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Some people think that chalcedony is also a gem for June as well as pearl and moonstone. In general, chalcedony is a cryptocrystalline form of silica. Chalcedony has a waxy luster, and may be semitransparent or translucent. It can assume a wide range of colors, but those most commonly seen are white to gray, grayish-blue or a shade of brown ranging from pale to nearly black. The mineral gets its name from the town of Chalkedon, an ancient town in Asia Minor.

Chalcedony occurs in a wide range of varieties. Many semi-precious gemstones are in fact forms of chalcedony. The more notable varieties of chalcedony are as follows: agate (a variety of chalcedony with multi-colored curved or angular banding), aventurine (a form of quartz, characterized by its translucency and the presence of platy mineral inclusions that give a shimmering or glistening effect termed aventurescence), carnelian (a clear-to-translucent reddish-brown variety of chalcedony), chrysoprase (a green variety of chalcedony), heliotrope (a green variety of chalcedony, containing red inclusions), onyx (a variant of agate with black and white banding), but that list is not full.

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As early as the Bronze Age chalcedony was in use in the Mediterranean region; for example, on Minoan Crete at the Palace of Knossos, chalcedony seals have been recovered dating to circa 1800 BC. People living along the Central Asian trade routes used various forms of chalcedony, including carnelian, to carve intaglios, ring bezels (the upper faceted portion of a gem projecting from the ring setting), and beads that show strong Greco-Roman influence.

Chalcedony gemstones are valued for their strong color saturation and silky luster. Chalcedony is heat resistant and requires little care to maintain its translucent shine. It is rated a seven on the Mohs scale of mineral hardness, making it a durable option for daily-wear jewelry. Chalcedony jewelry is often made with silver and gold in rings, necklaces, earrings and bracelets. Chalcedony is also a complementary accompaniment to other gems in strands and clusters.

Today we feature two artists, the winners of this year Bead Dreams contest. The first one is Liudmyla (Mila) Heggland, who lives on Rennesoy Island, Norway. Mila was born in Ukraine and started beading in the middle of 90s. She was a self-taught artist, and her first items were simple folk motifs. When she got access to Internet, Mila discovered that beads are beautiful media for designing 3D articles.

She started learning and creating quite new jewelry. At that time Mila was inspired by bead embroidery and designed a few pieces. In 2002 she submitted her entry into Bead&Button's Bead Dreams, but she didn't expect her bead embroidery work would make the final!

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Permanently improving her skills, for the next few years Mila has participated in many region and Ukrainian exhibitions. Then her life changed, Mila got married and moved to Norway. She always wanted to incorporate unusual additions into her beadworks. Living in Norway Mila had a great opportunity to make her dream true. It was polymer clay that Mila began working with!

And again, learning and learning! New materials, new tools, new techniques... Mila has kept all interesting pictures with polymer clay items on them, and has watched them for hours, and has drawn lots of sketches. Her first tries were polymer clay beads, and Mila used them with glass seed beads in her jewelry.

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Last year, less than one year after Mila had started polymer clay, she entered Bead Dreams in Polymer Clay Category, and she was lucky again and made the final. It was a great success for a beginning artist!

Mila likes the nature of Norway with its blue mountains, the sea, and fairy green forests. That's why there is no wonder that she makes flowers, berries and leaves using polymer clay, and features them in her jewelry.

This year Mila submitted another piece into Bead Dreams, it was named Sea Slugs Jewels featuring sea creatures. About a month ago Bead&Button announced that Mila's entry won the Second Place. We have expected that success, and would like to congratulate Mila! Liudmyla Heggland's polymer clay story is pretty short, and she hopes to continue. She says, "Until I have a wish to learn, my story will go on!" We wish you success, dear Mila!

Polymer clay jewelry by Liudmyla Heggland
 
Email: mheggland@yahoo.com
 
Blog: rollsejenta.livejournal.com
 
Gallery on Flickr: flickr.com/photos/mila-heggland

Olga Shumilova from Moscow, Russia, is another Bead Dreams 2010 winner we feature today. We have known Olga's bead art for a long time and are happy for her that she got amazing recognition.

Olga has been beading for a long time, since her early age, and after graduation from the Vyatka State Pedagogical University Olga has even taught beading to children. Living in the city of Kirov and not having enough information and sources of beading materials, Olga couldn't craft as much as she wanted. Her actual career in beading began in Moscow a few years later, Olga has already known many techniques and started designing jewelry.

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Being a goal-seeking person, Olga didn't want to make beadworks using patterns from special magazines, she decided to work on her own style. She doesn't take any courses, and buy any books and magazines to get rid of other artist's influence.

As Olga says, inspiration can come to her from everywhere, but she draws sketches just from time to time, when she has lots of different ideas. Materials can inspire very often Olga; she likes looking for rare and unusual media. Her main requirement to materials is their quality. Olga paid a lot of attention to item shapes and their overall look, basing on that Olga picks up appropriate techniques. Her color palette is limited mostly by cool tones and Earth tones (blues, greens, gray, beige, etc.), though she tries something different.

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In 2008 Olga exhibited her beadworks in Moscow for the first time, and won the First Place in Beaded Jewelry Category, her intricate amazing lace-look beadwork was highly appreciated by exhibition visitors, professionals and art lovers.

Recently Olga got another passion, she fell in love with beaded purses, participated in two contests in Beaded Accessories category (Bead Fest 2009 and Bead Design 2010, both in Moscow), and won awards.

The most exciting event in Olga's life took place a month ago. She submitted two beaded purses into the 2010 Bead Dreams, and both of them were juried into final. When the winners were announced, Olga coudn't believe her Gaze Of The Rose Purse won the Third Place in the Objects or Accessories Category!

We would like to take a chance a congratulate Olga one more time. Keep going, dear Olga!
We wish you further success!

Gallery of bead artwork by Olga Shumilova
 
Email: shumilova_biser@mail.ru
 
Blog (in Russian): pautin.livejournal.com

The Ann Arbor Art Fairs

July 21-24, 2008
Ann Arbor, Michigan

Established in 1960, the Ann Arbor Street Art Fair is the Original of the now four award winning Ann Arbor Art Fairs, which together attract over 500,000 attendees from across the nation. The four shows are a confederation, sharing city services and keeping the same dates and hours. Over 1200 exhibitors show up ready to meet you. Ann Arbor turns into Art Fair City every July for four days. They include: