Creating Custom Jewelry from Maine’s Geology

Well, fellow trekkers (or Trekkies, which many of you are), we’ve made our way through the holiday season and January. It’s time to put a bow on the incredible natural gift of our adventures in Downeast Maine. if you were following along on this three-part series, it’s obvious that the Downeast coastline has enough geological and environmental magnificence to captivate anyone willing to explore the area. We were fortunate to discover some amazing places and rock specimens.
If you haven’t already read Part I and Part II in the series- or you want to relive the excitement, you can do that now or anytime at:
Part I – Addison, Great Wass Island Preserve and Acadia National Park https://skinoftheearth.com/downeast-maine-a-three-parter/
Part II – Bar Harbor, Maine Maritime Museum (Bath), Harpswell/Bailey Island Downeast Maine: Autumn Adventures, Part II – Skin Of The Earth
Part III – “What d’ya Make of It?” Creating jewelry with gems from Downeast Maine
You’ll find these and other geology blogs, along with custom jewelry designs, at www.skinoftheearth.com

NOW, let’s get on with the making…

Creating Jewelry with Maine Minerals – Black Tourmaline and Mica Schist

Of the abundant rock and mineral options available in Maine, I decided to work with black tourmaline and, of course, schist. Thrice.

Schist being one of my favorites I couldn’t make just one piece. In fact, if I could I’d make a shrine to that glorious gleaming wonder of a stone. But for now, I settled on crafting three pieces. Let’s drill down on all of it.

I. Black Tourmaline

Properties & Uses

Black tourmaline is a captivating mineral known for its striking appearance and unique properties. It’s a type of silicate mineral that belongs to the tourmaline group. This stone is often used in jewelry and is prized for its deep black color and glossy finish.

Physical Properties:

• Color: Deep black, often with a glossy finish.
• Hardness: It has a hardness of 7-7.5 on the Mohs scale, making it relatively durable.
• Crystal Structure: It forms in trigonal crystal systems, often appearing as long, slender, and striated crystals.

Metaphysical Properties:

• Protection: Black tourmaline is believed to provide protection against negative energy and electromagnetic radiation.
• Grounding: It is often used for grounding, helping to connect the user to the Earth’s energy.
• Calming: Many people use black tourmaline to promote a sense of calm and balance, making it popular in meditation and healing practices.

Uses

• Jewelry: Due to its striking appearance, black tourmaline is commonly used in various types of jewelry, including rings, necklaces, and bracelets.
• Decorative Items: It is also used in decorative items and as a collector’s mineral.

MAKING – A Black Tourmaline Pendant

While the hardness of black tourmaline is relatively high (7-7.5) and durable, working with this gem in raw form can lend itself to fractures along certain planes when applying significant pressure. So, with the piece I’d purchased in Bar Harbor, I needed to work carefully around the stone and make sure pressure points would hold up with no breakage.

Originally, I sketched this piece with the tourmaline standing on one end, as shown in the left picture below. But as I played around with the elements, the design was more balanced with the tourmaline on its side – like a fallen timber – and I liked the appearance better.
Using a silver backplate and sterling silver tubing, I sawed and formed a cold connected frame and bail to encase the gemstone.
NOTE: I soldered the tubes together prior to assembling the full frame.
The goal of this design was to acknowledge the forest and streams encountered on our Maine hikes. The black tourmaline chunk and silver tubes represent the weathered logs and stream beds we encountered as we hiked.
The blue-green vintage glass drops echo the dripping rivulets and streams along the paths. They are attached with fine silver wire. At the bottom of the pendant, you can see the silver waves lightly rippling against the ‘shoreline’ of tubes.

This piece lays flat against the body and looks elegant on its own or paired with added strands of fine chain, as shown.

II. Schist

After falling in love with the mesmerizing schist shorelines of Downeast Maine, I was compelled to work with the sparkling mineral to create one-of-a-kind wearables that would highlight the stone’s unique qualities. Holding this stone is like having a sunbeam in my hand and brings a smile to my face.

Properties & Uses

Schist is a fascinating metamorphic rock with interesting properties and a multitude of applications.

Physical Properties

• Texture: Schist has a foliated texture, meaning it has a layered or banded appearance. This is due to the alignment of platy minerals like mica.
• Mineral Composition: It typically contains minerals such as mica, chlorite, talc, hornblende, and graphite. The specific minerals present can vary depending on the original rock and the conditions of metamorphism.
• Color: The color of schist can vary widely, often reflecting the dominant minerals present. Common colors include shades of green, gray, and brown.
• Hardness: Schist is generally medium to coarse-grained and can be relatively soft due to the presence of mica, which can give it a flaky look and texture. Schist typically has a hardness of around 4 to 5 on the Mohs scale. This means it is relatively soft compared to other rocks.
• Formation: Schist forms under moderate to high temperatures and pressures, typically during regional metamorphism associated with mountain-building processes.

