We play with Rocks - Wicked Stones

Contest on Wicked Stones - Win free Jewels!

2011-05-13T14:13:00.003-04:00

Originally, I had this contest running on my Facebook fan page but I've recently been informed that Facebook does not allow contests to be run on their site.. so I'm moving all the posts here to continue on:

Contest!! Win a free piece of Jewelry from Wicked Stones. I'm starting a new spring contest where you can win 1 handmade piece of jewelry (I'll post photos the first week of May) How do you get involved? Reply this post with your favorite stone type and give a quick reason why. Contest ends May 31 at midnight so enter away! All names will be put into a draw and a winner announced. Please include your name and email so I can contact you.

Here's who has replied so far and names are entered into the draw:

Terry Milton Rhodochrosite is one of my favorite stones. Its 'bullseye' is a reminder to me that I am 'on target' doing exactly what I am supposed to be doing. I identify with its 'survivor' and 'ability to reinvent itself' energy.

Rebecca Kopernicky-Ramdeholl The classic clear quartz. Brings up so much meaning-clarity, fantasy, coolness, strength, reflection and magnetism.

Iva Ursano YAY!! Contests!! My fave stone has to be the Sunstone. It always makes me feel cheery and optimistic!! If I need a *pick me up* that's the stone I wear!!

Wendi Kast Red Jasper -- I love the color, and it relaxes me just to look at it! :)

Kristan L. Cannon-Nixon Hematite - I've always liked it since I was a little kid, and wore rings made of it before my parents realized I loved it and then bought loads of jewelry made with it or featuring it. I like the subtle black grey of it, as well as the fact that it is a healing stone.

Mariah Smith Has to be the Blue Lace Agate pendant you made for me,...you just didn't know it at the time. I love the gorgeous colour of blue, so soothing. My favourite stone by far, although there are waaay too many favourites to pick just one.

Starwind Evensong Turquoise - a long, long time love of Native American jewelry.

Claire Prevost Rose quartz.....it helps keep me happy!

A little heads up

2011-04-25T16:18:00.001-04:00

So what has been keeping me busy lately?

Well... last fall we bought a lot of goodies to use in our shop - some of them are not working yet as I'm still looking for a teacher to show me how to silversmith (in our area).. That should give you a hint of what we found last year..

Rob has been busy most of the winter putting together and gathering tools for his side of the business. He's the rock cutter, the polisher and the grinding man. He's been in and out most of the winter working on creating these fabulous Jade free form pieces.. as well as grinding away in our kitchen (can you say EAR PLUGS!?).. it's been a long winter, let me tell you.. but he's getting good at it.

So far, I've managed to keep him away from the pretty fire agates and other sparkling goodies that really need care and time to create something... Well, truth be told, I really want to start playing with those. I wonder if he would notice if I tucked them away and hid them until I was ready..

It seems that I'm always saying this

2011-04-25T16:07:00.001-04:00

LOL.. every spring rolls around and every spring brings with it "Boy I have not spent a lot of time blogging!"

Again, another year has gone by.. but I'm hoping (here, I go, saying this again) to spend a bit of time here each week keeping you all up to date on how things are going. Who knows what kind of adventures we have in store for THIS year....

BLACK FRIDAY at Wicked Stones

2010-11-17T13:25:00.002-05:00

BLACK FRIDAY at Wicked Stones.

Well, we're back again with our second Black Friday sale...

this year? We're giving you a weekend sale of 25% off everything.

The coupon code is blackfriday and all you have to do is type that into the shopping cart when you place your order (it's handy and tells you your discount right there so you can see it).

Enjoy!!
And yeah, I know.. not a very nice personal blog post... I should get back here more often and fill you all in on our adventures from this past summer..

Early Summer

2010-05-27T09:44:00.002-04:00

Wow! It's been interesting weather around here!

Less than 2 weeks ago we had snow! It was crazy! We woke up to the sounds of *shish shish* against the open screens of the windows and this is what you could see out the window!

It's kind of odd because now? There is a drought in our area and it has not rained (or snowed - LOL) since this day.

Well, I'm going to try and be more active here on my Blogs this summer. I have to admit, I've been lured into Facebook FAR too much and it's been using up most of my free time. Time when I could have been writing here sharing adventures and keeping you all posted in the neat things going on around the shop.

With that said, Wicked Stones also has a Facebook page you can check out. You can use this link if you'd like to become a fan there. :)

Well it's time for me to get the early afternoon going. There is a box of really huge crystals sitting on the kitchen table that I've been itching to work with. I picked them up yesterday and WOW are they fabulous! There is a mix of Brazil and Arkansas clusters that are just oh, my amazing!!

I'm going to try and be a bit more diligent and get some pictures taken so you can see what's been keeping us busy here :)

Have a great day everyone!

Spring! And the Celtic Show

2010-03-07T22:04:00.003-05:00

Wow... I can barely believe my eyes right now! It's only the first few days of March and the snow is melting! I spent most of the day carrying displays back from the car into the shed and trodding through the mud (ew)...

I had such a great time yesterday meeting old friends at the Celtic Fair and getting to know new ones. My day was spent beside the creative jewelry designers of Fric and Frak and seeing their very pretty pieces in person. This is a young team of Entrepreneurs from Sudbury who create really amazing pieces. I fell in love with some of their amazing bracelets! Once their website opens up, I'll post a link here so you can learn more about them too.

It was also a lot of fun to meet up with some old Rock Friends who dropped in to say hello. THANKS! You made my day extra special :) I'm looking forward to next year :)

Goodnight everyone!

Celtic Irish Fair - Sudbury Ontario

2010-02-16T10:34:00.002-05:00

Hey folks!
We're going to be at the Irish Celtic fair this year with our goodies.. why not drop in and check things out!

Date:	Saturday, March 6, 2010
Time:	12:00pm - 5:00pm
Location:	Navy League Hall - 19 Regent Street Sudbury Ontario

Annual Irish Celtic Fair Irish Dancers, Singers, Bands, Pipers, Food, Vendors, Bake Table & Children’s games with “Entertainer’s Caravan”

Admission – Adults $5.00
Students $1.00
Children under 12 – Free (must be supervised)

Hosted by: Sudbury Irish Arts Association

This is a great day for everyone to get together and enjoy traditional Celtic Irish music, food, dance and experiences.

While you are there you can shop for some amazing Celtic goodies as well as other crafters.

One World One Heart Giveway

2010-02-03T10:25:00.008-05:00

CONGRATS to MandaPanda from Australia! She has won the Crystal Heart pendant... :)

WHOOT WHOOT!!!!

Now for prize number two.. that one is a secret!!!! I'm going to whisk that one off to E.J. Stevens. But I will post a photo once the giftie arrives at its new home.

Thank you everyone who left wonderful comments and kind words!!

***********************************************************
This is my first year with the One World One Heart Giveaway .. so I decided to search my studio to find something very special.

Nestled in a safe place.. this little gem has been tucked away for some time...

It's been winking at me and sparkling in the sunlight.. letting me know that its ready to begin a new journey and look for a special place to travel to.

Perhaps it will travel to your mail box? Or be a gift to someone that is close to "your" heart".

To enter and be eligible to win you must:

1) be a blogger
2) leave a comment - make sure I have a way to contact you if you win. If your blogging profile doesn't link back to your blog, then please leave an email address
3) make your entry on or before Feb. 14th

This wonderful event ends on Feb 15th and I will be contacting the lucky winner on that day!

Be sure to check out all the other blogs participating by clicking on the One World One Heart :)

Here's a wee PS! (I am SO delighted to see so many comments? That I'm going to add a SECRET second gift prize... Tee heee!)... What will it be? Something shiny, no doubt.... (if you could hear me right now through your speakers on your computer? You'd hear giggle giggle.. tee hee!) I will post a few hints as we get closer to the draw date...

Wicked Stones

Winter blahs

2010-02-03T10:04:00.000-05:00

It's been pretty cold over the past month here in the North... not much snow though.

I do have to say that I've been enjoying not having to rush out and shovel the driveway every morning! LOL!

Anways.. I'm just hunkering down to get ready for our next upcoming show. I believe we'll be set up at a local Celtic Fair. I'm still in limbo on the decision as I have to find a helper to lift heavy things as Rob will be away that weekend.

Well, time for another coffee! I hope you are all enjoying your winter season!

Woah!!

2010-01-04T14:34:00.000-05:00

Jeeeepers!
I went away and forgot to post to my blog for a few months and something crazy happened! Gosh I do apologize to you, our readers.. if you experienced some crazy Tweets on our blog!

It seems that I was getting random Tweets from others instead of from our twitter account and some of the messages were not exactly family friendly. That's not what I want to see on our blog. We want to keep this nice for everyone to read (and not scary!) Yikes!

Anyways, that aside.. it's a new year (2010 now) and we're glad to still be around. This will be our 11th year anniversary this fall! WOW! I'm still smiling knowing it's been over a decade that our business has been going strong. Thanks to EVERYONE who has been along for our journey and to all you new folks who have just joined in on our adventure!

Last year we didn't get a chance to visit a lot of rock hunting places as our time was pretty tight. We bought a new house a while back and we're still in the planning and building stages of what's going to eventually happen with the potential shop out back. Yikes.. it's taking longer than I expected it to! But we did spend a lot of time hunting in our own mini rock pile that was discovered last spring. I've got some pictures I'll be posting of some of the goodies that we pulled out of an old ice hut that came from a local private quarry (many many years ago).

Stay tuned! I plan on being more active this year!

Black Friday

2009-11-26T19:14:00.000-05:00

We're offing 25% off all stock at Wicked Stones for Black Friday.

Pop on over and see if you can find something you like. You'll find some really pretty gemstone jewelry, wire wrapped crystals and healing stones... some stunning New Age Pewter and Sterling pendants... gemstones for your pet and sooo many other goodies.

My favorite Chakra pendant

2009-09-09T15:03:00.004-04:00

This one is my favorite Chakra pendant...

It's the one that I'm wearing right now.. :-)

It's a Root Chakra.. (I've been needing a bit of grounding energy as I've been all over the board these days and getting run down).

New hand made Chakra Jewelry

2009-09-09T14:58:00.003-04:00

I'm so happy!

I've finally been able to upload the new hand made Chakra jewelry that I created this summer. I just love these pieces!

I've added sterling silver Chakra charms to these amazing gems! I'm considering selling sets of them (7 per set) as I have a few that I wear myself and they really do feel just divine.

I thought I'd share :-)

A way to stop Ants

2009-07-21T07:15:00.004-04:00

Ak!

I may have written a while back about the ant problem we've been having in our new home. It's been a battle all summer long trying to get them away from the house. A few weeks ago when Rob was taking the concrete tiles from the front of the house (he's building a proper stone walkway) we found this HUGE nest right against the foundation.

Well! After a summer of lemon juice and cucumber peels on my counter (that actually worked by the way) I said ENOUGH and had him spray some serious poison into the nest.

The ants went away for a while (or so it seemed). Yesterday I was outside having an afternoon cup of Java on the front porch... and what did I see? Those pesky ants on my block foundation again! A few months ago it was suggested to me by one of my neighbors, that I try using Chalk. Apparently if you use chalk (just regular old sidewalk chalk), the ants wont cross the line. (I don't use poisons by the way and Rob is not available, so I thought I'd give it another whirl).

I was AMAZED! I ran a chalk line to test and the ants would not cross! Here's a photo just so you can really see it for yourself. The ants just walk around all confused and wont cross the chalk line!

