Making trees of stone

By ANNE KAZMIERCZAK Register Reporter
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When Naida House moved to Iola and in with her daughter’s family in 2002, she had to leave a lot behind. One thing she brought, though, was her hobby of making “gem trees,” small wound-wire trees leafed with little sparkling crystals. The trees are an offshoot of the 81-year-old’s larger hobby, rock hounding.
“My husband and I joined the Indian Mounds Rock and Mineral Club in Grand Rapids, Mich., in 1977,” House said.
It was a hobby the two of them found together. Like most rock hounds, they began simply. “We just picked up pretty stones,” House said.
Living near the shores of Lake Michigan, the couple had access to a wealth of mineral types.
“We would go up to the Keweenaw Peninsula and gather copper and copper-related minerals,” she said. “And we went down collecting in Brown County, which is known for its geodes.”
She has one chunk of raw copper with a fern-shaped vein of silver bursting from it. It’s a rare piece, she said.
The couple might have been content just picking up stones, but “two members of our church were members (of the rock club) and pushed us into it. My husband was reluctant to get into it, but when he did, he got all the equipment.” They quickly became avid tumblers, cutters and polishers of found and purchased stones.
House’s husband Leon “was an excellent lapidary,” or stonecutter, she said. “He made a lot of cabochons,” — polished stones with rounded tops and a flat back for easy fitting into jewelry.
Both Naida and Leon both learned silversmithing skills from members of their club.
“Rock hounds are willing to share their hobby,” House said.
The couple had all the gear, House said: Saws, polishers, tumblers and flat laps.
A flat lap is a dish you line with an abrasive cloth, she said. The cloth is like felt crossed with sandpaper, and there are grades, just as with sandpaper, to produce smoother and smoother surfaces. Flat laps are used to smooth discs of stone, or one side of an oddly shaped piece, she explained.
House has a huge horn of amethyst, purchased from a fellow rock hound. One surface is flat and polished, revealing the aggregate of crystals within the natural geode. The back is raw rock, the structure the crystals grew from. The polished side, she said, would have been smoothed with a flat lap. Its a time-consuming process.
Electric tumblers, popular with home hobbyists in the 70’s, took longer to use.
“It takes two months to get a good polish on a stone,” House said. That’s running the machine 24/7, she said.
House and her husband never made jewelry from their polished stones, however. He was 24 years her senior, and by the time their interest went in that direction, his age had taken his ability, she said.
After Leon’s death in 1985, House sold all his lapidary equipment. She kept just a few of the silversmithing tools.
“Mistake No. 1,” she said, “I sold all the equipment.” That left her with just the tool for the gem trees.

HOUSE BEGAN constructing the twisted wire trees 30 years ago, she said, when a friend at a rock show cajoled her to try.
“At the Indian Mounds show in 1978, I walked by the club table and my friend Marie Duprey said ‘Sit down, and make a tree.’ I told her I didn’t have the patience.” But her friend persisted and House gave it a try.
“At that time, you’d measure out a length of wire, double it over and twist it,” making a tiny eyelet that would hold a small gemstone or crystal. Those “branches” would then be twisted with others to form the trunk of the tree.
“I found I had a talent for it,” House said, and thus began her hobby.
House began selling the trees at other rock shows.
“I tired craft fairs and I did diddly-squat” she said of her sales.
In 1980 or 81 she went to another rock show where “There was a man who had a tree that was like this,” House said, spanning her hands to show two feet in height. The trunk was four or six inches thick as well, she said.
“He said he was trying to twist 1,000 wires,” House said. “My trees had 27,” she said. Inspired, she now uses 42.
“Every tree maker has a slightly different style,” she said. “My style is everything has to be even.”
She taught her method to the Indian Mound Club, of which she is still a member.
“Before I left they gave me a lifetime membership, so I still get the monthly bulletin,” she said. Until recently, House trekked north to visit with the group twice a year. But this year, “I don’t think so,” she said.
“I’ve probably made 3,000 trees” over her career, House said. “I average about 100 a year.”
Now, though, she just does a couple shows a year, and mostly makes the trees to order.
“When I came down here,” she said, “and joined the Wichita club, they let me be a demonstrator. So I have done that since 2004,” House said.
House calls her business Garnet Owl’s Nest. The garnet connection is obvious, but why owls?
“Everyone was collecting everything else,” she laughs. “I wanted to collect something different!” So for 40 years, owls it has been.
Even though sh eno longer has her own workspace, House still has materials to make the trees. “I’m very partial to crystals,” she said, pulling out envelopes of Swarovski crystals and gem chips she uses as filler on the bases.
She has made trees for her as-yet-unmarried grandchildren, to be given as their wedding gifts. And, she has a packet of handcarved ivory blossoms, “brought into the country when it was still legal.” The tiny flowers are each about a third the size of a penny.
“Someday, I’m going to make a tree for myself with these,” she said.

03/20/09