Metaphysical Properties

Schist is believed to have several metaphysical properties that can be beneficial for those who work with it. Here are some of the commonly attributed properties:

• Grounding and Stability: Schist is thought to help ground and stabilize one’s energy, providing a sense of balance and calm.
• Transformation: Due to its metamorphic nature, schist is often associated with transformation and change, helping individuals navigate through personal growth and transitions.
• Protection: It is believed to offer protection from negative energies and influences, creating a shield around the user.
• Clarity and Focus: Schist is said to enhance mental clarity and focus, aiding in decision-making and problem-solving.
• Healing: Some believe that schist has healing properties that can support physical and emotional well-being.

Uses

Schist has a variety of practical and decorative uses due to its unique properties. Here are some common applications:

• Construction Material: Schist is often used as a building stone for walls, foundations, and other structural elements. Its durability and attractive appearance make it a popular choice.
• Decorative Stone: The foliated texture and varied colors of schist make it an appealing option for decorative purposes, such as garden paths, landscaping, and interior design elements like countertops and tiles.
• Roofing and Flooring: Schist can be split into thin, flat sheets, making it suitable for roofing and flooring materials. Its natural beauty adds an elegant touch to these applications.
• Sculpture and Art: Artists and sculptors sometimes use schist for creating sculptures and other artistic pieces due to its workability and aesthetic appeal.

MAKING – A Shimmering Schist Cuff

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• First, I created form folded sections using sterling silver and copper plate, a dual-fuel torch, chasing hammer and a vise.
• Then I opened the folds and shaped the metal sections using a hammer and anvil.
• Out of the center of the silver piece, I sawed a section just large enough to fit the schist stone I had chosen for the cuff.
• I placed the schist in the sawed-out center of the silver folds, then placed the sawed piece on top of the schist.
• I lashed all pieces together with half-bead silver bezel wire ensuring the fit was tight and secure.
• The silver fold/schist piece was riveted to a rolling milled metal strip that I had hammered into a cuff shape.
  The final result is a vibrant, eye-catching cuff that sits well-balanced on the wrist and goes with so many looks!

What’s Next??

As you might have guessed, one creation wasn’t going to be enough for this schist fanatic. So, I plunged ahead by sifting through my bead and metal stash to find a worthy accompaniment to these schist beauties, and…
I FOUND IT!
A string of gorgeous vintage glass and enamel beads reminiscent of beautiful planets in space with a shimmer equal to the stone. Perfect.
Since I had a string of beads, it meant that I had enough components for a necklace and earrings set with sterling wraps and ear wires:

The colors and iridescence take me away. The spellbinding effect of the beads and stones enwrapped in silver makes a swoon-worthy set. Dee-lish!
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Well, it’s a wrap on our Maine makings for this edition. I’m sure there will be a return engagement in the future. But, for now, let’s close with a final look at all the finery:

The Maine Collection 1

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A Final Homage to Maine – Family Camping Follies, 1971

Like many American families in the 1960s and 70s, our family vacations consisted of camping road trips across the country. We crafted our homes-away-from-home at rural campgrounds with wildly varied conditions and amenities. Part of the fun was the surprise of things like goo-glazed picnic tables and biffies without toilet paper, or worse. What a blast!

Our tent-trailer, towed behind the car, was like a mobile yurt or igloo. When you set it up, it stretched and flipped over, kind of like a Slinky. There were sleeping cots for us kids and an actual platform bed for my folks. We had the requisite Coleman stove and lamps for night light, copious amounts of Tupperware for eating and storage, and a crap load of tin foil. Meals were always entertaining. Mom did a helluva job pulling something tasty together on that little double burner kerosene stove. And dad always had the coffee pot going without fail. On shitty weather days we ate lunchmeat sandwiches and chips…in the station wagon. There’s a family bonding activity for ya.
Morning was such a special time of the day while camping. I loved greeting the quiet, cold sunrises in jammies and blankets. The sound of unzipping tent doors announced the emergence of sleepy campers throughout the campgrounds. As the sun rose higher and began to warm us up, we’d peel off the blankets and start prepping breakfast. Most fondly I recall those single-serving cereal boxes that you could slice on the dotted lines to open and make into a bowl. They came in variety 12-packs, I think. The frosted cereals always went first. The corn flakes languished in the containers until there were no other sugared choices left. Each single serve box had a wax liner that held the cereal, and you could pour milk right into the box. Pretty nifty, especially if you had store bought milk. Sadly, that wasn’t always our situation. There were many mornings where nonfat, taste-free powdered milk was the go-to cereal sauce. Yep. Powdered. You mixed it with water, and it was just as delicious as it sounds. Those cereals, along with the four-sided metal toaster that you’d set on the fire or stove were foodie highlights back then.

