Johnie, my wife, and I met for the first time at a mutual friend’s birthday party in February 1981. Six months later, while Johnie was helping me shingle the roof of a house, I asked her to marry me. (When it’s right, you know right away.) On the 21st of November 1981 we were married.
Starting out with nothing, we have managed to build a good life together. We have a combined family of four children: Chris, Cyndi, Jeff, and Annie. They are all married and amongst them we have a happy blend of ten grand and step-grandchildren, two step-great-grandchildren, one great-granddaughter, and two great-grandsons. I work in construction, doing remodeling and home repairs during the nice weather, and work mainly on the gemstone business during the late fall, winter, and early spring (when Ohio weather is not so nice). Johnie is now a part-time nurse at our local hospital.
We are so in sync in so many ways. I have been fascinated with mountains, rocks, and gemstones all my life. After our first trip to Tennessee in July of 1981 to visit Johnie’s parents, I knew that Johnie and I had similar interests. We found ourselves roaming the hills, creeks, and roadsides looking for and gathering rocks, crystals, and gemstones. It wasn’t until 1991, when we loaded up a pop-up camper and headed out West, that we began to pan and mine for gold and gemstones. We came back from this trip with lots of crystals and agates; and that fall I took some classes at a local lapidary shop where I learned how to facet (cut) the crystals into gemstones and grind and polish the agates into cabochons.
A few years later, in 1996, we decided to buy an older motor home and planned a trip to Quartzsite, Arizona. We left in January, but because of mechanical problems we never did make it to Arizona. We did, however, get to the diamond mine in Murfreesboro, Arkansas, where we got diamond fever. The next six years were mostly trips to the diamond and crystal mines in Arkansas. (Quartzsite is still on our list of places to go--perhaps next year.) The year 2000 found our home overflowing with gemstones and cabochons. That is when I stated wire-wrapping pendants.
Johnie’s passion is family history. She loves searching for lost information on ancestors and visiting relatives all over the United States. I enjoy the traveling to the different areas of the country, and I love the searching for natural gemstones. This combination of interests works out just perfectly for us. Our vacation out West in 2003 is a good example. We would visit relatives in Utah, Idaho, and Oregon. Our mining stops would be "opals" in Idaho and Nevada, "sapphires and rubies" in Montana, and "gold" in Oregon.
Although I have mined and worked with all kinds of gemstones, since 1991, opals have been my favorite. And since 2003, when I found out that there were real opal mines in the United States where I could actually search for opals, opal mining has become my favorite thing to do. I personally do the wire wrapping and the finishing of each opal pendant, and Johnie does the marketing aspect of our business. We feel this type of arrangement makes for a profitable, successful business.