Now they don't stop the ants from "eventually" getting to their nest but they do slow down the process quite a bit. There is no way that I can go all the way around my brick house every day putting hop scotch lines everywhere. There is, of course, the issue of the ants that are in the nest trying to get out.

For the moment, I feel vindicated just slowing the little buggers down.

I thought this might help someone else with an ant problem.

Blah! Blown up Rock Tumbler

2009-07-15T09:07:00.002-04:00

ARGGGGGGGG......

I just checked one of our rock tumblers in the shop out back... arg arg arg... we've got an old Thumblers Tumbler that we usually use for tumbling rough rocks (when the other tumblers are full).. yesterday I noticed that it was leaking a bit from the sides where the rubber ring sits.. which at that point was nothing new.

But this morning?

The lid has this HUGE hold in the center with the edges torn open. Almost as if something blew up inside the tumbler barrel itself and left a huge 1 inch gap in the center of the lid. It's odd because there is nothing that this part of the tumbler touches.

Arg.. inside this tumbler was a wonderful batch of white Quartz (from our area - Nepewassi Lake). So it's going to be sitting and waiting for some time until the other tumblers are free.

On the good side of things? It looks as if my rain barrels are going to get filled as its starting to cloud over. Our gardens will like that.

Hand Crafted Gemstone and Sterling Celtic Jewelry Sale

2009-04-29T13:42:00.007-04:00

Yippee for anyone who loves hand crafted Celtic Jewelry!

I've just posted a bunch of new treasures for sale on our website.

I figured that it might be nice to start off spring with a sale!

You'll find beautiful hand made gemstone bracelets - some of them have stunning Swarovski crystals that just shimmer like diamonds in the light and others have amazing Celtic beads and charms. There are also some really pretty Celtic earrings and pendants. There is a majestic Rainbow moonstone bracelet that has been accented with gold beads as well.. it's stunning!

Enjoy!

Found a cave on our property.. neat rocks

2009-04-29T07:53:00.005-04:00

Oh shoot! I forgot to mention this yesterday when I was writing.

When Rob and I were clearing some of the yard? We found something really neat nestled in the side of a small hill on the eastern corner of the property. It was buried until a pile of busted wood, branches and piles and piles of old leaves.... but... after some careful removal? We found the opening of something really interesting!

A cave! Or at least something "like" a cave! There was snow in the hole around the opening just before Rob left to go back to work out of town, so I promised that I would not go poking around there without him home. We're not sure if there is a hole in front of the cave/hole opening or not since it's still all covered with "stuff".

But I did manage to get a few pictures! There are some really neat pink rocks that are filled with Garnets and Mica just outside of the hole that were buried under the grass. The rock in the photograph shows how weathered it is, but the pink is shining through. When I peeked inside of the tiny opening that is not covered with fallen stuff? I could see more pink rock with sparkling quartz and mica. It looks as if the hole might have been blocked off and it might not go any deeper into the side of the hill, but I wont know for another week (oh the waiting is awful!)..

I'll keep you posted with pictures once I get to investigate more.

Wicked Stones on Twitter - Something free maybe?

2009-04-29T07:48:00.004-04:00

Good morning all!

I thought I'd post this link to our Wicked Stones Twitter Page. Recently I've started using Twitter and it's kind of fun to post quick updates on what's going on in our workshop, studio and even the occasional ramblings of a caffeine deprived woman (LOL!).

I think I might be posting something kind of cool there by the end of the week (May 1)... something... interesting... something that's simply MAD and crazy involving free things from our website...

Check it out if you'd like.

Inukshuk tuturial gone missing

2009-04-28T14:31:00.002-04:00

For anyone who has been bouncing back to our Blog to view the free tutorial on how to make your own gemstone Inukshuk? I do apologize..

Rob (my partner) had a chat with me on his last trip home and asked me to remove the link to the page. He has some new ideas he wants to try out and wanted to use some of the stones that he'd previously used for the Inukshuks. It's been interesting, watching him boil the gemstones in a vat in the Rock Lab and turn these little statues into something else. (Yes, you read that right, he's boiling stones and not for "stone soup". :-)

E600 is a very strong glue and even with the boiling? It's still going to take some serious grinding to get some of the residue off the gemstones before he can move forward.

He's bought himself a grinder and he's been learning how to make some really pretty cabs and sculpted gemstone pieces.

So what's next?

I'm trying to twist his arm to let me pick out a rock saw and a few other tools.

I'm such a bad influence :-)

Sunshine! At last

2009-04-28T14:13:00.006-04:00

Finally! We have sunshine and the snow around the studio is starting to melt away! I can hardly believe that it's almost the end of April and there are still soft blankets of white snow behind our sheds and in the forest out back.

We started last week to muck the back of the yard out - for anyone wondering? The term "yard" is used loosely! *I'm laughing away here*.. A rake just does not do the trick and heavy equipment should be used in this case. In the picture you can see the view looking back towards the house and studio (rock lab). There is an area several hundred feet square that we're cleaning right now and it's full of old branches, leaves, grass clippings and other "mysterious" items we keep finding in the pile. Our neighbor came over and told us about a huge fire that the second previous owner had in the pile.. so really, I'm not looking forward to what's at the bottom!

But it's something we need to do as this area is simply beautiful! It's gorgeous sweeping rocks covered in green soft moss surrounded by pines, birches and cedars. It amazes me that no one (until now) has seen the potential beauty hiding just behind the sheds. Beyond that? Is a massive gravel pit that has been long since dug out and all that is left is huge massive boulders rising out of the trees.. We've been trying to get this done quickly as the black flies and mosquitoes are soon to be out.. plus all those other stinging bugs! And yes, I Scream like a girl with my arms waiving and run away when I get buzzed.. :-)

With all that? I've been working hard to get things ready for this years outdoor festival that I just LOVE LOVE LOVE doing! Haweater is coming up in just a few short months and with that? Means a lot of new goodies. Down to business for a bit, I've added a link to one of the pages on our website that has some beautiful Celtic and Pagan gemstone and sterling silver jewelry. I've finally found a pretty good source for the Sterling and am able to get some of the goodies done that I've been dreaming of making.

Well, I guess I'm going to publish this and get back to work. It has simply been ages that I've been writing here and I miss doing it. Here's hoping that the new found sunshine and miles of forest don't keep me away for too long.

Snow Blues and Sudbury Celtic Fair

2009-03-12T07:31:00.004-04:00

I'm giggling away here... there is still snow outside our studio windows and it's very cold out! Winter just does not seem to walk to go away this year.

Often as I'm working away making treasures, I'm thinking of far away places that I could dig my toes into the sand and have someone tanned and smiling bringing cold Margarita's and snacks.. aaahhhh.... (WAKE UP VIKKI!).. :-)

It's been a long few months of unpacking, reorganizing and getting things in our business running back up to speed again. I know, how dullllll and borrring to be reading that we've not gone on any rock hunting trips or did anything really cool this winter.

Rob DID just get back from a 12 hour drive from Thunder Bay 2 nights ago and he's got some photos loaded up on his camera from our Agate searching bay.. I think I'll load them up this weekend and post a few (He did mention that there is still far too much ice and snow to get to the water).

This weekend we've got our local Celtic Fair going on at the Navy Hall in Sudbury. If you're from the area? Drop in and check them out (It's on Regent Street near outdoor skating rink at the top of the hill). We're not going to be bringing any of our goodies this year as most of our displays are still in limbo after our move. But we'll be there helping out.

Well, my coffee cup is empty and I've got a day of paperwork in front of me (WHO HO! LOL!).. (not whohooo - but someone has to shuffle those papers around the desk and make it all look good. :-).

Note from later on.

Augh.. we didn't end up setting up our goodies at this years Celtic Fair. Both Rob and I were pretty distraught to find our displays had been damaged during the winter and spring months in the back of the shed. But on the flip side of things (since I love to look at the glass more than half full).. we're planning out new and better displays! Yippee!! I've had some ideas in my head for a while - all I have to do is chain Rob down to a workspace and take the rake and shovel out of his hands for a few weeks and they might get done on time for Haweater! :-)

I'd like to also take a minute and thank everyone who dropped into this years Celtic Fair. Rob and I volunteered (instead of vending) and simply had a fabulous time with all the great musical talents and of course, all the wonderful people who were there. Another fantastic event! Don't miss next years.. it's REALLY worth while to check it out.

Moved and photographing jewelry

2008-11-29T12:32:00.004-05:00

I'm going to actually have to sit down and write here more often! :-)

Well we've finally moved!! It's been a very long summer of finalizing all the house details, packing boxes, living around boxes, moving boxes and then unpacking boxes. (Okay so I'm not fully unpacked yet - but it's coming along.) For the first time EVER, Wicked Stones (aka the crazy people who run the accounting/web work side of the show) FINALLY have their own office space!! Doors can be closed so that the evil cats don't show up to muck about in the paperwork. Now THAT'S a good change!!

On top of everything else, we popped into Henry's Photography Store (they just opened in Sudbury recently) and found a kit with a light tent and photo lamps. Yes, it was expensive but SHOOT! You would not believe how fast that part of the creation process is now! For years it's been a struggle to get good photographs of the jewelry on our site (http://wickedstones.com) but now? It's truly as simple as point, click, and edit the size of the photo. One day I should sit down and write a long posting about the horrors it's been trying to find the correct light bulbs and accessories for taking photographs.. arg... For anyone who is looking for the right tools to take pictures of their product, I'd seriously consider spending the extra money for a real kit from a place like this. I am kicking myself pretty hard in the rear for all the time lost over these past years. Ah well, lesson learned.

And for those of you who I've been talking to about new products on the horizon? The Rock Lab is being organized and we should have it running by mid winter! Finally! A space for all the tumblers and the new Rock Saw to live!! (Okay so we've not purchased the saw yet or the grinders, but those are on our list for things to pick up.) As it's only been a month since we've moved in, we're still moving boxes in and out of the shop outside. Sorry, no sneak previews yet on what's coming...

Well, the snow is coming down and I see myself heading out shortly to shovel our way out of the drive....

Fall Samhain Halloween specials

2008-10-07T15:01:00.004-04:00

I welcome you to take a tour around our website: wickedstones.com as I've just posted new items for our Samhain Halloween Fall Sale.

There are going to be tons of gemstone treasures and even some beautiful sterling silver jewelry up for grabs this fall season.

You can even use a discount coupon that can be found on our website.

Enjoy!

Contest - win free jewelry at WickedStones.com

2008-10-07T14:55:00.003-04:00

We're running the newest contest at our website and giving away a really beautiful banded Agate necklace. Click here to enter your name in the draw.

Up for grabs this fall season - a fabulous Agate necklace!! This is a beautiful banded Agate with incredible colours and banding! It's got amazing patterns and rich blues, grays and earth tones. It has a sterling silver core in the center and comes ready to wear on a black leather necklace with a clasp.

What's the catch? We'll add your name to our mailing list for the occasional newsletter filled with information, contest info, sales, coupons and more. It does not come out very often as I'm always having far too much fun making jewelry. :-) So don't worry.. you might see a newsletter once a month or once every few months.

Contest ends on December 1 and one name will be drawn at random.

Good luck!

Ravens on my roof - we're moving!

2008-10-06T08:50:00.004-04:00

This morning I woke up to the sounds of ravens tromping around on the roof over my head....

Three of them were making their presence known so that I'd go out and put some food on the deck for them. I'll be sad to lose them when we move in a few days.

