Johnie (my Wife) and I met, for the first time, at a mutual friends birthday party in February 1981. Johnie was helping me shingle the roof of a house, when I asked her to marry me (When it is right, you know right away.). And on the 21st of November 1981 we were married. We are so in sink about so many things. Starting out with nothing, we have managed to build a decent life together. We have 4 children, Chris, Cyndi, Jeff and Anne. They are all married and we have 5 grandchildren, 5 step grandchildren, 2 step great grandchildren and expecting our first great grandchild in August. I work in construction business doing remodeling and home repairs during the nice weather and work mainly on the gemstone business during the late fall, winter, and early spring (when the Ohio weather is not so nice). Johnie is a full-time nurse at our local hospital. I have been fascinated with the mountains, rocks, and gemstones all my life. And from our first trip to TN in July of 1981 to visit Johnie's parents, I knew that Johnie had similar interests. We found ourselves roaming the hills, creeks, and roadsides looking and gathering rocks, crystals and gemstones. It wasn't until 1991, when we loaded up a pop- up camper and headed out west, that we began to pan and mine for gold and gemstones. We came back from this trip with lots of crystals and agates and that Fall I took some classes at a local lapidary shop, where I learned how to facet (cut) the crystals into gemstones and grind and polish the agates into cabochons. A few years later, in 1996, we decided to buy an older motor home, and we planned a trip to Quartzsite, Arizona. We left in January, but because of mechanical problems we never did make it to Arizona. We did, however make to the diamond mine in Murfreesboro, Arkansas, where we got the diamond fever. The next 6 years were mostly trips to the diamond and crystal mines in Arkansas. Quartzsite is still on our list of places to go, perhaps next year. The year 2000 found our home over flowing with gemstones and cabochons. That is when I started wire-wrapping Pendants. Johnie's passion is Family History. She loves searching for lost information on ancestors and visiting relatives all over the US. I enjoy the traveling to the different areas of the USA and I love the searching and mining for natural gemstones. This combination of interests works out just perfect for us. Our vacation out West in 2003 is a good example of this combination at work. We would visit relatives in Utah, Idaho, and Oregon. Our mining stops would be, “Opals” in Idaho and Nevada, “Sapphires and Rubies” in Montana, and “Gold” in Oregon. Although, I mine and work with all kinds of gemstones, since 1991Opals have been my favorite gemstone. And since 2003, when I found out that there were real Opal mines in the USA where I could personally search for Opal, Opal mining has became my favorite thing to do. Opal, from the Virgin Valley, Nevada area, has a higher water content than normal Opal. After trying (and failing) to cut a couple pieces of this precious black opal, I knew that the conventional methods of cutting opal would not work. I still wanted to wrap these intriguing gemstones, but found them very unstable. That is when I developed "Opal Under Glass". This is a special part of our business and has it's own Web Site arriving soon. Kristy Love Brooks of The Platters in Las Vegas, Nevada wears the first of our numbered series “Opal Under Glass”. So Check back weekly and look for our New & Unique Opal Pendants. You can be the owner of a Numbered Limited Series Piece of Opal Jewelry. |
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| How Our Jewelry Business Got Started |
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