The Legend of the “Star of the St. Croix”

It is said that there is a legend in the St. Croix River Valley from long ago. I don’t know if it is true. 

The fabled "Star of the St Croix" diamond- 1.1 carat

Once upon a time there was a handsome French fur trader who married a beautiful Native American woman. He knew of diamonds and promised her that one day he would give her a beautiful stone that would shine like the most brilliant star in the night sky.

They had a wonderful life together but as hard as they worked there was never enough money for him to buy this precious stone. One day, when they were older, they took their canoe out on the river at night to look at the stars. It was calm and the stars were reflected in the water. She said “It looks like the stars are floating in the river.”   He reached down and in his hand there was a beautiful diamond that he gave to her.

This stone was passed on through the generations and at one point was cut into a gem stone and set into a ring. So the story goes.

I recently purchased some old gold jewelry to be recycled. Among the pieces was an old beat up ring with a hundred year old mine cut diamond. I do not normally buy old diamonds because of the expense and It may be difficult to find the right person to sell it to. (See my recent blog “Let’s talk about diamonds) But this one spoke to me. It was hard to tell how good it was because of the old fashion cut. I had it re-cut and certified. It is a lovely diamond.

Whether it is the fabled “Star of the St. Croix” I cannot say, but it surely looks like the brightest star in the night sky!

If you or someone you know may be interested in a larger recycled diamond of good quality, let me know I would be happy to show it to you.

Farm Girl

I recently made wedding rings for a lovely couple, Gay and Ann. They had been together for many years and were now able to be legally “married”. As part of the process of deciding what the rings would look like I showed them all of the possibilities I have to offer. They chose their ring designs which were a pair of magical double Mobius strip bands (subject of another blog sometime!). One day Ann called me to ask if I could make a pendant for Gay as a wedding gift from her. She remembered a line of jewelry that I make from tiny pieces of driftwood from the north shore and asked if I could make a pendant from a piece of birch bark. We managed to find a piece from a small branch that had all the distinctive markings associated with that look and I made the pendant. 

Some time passed and I get another call from Ann asking about a pendant for herself. She was raised on a farm and has always thought of herself as a “farm girl”. Her parents no longer ran the farm but knew the people who did. She said there used to be a hundred year old hay barn on the farm that had fallen down. Some of the pieces had been saved. Ann asked if I could possibly use a piece of the old weathered barn wood as a background for the pendant. “Sure!”

Ann went to visit her parents. Her father is living with Alzheimer’s disease. As they were talking she asked her father if he could draw a picture of the old barn. He used to entertain her as a bored child in church with simple sketches. He proceeded to draw a very nice likeness of the old Illinois barn from memory. They then got a small board from the barn and brought it to me. 

I was able to make a reverse impression of the wood texture and from that make a positive in wax. I carved “farm girl” in one piece of the wax and carved a copy of the sketch of the barn in another piece as a pendant for Ann’s mother. We are all pretty happy with the result.

Cabin Sketch 

Wood piece from the Barn

reverse image of barn wood piece in silver

Wax casting

  

Finished pendant

Stebgo Metals

It is important to me to integrate my values with the people I work with. I would like to share with you a brief story of the company I buy my gold from.  This is a small, local, family owned business called Stebgo metals. I have been with them from the beginning more than thirty years ago. Tom Stebbing Sr. worked for another company that I dealt with occasionally but did not connect with particularly well. But I liked and respected Tom. Tom left that company and started his own company which is now run by his children whom I knew as little kids. I have included a link to a recent article in a trade magazine called Mid-America Jewelry News If you would like to read more about the company. http://midamericajewelrynews.com/featured-articles/1583-minnesotas-stebgo-metals-a-greener-integrity-minded-family-refinery 

The reasons I deal with Stebgo are first of all these are honest and honorable people. They offer a good reliable product, they are prompt and fair in their pricing. They provide only recycled gold. We all consume products that in their production have an impact on the environment. I, as I am sure you do, try to choose those that have the least impact. The practice of offering only recycled gold means that less of the earth is torn up to find new gold by mining. They have invested in state of the art facilities to make the refining process as environmentally save as is possible.

One of the services I offer is to recycle old gold that you may have; broken chains, no longer warn class rings, single earrings, ugly jewelry you know you will never wear, even old gold teeth returned by the dentist. I pay considerably more for this gold, silver or platinum than anyone else I know of. I collect it and when I have enough I bring it to the refinery and have it returned to me as pure gold which I then alloy to make Karat gold to make new pieces. The value of this gold can be used for payment of something new that I would make for you (often I can use the actual gold in the new piece if it has sentimental value) or I will give you a check. Now is a good time to sell since the price of gold is high and it will be recycled as beautiful and meaningful handmade jewelry. (And you know it’s just going to sit in that little drawer for another twenty years)

Jim

Ruby and Diamond ring

This ring is a twentieth wedding anniversary gift. They were both students when they were married and could not afford a diamond engagement ring. She is of Czechoslovakian descent and loves the look of jewelry from that part of the world. They commonly to use garnets and the gold is a different color from what we are used to seeing. The diamond is a little under one carat and of very high color and clarity. We used deep red rubies instead of garnets and the 14 K gold has a more reddish hue. The pattern of the stones is similar to the designs used by her ancestors. I am pleased with how it looks and she loves it.