Oh yes, I forgot to mention that in our blog :-)

We're moving to a new home on the 14th of October! Finally!! After almost 2 years of looking we've found a place in Wanup that is going to suit all of us. I've finally gotten a room to myself to set up office. After 2 1/2 years of working out of the living room to get my paperwork done, it will be extremely nice to be able to shut the door on the filing and take time off without having it always seeming to be waiting for me to return.

Plus, Rob has his own work shop out back that we'll be able to run the rock tumblers without me going crazy with them groaning away in the living room (that was awful!). We finally will have the room to put in the rock saws that we've been aching for so that we can start making the stone Goddesses that I've been tormenting one of our special wholesale customers with - bad me!! Rob's hoping that by early next spring we'll be able to start making hand made Rune necklaces (made of stone) and pretty hand made carvings.

It's been ages since I've posted to this Blog - it's been a summer of meeting great people at the Haweater Festival we went to in early August (thanks everyone!) and a season of wonderful orders that have been sent all over the world. With the house hunting going on and endless hockey workshops with our daughter, it's amazing that I found time for anything else besides running around at a million miles an hour. But I've loved this past summer. Thanks to everyone that we've shared this passing season with. :-)

In just 8 "packing days" the moving truck will be here, so with that said? I'm off to the grocery store to pick up more boxes.

New Family Member - Miss Acorn

2008-02-14T10:22:00.002-05:00

Gosh, I had no idea so much time had gone by since my last real posting here on our blog...

It's been an interesting life over the past months! We've adopted a new family member to our crew. A long story short, we found this little angel at a yard sale late last fall. This is a picture of our new kitten (Acorn) and our wonderful Dog Treble.

Acorn was only a few weeks old when we adopted her and much to our surprise, she became immediately attached to Treble (the dog in the photo). I was even more stunned when Treble became "mom" to our little kitten and started nursing her. It certainly was a shock to everyone in the family but after some phone calls and research, we discovered that it was perfectly natural and actually wonderful that these 2 pets connected to each other in such a beautiful way.

We've since discovered that Acorn is a Maine Coon and destined to become QUITE the cat!! I've read that they can grow up to a metre in length and weigh a LOT! At only 6 months old, she's already larger than our oldest cat. It's been a pleasure getting to know her as she's a tremendous friend to me. She plays fetch with me all afternoon while I create jewelry - which is quite handy as she's not actually in my rock bins helping me choose the right stones!!

Speaking of cats, I've just been informed that lunch needs to be served.

Gemstone Jewelry Sale at Wicked Stones - Pagan Items too

2008-02-14T10:19:00.002-05:00

OH Yes! I also wanted to post a link to our readers so that you know of our February Sale! Click here to check out some treasures you can find for yourself.

There are some of the most amazing crystals for sale as well as quite a few beautiful Pagan Wiccan Jewelry.

Enjoy!

New Crystals from Brazil

2008-02-14T10:11:00.002-05:00

Oh my!!

I've just added some of the most gorgeous crystal points to our website

I've found the the most amazing Soul Mate and Tantric twin crystals, abundance crystals, stunning gems with phantoms and so many more!!

The one you see here in this picture is an example of an abundance soul mate crystal point. All of these gems are natural gems that come from Brazil.

Just thought I'd pass that along..

Rock Hunting Trip - Scadding Gold Mine

2007-09-16T19:34:00.006-04:00

Greetings everyone!
We have a new adventure to tell you all about. Well actually, to tell the truth, we went on this adventure mid-summer but I've yet to sit down and write about it. The pictures in this Blog Posting are pieces of Pyrite and Chalco-Pyrite. (sorry folks no gold.. we only found a teeeny tiny spec of it and even then? We're not so sure that it's not Pyrite).

This summer we had the opportunity to visit an old Gold mine in the Sudbury Ontario region. The mine is called "Scadding Gold Mine" and is located East of Sudbury off Kukagami Lake Road. We had permission to visit as the property. The area itself no longer has any mineral workings - no equipment or buildings can be viewed. The only remnants I was able to see is the area on which one of the buildings used to sit. This is not an operational gold mine.

The area is difficult to find if you don't have someone with you who knows exactly where to turn off the road and it is suggestible that you drive a truck into the area (a few folks had cars in our convoy and I'm pretty sure there were some sceptical "um.. should we really be going here?" thoughts.... A short drive off the road (through pot holes, small trails and such) takes you to a clear opening that you can park.

During mosquito season, it's a good idea to bring bug repellent, extra water to drink, GOOD walking shoes (no sandals), a hat, gloves to pick up the stones with and your collecting tools. This location is pretty *in the bush!*. If you are going alone, a compass is a good suggestion as it is quite easy to get turned around in this area - there are few markings and it is easy to get lost.

Here's a bit of info I found on line about the mine:

Geologically, the most prominent feature in the
area of the Scadding West claim is an igneous
complex of rocks that are best known for their
content of gold, nickel, copper, platinum and
palladium.  Igneous rocks are formed from
molten lava which has hardened on or below
the surface of the earth.  Minerals contained
in these rocks are dyke-related, that is,
they are contained in a tabular body of igneous
rock that cuts across the structure of adjacent rocks, and are hosted by
quartz diorite, norite and gabbro rocks.
Quartz diorite is a medium-gray-colored, coarse-grained, igneous rock,
often with a salt-and-pepper appearance.Norite is a coarsely
crystalline igneous rock containing the mineral labradorite
as the main component.  Gabbro is a dark, coarse-textured, 
heavy rock composed of calcium feldspar and augite with a
small amount of quartz.

We had a great tour guide bring us thru
from the Sudbury Rock and Gem Show)
that included a lot of history on Scadding
Mine and where all the super picking spots
were.

We came home with bug bites, a pretty good
sun burn and some of the most fabulous
pieces of Pyrite!~ And some pretty cool
chalco-pyrite shiny blues).. some of these
were in really neat cubic shapes!  The
sparkling gold colours really fascinate
family members who come over for visits..

"You found this outside? Near here!?"
We only live about 3/4 an hour away).

I hope you enjoyed our adventure!

Hummingbirds

2007-09-13T09:05:00.001-04:00

This year has been a wonderful year for hummingbirds in the yard.

We've captured them (on camera) doing the neatest things! This was the first time ever, I have been able to get a picture of a hummingbirds long tongue. (There is a picture in this blog that shows that.. you just have to scroll down a bit).

I thought I'd post a few here for you to enjoy

Need help identifying this rock

2007-09-10T09:17:00.000-04:00

Even we get stuck sometimes...

Rob and I have an *idea* of what this might be but we're not sure... I thought I'd post a few pictures and see if anyone has any ideas of what this is.

The rock is gray with a bit of white and these long rectangular green slices that are quite beautiful.

We've sprayed water on the surface so you can see how deep the greens are.

Anyone have any ideas?

Identify this flower??? Help?

2007-09-10T09:11:00.001-04:00

I'm hoping someone can help identify this flower that has decided to pop up in my garden/rock garden.. here's a few photos... Help?? Anyone?

The leaves and the stems are very soft (like velvet)..

The stalk itself is quite strong and tall.

The flowers are yellow.

And there is only one of them in my yard..

Can someone please tell me what this is?

Summer at Wicked Stones

2007-09-10T08:45:00.001-04:00

I thought I'd spend a bit of time filling you in on how things were around here this summer. My coffee is full so I've got the will to sit and type for a while.

It was the SUMMER OF CATERPILLARS!! Please excuse my toenails.. We had a horrible summer of these little guys this year. For a while, we thought they would not bother us as they didn't seem to be eating our main plants. But little did we know, they were nesting in all of our newly planted Spruce trees that we put in! All our baby blue spruce had nests of these little darlings chomping away all of the branches! YIKES! Rob and I are "anti-chemical" when it comes to the yard so we spent hours and hours picking these nasty creatures off our trees.. finally we just had to give up as we could not keep up with the chomping. Our trees survived, but they all look like Charlie Brown Christmas trees.. sigh.. If anyone has any natural suggestions on how to stop these eaters? PLEASE do let me know..

It was also the Summer of Rock Gardens in our yard.

Rob took a month off from work this year (yippee!) and he spent a lot of time moving huge rocks across the property and from the hill to the East of us. He had this crazy sled attached to the back of the truck with ropes and would drive wayyy back in the bush and find these monsters to put in the yard. It was kind of interesting watching him coming back looking like a futuristic dog sled team with these rocks following him on a purple snow sled. That sled has become a major part of our gardening supplies as the circular sleds can carry trees, rocks and more goodies that are too heavy to life and just need to be slid into place. We planted some really nice willows and flowers in these beds and finished them off with mulch. They look simply beautiful!! Jeepers, you think we lived here instead of renting!!

This summer also brought a new treasure to our home!! Much to my total surprise, my parents gave me a wonderful gift for my birthday (in July). They arrived for a visit with a camera in tow.. oh it was my dream camera! A new digital Pentax SLR!! Oh I had been dreaming about this for over a year!! Thanks Mom and Dad! I just LOVE love love it!! So the next months everyone felt quite "stalked" as I'd creep around catching everyone in the yard! This camera has brought about a new feel to our website (Wicked Stones) as now the pictures are crisp and clear and quite a lot more beautiful!

Rob also found me some treasures for my birthday.

We found an add in the local Bargain Hunter for "Free Rocks". Well...of course we called (apparently I have a "rock problem" as Rob puts it..
So off we went! Only to find the most beautiful limestone pieces that are now center showpieces in our yard... That's Rob in the picture doing his "strong man" routine.

It was a pretty great summer!

Where did the Summer Go?

2007-09-10T08:34:00.000-04:00

WOW!
An entire summer has come and gone again!
So what has the team of "Wicked" been up to?

Well it's been a great summer! It's been busy around the shop - we've had customers ask to drop in and check out our mini-studio (which was very pleasant).. gone on a few road trips (to my sister's wedding) and did a bit of camping (Fitzroy and Balsam Provincial Park in Ontario). Although we do like to camp a lot more "north" of these locations, it was a nice change from staying hotels while we visited family over these hot summer months.

It's been a summer of new birds coming into the yard and a lot more wildlife visiting our deck (including the bear cub and mother who turned over my tomato plants quite a few times that were on the deck!). What a mess that made! Quite a few times I had to send Rob out to the end of the driveway to fix the wooden garbage box that everyone in our section of the village uses.

This morning was the second week back to school and the first morning in months that we had to turn the furnace on. *sigh*... the leaves have yet to turn any colours but the cold weather is here.

I think I'll post a few pictures and fill you in on what we've been doing.

Wicked Van!

2007-05-30T19:25:00.001-04:00

Okay some of you have been asking me about the new vinyls that are on the van.. here's the pictures.

The first has the back of the van and side

The second gives you a close up view of the stones.. now this photos does NOT do the actual vinyl justice as it's REALLY nice in person.. very detailed..

So there you are... our new Wicked Van...

New birds - Indigo Buntings and Purple Finches

2007-05-30T19:16:00.000-04:00

WOW!! What a weeks it's been!!

I thought I'd post a few pictures of 2 of the new birds that have come to feed in our feeders! I'm delighted!! I've NEVER seen an Indigo Bunting before and it's been a just a treat to have something this vibrant of a colour fly into the feeders!

The first picture is of the purple finch - okay I know it's red but that's what my bird book said it was.....

This one is the Indigo Bunting peeking out from the other side of the feeder. He is tremendously shy and nervous about coming anywhere near the deck with anyone there (I took this one from inside the house, halfway behind the front door).

