Today I spent about 2 hours going over some of the new gems I purchased; deciding which ones I wanted to work with first and which ones could wait for later. I get into the zone with this process. I listen to classical music. It calms me and helps the creativity flow. Basically I choose the ones that inspire me the most. I know that down the road I may choose other options but for now these gems made the cut!

Then I spread out the gems and start making some choices. Here you can see the gems that I chose for this first group.

**the First Phase of my design process**

Amethyst is my first love so it is always included with any new grouping. Here I have a couple of the amethyst geodes that will become rings and pendants. Moving forward, I purchased some rose quartz for the first time. (the light pink gems at bottom center) These will be earrings, a pendant and a ring. I am still enamored with Rainbow solar quartz so of course there are two gems in this grouping. Both will be pendants. My most exciting NEW discovery is Palmwood root. These gorgeous black and creme colored gems spoke to me. I HAD to buy them and create new designs. They are shown here in the upper left corner.

So stay tuned to see what I create using these new beauties. The next steps include creating the bezels for the gems and then determining what the finished designs will be. This process can take weeks.

Just in case you wondered which gems did NOT make the cut (and will be featured in the next grouping). Here’s a photo to drool over!

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