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THE EARTH’S TREASURES • MINERALS & JEWELRY

VOL. 47 ISSUE 9 • SEPT. 2017

JUDAH TYREMAN: Kid Curator of the Sesula Museum PROJECT II: Solar Eclipse Pendant Setting

ALSO INSIDE A Palette of Green Gemstones

Arizona Quartz Crystals & Nodules Washington Fairy Stones

ROCK & GEM • Vol 47 No. 09 • U.S. $5.99 • Issue Code: 2017-09 September 2017• Display until 09/26/17 • Printed in the U.S.A.

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Vol. 47, No. 9 • September 2017

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WHY WULFENITE? Arizona selects a surprising state mineral.

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By Bob Jones

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MAJOR SPECIMEN LOCALITIES 16 Part III: Bisbee and Mapimi are exceptional deposits. By Bob Jones ALL HANDS-ON! 24 A Canadian kid opens a world-class, userfriendly museum. By Chris and Judah Tyreman PROJECT:

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SOLAR ECLIPSE PENDANT 28 Part II: Forming the bezel and setting the stone.

By Rick Olmstead

TAYLOR RIVER CONCRETIONS 38 “Fairy stones” from Washington’s Middle Fork Valley. By Stuart “Tate” Wilson and Brittney Musulin 50

ROCK & GEM KIDS

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TRENDING IN 2017:

GREEN GEMSTONE PALETTE 50 Pantone picks gaspéite, emerald, maw sit sit, and tsavorite. By Helen Serras-Herman 58

RADIANT MINNESOTA THOMSONITE 58 The world’s most colorful opaque gemstone. By Mark Leatherman

DATE CREEK QUARTZ AND WICKENBURG NODULES 62 Rockhounding along Arizona’s Joshua Tree Parkway. By Alice Sikorski

Regular Columns Field Notes .......................... 6 Lapidary of the Month ....8 Bench Tips ......................... 22 Rock Science .................... 48 What to Cut ...................... 56 Picks & Pans ...................... 66 Show Dates ....................... 70 On the Rocks .................... 80 Parting Shot...................... 82

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On The Cover With so many copper mineral options, wulfenite (lead molybdite) might seem an odd choice for Arizona’s state mineral. Red Cloud mine specimen.

(Jeff Scovil photo)

EDITORIAL CONTACT INFORMATION: editor@rockngem.com

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Field notes READER LETTERS Herkimers and Stromatolites

Bob Jones’ article on Herkimer diamonds in the July issue ("Major Specimen Locations, Part 1: Herkimer, Tsumeb, and FranklinSterling Hill”) caught my attention when he mentioned that they formed in stromatolites!

I’d read about Herkimers forming from fluids that moved up through fractured rock near fault zones, and that porous rock was a prerequisite. I did not know it possible for them to grow in stromatolites.

I’ve been super interested in anything to do with stromatolites since first seeing them many years ago in Lake Thetis, Western Australia. Some of my specimens are from there, as well as from the Northern Territory, Morocco, Minnesota and Wyoming. I stood in a “petrified forest” of them in Morocco and just about cried trying to comprehend the enormity of time that was represented before me.

At the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show, I purchased a huge, polished slab of stromatolite. It has concentric rings of four colors, and a band of crystals in the center. At the same show, I also bought a couple specimens of dolostone with nice pockets of Herkimers.

Little did I know the two could have had a family history! Now the specimens share the same shelf within my rock room.

—Susan Arthur Juneau, AK I must have made a mistake in what I

wrote about the connection between these two things. The stromatolites preceded the

quartz by millions of years. They formed first and were gradually engulfed in mud, which

eventually became the dolostone. Enclosed,

the stromatolites died and slowly rotted, leaving behind some black organic material

in the cavity.

Later, the quartz solutions arrived, working their way into the formation as you described. The solutions sometimes ended up in the stromatolite cavities. The quartz crystals grew, and some of them actually engulfed bits of the black organic material left in the cavity. The black material is anthraxolite.

Oddly, the remains of the stromatolites ended up in the quartz not the other way around, as I implied.