This evening he popped in for his late afternoon snack but flew away in a flurry of blue feathers when he noticed me sitting in the shade watching the goldfinches.

The goldfinches are not shy at all and now we have a family of about 30 that come in every day...

We're turning into a bird sanctuary!!

Turtle stops traffic

2007-05-30T19:04:00.000-04:00

Today was a smile making day.

Leaving town today (heading south towards home) I saw something that offered a glimpse of the generosity and kindness of others on our planet.

On a busy four lane highway I spotted a car trying to drive backwards on the shoulder of the road.. I was thinking "What is this crazy person doing??" There were transports to the left of me, transports to the right.. transports zipping past me at a high rate of speed going the other way and this PERSON going backwards!

I had yet to reach him and saw that he'd flung open his drivers door and was quickly walking to the back of the car...

and there... trying to cross the highway..

...was a turtle...

I got a glimpse of him as I past, reaching down to grab the turtle... and in the rear view mirror he walked the creature to the side of the ditch and I got one last look at him while he deposited the turtle into the water.. far away from the rushing traffic.

I hope one day this person stumbles across my blog and reads this, and finds out that this act of kindness was a gift to more than that little turtle.

Thanks "Turtle Hero"...

Here's hoping it's a smart turtle and found another way across to the other side...

Cloudy Morning Update on Things

2007-05-28T10:54:00.000-04:00

Monday has arrived, bringing the much needed clouds and rain. I'm hoping that it pours the entire day as our lawns are very brown and dry. Even the pond out front is down at least a foot from where it usually is.

It's been a busy month, hence me not writing very much here on our Blog. I'm glad to say that sales have picked up wonderfully since we changed the site around. Thanks to everyone who has dropped in to visit and pick out treasures for themselves :-) We really appreciate it.

Our van is done!! I probably mentioned to some of you that we were getting vinyls done on the back and the sides. We found a REALLY great company in town (1 Hour Signs in Sudbury - on Lasalle Blvd) that did a really great job with the pictures that we sent in. I'll take some pictures when the sun comes out and post them here. I'm very happy with how it turned out.

Yesterday I picked up 5 more blue Spruce for Rob to plant in the yard - he's yet to see them. Since he's been in and out of town on business, my large gardens have been put on hold and I've started planting veggies on the deck in containers. It's not that bad - I'm just really happy to have the space.

OOO Yes! Yesterday night we had 2 new visitors to our deck!! An Indigo Bunting came to sit on the feeder AND a purple finch! They have the most incredible colours!! I've taken a few pictures but their locked up in my camera at the moment.

Finally, all the rock bins in the back are stocked up, the wire is here and my creative energy has returned! You'll be seeing a lot more treasures in the next week or so popping up on the site. With that in mind? I'm off to create!

Lake Superior Agate Search Adventure

2007-05-08T08:49:00.000-04:00

We're back!! We had the most wonderful weekend trekking about the forest north of Sault St. Marie and I've decided to post some of our adventure photos here.

(That's me, sitting on the rocks out front of our cabin in Montreal River that we stayed in for our weekend adventure).

Aren't those neat rock formations?

Our adventure beings on Friday - I managed to get "just about everything" we could possibly need packed on Thursday (with a lot of effort) and into the back of the truck. It was a bit crazy as Rob had just gotten back from out of town and we had about a zillion things to do before we left.

The book you see in the picture is one of the publications we decided to use on this trip. It's called Geology and Scenery of the North Shore of Lake Huron Region. This book is like a travel guide that talks about some fabulous side trips you can take as well as the local mineralogy and old mines that are in the area. It's in a series of books - and not easily found... I spent a LOT of time with my nose in the pages reading off information to Rob as we drove west from Sudbury towards Sault St. Marie (there are a LOT of cool things to learn that I didn't know about!)

One of our first stops was at Rydal Bank - this is a very small town that is about 8 miles north of Bruce Mines.

A prominent ridge marks an outcropping of the Lorrain Formation and you can find what is called "Pudding Stone" (or quartz jasper-pebble conglomerate). This is a really pretty stone that is an off-white cream colour with beautiful dashes of red. I took a picture of just one of the stones that is on the side of the river area by the dam that is located in Rydal Bank. We didn't find a lot of stone near the dam - only a few smaller pieces that were littered about the ground where we were walking. It was really neat to look down and find these little goodies!

Off we went exploring!!

We turned onto a bridge going east and across the river towards what we figured "might" have been the ridge the book was talking about.

You can see it in the picture - there is a white coloured ridge that is pretty high up on the hills.

So off we went - we discovered a pretty good side road that goes to the left up towards the hill. Of course, we took it (checking first to make sure that there were no private signs posted - there were not).

About half way up the road we stopped as there was an address sign posted on the road (a number). After some discussion we pushed further down the road (deciding that if it WAS a house we'd just turn around and go back). Just a bit further up the road we found "Humphries Cemetery", a very tiny old graveyard with the most beautiful headstones and scenery. I took some very pretty pictures of some of the old headstones but I'm not going to post them here - these are very old families located up on the hill that date back to 1900 and earlier. I'd rather keep the names private.

Ah yes, back to the rock hunting! As you can see by the picture of Rob standing near the white rocks (in the picture above) there was some blasting and removal of rock going on in this area. At the bottom of this hill was a large gravel pit - we didn't find a lot of pudding stone here, just the odd piece here and there. The white stone he's standing on was quite pretty though with a lot of sparkles!

Back on the highway we went - and pushed our way through Sault St. Marie and beyond. We took a short side trip down Wolf Lake Road (around Batchwana Bay area) and did some exploring. It was more of a look around and not any serious rock hunting happening. Both of us found it FAR too busy with a lot of dirt bikes and fishermen everywhere - so we turned back on the highway to go further on.

Up the hills we went!! With my ears popping - the elevations as you go west are really amazing and the hills are just beautiful!

Here's one of the places we stopped to stretch out legs before driving on. Although this picture shows the beauty of the lake, what you DON'T see is the embarrassing piles of garbage everywhere. I have to say, I was utterly disgusted with what I saw. The shore was littered with diapers, bags of mystery garbage, cans, bottles, tires, even CAR batteries were thrown down into the water from the top of the lookout!! There was jug after jug after jug filled with 'yellow mystery liquid (take a guess)' in piles and piles that had been thrown out through windows and over the edge of this lookout. I was disgusted and shocked by the fact that so many travelers just figured it was "okay" to throw their garbage out and figure that it would just take care of itself. I do not understand how someone can do that.....

Alright, I'm done venting.. a little while later we arrived at our cabin in Montreal River. As I might have mentioned in an earlier Blog, the water was really low - so we were able to see a LOT more shore than usual.

This is the mouth of the Montreal River - usually this is underwater, but don't be fooled if you are going to visit this place and walk around - this IS a mouth of a river and the water flow is controlled by several upstream dams - so if you are going to walk around, make sure to keep your ears open for the sound of the water flow changing.

We had a super relaxing night off - sitting by our campfire and eating pasta... watching the stars come out and playing with the dogs that lived just down the street from our cabin. It was really nice...

(That's me sitting outside on the rocks in front of our cabin)... We did bring home a few nice round rocks for my mom too.

On Saturday we got up early and rushed out the door to our favorite beach (it's about a 10 minute drive towards Sault St. Marie).. (I can't remember the official name on the map at the moment but I think it's around Mica Bay). Mica bay has what is called the Keweenawan volcanic rock formations in it.

The Keweenawan are principally lava flows of basic or basaltic composition with vesicles (or gas cavities) that have been filled with minerals such as agate, amethystine quartz, calcite, chlorite, dataloite, epidote, prehnite, thomsite and zeolites. These are really pretty when you see them up close - as you drive past them on the highway they look kind of reddish and you don't see the inclusions.

You can see some of the calcite and quartz veins in the rock that I'm standing on in this picture.

Now this was REALLY neat to find!

Yes that's ICE on the shore! There were some areas of the shore that still had huge ice built up (all the rest of water is open by the way and there are boats on the lake). That's Rob and Treble (our dog) standing next to an ice build up. It's pretty strange to be out in a tshirt and be standing next to these icy giants!

Just a bit further down this beach we stumbled upon a fabulous find. I was walking towards the shoreline (thinking that I had spotted a REALLY big Lake Superior Agate winking at me near the edge of the rocks) I reached down, only to have the rock I was looking at roll and crush my thumb between it and another rock... OUCH! I screeched, and tried to stand up.. only slipping on another pile of rocks and landing flat on my butt on another pile of rocks. As I sat there nursing a throbbing purple thumb (not broken - thank goodness), I took a look at where I was sitting and found myself in the center of a treasure pile of Hematite and Jasper stones.

As I sat there in awe, watching the waves roll in near me (knowing that these stones were only recently hid by layers of ice and before that, many feet of water.. I got to thinking of Mishi Peshu - the great underwater lynx like creature who lives in the depths of Gitchigumi (Lake Superior).

A bit of history on this:

Mishi Peshu is the ultimate metaphor that represents the power, mystery and innate danger that comes from these sacred waters. With razor like spikes on his back, the face of a lynx or panther, and the body of a sea serpent, this creature demanded respect. The Anishinabe offered tobacco and prayer to the creature spirit before they embarked out onto the waters in their canoes. The calm waters of Lake Superior can be quickly transformed into raging squalls and huge waves from the northern, north-eastern, and north-western gales that often suddenly crop up. These gales sweep over the open water, quickly picking up momentum and causing huge waves, some up to 40 feet high.

A picture of Mishi Peshu is found at Agawa Bay, Lake Superior National Park, in northern Ontario, north of Sault Ste. Marie. The Midewiwin Society claimed in 1850 that this pictograph was painted by an Anishinabe shaman, and represents a heroic 4 day crossing of Lake Superior by a war party of five canoes. The author is believed to be a tribal shaman named Myeengun which means "Wolf." The images are painted using red ochre, a pigment made from the iron ore called hematite, mixed with clay minerals. This is the most famous rock art painting in Canada, according to National Collection Archive sources.

As I sat there nursing my sore thumb, I started to wonder about the Great Spirit in the lake and the wonderful treasures that had shown up where I least expected them to. Even Rob was in awe over this find. The stones I "stumbled upon" were the stones that were used (all those years ago) to paint these ancient cave paintings - it was crushed and the residue inside was used on the rocks). I spent hours with the red ocher colours on my fingers after picking some of these stones. (That's me, holding my sore thumb and sitting on the stone that looked like an Agate from a distance). I've got a chunk of Hematite Jasper in my hand about the size of a baseball. Yes I'm smiling but it's more like "Ow.. hurry up.. take the picture")

We popped back to the cabin to pick up supplies and then headed up to Wawa for lunch. A quick tour around town, a Subway sandwich and we were back on the road again.

We stopped and poked around a few glamorous rock cuts on the highway (don't look down or you'll step in someone elses garbage - frown - and picked up some really interesting shale type rocks for our collection).

Next stop - Gargantua in the provincial park.

When you pull into the road, you'll see a warning sign that lets you know that there are 14km of rough winding single lane roads ahead. Don't take that lightly...

The picture you see here? Is a NICE picture of the road - most of the drive in was single lane traffic only - we drive a huge 4 x 4 dodge truck so there was little room for anyone else coming the other direction. Luckily we only passed by one other truck - but I had to get out and move TREES out of the way so we could pass through. Now as I understand, these roads are being worked up but they are still rough. (This part of the park is left open during the off season - that's why we were able to go in).

Gargantua is AMAZING!!

