TribeBlog

What's going on @ Onetribe

Onetribe will be closing early Wednesday, November 25th and will remain closed Thursday and Friday so that we may travel to spend time with our friends and families over the Thanksgiving holiday. We will re-open Monday, November 30th.

We will answer emails, return calls and fulfill orders in the order everything is received upon returning.

Those of you doing your own traveling, be safe!

Jared & The Onetribe Crew

We just finished up this beautiful little set of our signature Maya flower style in bloodwood with rutilated quartz cabochons hardware set (no adhesives) into copper. I love the overall look of these pieces. Please pardon the dirty details, I always get excited and photograph pieces and the macro lens pulls out all of the detailing I need to do prior to shipment. But you get the idea :)

bloodwoodrutilecopper

The other super rad (at least I think so) set of custom jewelry to come out of the workshop recently was this set of rough faced amethyst stone plugs. Slightly larger faces to try and showcase more texture, the saddles of these pieces are ground from the base crystal matrix of the amethyst while the face exhibits the traditional rough crystalline structure.

12roughamethyst

We are very happy to have acquired a source for gorgeous ammolite material as round and oval triplet cabochons. Ammolite is one of the rarest gemstones in the world, occurring in gem form only in remote areas of Alberta, Canada. The material forms in connection with the fossilization of ammonite shells (small extinct mollusks). The colors are the result of light refraction within various layers of the material, which itself is very thin – half to three quarts of a millimeter in thickness. Our cabochons are bonded to a slate backing and capped with a quartz dome for protection.

Red/orange and green are the most common colors, with harder to find colors being various shades of blue, pink and purple. The value of ammolite is determined by how many colors there are, how clear they are, and the overall brilliance of the color shine. Many stones exhibit different colors at different angles.

Below you will find examples of ammolite cabochons in our collection. We have the ability to source more for color, size or shape, but keep in mind that the price increases DRASTICALLY by size and it is easily possible to end up paying mid three to low four digit prices for large specimens. We have chosen the sizing we currently have because of the affordability of our source at these sizes.

ammoliteexample

We currently have 8mm and 10mm rounds and 9×11mm ovals available for setting into the following styles:

  • Solid or concave plugs in any material
  • Mayan flared styles
  • Single flared jewelry of any style for conches, flats, etc
  • Round or oval labrets

We can set the ammolites into the following metals (either prong or bezel) for hardware attachment to the material composing the wearable surface of the jewelry:

  • .925 Sterling Silver
  • Yellow or White Gold
  • Copper (bright, matte, textured/etc)
  • Brass

Pricing will vary by the cost of the ammolite material itself (taking into account the colors wanted and quality of the stones), the overall design and construction of the jewelry (the stone or wood used, and the metal that the setting is composed of) and the amount of labor involved in completing the project. If you’re interested in wearing a piece of this beautiful gemstone, please get in touch!

I was visiting some vendors we use this past weekend and ran across these two slabs of banded agate that were just too nice to pass up. The first is a beautiful dark & light blue, gray and white banded slab measuring 8″ wide, 5.5″ tall and is approximately 1″ thick.

bluegrayagateslab

The second slab is of similar pattern but displays deep blues, tans and nice earthy browns and is incredibly translucent. This slab measures 7″ x 5″ x 1″.

brownstripedagateslab

We can make just about anything from these stones:

  • Very large plugs/concaves/tunnels
  • Mayan flared jewelry of relatively large size
  • Carved items such as weights and rings
  • Cabochon inlays of this material or into this material

Priority will be given to projects of larger size as they will do more to showcase the various colors and texture in the banding, although there will inevitably be cut-offs and material left for smaller projects, so don’t hesitate to ask.

We would prefer to do interesting stuff instead of just plain plugs, and because both of these stones are relatively translucent, we would love to do at least one set of decent sized standard or Mayan flared tunnels with large cabochons of these materials inlaid so you can see light through them.

If you have interest in having jewelry made from these items, please get in touch!

Onetribe will be closed today, Wednesday Nov. 11th, in observance of the federal and postal holiday Veteran’s Day. While we do not agree with the actions of our government, we have respect and appreciation for those who have put their personal interests aside to dedicate their lives to loyalty of their country. I know we have some customers that are vets – thank you from each of us here at Onetribe.

Email correspondence, shipping, phone answering and all of that good stuff will resume tomorrow morning (Thursday, November 12th).

Quite a few super nice pieces have gone out over the past couple of weeks. Here are some highlights:

0gmfconcaverutile

0g Mayan Flared Rutilated Quartz with very slight concave faces.

homnarutilatedteardrops

1″ Rutilated Quartz Teardrops

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This was a sample custom set for a group of ammolite cabochons in ovals and round we had produced by a mine that specializes in ammolite material. We’ll post up photos of the rest of the batch when they arrive. Gorgeous vibrant colors. We’ll be setting them into plugs and I may do a few very custom round and oval stone labrets with ammolite set into the ends.

0gbloodstonemf

0g Mayan Flared Bloodstone Plugs, beautiful contrast of red and green on these faces.

nadineamethystboxwood

Another signature set of Onetribe raw crystal structure outlays. These are French Boxwood and contain “flower amethyst” – very light lilac colored tiny crystals. Wonderful colors here.

15fluoriteteardrops

1.5″ Emerald Fluorite Teardrops

greenyellowfluoriteplugs

1.25″ Green and Yellow Fluorite plugs, amazing color contrast. Yellow fluorite isn’t particularly common and I hadn’t ever seen it this bold in color and large enough to be workable, but we had a small stone of green fluorite bordered with this yellow. The white stripe is agate.

Hope you dig the eye candy, have a great weekend everyone!