The Iceberg

by Barbara Jacquin
(south of France)

These crystal quartz stones sat on my workbench for ages waiting for me to make up my mind what to do with them, but especially to get up the courage to go ahead with this adventure.

I finally said "Now or never" and designed a prong setting.

Stones usually "tell" me what they want me to do with them so I got the message from these stones that they wanted to be seen as an iceberg.

I can see the upper part of an iceberg in the white crystal quartz and the lower part that is under the water in the lower crystal quartz, which has been color treated by titanium.

The experts know how this color is obtained, but I sure don't! I only admire it on the stones.

So once the design came to me, I had to do lots of fine tuning to make the "iceberg" appear the way I wanted. A little sawing off here and there, a little more filing on the edges.

Finally, I was almost satisfied. Now it's time to set it and bring the balled prongs over the stones to hold them in the setting.

It worked! I'm so pleased and lots of friends "Ooo" and "Ahhhh"ed over it.

Moral of story: Listen to your stones and let them guide you. Don't be afraid to try an impossible setting.

Barbara Jacquin
Barbara's Bijoux