Rutilated Quartz and Hand Cut Tree Sterling Silver Pendent

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Quartz is the most common mineral on Earth. It is found in nearly every geological environment and is a component of almost every rock type.  It makes up about 12% of the earth's crust, occurring in a wide variety of igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary rocks. It is also the most varied in terms of variety and color. 

Rutilated quartz is found in Australia, Brazil, Kazakhstan, Madagascar, Norway, Pakistan and the United States.

Rutilated quartz has been referred to as Cupid's darts, Venus hair stone and Fleches d'amour.

 Rutilated quartz is said to slow down the aging process and is said to be a strong healer.

 I found this beautiful Rutilated Quartz and decided to use it to continue my Adirondack Series with it. It just reminded me of "roots" and I began cutting out trees. Two to be exact. This time I didn't sketch my idea out first. I just kind of knew with this piece what I wanted it to look like.  I used a square wire to surround the whole disc and soldered another reticulated "branch" to it.

 The chain is hand made and I guess I must have three hours of time just connecting the jump rings without figuring how long it took to wind and cut them. I did consider blackening the chain but at this point I've kept it shiny.

 The finding on the chain is a sterling magnetic closure. Easy to put on and take off and extremely strong so one doesn't have to worry about losing it.

As you can see, the size of the pendent is larger than a penny and I'm going to say the size of a quarter (should have used a quarter, huh?).