieties of light colored quartz so we can offer them in several colors.

pale purple Amethyst
(It's difficult to find a piece suitable due to inclusions)

green Amethyst (Prasiolite)

pale yellow 'Canary' Citrine

light Smoky Quartz

If you are interested in getting more information, email me at bo_smith@bellsouth.net and I can get a quote based on the price of gold and the size of the pendant. I estimate we could deliver the cross pendant between three to four weeks after we receive your check.

Cabochon and polished mineral Pendants
Cabochons are a plain cut where the upper part is domed and the lower part is flat or slightly arched.
I either buy my cabochons and polished stones at gem and mineral shows or have them cut from 'rough' material
I have collected, traded, or purchased. Once I have the cabochon, I normally have them 'wrapped' in wire; either yellow gold filled or silver alloyed with Germanium (to prevent tarnishing).
I can also have a cabochon set in a simple silver mount.
Examples

	This pendant is made from a quartersized cabochon od Lapis Lazuli from Lapis Mountain in Afganistan. I prefer the gold wrap when the lapis contains Chalcopirite as in this specimen. I had this made for one of my daughters so it is not for sale However, I do have some rough material left if you want one!		This pendant is made from a star ruby and is wrapped with silver I had this made for another one of my daughters so is not for sale. But I have some unmounted cabochons that I will put on the site soon so you can see what is currently available.
This is a large (23ct) portuguese cut amber Citrine wrapped with gold filled wire. This is a masterpiece but costly as it was made from a large piece of gem amber citrine which I had for over 50 years before I decided to have it cut and faceted.	*This pendant is made from a beautiful piece of polished Rutilated Quartz (clear colorless Quartz with Rutile inclusions) with a fancy wrap made of gold filled wire.* The price of a pendant similar to this is woud be $120 plus shipping.	This pendant is a beautiful faceted Tiger Eye cabochon wrapped with gold filled wire. The price of a faceted cabochon pendant like this is $150 plus shipping.	This pendant is made from an Amethyst cabochon and a Herkimer diamond (quartz double terminated crystal from Herkimer County New York). This demonstrates the versatility we can have with your pendant.

You can see from the samples above that we can produce cabochon pendants from a wide variety of mineral and gem stones. I give the "wraper" very simple directions from the type of wire (gold or silver) and whether the customer wants a simple or fancey wrap. I give her some room as she is a very talented artist.

For Sale

This pendant is made from Bloodstone and is wrapped with silver. Bloodstone is the traditional birthstone for March.
Bloodstone (AKA Heliotrope) is green chalcedony (an amorphous form of quartz) with red spots which represent the blood of Christ. Hardness 7
$120
(includes 2-3 Day shippping in USA)

This pendant is made from
Chrysoprase which is green chalcedony (an amorphous form of quartz) with a high level of nickel impurities. Hardness 7. It is wrapped with silver (with Germaniuim to prevent tarnishing)
$120
(includes 2-3 Day shippping in USA)