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Most all my rings were partly or fully designed by Pam Burris She passed away in March of 2009 Pam and I did the Calif Ren faires and Harvest Festivals in CA and west plus many more West Coast shows Treasurings.net-Pam Burris

How Cast Jewelry Is Made? ~Photo Show~ Date- 15 May 2011 blog #2 ~~~~~ Equiptment needed to Cast and make Jewelry Torches oxygen and fuel (I use propane), Casting Machine, Burnout Oven, Polishing machine, Cleaning machine (ultrasonic and Steam cleaner) Vulcanizers for molding , tumbling machine to burnish with stainless steel needle shot, many hand tools, saws, flexshaft machine,Vacuum system to invest, grinders, power supply to strip metal, waxpot to inject rubber model molds, Waxworking Machine and wax working tools ~~~~~ The first step to making cast jewelry is to get the wax or plastic models ready and finished. Here lies the most critical part of making Jewelry. A lot of work is required at this stage. Next you sprue the model up in the bottom of a can and fill the can with a chemically setting (6-7 minutes) plaster like substance (called .. investment) done with a vacuum machine Pump so as to remove all air from the solution (else you get metalic bubbles on piece - not good). When this sets up it is hard and the bottom of the can is removed (rubber base) and this can is then put in the burnout oven. Burnout times vary (4-6hrs) but about 1100-1200 degrees is required and enough time to get all carbon out of the model so you get an exact hole in the plaster that is the shape of the piece that will soon be a gold or silver piece of jewelry. When the can is burned out and ready - you take the hot can out of the oven and gently place it in the centrifical casting machine. By this time you have also heated your metal up to a nice melted temp (about 2000 degrees) in the crucible in the casting machine. Releasing the pin in the casting machine you smoothly inject the hot molten metal into the negative mold you created and burned out and within seconds you now have an exact copy of the wax model you started with but it is now made of gold or silver. Now the work starts but at this stage you do have a rough casting that now needs to go through the many exacting steps needed to finish the piece so it looks nice. You need to remove the firescale fron the casting process then sand and grind the sprue marks and lastly gor through the polishing and tumbling steps. If you know what to do it is actually easy and requires little skill (tho it helps). I always advise to just jump in and do it but be safety aware as you are working with torch, fire, chemicals and sharp tools. I hope this artice helped to understand about casting jewelry. I hope to do more in the future

Druzy Drusy Quartz - Cleaning the Stones for Cutting or Display Date 14 june Blog #4 None of these cleaning tips is intended to be used on FAKE, dyed, simulated Drusy Druzy or non quartz Drusy. Natural Druzy Drusy Quartz from Nevada most often requires some or a lot of prep work before a finished product can be ready. First note Nevada Drusy druzy is extremely stable strong material. Sometimes I have found a rust colored ugly rock that is hardly work kicking and took it back to my shop worked on it for a few days and it has turned into a very nice stone of say perhaps brite sparkly clean fresh natural green or hot gold colored  Druzy Quartz. None of these cleaning tips is intended to be used on FAKE Drusy warning as fake drusy is extremely unstable in color and in structure in some cases. Fake drusy that 99% of the internet listed item are...is unstable and just a matter of time or circumstances until it reverts back to its original status and original white color --of junk.. very fake  unreal pretty for a very short time and in my opinion ... buy glass or plastic.. it will last longer. Also most non quartz Drusy is way too soft and unstable (crystals fall off or scratch) to even clean agressively if non quartz be careful. Arizona Druzy crysocolla can also be a problem (in almost all cases do not use chemicals or wire brush on Arizona cryscolla druzy)- also unstable at times (fragile crystals) and a mix with softer minerals especially malacite or non gem quartz inpregnated crysocolla which is very soft. Do not use any of these tips on Arizona  or South American copper minerals druzy (crysocolla) as it is in most cases it is fragile. The "king of Druzy" the Arizona material needs very special individual appraised attention but certainly rare and nice material in most cases and worth the special care needed. A few tips and trade secrets I am going to share here. All simple and logical and if you were doing this you would figure them out in time yourself.  