There are miles and miles and miles of the most beautiful and well hidden scenery on this part of the shore. It is a rough stop to get into so there were only a few folks there when we arrived (some were set up for camping on the shore).

That's Rob in the picture looking at the map of this area - you can walk for quite a long time from one end of the park to the other - he's just looking at the Gargantua area.

Here's 2 pictures of the Gargantua beach - you can see that it's split into stones and sand..

The rocks range from pebbles to large boulders in incredible colours, shapes and sizes.

I don't know if you can see the picnic table in this picture, but there is one.. wayyy off in the distance (we are still on Gargantua beach) and that's Treble on a rope attached to my pack trying to rush ahead to see what is sticking up out of the sand in front of us.

We spent the next few hours poking around lots of other beaches and finding little gem treasures here and there. I'll be posting a few desktop images of our trip (some really nice scenery on our website mid May plus a few of the treasures for sale - we need to figure out what's going to be just for us and what we're willing to part with.

Well... did Rob and I find any Agates this trip? I'm sorry to say... no, we didn't.

This trip was all about the Hematite and the Jasper that kept being found under our shoes.

Stay tuned... you never know where we'll be heading to next!

Wicked Graphics!

2007-05-03T15:22:00.000-04:00

This morning was quite interesting!

Rob needed to go into work to get some vinyl stickers (for where he works) put on the truck - as well as a few other work "things"... so I decided to tag along with the van.

As luck would have it? He went to one of the places that I had called asking questions about getting body vinyls done for our new van (with our Wicked Stones information on it). After talking with the folks at 1 hour Sign (in Sudbury) I was simply delighted with the cost and the content that I'd be able to afford to work with!!

SO! At the moment I'm working on sending them some graphics for the back of the van as well as a few other goodies. It's going to be really neat once it's all put together! I can't wait!

So how's my packing coming along for our trip North in a few hours? Well.. I have not started yet (arg)... There is SO much to do that I've kind of gotten lost in all the little jobs to take care of. So after supper we're going to really get things moving and start packing.

I promise to take LOTS of pictures of our rock hunting trip. Most likely I'll have to make up a page on my site as it will be too much for Blogger..

I'm off to make supper!

Lake Superior Agate Search

2007-05-02T09:15:00.000-04:00

Well folks! It's that time of year!!

Yippee! I've made reservations at our favorite camping ground in Montreal River (Ontario - Canada - in case you are wondering where we are). The place is called Twilight Lodge and it's just amazing!! (They have cabins as well as campgrounds there - this year we managed to get the very private cabin near the shore - I can't wait!)

Last year we went up just to look around and figure out where this spring trip was going to take us. We went in August last year (according to fellow rock pickers - the worst time of the year to go hunting!).. We were told that the very best time (for this area) was just after the ice has gone off the lake - or in this case, the shore is free of ice. I've talked with the folks at the lodge and they have told me that the shores are clear of snow and ice.

Just a few weeks ago it was SNOWING along the highways when Rob drove up to Red Lake to teach a training course! SNOW!
This is one of the pictures that he took. It looks like its going to be a cold rock picking weekend!!!

I've got our maps ready, extra clothes packed (warm ones and cool ones - heck, it might be a fabulous weekend with lots of sun - I can hope!) and a huge pile of Rubbermaid boxes to store all our collected goodies in. I don't expect to fill any bins with Agates, I'll be happy to find just a few. (Last year we came home with oodles of stones but only about 4 Agates). Most of these treasures are going to be polished and turned into jewelry or used around our gardens and in the fish tank (they are SOOOO pretty! I should post a few pictures of some of the treasures we found last summer).

Well, according to the MNR (Ministry of Natural Resources) and folks who live in this area, the places were are going to visit have a LOT more shore line exposed right now. Lake Superior is at a record low (VERY bad for many things, but excellent for us rock hounds) so there will be a lot more shoreline for us to explore.

I'll post some pictures of our adventures next week and let you know how it went.

Winnie Wedensday - Visiting Old Woman Bay

2007-05-02T09:09:00.000-04:00

Arg! So many many Wednesdays have gone by that I've not posted to this Blog.. so without further wait to our Winnie the Pooh fans.. it's WINNIE Wednesday!!

Here's Winnie peeking around the corner of a huge rock (trying to be brave enough) to venture onto the beach at Old Woman Bay just north of Sault St. Marie (well VERY North - along the highway going towards Wawa Ontario).

Winnie is in search of the "elusive" Lake Superior Agate, combing all the beaches and coves along the shoreline. (I think he's scared to get his feet wet).

Coffee with the Geese - Avian TV

2007-05-01T10:07:00.000-04:00

What a lovely morning so far!

This morning I poured my first coffee of the day and went out on the deck to enjoy the sun coming up. (Our deck faces East so we get a very nice morning view). I had gotten quite comfie on the deck box and was watching the Goldfinches (about 2 feet from me) having their seed for breakfast when..

SWOOSH!! HONK HONK HONK!!

A pair of Canada Geese flew past me (about 15 feet from my shoulder) and splashed into the pond out front! I did manage to hang onto most of my coffee on the Goose-Flyby (if you dont know this, Canada Geese are huge! Imagine a medium sized dog flying past you and that's the size of the birds that dropped in on me).

So I had the opportunity to sit quietly on the deck, watch the sun come up, the birds chirp in the feeders and a pair of geese swimming around in the pond watching "me" have my breakfast. Giggle.. I'm *Avian-tv* it seems.

I wonder if they expect me to dance or something? :-)

Wicked Wheels!

2007-03-27T19:02:00.000-04:00

Hey! I forgot to mention this...

Wicked Stones is MOBILE once again!!

Yippee!!! Some of you knew that we parked "Maeve" (our old green van) last fall as the back window was broken and the mice decided to make a home out of the entire vehicle..

WELL! Wicked has gone MOBILE once again!! After six months of thinking about it, we got off our butts and bought our new Wicked Mobile... It's a beautiful Grand Caravan!

Now we're looking for an airbrush artist to do his (or her) magic and spruce up Loki (that's the name by the way due to a few personal reasons that I think I'll keep to myself ;-).

I just LOVE LOVE LOVE our new rock mobile! I cant wait for our first adventure west to Algoma (which should be in about a months time just when the ice starts to break off the shore line)..

Whoppee!!

Web Site Overhaul

2007-03-27T18:55:00.000-04:00

Hmm.. I thought I would just peek my head out from behind the keyboard to let everyone know that we have "not" fallen into a deep dark hole!

I'm in the middle of changing the entire site around - so if it seems that we've fallen off the planet and not updating the site? Stay tuned.. and expect MAJOR changes in about 3 weeks time. I've been dabbling with new site ideas since last year (2006) and just itching to get to it. But with orders pending and stock growing, it seemed that I would never find the time to do it. So this past week I decided that unless I just threw myself into it and started tearing the website apart? It was NEVER going to be done.

SO I'm slightly overwhelmed right now as everything (on this end) is in turmoil! Not to worry though, from your point of view.. you can still order, send us special requests and so on.. just dont panic if you are not seeing things changing on our main page as much as it usually does.

New things are afoot! And I cant WAIT for you to see what we've created!!!

Vikki

Celtic Show

2007-03-13T08:56:00.000-04:00

Well we simply had a blast this past weekend at the local Celtic Fair..

As for photos? Well I know Rob took a few, I had forgotten my camera again... things were kind of hectic as I was not sure if Rob was going to be home or not for this event... and some things got left behind once again.

I'd like to thank everyone who came to our tent!! You all made this show a wonderful time for both Rob and I!! Thank you!!!!

Gem Show "Lighting" Nightmare!!!

2007-02-17T20:44:00.000-05:00

ARG!!

I've got a show in about 3 weeks and THIS is the state of most of my lights!!!

I think it's safer if I just run away laughing hysterically...

Mystery of the Stone "solved".

2007-02-17T20:33:00.000-05:00

We've been having a bit of a discussion over the past months about this stone (you can see the photo over to the left).

It's been a bit of a mystery as no-one could give us the exact "name" that this particular stone was called. A few days ago we started our tumblers again and a batch of this pretty earth toned goodies were put inside - and in just those few days? They were done their first grit run! We were STUNNED!! Which lead us to start searching more on what type of stone this was as it was obviously too soft compared to what we had read. First? We thought perhaps this was Sardonyx due to its banding but it's been an argument as there is just not enough black in the colours.

Onyx came to mind, but traditionally the colour of Onyx is black.. I was hunting around the internet tonight looking at Mexican Onyx and found out what this is!!

It's called Travertine - and gosh does it look fabulous when it's tumbled!!

In a month or so we'll have some of these unique pieces up for sale on the site (Wicked Stones) but it has to go through the next stages of polishing first.

Gosh the pieces are just amazing though.. I hope that my favorite takes the polishing well - the stone looks like a woman standing with a shawl around her shoulders.. maybe I'll just sneak that one away before the next polish and post a photo of it later in the week.

Free Gemstone Desktop Wallpaper

2007-02-17T20:24:00.000-05:00

Finally!

Our free desktop images page is up and running! You can see the new free desktop images by clicking here.

Gosh that sounds "spammy" doesn't it? Really though, we had a blast taking some of these pictures and the plan is that every month or so we'll change out the pictures so you can have free images of gemstones every month for your computer.

Enjoy!!
Wicked Stones Gemstone Desktop Images (free!)

Winnie Wednesday is Back!!! Adventures in Sault St. Marie Algoma

2007-02-12T18:53:00.000-05:00

Winnie Wednesday is back!!!

Okay I AM a few days early but I know the rest of this week is going to be kind of crazy... without further wait? Let's begin our Winnie Wednesday Adventure!!!

(for those of you "new to tune in?" Winnie Wednesday is a day that I share photos taken of a Winnie the Pooh bear that I've had for about 40 years now. He comes with us when we travel and go on adventures.. you may even get lucky and see him at one of our shows as he's always making cameo appearances.

So this week starts Winnie off on his ADVENTURES in ALGOMA!! We took Winnie with us last summer on a 2 day trip to the North Shore of Lake Superior or the elusive Agate hunt! We got POURED on!! Blown all over!! And sunburnt but enjoyed every minute. Follow us along the next dozen or so Wednesdays as I share our adventures!!!

Oh yes.. that's Winnie taking over driving our mini van when I popped out to grab a newspaper (in the first picture)..

... he's too short to steer and push the peddles you know.. You can see him in this picture sitting between Rob and I in the front seat after we pried his little furry hands off the steering wheel....

Stay tuned next week for "more adventures with Winnie in Algoma!"

Self Portrait Tuesday - okay so I'm a day early

2007-02-12T18:48:00.000-05:00

It's been a while since I've done the Self Portait Tuesday.

Um.. in case you are wondering? THAT'S a roll of VERY cheap toilet paper.... and that's me looking at it going ??? because toilet paper (especially CHEAP paper) does NOT work when you are trying to make paper machae!!!

I had the most interesting time creating a huge pinyata sun this winter.. and my words of wisdom are "AVOID TOILET PAPER!" :-)

New Pewter!

2007-02-12T18:30:00.000-05:00

WOW! I just picked up the mail/post and my shipment of pewter arrived!!

AMAZING!! I'll be trying to take some pictures tonight and get the new goodies up on line in the next day or so. These pieces are simply stunning!!

There are amazing celtic knots, amulets and more!!!

YOWSERS!
I'm off to play in the goodies!

The TUMBLERS are running again!!

2007-02-12T18:24:00.000-05:00

After a LONG time of waiting... our tumblers are running again!!

