Rutilated Quartz?

A couple of weeks ago my family and I went to the Nova Scotia Gem & Mineral Show in Parrsboro, as we have every summer since several years now. There was a fellow there selling finished loose gems and he had a rather pretty piece that was clear with black needle-like inclusions. I was really drawn to it so naturally I asked what it was, and he said that it's rutilated quartz, and specified some other material that's in it; unfortunately I don't remember the name. I did some searching on the net though, and from what I gather, it's only rutilated quartz if the inclusions consist of the mineral rutile. I also am lead to believe that rutile produces gold coloured inclusions rather than black. If only I'd paid better attention to the man...

Now, to get to the good part. I purchased the very pretty stone. I was having a hard time deciding what to do with it, and so, as of yesterday it was still sitting in my bead box...right up until I decided I absolutely had to wear it asap. So, I grabbed my copper, thinking I'd make a temporary wrap just to get it wearable while I figure out what it's final form should take. The construction went so smoothly that I decided I better not tempt the fates by taking it apart and trying something else later! So after I arrived home, having worn the pendant all afternoon on a random necklace I found kicking around my shelf, I made a copper chain on which to hang it. Below are the results photos:



And of course, the close-up:



On a whim, I added 2 red jasper beads, and 2 tiny, so-called "magnetic hematite" beads (just for the colour match).

Update: Some reading since this was originally posted indicates the stone may actually be tourmilated (ie has tourmaline inclusions), but that some folks use the phrase "rutilated quartz" to indicate any quartzy with needle-like inclusions.

Double Strand Helm Chain

Firstly, note that I had recently made a single strand of this out of bronze and my Mum liked it, but found it scratchy (this because I only made it out of boredom and snip cut the rings instead of saw cutting them, for the sake of getting to the assembly stage more quickly).

So then 2 Saturdays ago we popped into the Farm Market in New Glasgow where a) Mum bought a bunch of beets, and b) we bumped into a fellow chainmailler selling his wares. Included amongst his works were a couple of bracelets in one of my favorite weaves, Interwoven Byzantine Sheet. Mum also liked them, mostly because they were wider than the other bracelets I've made for her thus far, so.....

I made her this double stranded helm chain bracelet. It's 20ga copper; the larger rings made on a 3/16 mandrel, and the smaller on a 1/8 mandrel. Since Mum is has super sensitive skin, I filed the cut edges by hand. Yes, this was time consuming, as was cutting half the rings with a not-so-sharp saw blade.

Final Stats on this lovely piece:

• 18 grams of copper wire used (including scrap)
• about 10 and 1/4 hours labour over 3 days
• 1 band-aid (cut myself when the not-so-sharp saw blade slipped off the coil)
  
• multiple hand cramps

If I were to try to sell one, charging minimum wage for my labour, I'd be trying to charge over $80 CAD for an item that has less than $1 worth of copper in it. Good thing I made it for my Mum. :D