First almost all druzy drusy Quartz generally needs some work. The worst case is Rust Stains -- Solution is oxyalic Acid  (the main agent in oxyclean and also used to strip deck wood to original color)- available on Ebay in a crystal form and can be mailed to you cheap. take about 2-7 days to clean the worst crystals. I saturate the solution at about a cup of powder to a gallon of water - not advised to mix hot as some fumes? occur. This solution will also remove calcium deposits which is also a big pain in the butt for newly found drusy drusy. Take care with the solution but i think it is fairly safe with caution. please read up on it for warnings if any. I wait until the solution is green then i replace the liquid leaving any undisolved crystals in the bottom of container for the next batch. I do know some guides are on internet for using this stuff to clean crystals, but is simple. I would strongly advise against using hydrocloric acid.. as it is extremely bad for your lungs and others lungs -- a very unsafe chemical in my opinion. I also use  common white vinegar as it will remove a lot of calcium calcite deposits by boiling or leaving in a few days or a combination of both. I do not use stronger acids on the market as they are dangerous to your lungs and the enviroment be patient and less dangerous chemicals work great but can take up to 2-3 weeks. ok so what next? The simple secret is a wire brush i like "steel "and you want a stiff yet small bristles (do not use copper or brass as rubs on to the druzy). hard to find good ones.. just buy till you get what works. I use soap as a lubricant when wire brushing to remove calcium. also other  type brushes work. I also use an ultra sonic cleaner but i question if it is effective in any manner at all. :-) As i stated before mostly all logical and simple processes. Good Luck. Jerry As far as cleaning stones that are in Jewelry or loose stones. I strongly advise to first try to decide what you have. Is it fake dyed ?.. if so take care as dyed is effected by chemicals and will revert back to original colors with each cleaning depending on the soap or chemicals you use. If it is strong stable natural druzy still take care as you can mess up the ring around the druzy stone as metals gold and silver are soft and wire brushes can damage a ring. never ever use bleach on jewelry as it actually desolves the metals. a 10k gold ring will complete desolve in hosehold bleach in time. Is it quartz druzy if not it is probably soft or more prone to damage by chemicals - so take special care. Ultasonics are fine if strong nevada druzy ... but if crysocolla druzy (Arizona) i advise against it in most cases. if dyed or non quartz i would not put in ultrasonic. With my stones i offer i suggest a fine stiff teflon or plastic brush and dish soap or even amonia (great stuff) and i guarantee zero damage. even a small wire metal steel brush is fine. Please note do not use brass or copper brushes as the metal will transfer to the druzy.

A trip Hiking in The Nevada Muddy Mountains in search of Rare Naturally colored Nevada Druzy Drusy Quartz Date- 29 May 2011 blog #3 Its getting late in the hiking year here in Southern Nevada and few hikes can be had after May so I was pleasantly surprised to get a chance to get out this morning early. I could not figure out why the temp was so low but soon realized a California Front was moving in and the winds hit about 50+ mph once I started the hike into the mountains at 7:30 am. If you dont mind the wind then a perfect hiking day. My dog and I love it and the sun was out in full which helps a lot to find Drusy Drusy rough. I brough lots of water and left a note on my car in case i did not return. Cell phones dont work out here at all so you do need to take care hiking as a major fall could get ugly if you are alone as i mostly do hike with just my dog. Feeling like an airplane ready to take off in the 50mph winds, i finally arrive at my secret destination of Drusy bearing Jasper. I have picked over almost everything that is easy to find and laying on the surface. It glitters at you if you look for it and are lucky. this location of Drusy is so very RARE and I suspect the only one in existance in the US and perhaps worldwide. Druzy is fairly common if clear but if the Drusy Druzy is naturally colored  you can be assured it is quite rare especially after it leaves the whites. All other colors are Scarce with the exception of actual Quartz deposits of citrine or amethyst and the crystals are way too big to get the druzy effect on them (larger crystals are not druzy in my opinion). the same colors or shades being jasper drusy are extremely rare (lavenders, thisle,  oranges, golds, pinks , greens, reds, shades of blue very rare unless from Arizona copper colored chryscolla) black druzy drusy natural quartz is rare also and Ihave yet to find black druzy in my deposits of many thousands of stones but every other color I have at least found a shade of here. In my deposit now as most all surface material has been picked up by me... I am now resorting to busting the rocks open with a ewing rock hammer. The hammers dont last long with me as i certainly am abusing them well past what they were designed to do. Cracking open a newly exposed seam if you are lucky results in exposing a fresh perfect deposit of mint condition druzy drusy. Today I arrived on location and picked out one rock to work on. it was way to big to carry back in my back pack and dangerous as overloading caused most my  nasty dangerous falls in the past. so i started hammering away at the edges hoping to expose some drusy in seams that occurs occasionally here but certainly not always and to reduce the overall size of boulder at the same time.  