My Husband Begins Work on The Hobbit's Arkenstone of Thrain

The Dwarves worked the stone into a multifaceted jewel. It shone by its own pale light, but when light fell upon it, the stone "...changed it into ten thousand sparks of white radiance shot with glints of the rainbow". It was a heavy gem but small enough for Bilbo Baggins to hold in one hand, yet not so small that he could close his own small hand around it. [from Tolkien Gateway]

Designing the Arkenstone using Gemcad

Pre-forming the Arkenstone in his shop

To participate in the Saturday Snapshot meme 

post a photo that you (or a friend or family member) have taken

 then leave a direct link to your post in the Mister Linky at At Home With Books.

What is the Sunday Salon? Imagine some university library's vast reading room. It's filled with people--students and faculty and strangers who've wandered in. They're seated at great oaken desks, books piled all around them,and they're all feverishly reading and jotting notes in their leather-bound journals as they go.

Later they'll mill around the open dictionaries and compare their thoughts on the afternoon's literary intake....

That's what happens at the Sunday Salon, except it's all virtual. Every Sunday the bloggers participating in that week's Salon get together--at their separate desks, in their own particular time zones--and read. And blog about their reading. And comment on one another's blogs. Think of it as an informal, weekly, mini read-a-thon, an excuse to put aside one's earthly responsibilities and fall into a good book. Click here to join the Salon.