Dad’s Vintage Smoky Quartz

by Marilyn Estenes.
(Vancouver, Washington USA)

Here are two views of a necklace set I made a couple of years ago from a smoky quartz pendant piece I found in my jewelry stash that was made by my Dad 40 years ago.

The pendant was originally on a gold plated chain and had a gold colored bead cap on it. I darkened the bead cap and combined the pendant with assorted sized smoky quartz beads and interesting gunmetal chain with earrings to match.

It’s one of my favorite sets.

My Dad passed away in 1979. In the late ’60’s he and a group of friends would go to Lake Erie (I grew up in Cleveland) and gather interesting stones along the shore to tumble.

He taught himself to cut and polish cabochons and went on to faceting and doing repair work for some local jewelers. The original group grew and formed a lapidary club of about 75 people. I was an officer and the president for a number of years.

Brings back a lot of memories….setting up displays for rock shows, digging for flint in central Ohio, panning for garnets and sapphires in North Carolina, Herkimer diamonds in New York.

Marilyn Estenes
Silver River Designs