Many a drusy hunting trip I have went home with nothing at all. Today I got lucky and a few nicer areas were exposed and a few smaller rocks with druzy were knocked off to take home. This one rock was going to take me about one hour to completely destroy and reduce to manageable sizes of stones to hike out with.  This sounds simple but it is a real art to reducing a rocks size, especially with a small rock hammer- sometimes it simply can not be done. The trick is to try and fine natural fractures in the boulder. Druzy seams are actually a natural fracture that crystals grew in over millions years. Often hammering a rock will open and give you two halves of a wonderful druzy exposed seam. As i stated today i got lucky and perhaps one of the best boulders ever was discovered and reduced to a heavy backpack full of outstanding druzy gemstone rough. The strange thing is sometimes I will be exploring out here and come across an area that some ancient Indian has done similar hammerings without a metal hammer but certainly for the purpose of making arrowheads or other tools. Being a very harsh enviroment it is very unlikely any but the passing through Natives spent any time here. The land is dotted with huge and smaller ancient volcanos with Lava boulders the size of watermellons and bigger. also often you can run into complete trees petrified here as the area was covered with water at one time. Back to the original story....The stones  I found today had a lot of colors Snowy whites, very nice lime greens, lavenders, browns and a few exceptional areas of two color combos that will prove to be absolute top grade. Realizing I was loaded down I packed up and started back, my dog Sage was pleased to be moving out. I actually had to get rid of half my water to cut the weight down but keeping enough in case of an emergency. Hiked out and drove back to Las Vegas ..40 miles each way. Now if i could only find a gasoline deposit. LOL. Well the exercise and desert air is so nice here but soon the heat starts and it gets easily 120 degrees here in summer. Photo Views Of Nevada Desert  take care . jerry 05 June 2011 Blog # 5 Hiking in the desert looking for the elusive spotted beaked Nevada Drusy Druzy Natural Quartz Well i got up early this morning (5:30 am) and decided to try another hike in Nevada mountainous desert even tho the heat is starting here. the Dog (sage) has been giving me the evil eye for 2 days to get her out of the house. Stopped to get gas $4.01 a gallon! Anyways i will stop complaining for a bit. I have been thinking all week to take out a sledge hammer so i got my sledge hammer with a 18 inch handle someone gave me as it fit right in my backpack. WOW! it worked very very well (when i was ready to leave i hid the hammer so i dont have to lug it around as its heavy). Like last week, I worked on one rock the whole morning after we got there. It was about twice as big as last week's rock but was very easy to break down with the new OLD hammer. Lots nice drusy druzy Quartz of muli colors browns and lite creams. I found a pocket of green that had filled up with solid clear calcite crystals but after looking closely i saw what it was and the calcite desolves easily leaving the fresh Quartz green gem grade Druzy at the base. 50 mph winds last week , today no wind at all. I will tell you one thing .. the heat is bad even in june here it makes things at least 10x as hard and if you out this time of the year in Southern Nevada take a lot of water, at least a gallon for a two hour hike per person... mostly to wet yourself and animals down if needed.  Next month July all hell breaks loose with 110-120 degrees  plus temperatures. It is great exercise though as long as you don't go past your limits. My backpack today met its limits :-) certainly as much weight as i have ever had in it or possibly can.  Keep in mind there is no rule you can't stop and rest as often as needed. Photo Views Of Nevada Desert   Difficult this time year but fun. jerry WEBSITE HERE <----

What is Druzy Drusy Quartz? How to tell FAKE DYED Simulated Drusy Druzy? Warning - most Druzy 99.9% sold is FAKE Nevada Druzy Drusy Quartz Date- 15 May 2011 blog #1 Druzy or Drusy got its name from the fuzzy optical effect you get while looking at the overall piece or stone The name was created when the Ariziona Druzy Blue Cryscolla was found probably in the late 1800s. Sometimes this looks velvet almost but the crystal sizes get larger and the overall optical effect changes. My druzy has mostly medium sized crystals. Solid and strong they do not flake off and all are on a solid natural base of Jasper agate. Extremely durable and strong.  I have discovered a location in Nevada that has a rare (and many colors!) deposit of Druzy Quartz. It has every basic color of the color chart including a few shades of  blue and red. I have a sampling of this material  for sale and listed at my ebay store. The Deposit is very small and found in the Muddy Mountains area of Southern Nevada I of course will keep the exact location secret for many reasons., one is to keep the place unspoiled and of course to protect my exclusive offerings of this Rare new find -100% Natural  Drusy Stones. I have been in this Buisness for a long time and I have yet to see anything like the Nevada Drusy Quartz I offer. This is basically a new find. I have the material to cut about 3-5000 top quality stones so this is not an small insignificent find. Colors range but most are greens or violets, golds, browns, greys, whites with other colors being rare from this site. So what is the Drusy being sold by all the Major Jewelry Outlets on the Internet? FAKE FAKE FAKE. 99.99%  of the material on the internet is simply put "not real"- An outright Fraud being sold by well known major jewelry internet outlets.. it should be a crime. The real joke is they offer it as genuine and natural. a  total lie. Some is real Quartz most is Lab created. Almost all is dyed with a simple solution of agate dye available at any lapidary shop. Simple white "clear" druzy (extremely common- not to be confused with snowy white drusy i offer) is thrown in vat of dye and presto a magical stone ... until you wear the fake useless junk for a few months then it reverts back to what it was junk. Some also is doublets - top half is white cheap drusy and bottom half is a layer of color glued to the top half. DYED Quartz can be spotted easily to the trained eye. The colors are obviously the first give away- almost all dyed quartz are unreal phony colors not seen in nature like day glow pink.  real druzy comes with calcite deposits between the crystals. it is a lot of work to get these deposits out (as I DO and know) with a solution to remove them.. in some cases it takes weeks to get crystals looking their best (oxalic acid bleaching compounds is used on all quartz crystals within the US to clean them- (same as oxyclean :) -these chemicals are easy to buy and non toxic to the enviroment and you -this is necessary and only enhanses them back to their natural state) The cheap chinese junk on the market is not even cleaned before they dyed - so - the calcite absorbes the dyes leaving ugly dark areas between the crystals.. these can be seen in pictures if you look closely. I really doubt the public knows that real Druzy is even available. Always insist on " Genuine real Quartz" natural color Drusy Druzy.  Obviously it costs more than the fake junk Drusy being offered on the internet because it is very rare. The titanium being offered is ALL lab created. and other stones are very soft and not suitable for jewelry wear. The Druzy I am selling has 100% REAL Color and is real quartz, not dyed, not glued ... all real. and as far as i know almost unique in the fact that it rarely occurs and is even more rarely offered in any quanity for sale. Perhaps a single piece occasionally is offered for sale. A real bargain if you know how to tell the difference between real and fake Druzy. If you work with druzy or own a real piece the fake is oh so easy to spot, even in photos. I personaly have cut enough of these stones to call myself an expert. I doubt any others have cut anywhere near the quanity I have of real druzy because it just does not exist in quanities normally. Colored Druzy if Natural is extremely RARE. I find the stones in the mountains of Nevada, then the task of hiking in and out in of desert Photo Views Of Nevada Desert . I try to make the rough druzy drusy pieces small enough to carry home :-) and to fit in my back pack. Druzy Quartz only forms in certain conditions. it takes time and an open pocket giving the crystals room to grow I would imagine at least a million years -- often you have to smack a suspect rock with a hammer to crack open the treasures. not for the weak as this is certainly a task in most instances. Color in Drusy comes in two different ways and this is why Drusy is so rare if it is real.  It is either actually colored crystals or the crystals are clear and the backing rock is colored. 95% of the drusy found in my deposit is naturally solid colored small crystals. I find these colors  -> Greens, reds (rare), violets, golds, pinks,  bluish, browns, snowy whites, greys plus many others and rarely a mix of two colors in one stone. I have a diamond Saw and a Diamond Genie Cutting Machine and I simply reduce the size of the stones until i can offer them as Natural Druzy jewelry stones. grinding only the backs and sides and then polishing the same. very easy to cut as nature has created the perfect stone.. the job is to simply present it nothing else is needed. Druzy is very dificult for me and others to photograph so please keep this in mind if looking at my photos :-).       ROUGH STONE Additional pics same item larger dz1b   dz1c  dz1d I hope this artice helped to understand what Druzy is. I hope to do more in the future on Druzy as I find the stone material to be very interesting