Ace's Adornments start to present
I’m Mike Acker owner of Ace’s Adornments. I’ve always loved and been interested in turquoise. I formed Ace’s Adornments in late 2008 after retiring from my regular job as an Environmental Scientist earlier in the year and began selling beaded jewelry on Etsy in the first part of 2009. From the start I designed unique items using interesting stones and combined them mostly with sterling silver. After meeting and studying under two accomplished silversmiths, my business quickly evolved into creating my own silver designs using cabochons of turquoise and other stones that I purchased. My first handmade rings and pendants were available in my Etsy shop in 2011. Since then I have enjoyed learning and improving my craft to the point where I now create my pieces of jewelry entirely from scratch, from cutting, shaping and polishing the rough to mounting the cabochons into my own custom handmade designs. All of my work is done using minimal tools. I do not cast any of my work. All of my pieces are shaped and fabricated out of fine and sterling silver sheet, strip and wire. I use a prestolite torch and acetylene to solder my pieces taking care not to use too much solder as some do, allowing for neater, cleaner and seamless results. All of my work uses heavier gauge fine and sterling silver making my pieces more durable and able to last generations. Now for a bit about turquoise, the main stone I use in my jewelry. I will never represent my turquoise as being natural if it is not. The first indicator that turquoise is all natural is the price. Natural turquoise is quite expensive, so if you see turquoise rings and pendants going for bargain prices, start asking questions. Second, natural turquoise will not display the vivid colors that are created in the lab using dyes and other chemicals. Examples of this type are Mojave turquoise, Super Arizona and other fancy names that are used and known as “puffing”. There is nothing wrong with enhanced turquoise; it just isn’t all natural and still liked by many. However, I prefer to sell only natural turquoise and turquoise that that has been stabilized only for hardness. This type of stabilization does not affect any other properties of the turquoise such as color, and only makes the stone harder and maintain a better shine, so it can be a good thing. So enjoy browsing through my shop and if you have any questions please don’t hesitate to ask.
