Hoarding the goods...

I am very guilty of hoarding things this spring......

a whole slew of great jewels at ETHOS paris.......just waiting for the summer......

and one of my favorite old men came to the college the other day............

MERLIN! I just love this guy......he is a Lapidary artist in Plains, MT and comes to the school twice a year to show off and sell his AMAZING stones.....

SO I had to hoard some more great Merlin cabs.

Stocking up for (hopefully) one hellova summer season.

Look at all these great stones! If anyone is a hoarder....it's Merlin....

boxes and boxes of stones......

Picking out stones is an all day love affair.....in and out of class........browsing.......falling head over heels with this or that........while trying to remember Merlin's advice.......

"Ya' can't eat 'em Erin.....no matter how long you boil 'em, ya' still can't eat 'em!"

I have to say though, some of these look just like candy......and I couldn't resist. I saved all my tips from the past week just for Merlin's goodies.

Here's my treasures I couldn't live without.....

some crazy lace agate, laguna agate, a whole bunch of jaspers, and dinosaur bone...

These two are just the coolest.....petrified Dinosaur bone.....the one on the left....picture's not so good, but in the real....that stone is just GORGEOUS. It's this crazy powder blue with the classic "cell" pattern that all dino bones have. I may have to keep it for myself.

And all I want to do with ALL OF EM....is turn them into honking cocktail rings. They all are singing "make me into a cocktail ring!" and it would be rude to ignore the request : )

Keep you posted on the rings. They are all going to be stunning. The beauty of Merlins stuff is that all you have to do is set the stone, and the piece is stunning. No need for lots of embellishments, because they are just such striking stones.