How to Make a Keychain Dangle (or Earring Dangle)

Posted by JC Woodley on Tue, 06/16/2020 - 12:00am in howto, Keychain, video

Recently, a friend who sews wanted to make a keychain dangle with a charm, but didn't know how to go about it. I offered to make a video to show her and voila! It's a first effort, but she was thrilled with the results,so I thought I'd share! It's only 9 minutes and it's free!

Materials needed:

  • 6" Beading Wire (Accuflex 49 strand .019 nylon coated beading wire is my personal favorite)
  • 2 Bead crimps
  • Keychain ring
  • Charm
  • 2-3 Inches of beads

Tools:

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Stone Hardness and the Mohs Scale

Posted by JC Woodley on Fri, 01/01/2016 - 7:07pm in mohs, Stones

There are beautiful stones beyond number, but setting them in jewelry can be a challenge based solely on the hardness or softness of the stone itself.

The Mohs scale was developed to measure the hardness of stones. Talc or sulfur is a 1 on the scale, meaning they can be easily be scratched with a fingernail.

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The Magnificent Optical Calcite

Posted by JC Woodley on Sat, 08/29/2015 - 2:10pm in Crystal, Specimen | 1 comment

Optical calcite is one of the most interesting specimens I've run across. It has an optical effect, it can have lovely rainbows, it's used even today in scienctific instruments, the Vikings used it to navigate the world, and it's cool!

It is called "optical" calcite because of its double-vision characteristic, as you can see by the finger below.

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