No sorry,, I didn't take a preview picture of what was going in... but I'll be taking a "Peek" shot into the barrels in about a week and a halfs time. Rob is going back to work up North in just less than 2 weeks and at that time? We're going to crack the lids and have a look.

What I can tell you is that there is a good mix of agates and pretty stones from the North shore of Lake Superior and another batch full of Jade and some Serpentine.

I'll share the view with you.....

Keep checking!!
Vikki

Gemstone Photo Cat

2007-02-12T18:13:00.000-05:00

I just had to pop on line and add this image to the Blog.

Indy was an un-impressed cat with me!

I was working on new ideas for taking photos of the gemstones and she came in to inspect.

I dont think she expected to be included in the set up...

I'm such a bad toad.

New Year - New Start

2007-02-02T17:07:00.000-05:00

Gosh where has the time gone?

Far too much time has slipped past since I've last posted to our Blog. Now that we are on dial up internet service I have found that I spend a lot less time on line doing the things I used to.

Things around the Wicked Shop have certainly been moving along like crazy this past fall and early of this year. We've got super plans in the mix right now for new products and new ideas that we've been brewing up all fall. The entire site ( Wicked Stones ) is in the process of an overhaul to change things to a more Metaphysical spin. You wont see any changes for a little while as most work is being done in the background - along with dealing with an old camera that getting tired and refuses to do what it's supposed to do!! I might be looking for a new camera pretty soon as I'm getting pretty tired of re-doing the same pictures over and over again!

So what's one of our new ideas? That picture (to the left) is something that Rob and I have decided to work with. We're in the process of locating enough Sterling Silver cutlery to create some really cool re-cycled Art. Some of the pieces will be decorated with gemstones and Sterling Silver wire work.. it's REALLY exciting around here with all the hammering and bending (we've been going through a LOT of tools!). I'm just going to put in this one picture as I dont want to spoil the surprise of the new items on the horizon. So far the ones we've been test wearing have been a huge hit. Okay so it looks a bit scary with Rob his bracelet WHILE he is wearing it! We promice that you dont have to have the jewelry fitted QUITE like that!!

Our metaphysical section of our site (located here) has been in desperate need for a re-do for ages!! I've been so wrapped up in other things that I've put this part of the site on hold for far longer than I meant to. So I apologize for all the great folks that have come to visit and found that part of the site lacking. The new pages are slowely being uploaded over the next few weeks and the launch will be announced on our main page when it's ready.

We're getting ready for one of the largest spring shows that we take part in - and coming up with some really pretty new Celtic designs! I can't wait to post them to our pages so you can see what we've dreampt up! I dont know if she'll ever read this Blog, but I have to thank Jamie for inspiring one of our new product lines!! She's one of my returning customers who's simply a joy to work with and with her requests we've created a new Celtic line that is a mix of really stunning Celtic beads and Gemstones. Thanks Jamie!! We're also waiting for a huge order of Celtic Pewter to arrive to our shop so we can start working with them.

So if you are located in Sudbury Ontario or coming to town on the 10th of March 2007? Feel free to come to the Navy League Hall located at 19 Regent Street South in Sudbury - We'll be taking part in the Annual Celtic Fair and they will be open until 12 to 5 that Saturday. If you would like more info about the fair? Feel free to call 705 855-3564 and ask away. Every year the show is a blast!

Here's a picture of our show from last year! So you can see that we'll be prety easy to spot when you pop in.

Well that's it for now.. I've got to get back to working on those metaphysical pages!! Welcome back everyone!!

We've moved!

2006-10-05T11:44:00.000-04:00

WOW! What a long time since I have posted! I apologize for all our readers who have been left in the dark over the past few months not knowing where our traveling gem show disappeared to.

To make a very long story short - we moved our store and home early this summer. We had a very stressful few months filled with real estate issues and hair pulling experiences. All of which lead us to our new home - which is located still in Northern Ontario, but on the outskirts of the city.

The picture you see with this posting is the view you see while going up the stairs on the deck. Thanks to Colin Partrige (once again) for his carving you see on the side of the deck. (you can visit his site by going here) We have a wonderfully huge yard out in the bush with miles and miles of hills, rocks and lakes. It's quite lovely! As I sit and type this Blog out, there are blue jays, sparrows and grackels all fighting over the feed I've put out this morning. It's simply incredible living here!

Our retail shop is now open by "appointment only" as we are working from a much smaller location. What we've given up for space? We've gained by beauty and privacy.

Keep checking in, I'll be trying to post at least once a week with new photos, ideas, products and more.

Oh yes! Coming soon! Desktop Wallpaper - Gemstones

2006-03-17T18:26:00.000-05:00

Oh yes! I forgot to mention this!

I'm putting together some wonderful pictures of gemstones that you'll be able to download and use on your own desktop soon.

I'll be providing a link from our website once we have them ready.

Inside the Rock Tumbler - the further adventure of the stones

2006-03-17T18:01:00.000-05:00

For those of you who have been following along this 2 month journey, here is your next selection of photographs of the Tumbling process of our gemstones.

You can click on the images to get a larger view... First off a recap.. We have been running this tumbler for about five/six weeks at this point - to the right you can see a picture of Rob taking that "infamous" ring off the lid (that's the one that we need to replace as it's leaking). You can see by this picture how much leaked out during the process (that's the white marks on the lid - the tumbler is actually midnight black).

*Blogger is giving me a hard time adding pictures today - so I am going to simply center the images and write our info below)...

This is what you see when you first open the lid (above). At this point, we are in the fourth go around with the tumbler and this is what happens when you use the Final Polish. We are not quite done with the stones - they are going to be going in for another few weeks with this polish.

Now the fun begins! We put the stones into a colander in the sink and start washing!

Now you can start to see how pretty the stones are!

The stones are not totally washed off at this point but you can see how nice they all tuned out! In this batch there are pieces of Red Jasper (from Northern Ontario - hand picked during a trip to the bush!~) Moonstone, Lake Superior Agates, Granites (not the best choice to polish with some other types of stones) Sodalite, Lapis, Moss Agate, Tree Agate, Rose Quartz and some very interesting stones that were hand picked at Old Lady Bay in Northern Ontario this past winter.

What can you find in the picture?

Carnival of the Creators

2006-03-16T09:16:00.000-05:00

Carnival of the Creators #4.

Hi and welcome to the fourth edition of Carnival of Creators. In case you are new to this, this is a weekly event hosted by different blog writers from across the globe. It's a great way to check up on some wonderful blogs that have some really interesting, helpful or just plain amusing content.

If you have read or written a recent Blog about arts, crafts or any other form of creative inspiration - here is your chance to get it posted on the Carnival. Click here to fill out the form.

With no further adieu, lets start.

Our first stop along this journey is an amusing site brought to you by the Toymaker. Marilyn Scott-Waters brings you BAD PUPPY - The adventures of a very naughty puppy. It's a cute and entertaining look at the daily life of one "naughty puppy" - take a break from your hectic day and enjoy a chuckle.
Along the same theme of ideas why not stop by this blog Here you can giggle the hours away reading the scandalous adventures of the most beauteous Gigolokitty . This blog has wonderful photographs and entertaining writing that shares with you the "intimate Thoughts of the Most Beauteous Kitty ..........with Commentary by his Unfortunate Mistress and her evil troll roommate."
Next stop: Ask General Kang - What do you think of Margaret Atwood's Long Pen Invention? Here you can ponder over the writings of Mark A. Rayner’s as he pens to his irregular and explosive weblog.
Visit the studio of self taught artist, John T Unger. John makes his living entirely through commissions and sales of his art- It's amazing how the Blog has become such an excellent tool for artisans to expand across the globe.
Perhaps you are looking for simple tips for painting white clothing on Star Wars miniatures? If so, this is the place for you to check out.
Last stop on our adventure is:
Ward-o-Matic (by Ward Jenkins) is a blog about "Art, Animation and Anything Aesthetically pleasing to the eye." His thoughts on things take on a fresh point of view - take a trip with him to a time when was in a life drawing class and see things from his perspective.

Well I hope you have enjoyed this weeks edition of the Carnival of the Creators. Next week it will be hosted by http://creatorscarnival.blogspot.com/ and in 2 weeks time you can view the selections of Cyndi Lavin of Mazeltov Jewelry. Make sure you post it on your calendar to check into to see what sites Cyndi has found for you to visit.

Winnie The Pooh Day! Winnie Wednesday

2006-03-15T14:01:00.000-05:00

Winnie works wisely with his PPE - Personal Protective Equipment...
Winnie decides to help out trying to fix the broken washer....See that look on his face?
He's not too impressed with the current progress of repairs..

But soon gives up and goes for the Master Fix-it Tool

Self Portrait Tuesday

2006-03-14T16:56:00.000-05:00

It's really HARD to take a picture of yourself sometimes.. I was trying to get a picture of the Henna that I had done..

This particular Henna started at my hand and traveled all the way up my arm in vines to the center of my back area - to meet a dragonfly.

Well you get a peek of the Henna in this picture :-) at least.

Craft Show Ideas - The Evolution of the Display

2006-03-09T09:38:00.000-05:00

Welcome to another posting of "Craft Show ideas"..

Hopefully you'll get something good from this for your own show, or just a good laugh at some of our follies.

Show Displays

We've been doing traveling shows now for just under six years (and we are not doing it perfect by far!).. Every time is a new learning experience.

So here are a few thoughts, observations and ideas that you might find handy.

A bit of history? We started out our first shows with just a table and a few table cloths. Try not to gasp when you see the following picture..

Our very first display

It's a bit hard to look at these pictures now. This was one of our very first shows - the sales were "ok" but as you can see it was very difficult for anyone to see any one product that we had on our table.

I had one light on the left hand side of the table that didn't do any good - unless the intent was to blind my customers. And I'm not sure why I thought that half hazardly tossing pieces of tattered black shiny material all over the table would cause people to buy anything. Hmmm..

Don't stress if your table looks like this as everyone has to start from somewhere.

As time progressed our tables started to rise a bit.

(That's my Mom in the picture showing her very pretty fish jewelry).

I started switching table cloth colours and playing with lights too. Not that the dangling Christmas lights did anything but cause people to get caught and tangled up in their clothing as they stood looking over the table. (Hey! Maybe that is what I was trying to do after all?). As you see, there are no lights on the table, so most of the items just blend.

LESS IS MORE - I used to like to have everything I can on the table - I didn't want anyone to miss out on anything!! But I've learned through the years that less really is more. Sales were a bit up but folks still had to lean WAY over to actually see anything that we were selling but it was a step forward.

Steel Grid Lock Displays

While visiting a wonderful second hand store we found these fabulous steel grid lock pieces! The idea was to prop them up and display our stone pieces so that no one had to bend over.

Um.. do you see the problem? We tried everything we could with what we had at this show to make it easier to see. Grid lock is wonderful! But you have to use it correctly. We had the corners braced and locked to the table (it weighs a lot!)

Eventually we put a Celtic Sarong on the back but it was still difficult to see anything (Plus you could not see around it!). Since then I have seen some fabulous grid lock displays where this material is OVER the table (*supported by VERY STRONG LEGS) and the gems hang from the steel squares. PLUS you can attach your lights with ease!

At this point we still had much too much clutter on the table but none of us can seem to get past this point. But you can see how this display (compared to a flat table) would catch the eye from across the room. Now the next part of our problem was the insane sarong we decided would work well for our table cloth. *WEEEOWROUERU* Again.. busy busy busy... simple colours (not mish mash colours) are key for displays. We were still to confusing to really get looked at.

