Soul Stone Designs

We've finally landed in sunny southern California and things are going well. We have a new jeweler's bench on the way, and I've gotten to take my first look at the GIA! It's like gemstone nerd wonderland :) We've also discovered the Spanish Village in Balboa Park, San Diego, and there's the possibility that we may try to get juried in for street shows there. When we get our new bench, we'll be getting back to work full swing, so keep an eye out for more website updates!

I wanted to take a moment to feature a very special commission we were honored to receive: a friend of ours and her fiancee decided to commission us for her engagement ring! It was a group effort. She's not a traditional girl, and wanted a blue stone for her ring, so I coached her through selecting an aquamarine. She also picked out patterned wire for the band, and Henry did the actual construction. We're all very pleased with the result!

I've gone through and completely reorganized the galleries so that the sold items are now featured in their own past work gallery, making it easier to see what's immediately available, and what's possible through commissions. We also reshot all of the pearls on white backgrounds in order to make their beautiful spacer beads more visible. I've added labels to the navigation buttons; please let me know if you think that makes it easier to tell which galleries are which! If you cruise around you'll also see a few new pieces that snuck into this update :)

Back to Soul Stone Designs!

A big thank you to everyone who joined us in Statesboro for our show at my mother's house; and an even bigger thank you to my mom and sister - your support means everything to us! We had a nice time, and as always, we enjoy the company!

We've got some updates and changes on the way for the website; a new section, new items, and possibly our own gemstone listing. Also, we're trying to plan a home show for Birmingham some time in the next month. We'll let everyone know when we get the details worked out.

Back to soulstonedesigns.com.

I've just finished a big website update: we're now featuring all of our coin pearls! Here's a sample -







I just put these images together to show all the options available; they're more sorted at www.soulstonedesigns.com. We have so many choices for coin pearls that we gave them their own gallery!

~Cynthia

I had to make a special journal entry about this piece:




This was commissioned by a Methodist minister to wear with his stoll. I'm honored to be chosen for such a thing; articles of faith are always very personal, and this one is also public, as it will be seen from the congretation. It happens to be one of the most ambitious projects I've ever undertaken, and it taught me valuable lessons about how to solder very large pieces of silver. That's one of the reasons for the name; this pendant, including the bail, is about 4.5" long. The other reason is that the minister himself is quite a tall man. Any other shades of meaning are also welcome :) If you didn't already realize it, the placement and the choice of the garnets was very intentional.

~Cynthia

It's official! I've sent in my application and my confirmation payment, now Henry and I are moving out to Carlsbad, California, so that I can get my Graduate Gemology degree from the Gemological Institute of America (GIA)! The course starts Aug. 13, so we'll be moving at the end of July. It's only a six month program, but depending on whether I decide to tack on a Jewelry Manufacturing Arts degree, we might be there as long as a year. No worries, our website will still be going strong with regular updates, and we can easily mail our work all over the world (as we have done in the past with some commissions), so we won't be out of touch.

We're so excited!

~Cynthia

Our website now features a Paypal shopping cart! We also posted a ton of new work, so please check it out!

Henry recently visited the Weinman Mineral Museum's gem show and picked up some fabulous new goodies (ammolite, anyone?!), and I ordered a parcel of Lightning Ridge black opal doublets, so expect those to be showing up soon!

The Mother's Day Sale was a nice chance to kick back with our potter friends and meet some new folks. Thanks everyone! Our next show will be in Statesboro, Ga, the first weekend of June.

I've fixed some bugs on the website, and prices are now listed. We have a lot of updates to post, look for those in the next few days. www.soulstonedesigns.com

We will be participating in Earthworks Pottery Studio's Mother's Day Sale here in Rome, GA. It will be from 10am to 5pm at Earthworks at the corner of 2nd Ave. and 9th.

A big thanks to everyone who came by to see us at Inman Park!

We've been accepted to the Inman Park Arts & Crafts show! It's going to be April 28 & 29, and I think it's going to be a lot of fun. There's a bigger overall festival going on, and this juried show is one of the highlights. Not only is this our biggest show to date, it's our first true juried show! We're scrambling to get our stock up and really get our business moving! We look forward to seeing you there!

I've noticed that I sleep very well the nights that the tumbler is working. It sounds like a soft, constant rain, and I always wake up thinking it will be wet outside. I have always slept well during a storm.

Henry

After being home for one of many wedding showers, we've been begged to have a home show in Statesboro, GA. My parents are quite willing to host it, and it will probably be the second or third week of April, for those of you in the area. Other than that, we're planning to apply for a show in May. If we're accepted, it will be our first truly juried show. If you're unfamiliar with the arts/craft circuit, a juried show is a show that will only allow vendors who can prove that they've actually made what they're selling. The artist sends slides to a panel of judges, and pictures showing the artist in context with the pieces in question - either at another show or during the fabrication process. We've never done an Atlanta area show, so it should be very interesting.

In other news, if anyone is interested in a coin pearl necklace or set, better speak up now, because they're going fast!



We've got all kinds of lovely stones for spacers, including more spinel beads, pink tourmaline, shaded amethyst, teal blue apatite, and more!

Hello all! As we near completion on our new website, I realized that it would be a good idea to make a jewelry blog to keep our friends, fans, and customers updates on what we're up to. We'll post show dates, news, and any other interesting tidbits here, so please add us to your friends list and keep an eye out!