Matt (my husband) went to classes for two weeks and learned the basics on faceting gemstones. His first stone was a ruby and he did a wonderful job. He in turn taught me how to facet stones a couple years ago. I found it amazing how you can turn a rock into a beautiful gemstone. Now to have a jeweler put our stones into settings was too expensive so I ordered the findings and learned to set the stones myself.

Our friend Geno (a dear friend of ours who knew we set stones) called last December 2009 to see if I would put a faceted sunstone he had into a setting for his daughter. He wanted to give it to her for Christmas. By the time I got the setting and set the stone, Christmas was just a week away. I started to mail it and Matt suggested we take it to him. He lived 3 hours away from our house, so after a call to see if they would be home, we made the trip to their house.

When we arrived, his wife (Cathy), had lunch ready. They were very happy with the setting of the stone and wanted to know how much they owed me. NO CHARGE!! Well, Geno was not going to let that happen. He said he did not have any feeling in his fingers anymore and he wanted me to have his jewelry making supplies which included 2 dvds by Preston Reuther. Under protest, I took the items and was very grateful to him and his wife.

Geno has cancer and has been through many chemo and radiation treatments for the past several years. His battle is not over and I hope if anything happens to me in this life, I will have the strength and faith that Geno has. God bless him because this is where the jewelry from heaven came from.

Well, the next day, I watched one of the dvds and it was just amazing how Mr. Reuther turned a few pieces of wire into something so beautiful. I had to try doing this right away so I got all the things I needed from the stuff Geno gave me and watched the dvd again. I made my first pendant and fell in love with making wire wrapped jewelry. That was almost 9 months and 60+ pieces of jewelry ago, it is a continuing adventure I love sharing with others.