Height works!!

The next evolution came with great success!

We alleviated customer back aches and got some of the gems up on a black board (self supporting) and just kept a few things on the table below it.

Ahh.. now we are getting somewhere!

These are very easy and inexpensive displays to create!

Made out of scrap wood (really) and a few door brackets on the back (then material stapled to it)...

And a business name! (We had that sign since the beginning but never put it up).. what were we thinking? I don't know..

Also in this picture is the fact out main table cloth is far to short (you can see under the table and that was quite cluttered looking).. make sure you carry BIG table cloths! We didn't have enough and I had to make due with some sarong that I brought with me. It worked, sales were great but it's still very busy looking.

We also started working with our SPANISH INQUISITION lights at this point too - finally you can see what's on the table for a change! And we went with the less is more theory.

WIND!!

Go to your nearest dollar store and buy some table cloth weights! That's our most important comment for this section of our blog. See the table cloth? The wind kept dragging it up and blowing things off the table.

There is not much height to this table - the reason? TOO MUCH WIND that day.. arg There is something to say about having a tent over your head at times - at least I could have blocked some of the stormy winds that came in that afternoon. But I choose to stay directly in the sunshine due to the fact that sun really helps sales when it comes to gemstones. Even though I dealt with "WHOOPS! Let me get that for you" for quite a few hours, sales were excellent. Oh but yes.. see the table cloth issue? At this point I had still not learned that lesson well enough.

Mixed Media Display
I was building displays with no budget (not meaning I had a lot to spend.. meaning I had ZERO to spend).. I found all these materials in the garage and hiding in the basement (Thanks to a good friend Wanda News).. The idea is super! BUT the mix of black material.. wood and natural vines?... does it look a bit off to you? IT works tho.. and we got a LOT of sales from the fact folks could see this and were very attracted to the stones.

We also stated getting the table cloth issue under control - still working on it though.

Time ticked on and my partner (Rob) came back from working out of town. He'd been seeing pictures of my displays for over a years away and cringing.. so he came home with a few ideas of his own!

A trip to Canadian Tire for copper pipe, propane and solder and we had the start of a new display for UNDER $15!!!

(That's our back deck by the way.)

This is the base for the newest display (2005) made out of copper pipe. Once this was done we sprayed the entire stand with a Faux Granite paint (*HINT HINT!*) Make SURE you seal this type of paint - it WILL scratch off the copper pipe if you don't! Oh that's Rob by the way..

Yes for our next show we opted to be in the sun...

You can see that we have shifted to WHITE displays instead of the black material. The pieces really POP now!! Rob's display is set up (a bit hard to see in this shot) but sales SOARED! Having pieces up at eye level really makes a huge difference. Another rule of thumb for outdoor shows is "always pack sun block!" I was burnt to a crisp after this show.

Time marched on and we evolved into a new display tent from a bargain tool store. This one was really great and it opened like an umbrella! Between Rob and I, it only took about five minutes to set up.

It brought a new level of lighting needs to mind - this one the most important:

RAIN!

This is an actual photograph of my feet during an outdoor show in 2005. I spent HOURS bailing under my feet (that's my bailing bucket in the picture). It rained all day! The lesson here is: Make sure that your lights are outdoor lights! And not indoor Christmas lights! We had a few of them and had to remove them from our display and rush to the hardware store to get the proper lights. Safety is a key issue!

Also, outdoor shows require a big stick! Not to thump your customers who leave your tent without buying anything (or use your tent to stay dry and then leave) but to gently lift the roof of your tent when needed to remove excess pooling water before you get drowned out by a flood.

Also if you are doing outdoor shows and have big lights? BRING A FLY SWATTER! Wasps and Bees like the lights at night! We had dozens of them scooting around our customers at night and were desperately seeking way of smacking the bugs.

Well folks, that's it for this issue of Craft Show Ideas 101. I hope you have learned something or at least enjoyed the adventures of our traveling Gems show!!

Craft Show Ideas 101

2006-03-09T09:28:00.000-05:00

I thought I would start a new section of our Blog - Craft Show Ideas 101!

An avenue for artisans and crafters to read about things that have worked for us in the past and perhaps to pass along ideas for anyone just starting out in the business. Feel free along the way to post your own comments and ideas - sharing is what it's all about.

Thing that DON'T WORK or better known as CRAFT SHOW FLOPS

1. Forgetting your hat for an outdoor show (or better known as "Oh I feel sick!")

Okay so this sounds simple, but really? It all boils down to creating a list and really sticking to it. I'm an organization freak so I like to keep things all neat and tidy in their little lines. But there are times I totally mess up and forget where things are. MAKE A LIST and keep it in a book you travel to for every show. When you forget lists? Things go terribly wrong...

I did a show last Christmas and completely forgot my push pins - TERRIBLE! I had to rush out just before the show and try and find a corner store that sold them (at $5 a box!? I was gasping!).. not only that, I was setting up alone so there was no one to continue the process WHILE I had to rush off getting push pins. This book should be your bible and you should NEVER forget it.

Look around for something that can hold your cheque book, pen, extra papers and business cards as well - often one of those daytimers that zip closed work really great for this sort of thing. That way you ALWAYS have back up business cards and information when needed.

2. "Don't worry, the tent is tied down!"

WAIT! STOP! If you are doing an outdoor craft show? And only have your tent pegs tied down? WAIT!! GO NO FURTHER? Get something heavy before your tent flies away on you. Simply pegging it down does not always do the job.

How do I know this? I've had tents lift off the ground and take off on me.. Over FENCES and across yards. Now I travel with cement blocks AND many many ropes to anchor down to anything solid I can find. Now when I do outdoor shows I ask if there is a tree near by - natural anchors work great for us.

And your last one for today:

3. "Pssha! We can get change the night before at the corner store!" (better known as WHO CAN DRIVE FASTER!)

I got tied up before one show and could not make it to the bank before closing to pick up change for a weekend show. Don't wait until the last minute to get your change! We had to drive around to about 6 stores one night before a show and break 20 dollar bills buying gum and such so that we had enough change to cover the float.

Join us once again soon for more of "Craft Show Ideas 101"

Winnie The Pooh Day! Winnie Wednesday

2006-03-08T15:50:00.000-05:00

Winnie plays my Mansfield
Good thing there is no sound file here..
*(@$%&$(&@&(

Self Portrait Tuesday

2006-03-07T14:16:00.000-05:00

Oh the dreaded Christmas lights!
Maybe I can untangle them using just my mind.....
This is the "horror" of "horrors" we deal with just before each show as we go through all the Christmas lights we use in our display tent.

Enter our Contest for Free Products

2006-03-06T12:34:00.000-05:00

ENTER OUR MARCH MADNESS CONTEST

Enter our "GO AWAY SNOW" contest by sending us an email with your name and contact information.
Click here to send us an email.

You could win some Spring inspired Gemstone goodies!! We cant wait for the snow to be gone - so we're treating YOU to a speical springtime gift! The contest closes at the end of March 2006 - so enter away!

(one entry per person please)

Dixie Chicks and the Cat (we dance in the studio)

2006-03-06T12:21:00.000-05:00

I get so many laughs out of Miss Granger..

This morning I decided not to work in the studio and sit next to the computer to listen to the radio. Well I put in a Dixie Chicks CD (Yes I really do like them) and cranked the speakers.

I was hopping away in my chair wrapping stones for an order to be shipped out this week - and looked over to see Miss Granger with the oddest look on her face.

"What IS that noise?" is the expression you can see on her face.

I guess she does not like the high pitch vocals. :-)

Back from our Mini Vacation

2006-03-06T09:04:00.000-05:00

Well we are back, from our "home" mini vacation.

I've not posted here for the past week as it's been quite hectic with the new washer and dryer going into the basement. My other half decided to take the week off so he could put a new floor where the machines are going and build an entire room around them.

It looks great! And I'm anxious to get the laundry going. So it's been crazy around here - that's why there have been no postings to our Blog this past week.. I apologize to all our Winnie Fans for not getting his picture out to you. This week will make up for it.

The "paddle" was taken to the Theatre Center last week (there are pictures of it earlier in this blog) and all the artists work will be posted on their site soon. I'll post the link once I know where it's located - then you'll be able to see the great artistic work of all the artists who got involved in this project.

Well that's it for me for now. After a week of craziness around here it's time to get back into the swing of things and get more products up on the site wickedstones.com) and our sister wholesale site (which is having some major updates and changes being done this week).

Stay tuned!

Winnie The Pooh Day! Winnie Wednesday

2006-02-22T11:04:00.000-05:00

Winnie Runs With Scissors..

No ones ankles are safe!

Self Portrait Tuesday - Celtic Me

2006-02-21T09:04:00.000-05:00

Self Portrait Day!!

Sometimes we get crazy around here with our Tattoo pens (these are only temporary ink pens).

We all had fun playing and came up with some really interesting Celtic Knots (hand drawn), Ivy Vines and more.

Here's my portrait for today.. :-)

Rock tumbler Monday Morning

2006-02-20T10:40:00.000-05:00

ARG!

After only a few tumbles in our new tumbler we've encountered our first leak! This morning I had the great joy of opening the tumbler (after the fine grit polish and two weeks of "GURGLE-CLACK-GURGLE-CLACK" in the backroom) to find the most lovely stones. Some of these treasures we picked from beaches up here in the North - others were gifts from friends. (This is a special tumble we are doing).

After putting in the pre-polish and re-sealing the tumbler I found our first leak! I played with the O-ring and got the lid to sit a bit better but I'm going to have to check the machine often to make sure we dont have overflow on the floor.

It was a bit of a shock to see a leak so soon...

I'll post some pictures of the goodies once they are done this pre-polish (about 2 weeks from now).

I'm heading off to update our Metaphysical Blog and then create some Magnetic Hematite bracelets for our upcoming show in March.

Winnie The Pooh Day! Winnie Wednesday

2006-02-15T10:42:00.000-05:00

I've decided to start a new trend.. WINNIE WENDESDAY

Every Wednesday I'll post a picture of the Adventures of Winnie The Pooh. This particular Winnie has been with me since 1965. If you know anything about this particular bear, please do let me know as I dont know much about it..

but with no further wait, here is your first picture of Winnie The Pooh.. Winnie got adventurous today and decided to try climbing a tree to chase the cat. Ah well, I had to rescue him in the end...

Stay tuned next week for your next Wednesday Winnie Event :-)

Self Portrait Tuesday - The College Artist

2006-02-15T10:19:00.000-05:00

I've decided to take part in the Self Portrait Tuesday revolution!

With so many Blogs and websites dedicated to this subject, I figured it might be kind of neat to give it a whirl.

This is my first photo - an older picture of me goofing off with my camera.

This is the "Artsie" look, back in my College days - yes I majored in Visual Arts :-)

A Moment in my Thoughts - Snow and Tight Pants

2006-02-15T10:00:00.000-05:00

Snow snow snow..

This is the view out our front window (right where I work on this computer).... Now, don't get me wrong, I love the snow, but I miss going outside in the yard. I MISS mowing the lawn..

Lately I've been feeling kind of frumpy and soft around the edges due to the fact that I've not exercising nearly as much as I normally do in the warmer months. Blah.. I should get outside more but I really dont like the cold..

So the plan is, to try and get out of the studio once a day and go for a walk (at LEAST around block or down to the end of the street and back).

Honestly, it's much nicer just to sit in the den and wrap gemstones instead of going outside and freezing..

