What happens when 2 jewelers from Stoecker Jewelers in Mountain Home, and their wives, go to northern Idaho on a very rainy Memorial Day weekend in 2009? The answer is Idaho Star Garnets and lots of them.

What We Encountered Mike, Kelly, Brenda, and Denise found out what it is really like to mine for gemstones in Idaho. Out of 10 days at Emerald Creek, it rained for 9, limiting their digging to only 4 days. Cold rain, nickel sized mosquitoes, and knee deep mud were no match for our intrepid foursome. In four very busy days of digging a small bucketful of our state’s gemstones were dug out of the ground, screened, washed/sluiced, inspected and then taken home.

What We Do With Star Garnets So what have we been doing with these unique to Idaho gemstones? We have tumbled some, polished them to a gleaming dark purple, and shaped some into incredibly beautiful stones. A fair share of the best star garnets we mined in 2009 have already been set into custom made jewelry right in our Stoecker Jewelry workshop in Mountain Home, Idaho and sold. But…

Some for Sale But we have a large handful of some incredibly beautiful loose star garnets from that trip left to sell. This is the perfect opportunity to choose the stone of you dream, get it set into custom jewelry for yourself or your best friend.

Mine Your Own Idaho Star Garnets? If you would like to mine your own Idaho Star Garnets, come on down to Stoecker Jewelers and talk to us. We’ll give you some advice on where to go and what equipment you’ll need. And when you get back [...]]]> A journey of two jewelers who say “Get your own Idaho star garnets, why don’t you.”

What happens when 2 jewelers from Stoecker Jewelers in Mountain Home, and their wives, go to northern Idaho on a very rainy Memorial Day weekend in 2009? The answer is Idaho Star Garnets and lots of them.

What We Encountered
Mike, Kelly, Brenda, and Denise found out what it is really like to mine for gemstones in Idaho. Out of 10 days at Emerald Creek, it rained for 9, limiting their digging to only 4 days. Cold rain, nickel sized mosquitoes, and knee deep mud were no match for our intrepid foursome. In four very busy days of digging a small bucketful of our state’s gemstones were dug out of the ground, screened, washed/sluiced, inspected and then taken home.

What We Do With Star Garnets
So what have we been doing with these unique to Idaho gemstones? We have tumbled some, polished them to a gleaming dark purple, and shaped some into incredibly beautiful stones. A fair share of the best star garnets we mined in 2009 have already been set into custom made jewelry right in our Stoecker Jewelry workshop in Mountain Home, Idaho and sold. But…

Some for Sale
But we have a large handful of some incredibly beautiful loose star garnets from that trip left to sell. This is the perfect opportunity to choose the stone of you dream, get it set into custom jewelry for yourself or your best friend.

Mine Your Own Idaho Star Garnets?
If you would like to mine your own Idaho Star Garnets, come on down to Stoecker Jewelers and talk to us. We’ll give you some advice on where to go and what equipment you’ll need. And when you get back with your very own star garnets that you’ve wrestled out of the mud, we’ll explain your best options to turn them into something more beautiful.

- Place: Emerald Creek Garnet Area near Clarkia, Idaho

- When: Memorial Day weekend until around Labor Day depending on the weather/conditions.

- Cost: $10 a day

- Link: http://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/ipnf/recarea/?recid=6927

Thanks,

Michael Stoecker

Our big Spring Cleaning Sale at Stoecker Jewelers was a fun event just as we expected. A few people traveled into town from Boise to take advantage of the 50% savings on almost everything in our store. But by far, the great folks from Mountain Home were the star of this sale. Lot’s of long time friends showed up to buy Mothers Day gifts, graduation gifts and even a few “just because they wanted em” gifts. We were glad to meet some new friends from Mountain Home Air Force Base and a couple from Grand View also.

Thanks for coming out and supporting your local hometown store. We appreciate your business and will continue to offer our friends the best value for your money.

RaeAnn and Michael Stoecker

In mid November of 2011, Toni and Tim Bondy approached me about creating custom rings for their daughter and daughter in laws, as well as a pendant for their granddaughter.

We had met in 2009 while digging for Star Garnets in Clarkia, Idaho and those rough garnets were the gems that Tim and Toni wanted to use to create heirloom gifts for the special girls in their lives.

I sent them home with a task… draw a design for the rings and pendant and then bring it back to me.

Toni showed up with her design just after Thanksgiving and I approved it. The design was simple, yet striking and would highlight the garnets nicely.

Toni's original sketch of the rings and pendant

Once I had the design, I began creating the the wax mold of the ring. This would be used to pour the silver for the ring.

The initial wax mold I created and that Tim and Toni approved for their rings.

The wax mold then needed to be secured in a small container which would be filled with a clay-like substance called Investment.  The investment would create the actual mold for the silver and the wax itself would be burnt out of the investment in a super heated oven.

