The stones do appear to be snowflake obsidian. The "flakes" are rather large compared to the average material. The cuts are probably standard cabachons which are easily made on a cabbing machine. Measure the long and short dimensions and if these measure to whole millimeters, it is likely a standard cut. Common ratios of length to width are 1.2, 1.25, 1.33, 1.4, and 1.5. Look in catalogs for hobbyist lapidary (such as Griegers) to find standard mountings. Much Indian and Mexican jewelry made for the tourist trade is made from purchased cabachons and findings that are assemblied onto designs by the artist. But hobbyist often purchase inexpensive chains, links, and pieces and then assemble several different pieces by mixing and matching. This is also a common practice for tourist trade items as well. The next step up in jewelry making is adding soldering skills. The third step up is designing unique mounts and making these pieces. At this point, a person's input begins to be classed as an artist. Many of these findings may range from 12 to 18 caret silver and won't be marked. Pure silver is much too soft and weak for mounts. Snow flake obsidian is black volcanic glass. The material will range for slightly translucent to opaque. Various colorants and 'stingers' mixed intot he glass gives it various appearances. The snow flake effect is less common and a good piece is quite striking. A good piece of finished snow flake will not have soft spots and will have a good polish over the entire surface. The 'snow' will be fully disolved into the glass and not like and 'inclusion'. Being glass by nature, it is relatively soft as gem stones go. It has the hardness of ordinary glass (mohs 5) whereas quartz is mohs 7. For this reason, it should never be mounted as a ring stone, but applied as your pieces are. Snowflake obsidian is not rare, but as the years roll by, good pieces are becoming more scarce, therefore, the value should not go down. The value of a snow flake obsidian cabachon is determined by appearance, good shape, polish, and size. Some cabachons are cut too thin. The value of your pieces probably lie in the findings and chain work. Be aware that good looking pieces can be assemblied from catalog parts by hobbyists for material cost starting at $20. Charges for labor and design ups the price.