There was nothing like breakfast at the campground. It’s where I learned to love dry cereal and drink coffee at the age of nine. And those are just memories of the morning routine. So many more great recollections with family, friends and wildlife.

My brothers and I retell the camping stories often (ad nauseum for our spouses) and compare our flagging memories of the events. It’s fascinating to me how siblings can have such different perspectives on a given scenario. That said, I welcome my brothers’ input and opinions on these sojourns. Since our parents have passed, you readers will just have to trust our versions of the events. 🙂

So why go all nostalgic on a present-day geology/jewelry/travel blog about Maine? Because one of the most legendary camping trips our family took was to Maine, with an unforgettable stay in Old Orchard Beach. That journey included the good, the bad, the ugly and the hilarious along with teens, screams and lobster bibs. 

It was the trip where one brother golfed 54+ holes a day for multiple days in a row because he missed his sweetie and did not want to be on the family trip. (He partnered up with some old dude at the golf club who let him drive the cart.) 

It was the trip where another brother hung out in the camper and completed four sizable books (including Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, Dune, Catch-22 and, ambitiously, The Magic Mountain) along with five MAD Magazines, deftly finessing the fold overs on the back pages.

Most notably, it was the trip where we chose just the right moment to let dad crash and humbly ‘burn.’ 

One evening, after a lively, finger-pointing, tongue wagging sibling squabble over what to eat and where to go, dad became thoroughly fed up. It was apparently his guy-time to shine by loudly stomping his wingtip shoe on the rock-hard dirt (ouch!) in order to silence the whole family. Uncharacteristically, he also yelled at us: “Get in the car!” and, “DON’T SAY ANOTHER WORD!”
Wow. What a grump!
Stunned, we acquiesced. Even mom’s eyeroll was a bit subdued.
Dad abruptly started the car and headed down the densely forested campground road. 
It was at this point, feeling all of his guy-ness, that the thought must have struck him, “Now would be the perfect time to pull out my black Goodie pocket comb and slick back my mane.”
Perhaps he also reasoned, “If I keep my left hand on the wheel, my right hand on the comb, and check my look in the rearview mirror, then everything should be fine.”
Engrossed in his grooming, dad paid zero attention to the car as it veered off the path.
The vehicle proceeded forward – without driver interference – traveling at approximately 5-8 mph. The tree directly in front of us loomed larger with each passing second. (Maybe we should have spoken up. But dad had been so crystal clear with his admonishment: “DON’T SAY ANOTHER WORD!” So, we obeyed.)

Brother Bob remembers that, seconds before impact, mom turned her head slightly to the back seat where we kids were sitting. She narrowed her eyes and flicked us a quick, impish grin to indicate, “Yep. We’re gonna let this happen.”  Then…

Three.
Two.
One.
>!!!!-BAM-!!!!<

Once the tree bark and Brill Cream stopped flying there was total silence.
Nobody moved. 
No one said a word.
It was the quietest moment that station wagon ever knew. 

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We love and miss you, mom and dad!
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THANK YOU for following along. Let’s keep trekking forward together on this Skin of the Earth.

What’s Next?

We’ll have some fun variety in upcoming blog segments:

1. YOUR FEEDBACK – We’ll review reader submissions and suggestions. I’ve received great images and input from so many people. It will be fun to share and encourage others to explore. Keep that content coming!!
2. In honor of Black History Month, we’ll revisit a trip to Virginia, Colonial Williamsburg and the history of Slabtown.
3. While in Virginia, we’ll also visit museums and the geography that supported and sustained Indigenous populations
4. As we hit midwinter, we’ll take a look at some surprise destinations to include in your future travel plans. They hold incredible geological and gem finds that might not be on your radar.
   
   MUCH MORE TO COME! So, please follow, like and share. The journey is better with you on it.

Follow Along

Thanks for trekking along with us. If you’re inspired by this content, be sure to like and follow at https://www.skinoftheearth.com
Also, use the Comments section below to share your own experiences or feedback.
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Ahoy, Aho and on we go!
-Nancy