Pouring investment into the wax mold container

Once the wax was completely burnt out from the investment it [...]]]> Michael’s Notes:  This is the first of a series of articles about how we work with our customers in order to create one of a kind custom jewelry.  As you read each story, feel free to click on the pictures in order to view the full size photo’s of the creation process.  We look forward to adding many more custom design stories in 2012!

In mid November of 2011, Toni and Tim Bondy approached me about creating custom rings for their daughter and daughter in laws, as well as a pendant for their granddaughter.

We had met in 2009 while digging for Star Garnets in Clarkia, Idaho and those rough garnets were the gems that Tim and Toni wanted to use to create heirloom gifts for the special girls in their lives.

I sent them home with a task… draw a design for the rings and pendant and then bring it back to me.

Toni showed up with her design just after Thanksgiving and I approved it. The design was simple, yet striking and would highlight the garnets nicely.

Toni's original sketch of the rings and pendant

Once I had the design, I began creating the the wax mold of the ring. This would be used to pour the silver for the ring.

The initial wax mold I created and that Tim and Toni approved for their rings.

The wax mold then needed to be secured in a small container which would be filled with a clay-like substance called Investment.  The investment would create the actual mold for the silver and the wax itself would be burnt out of the investment in a super heated oven.

Pouring investment into the wax mold container

Once the wax was completely burnt out from the investment it was time to heat the silver for the rings and then pour it into the newly created investment mold!  Tim and Toni stood back while I heated the silver, but managed to get close enough to photograph the molten metal.  It was also at this point that they both took off their winter coats and started fanning themselves as the room heated up quickly thanks to the hot oven and the heating metal.

Pouring the silver into the mold

After the ring was poured and cooled, Toni released it from its investment casing by swishing it in a large bucket of water. She was excited to help, but quite cautious due to the high temps of the investment encased, super heated silver!

Preparing to release the silver ring

Swishing the investment container in order to release the ring

I retrieved the ring from the bucket of water and gave it a quick buffing so that both Tim and Toni could get a hint of how the finished ring would look. They approved of the ring and then the hard work began.

Buffing the ring a bit to show some shiny silver

First up was removing the silver stump that was attached to the ring as part of the pouring process. I showed Tim how to gently file the stump at my workbench and then left him to it. When his wrists became tired from the sawing action, Toni took over to complete the work.

Tim files off the silver "stump" from the ring itself

Once the stump was removed it was my turn to finish cleaning up the ring in order to prepare it for the addition of the Star Garnet.

The ring is ready for finishing!

Toni tried on the ring that night and declared it a success even though the garnet was still waiting to be permanently placed in the ring.

Setting the Star Garnet into the ring

With everyone agreeing that the ring was exactly what Tim and Toni had envisioned, we were ready to produce 3 more rings, one for each daughter, plus the matching pendant for their granddaughter.

The process of creating the next 3 rings went very quickly since we already had our wax mold and could create all 3 at one time during the investment, burnout and silver pour sessions.

Preparing the next 3 rings for Tim and Toni

The rings are set with Star Garnets and ready for a final polish

Releasing the 3 rings from the investment

These are the completed rings and the pendant!

Check out the star on that garnet!

Just beautiful!

Ready to give as gifts!

We all enjoyed having Tim and Toni in our shop during the month of December to follow the progress of their rings. They learned the detailed process of creating custom rings from design to finished product and their special girls each have an heirloom quality peice of jewelry to cherish.

YouTube Video of the Drawing

The Winner and Prize

Scott S., a gentleman from Wausau, Wisconsin won the spectacular set of earrings valued at around $2,700. The winner was called immediately after the drawing. Needless to say he was extremely grateful and happy he won. It’s a rare day when you can say “I just won a $2,700 pair of earring from a jewelry store 1,300 miles away. The earrings were mailed out to the winner on Tuesday December 27th, 2011. Thanks,

Stoecker Jewelers

Our annual “Couples Night Out” event at Stoecker Jewelers was great fun. Held on Thursday December 1st 2011, we had a steady stream of friends and visitors in our store for some wine tasting, delicious snack food and Christmas shopping. It was good to see some folks I hadn’t seen in awhile and meet new friends. Thanks to everyone for coming out.

Jewelry, Clocks and Watch Door Prizes Were Awarded This year we were excited to hand out some fabulous door prizes. If you haven’t picked up your door prize, remember we just extended our hours, so come on in to get them. Here is a list of the 9 door prizes that folks from Boise to Glenns Ferry won.

- A Ladies and Mans Pulsar Watch.

- Seiko Alarm Clock.

- A 3 piece set of our new 38 Special shell casing jewelry line. Don’t forget about our “Name That Line Contest”.

- An Idaho Star Garnet ring.

- A Pearl Bracelet and Earring set.

- A cool carved Knife and Key Chain set.

- A Pearl necklace.

- A Seiko musical Mantel Clock.

Watch a Video of from “Couples Night Out”

Thanks for coming out to this fun event. We had a great time!

Thanks,

Michael Stoecker