Last evening, one of my best customers, who recently returned from the national DAR conference in Washington, D.C., said she couldn’t get on the elevator in the evening without someone asking, “Where did you get that necklace!”

She was only too glad to tell them that she knew the designer personally, and that she often visits with me in my studio to pick out stones and necklaces. You can

imagine that made me happy to hear! So I wanted to share the photo of that necklace with you. I designed a special sterling silver choker to go with it as well.

Now, this pendant has a history: About 10 years ago, I stopped in a tiny rock store in a town just off the interstate in Arizona. I was on a long trip back home and exhausted, so I don’t recall where. That’s the truth — and I certainly wish I could recall where because I’d go back! But in this dusty little shop were some fine minerals that had been mined from the 1960s forward. I found that middle chrysocolla cabochon in that shop and brought it home.

On the counter sat a strange copper sculpture. I asked the young man who was keeping shop for the owner about its history. He said, “Oh, that dates from the hippy days. They’d get high, pour molten copper in ant beds, and then after it cooled, pull it out and sell it.”

To this day, I regret that I didn’t buy that memento of the hippy days.

But I brought home that lovely chrysocolla and created one of my first pendants for my customer. She brought it back last year and said, “Would you mind adding to it?” Well, of course not! So I added the top cabochon and the bottom drops to it. And the DAR ladies who protect our heritage loved the pendant.

I was meant to pull off the interstate into that little strip mall in a town in the middle of nowhere so I would find that lovely chrysocolla cabochon! Life is good!

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