Allison - wine mentor? What a cool job that would be. I don't know. I've been drinking wine for years and ask questions all the time. Now that I'm selling it I end up answering a few questions too, but my suggestion is to read and taste. And if you ever get out to NYC, call me. That's serious incidentally. Anyway, I can offer a few suggestions for people. First, don't overlook Beaujolais. It's been producing wine for centuries, mostly for cafes around Lyon, where there were a number of silk merchants. They make a young wine for drinking within a few months and back in the 80s a couple British guys were drinking and made a bet with each other about which one could get the wine to London fastest. That set off a trend for about 10 - 20 years and increased sales of that young Beaujolais. Production shot up and a lot of second rate wine was made to cash in. Then the fad faded, the market crashed, and the area is suffering today. BUT - in the hills around Beaujolais they also have what are called "cru" sites and those are very much worth investigating. For education, bypass the young stuff and look for the crus - they will have a name like Fleurie, Julianas, Morgon, Moulon au Vent, Regnie, or something like that. This area is just south of Burgundy, and some of the winemakers in Burgundy work in both places and you can learn a lot and have fun. Find a producer, say Chermette, or Brun, for example, and sample the wine of the same producer from Fleurie, Morgon and Julianas. Even buy George Dubeouf wines from those places - they are great values and will show you the differences in the soils and environment and microclimates, which the French call "terroir". Because it is the same winemaking, you take that variable out of the equation and presumably taste only the differences that result from the terroir. It's a good lesson and the wine is wonderful, inexpensive, and not high in alcohol. And even try the young Beaujolais just to compare. As a rule it will be simpler, but quite nice. If you can start to understand those, you start to understand what people get excited about when they talk of Burgundy or Piedmont. You can do it with riesling too - they pretty much never use oak barrels in Germany for the rieslings, so you only taste the winemaker and the vineyard. For example, find some Prum - J.J. Prum, S.A. Prum, Weins Prum. They are related family and they make wine from the same vineyard. You can learn about the differences in winemaking. Or or St Urbans Hof and Zillikin who both use the Ockfener Bockstein vineyard and who are probably cheaper than the Prums. Or find a producer who uses multiple vineyards, like St Urbans Hof again, and try their Ockfener Bockstein vs their wine from Piesporter Goldtropfchen, looking at the same winemaker but different vineyards. Try to find Kabinett wines and don't mix Kabinett and Spatlese, etc., for this study, because the sugar will through you off. Write down the differences between the wines that you observe. You can do it in CA too - Andy Beckstoffer owns vineyards that produce really great wines, but those are going to be much more costly than those rieslings are. Schrader for example, is one of many people making wine from the Tokalon property, but you're talking $100 a bottle. The Prums have had their vineyards for years, maybe centuries. Beckstoffer moved to CA from Virginia, bought property, and sells his grapes at a price based on what the winery is going to charge for the wine! So those CA wineries, being pretty new and only recently opened by guys who became millionaires somewhere else and who paid $200,000 and acre, or else whatever Beckstoffer wants per ton, charge a lot of money for their wines, whereas Prum can sell a wine for $26 or less. I love the idea of Two Buck Chuck, but the wine isn't so great IMO. I'd rather pay another dollar and get a better wine and I think they could do it. What you won't have however, is the distinction you get from the other wines I suggested. That's because it is designed specifically NOT to have it. The idea is to create consistency, not personality. Again, no problem here and more power to him, but for me it would be boring to drink the same thing all the time, and I collect wine specifically to have variety. In 2005, the cabernet sauvignon harvest in Napa was pretty big and pretty good. People thinned the crop several times in some vineyards but the grape clusters were large so they still got more tonnage per acre than they normally do, although the wines are top notch anyhow. Prices? Not going anywhere good as far as I can see. As long as wines are selling for $100 and up, the prices aren't coming down. And about that thinning - in France and other regions, there are often regulations regarding yield per acre. They think that if you cut some young grape bunches off, called "green harvesting", the remaining ones will be more concentrated. That's becoming a basic tenet of winemaking. But there is some evidence and some opinion that this is BS. The concept was developed before there were adequate ways to measure. So a long time ago in France they thought they could improve quality by limiting yield. But maybe that's artificial, as illustrated by the 2005 vintage in CA. In a nice warm year, with adequate rain and no heat and healthy vines, the plants just might want to produce a little more with no drop in quality. In 1997 and 2005, that happened in Napa. If one were only to go by yield, we would have less wine but in fact, there was no reason to reduce production since the quality is fine. But as long as people are willing to pay, others will produce wine at $100 and up. In much of France today, they are trying to reduce production to keep prices high. You can figure out the economics of that, but IMO the idea is flawed because the competition is not simply air, it is wine from elsewhere. So if I can't buy or afford French wine, I'll buy Australian wine or Spanish or Chilean. It's a huge generalization and not 100% true, but you might say that in Napa the high prices are the result of extraordinary entry costs while in Bordeaux or Burgundy or Champagne, they are the result of production decisions designed to keep prices high. Again, that's not entirely true but its a shorthand explanation. So you look for areas like Beaujolais, Cotes du Ventoux, Cotes du Rhone, Languedoc in France, or the Rhine in Germany, or Umbira and Puglia in Italy, or Paso Robles or Mendocino in CA, or Walla Walla or Columbia Valley in WA and you can find much better deals. Or look at Argentina - some nice stuff coming out of there. And in the Texas Hill Country, they're working and in Arizona and in other states as well. Some people disparage those wines, but the people have to start somewhere. I used to disparage the wines from Michigan. Then I tried some. Taught me a lesson. I only knew the cheap sugary stuff but there are now some serious producers making good whites on the west of the state. Also in Ohio there are one or two - Kincaid makes really nice cabs down near Kentucky. I would never have believed it if I hadn't tried them. And in fact, they were in some pretty stiff competition - I had them at a dinner with people who brought some serious wine to the table and brought these just to educate us. So if someone is open minded, there is no reason to listen to wine snobs and you can find some great values out there, that are interesting, complex, and even educational if you care to go that way. Cheers all.

Most of my favorite pieces are family antiques ... and yes, I do know how lucky I am to have these. The bed I grew up in, and the step stool my grandfather made ... he was a well known Buffalo artist ... that was the dog my mother grew up with. (And 2 of my silly kids, Lily the dog and her buddy Bailey). Same room, love the little high chair, chest and mirror. I've been trying to find out something about that chair since I haven't seen another one like it. My tempermental grandmother's clock .. doesn't like the humidity in the summer so refuses to work, and game table. The pictures on the far wall, I have photos of these hanging in my great-grandmother's parlor ... the reflection on the one is bad. My sister told me to repaint the frames, I told her I wasn't touching antique frames! My Mom tells me this is my best piece ... this was also in my bedroom when I was growing up. The glass cabinet was a piece my Mom found at an estate sale shortly I moved into this house ... she said I needed it to display my family treasures ... she was right! the clock is another family piece, this one works all year round. This was in my grandmother's dining room, she had all her china/glassware in it. My sister, who is an interior designer, didn't want it because it was "too primitive" ... lucky me!! This is a jelly cupboard my Mom & I pulled out of my grandparents basement and refinished ... it had been painted to match the rest of the cupboards in the basement. Some of my favorite things ...

@mamapinky0, I've never used the Supreme stuff, but I've seen the name before. The Chinese Tide. I do have experience with. There was a ShopRite (grocery) store, that carried the stuff, super cheap too. Anyway... I remember, it had a very pleasant, lemon scent to it. It didn't smell chemically whatsoever, just very clean. However... I do know it was low-sudsing/froth... and the clothes came out with no scent whatsoever. It has a really weird, consistency. Like... thin, flour or confectioners sugar. Nothing like American Powder's that for sure. But it is definitely P&G made, not some knockoff lol. Oh... and it took me hours to figure it out, but... with some online help, I realized it was Phosphate Free. I was pretty shocked by that... honestly.