Page 1 of Chris Ralph's writing

1. Build a Do it Yourself, Homemade Metal Detector A metal detector is an interesting device - it is able to sense the presence of metallic objects buried within the ground. They actually have gotten to be fairly inexpensive, and are available at sporting goods shops like Cabelas. However, still... (posted by Chris 3 years 278 days ago.)

2. How Those Beautiful Olympic Medals Are Made The Olympic medals being flashed all across TV screens worldwide catch the eye and inspire the imagination. In seeing their beauty, one might wonder just how these wonderful mementos are created. Let's take a look at the basics of the medal... (posted by Chris 3 years 288 days ago.)

3. String Up Your Own Beautiful Bead Jewelry Making jewelry is an interesting craft to pursue, and when beginning any new hobby or craft, it is often best to start slow and allow yourself a chance to grow into it at your own pace. The old saw recommending that one learns to walk before they... (posted by Chris 4 years 161 days ago.)

4. Lost Wax Casting Methods For Creating Jewelry Lost wax casting is an ancient art. The technique was first employed by the early Egyptians but it was also independently discovered and used tribal artists in South America who used it to cast pre-Columbian gold. It was rediscovered by the great... (posted by Chris 4 years 161 days ago.)

5. Make Your Own Silver Jewelry with Precious Metal Clays Precious metal clays are a brand new method and technique for making jewelry art of all types. The difference is that most popular jewelry craft methods were first invented centuries ago. Lost wax casting was practiced near the dawn of recorded... (posted by Chris 4 years 161 days ago.)

6. Create Your Own Homecrafted Jewelry Beautiful jewelry can be crafted by anyone who will take the time to learn the necessary skills. Various jewelry equipment suppliers and gemstone sellers have done all they can to make things easy for individuals to try jewelry art for themselves.... (posted by Chris 4 years 161 days ago.)

7. The Oregon Sunstone: A Rare and Beautiful Gemstone Sunstone is a beautiful, but little known gemstone. As a mineral, it is a variety of Labradorite feldspar that comes in a variety of forms. The most common generally shows an opaque "schiller" effect where the metallic inclusions reflect light... (posted by Chris 4 years 208 days ago.)

8. What Really is a Gemstone? So what physical characteristics actually make something be considered as a gemstone? Well, a gemstone is a naturally occurring form of a mineral, which is desirable for its beauty, valuable in its rarity, and durable enough to be enjoyed by its... (posted by Chris 4 years 208 days ago.)

9. The Beryl Gem With the Color of the Sea - Aquamarine Aquamarine, the "gem of the sea", does not come from the ocean, but derives its name from from the color of "sea water". The reference is obvious: aqua sparkles like the sea and its color is pale to medium blue, sometimes trending to a light green... (posted by Chris 4 years 208 days ago.)

10. Tourmaline - A Gem In All the Shades of the Rainbow and Gaining Popularity Tourmaline is unique because it occurs in a wider range of colors than any other gemstone. Although the general public does not know tourmaline as well as some other gems, it is increasing in popularity. Many standard commercial jewelry stores... (posted by Chris 4 years 208 days ago.)

11. Emerald - The Rich Green Beryl Gem Man has valued the beautiful green hues of emerald gems since the earliest days of history, in fact emerald is one of the most highly prized of all the gems. The name comes from the Greek "smaragdos" which means green stone. Emerald has been... (posted by Chris 4 years 208 days ago.)

12. The Fiery Red Ruby - The Most Valuable Gem of All The very finest, top quality ruby is so rare that it has been the world's most valued gemstone for thousands of years. In fact, even today, flawless top quality rubies are more valuable and rare than top quality colorless diamonds. A 16 carat ruby... (posted by Chris 4 years 208 days ago.)

13. Radioactive Blue Topaz Presents A Concern For Consumers Holiday jewelry buyers may have a very special concern this season - blue Topaz gems that may possibly be radioactive. In July, several major jewelry companies reported that they had suspended all sales of blue Topaz gems because of concerns about... (posted by Chris 4 years 208 days ago.)

14. If Dumbledore Is Gay, Is He Also A Pedophile? At a recent public book reading in New York, in response to a question from a child, JK Rowling, author of the extremely popular Harry Potter series of books recently stated that Dumbledore, headmaster of Harrys school and Harrys staunchest and... (posted by Chris 4 years 208 days ago.)

15. Dig For Your Own Real Sapphire Gemstones In Montana Facilities where tourists can find their own sapphire gems are available in two areas in Montana, the first along the Missouri River near Helena, and the second is at Rock Creek near Philipsburg, west of Butte. The adventure of finding your... (posted by Chris 4 years 280 days ago.)

16. Garnet: Its Not Just Red, It’s A Many-Colored Gem Most people think of a dark red colored gemstone when they think of garnet, but garnet is actually a whole series of different gems. Beyond the well-known deep reds, garnet can be purchased in cinnamon to tangerine shades orange, light yellows... (posted by Chris 4 years 280 days ago.)

17. A Pretty Pastel Pink Gem: Morganite Beryl Morganite is a beautiful pastel colored gem that is little known and underrated. This pretty pink gemstone is rarely seen offered for sale in standard jewelry stores. For those who do know about it, it is rare enough that the stone is normally... (posted by Chris 4 years 280 days ago.)

18. Pan Your Own Gold For Free, Near Los Angeles, California With the price of gold currently running so high, number of folks are becoming interested in recreational prospecting. Unfortunately, one of the problems is finding a place where they can get their hands wet and really find some gold. Here's an... (posted by Chris 4 years 293 days ago.)

19. Dig Your Own Gold: The Fun Of Prospecting I have been prospecting and mining for gold both as a hobby and as an occupation for nearly 30 years and in my opinion it’s a blast! From the deep green forests to the rolling sagebrush hills, few people see as much of America’s wide open spaces... (posted by Chris 4 years 293 days ago.)

20. Dig Your Own Gold Nuggets With A Metal Detector: Here Is How Metal detecting for gold nuggets is a pastime that is fairly new. The old timer prospectors who searched for gold decades ago, never had any piece of equipment remotely like a metal detector. Modern technology however, has brought us this new... (posted by Chris 4 years 293 days ago.)

21. Godber Turquoise Mine: Still Producing beautiful gems The state of Nevada has many old mines, which once produced beautiful turquoise gems. Unfortunately, few of them are being worked today, in spite of the new resurgence of the popularity of turquoise. For many years, the US had a historical... (posted by Chris 4 years 293 days ago.)

22. Prospector Sam: The Famous Tenderfoot Miner There were many thousands of tenderfoot, greenhorn prospectors that came out west in the 1860s and 70s. Some came to make their fortunes, some came to flee other problems back east, and some just came for the adventure. Probably every one had a... (posted by Chris 4 years 293 days ago.)

23. You can Dig your Own Gold Nuggets In Alaska Adventurous travelers are always looking for something new, and to meet this need, in recent years there has been a something of a new form of tourism growing in the state of Alaska. Several historically productive gold mines have created... (posted by Chris 4 years 293 days ago.)

24. Build your own Dry Washer and Dig for Desert Gold A dry washer is a piece of equipment that is used to separate gold from sand with pulsations of air coming up through a porous cloth medium. This allows the gold to settle downward and get caught. It is the gold prospecting equipment of choice in... (posted by Chris 4 years 293 days ago.)

25. Cut Your own Faceted Gems – its not that hard Step One: Selecting the Rough If you are interested in cutting your own gemstones, the starting point for any gem cutting is, of course, the rough. There are places in the US where you can actually dig and mine your own gemstones, but for... (posted by Chris 4 years 293 days ago.)