Okay excuses excuses.. I'll TRY and get out today.

Chakra Stones

2006-02-15T09:56:00.000-05:00

We have a new product coming soon to our site!

Chakra Stones!
There are 7 hand picked polished Gemstones included in this soft cloth bag - there is also a tag that describes each of the stones that are included.

The back of the tag talks a bit about the way you use the Charka stones. Keep your eye on the site! We'll be posting this item mid March of 2006.

Speaking of Cats

2006-02-08T09:03:00.000-05:00

Speaking of Cats..

I cant tell you how difficult it is to type with Miss Jones always wanting to come and sit with me.

Yes, that's my keyboard and that's a 13 pound cat on my left arm.

Miss Granger Looks on

2006-02-08T08:58:00.000-05:00

Ahh... there she is.. Miss Granger..

Looking on as I wrap some Brazilian Agates. At least she does not knock things over like her big sister (Miss Jones)..

The fish tank is just to her right so she loves to sit on my table while the fish torment her.

Four Legged Help

2006-02-08T08:55:00.000-05:00

Ah the life with four legged friends..

This is me, working in the fishputer room (That's our nick name for the front of the house where the computers are and the fish tank - we hang out here often).

Next to me? Is our darling young feline (Miss Granger) who has decided to inspect my wire wrap to make sure that I'm doing a good job.

Purple Dinner?

2006-02-08T08:51:00.000-05:00

Wild!

Look what we found in the grocery store and had for supper?

Purple potatoes!

They were very different with a soft nutty taste.. Apparently not that common. A very interesting find and we'll definitely try those again. Imagine the look on faces at Yule Dinner when these are brought to the table?

Green Man just about done

2006-02-08T08:48:00.000-05:00

Okay this is where I'm at right now.. There is still quite a bit to be done around the mid section of the paddle (more leaves) but I've not been back to it for about a week now. Just in case you are wondering? This part? Took me about five hours to complete.
I wonder if anyone will bid on it?

More Greenman

2006-02-08T08:45:00.000-05:00

Well here you can see that I've started to add some colour to the paddle. Yes that's all just pencil still... and there are some new leaves going around the sides as well.

Green Man

2006-02-08T08:42:00.000-05:00

And the paddle progresses....

Yes that's all pencil and nothing but...

Green Man

2006-02-08T08:40:00.000-05:00

Okay now just in case anyone is wondering where the Green Man on our business logo came from? Here is the story.

Our local theatre (Sudbury Theatre Center) has a yearly event where they ask artists in the area to create an "artistic paddle" which is then auctioned off to raise funds.

This year I decided to do a Green Man paddle.

That's me working on the start of the drawing.. I'll post a few more pictures of along the way.

Crazy Snow!

2006-02-08T08:35:00.000-05:00

well I just have to share this..

This is one of our clan sitting waiting for the bus yesterday morning.

Yes that IS a mini van on the road (that you see the top of) and yes that is a sign..

No photo manipulation here.. That's just how high the snow banks are..

CRAZY!!!

I think we are going to move somewhere where the sun shines longer and the snow only comes in small doses..

A New year? A new Business!

2006-02-07T21:14:00.000-05:00

Greetings!
I know, I know.. I have not posted here in quite a while.. we've been changing our business around and now we are called Wicked Stones!

We are the same old crazy folks doing the thing we love best - working with stones. Check us out by clicking here and keep checking in as we are making a lot of great new changes!

We've created a few new blogs (check them out in the side menu) and our Wholesale section is ready to go!

Well my tea is getting cold so I'll post this and go play!

Winter has come to Renaissance Market

2005-11-17T08:56:00.000-05:00

It's that time of year again.. as you can see by the snow near the pond? It's gotten cold at this end of the world once again.

That means it's SHOWTIME for all of us here! Here's a list of where we'll be these upcoming weeks:

November 19 (Saturday)
Falconbridge Community Center Craft Show
10 - 5 pm

November 26 (Saturday)
Sticks and Stones Craft Show
Carmichael Community Center located at 1388 Bellevue near the Plaza Hotel
10 - 4 pm

December 3 and 4 (Saturday and Sunday)
Pius School at the corner of Third Avenue and Bancroft in Minnow Lake (Sudbury)
10 - 6pm each day

See you there!

Mistletoe Craft Show In Sudbury Ontario

2005-11-17T08:52:00.000-05:00

I wanted to spend a few minutes of my morning saying "thank you" to all the great folks we met at this years Mistletoe Craft show (held at St. Charles College) in Sudbury this year!

We had a SUPER time and enjoyed every minute!

The volunteer students were wonderful and we loved having the help to get our gear in and out of the building. Thanks!

We met some wonderful people and passed along some wisdom.

Thanks everyone!

Vikki and Family
See you next year!

Manitoulin Island Camping - Haweater Weekend

2005-06-19T22:09:00.000-04:00

Greetings!
I was asked to post some information for those who would like to know about camp grounds on Manitoulin Island during Haweater Weekend.

Here is some information:

The best played I EVER stayed on Manitoulin Island was here but be warned - they book FAST and quick - Providence Bay Park. phone: 705)377-4650 or toll free 1 877 269-2018. Ici on parle français. Email: prov_bay_park@hotmail.com I say this is the best as I had the best time - the folks were very nice and friendly and we always stayed in the same location (on the South tip of the camp grounds near where the road turns left again. It's very rustic and the walk to the bathroom is loooong but well worth it.

Now to the list - and they are all wonderful. DO make note and ask how far a drive when you ask for accomodations - some of these places are a good 45 min away from Little Current.

Mac's Camp - http://www.manitoulin-island.com/macscamp/
Silver Birches (have stayed here and the folks are very nice here) phone: 705 368-2669.
Mindemoya Court (I've stayed there - its ok) http://www.manitoulin-island.com/mindemoyacourt/
Oaks - http://www.manitoulin-island.com/oakes/
Tehkummah - I've driven past it many many times and have always wanted to stop in as it looks really neat. http://www.manitoulin-island.com/tehkummahtipis/index.html
Stanley Park (very nice people - stayed there a few times) http://www.manitoulin-island.com/stanleypark/welcome.html
Mike's Park http://mikespark.com/
Batmans (nice) phone: 1 705 368-2180
Miles Park in Kagawong phone: 1 705 282-2745
Gordon's Park (have heard nothing but good things) http://www.gordonspark.com/camping.html
Holiday Haven: http://www.holidayhavenresort.net/
ENDAA-ANG phone: (705)368-0548
Green Achers phone: (705)368-2428
L and J Tent and Trailer Park: phone 705.859.2883
South Bay Resort (Stayed here many nights and it was grand! http://www.amtelecom.net/~sbayres/

Art in Bloom - Sudbury Ontario

2005-06-14T22:47:00.000-04:00

What a day it was!

This is only part of the display area that we had - located outside in the General Hospital area of Sudbury Ontario. Art in Bloom is a fundraising event for artisans and crafters to help out the Sudbury Mental Health Society - a portion of all profits that the artists make during this one day sale, go directly to SMHS.

We were located at the main entrance of the show - beside a few other very talented and creative artists who worked with jewelry, stained glass, wood and some wonderfully tasty treats. Situated directly in the sun, with no tent, all the stones just shone like diamonds in the sun beams! The wind blew the chimes we had for sale making soft gentle sounds throughout the day.

The promoters of the show were wonderful! Fully staffed to host a tea for the guests who came to the show, we were treated with generosity and kindness. Volunteers for this event spent many hours in the hot sun handing out water and food for the vendors. I was impressed by the quality of the food served during the tea and delighted by meeting more of the Sudbury Red Hat Society women.

As for the products available? There was a very good selection of artisans - from pottery, photography, gemstone, beads, glasswork, woodworking, wonderfully yummi treats to eat and more, there was something for everyone at this event.

I cant wait for next year!

Vikki

Miranda's New Jewelry

2005-05-10T12:15:00.000-04:00

I'd like to welcome you to visit Miranda's Jewelry Page. Just click on the link and you'll be transported right there. http://www.renaissancemarket.com/little_wolf_designs_by_miranda_j.htm

All profits from this page to towards her. (she does a lot of work in the studio and is a wonderful help) This page is a surprise for her :-)

Art Outside

2005-05-10T12:14:00.000-04:00

We got a little creative on the sidewalk recently and added some pretty pictures. That's Miranda standing there showing off our artwork.

DUCK~

2005-05-10T12:11:00.000-04:00

Spring brought about many changes - one them a family of Mallards living in the back yard. They have been quite demanding looking for breakfast, lunch AND supper every single day. :-)

It's been pretty interesting tho... it brings a whole new meaning to the word "DUCK!" in our yard.... The Mallards use our yard as a main flight path and SWOOP down over the peak of the house and down towards the creek. It's one thing to have a sparrow fly right over your head, quite another to have an extremly fast duck wizz past you while working in the yard.

Wholesale Catalogue now available

2005-03-14T11:12:00.000-05:00

If you would like to have our stone jewelry in your store, please send us an email.
Please include your full mailing address and contact information

You could also call 705 566-8729 and we'll be happy to drop

Fall Leaves

2004-11-04T15:21:00.000-05:00

As I sit here typing these notes, the rain and snow has started to fall. Just a few days ago we shut down the pond out back and I miss the sounds of the water already. I guess that's it, I've got to hunker down and get used to the quiet times outside.

Fall comes to the yard

2004-11-04T15:17:00.000-05:00

Well with the arrival of fall comes the moving of the Studio. My workspace is in the back of the house and it gets quite cool in the winter. Every try and put tiny stones on wire with frozen fingers?

I'm glad though, it brings another season closer to coming and the birth of new dreams.

Baby Finches grow!

2004-10-13T20:12:00.000-04:00

I'm having trouble telling who is who in the nest these days. There is Nemo (like in the nemotoads on Sponge Bob "HUNGRYHUNGRYHUNGRY", Herculies, Ceclie, Bunsen Honeydew and of course Beaker. They are LOUD little birds! In about a month or so we'll be moving them into a new home and letting Cinammon choose a boyfriend. Right now she's pretty lonely as Skittle (the oldest bird) only wants to eat and sleep.

Newcomers to the Nest

2004-10-13T20:08:00.000-04:00

These are the two newest members of our bird family. Cinammon is on the left (she's the lady) and Skittle is the Grandfather bird on the right.

Studio Tour

2004-10-13T20:00:00.000-04:00

This year I participated in Sudbury's Studio Tour with members of SCARF www.scarf.ca I had a really nice time, but I did not get as many visitors to my studio as some members in central Sudbury did. (I'm on the East side).

The folks that did come by were generally wonderful and I had a lot of interesting discussions. I think I'll do it again next year but I might share a studio just for the day for more traffic.

Babies at Renaissance Market!

2004-09-14T16:07:00.000-04:00

Just look at that! I dont have a clearer picture right now as I dont to distrub the parents. We have five baby birds in the nest now! They are about 6 days old in this picture. The birds live in the part of the house where the computer is so I get to hear their calls all day. With 5 babies we may have to get another bird cage! Their names are (not that we'll be able to tell who is who later).. Hercules, Nemo, Beaker, Bunsen Honeydew and Cecile. Oh the parents are Emenem and Lady bird.

Kyanite Mine

2004-09-14T13:18:00.000-04:00

Here I am at the Kyanite mine in Sudbury Ontario. It's located on the east side of Wahnapatae and you do need permission from Falconbridge to visit. Kyanite is easier to find when you have a hammer and safety glasses.. Blame it on the heat, we forgot to bring it with us.