—Bob Jones Senior Consulting Editor

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Alternate History

I always enjoy reading the many references in Bob Jones’ columns and articles in Rock & Gem to the Yale Peabody Museum and how influential it has been on him. I spent a couple years living just around the corner, on Elm Street, when my father was a graduate student in the Yale School of Art in the early 1950s. My mother attributed my lifelong interest in geology to being wheeled in my stroller on afternoon walks through the Hall of Dinosaurs, below Zollinger’s thennew Age of Reptiles mural. When I was an undergraduate myself, a couple decades later, I took geology and biology courses, and at one point had access to the museum’s invertebrate fossil collections.

Bob has also written many times about the significance of the Sillimans and Charles Dana to American science. When my oldest daughter was an undergraduate at Yale, she had a work-study job in the Beinecke Rare Book Library, and in 1998, she helped me locate some archived correspondence and sermons by our distant relation, the Rev. Naphtali Daggett (1727-80; Yale Class of 1748; President of Yale from 1766-80; and my 8th great granduncle). Rev. Daggett was the first endowed professor at Yale, and he was the man preaching weekly sermons to the young men of Yale on the eve of the American Revolution. Some of those sermons make it clear that he didn’t think much of earthly kings.

We also found two letters that the widower Daggett wrote in 1773 to another Congregationalist minister, the Rev. Joseph Fish, seeking the hand of the Rev. Fish’s widowed daughter Mary. Even though you would think his position at Yale would have made him a pretty good “catch”, he was evidently unsuccessful, and instead she married Gold Selleck Silliman, Yale Class of 1752, and in 1779 gave birth to ... Benjamin Silliman.

So, here’s something to ponder: What would the course of 19th-century American science have been like if my distant relative had been successful in his quest for the hand of Mary Fish? Any male offspring would surely have been destined for the ministry, not science. Sillimanite would have a different name, and I doubt that I would have a Dana’s Mineralogy on my bookshelf.

—Warren McCullough Helena, MT

EDITORIAL BOB JONES Senior Consulting Editor LYNN VARON Managing Editor JIM BRACE-THOMPSON MARC DAVIS RUSS KANIUTH BOB RUSH HELEN SERRAS-HERMAN STEVE VOYNICK Regular Contributors EDITORIAL SUBMISSIONS: Lynn Varon / Rock & Gem 5235 Mission Oaks Blvd. #201 Camarillo, CA 93012 (972) 448-4626 e-mail: editor@rockngem.com

ART DEPARTMENT LINDSEY JONES Art Director RAVIJOT SINGH Designer ROBYN AUSTIN Contributing Designer

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Rock & Gem

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lapidary

of the

month SEPTEMBER 2017

W

hen you have been cutting cabs as long as I have—40-plus years—you get to cut many different materials and some distinctive shapes. I happen to enjoy cutting freeform cabs out of Mexican Crazy Lace agate. Every year I make about 300 cabs out of all kinds of material, but the ones that sell the best are my Crazy Lace agate ones.

Well I guess my reputation has spread, because one day when I opened my Facebook page, I saw this message from my friends Nick and Elfi: “So Dick, we’re having the kitchen cupboards p ainte d Bittersweet Chocolate and I think they would look marvelous with Crazy Lace pulls. We only need 54 of them. Are you game?”

I thought it was a joke and I wasn’t all that keen to do 54 cabs that were all roughly the same. Fortunately, Nick and Elfi finally decided that they wanted three pairs of knobs to act as accent pieces for three upper cupboards. Each pair should be similar in pattern, but I could use three different patterns of rough. I showed them about a dozen different shapes from my existing cabs, but they wanted round.

First, I sorted through my slabs to find colors and patterns that would match up in pairs and would look good with dark brown.

Although the slabs varied slightly in thickness, I was generally looking for slabs that were ¼ inch thick.

Using a template, I marked out 38 mm rounds with heavy pencil, then cut them out close to the line on my Genie’s trim saw. I ground them to size on the 100 wheel and domed them.

Since I like to grind and polish my cabs without dop sticks, I could just go from wheel to wheel on my six-wheel Genie up to the 3000 wheel. I then polished them with tin oxide on leather.

I wanted to be sure that the patterns I had chosen were acceptable.

So although they had ordered fewer, I made seven pairs in the end, hoping three of them would suitable. To my surprise, they took all seven pairs of cabs! They took their old brassand-wood kitchen doorknobs and cut off the rounded wooden knobs to form a flat seat for the stone cabs.

Then they glued the cabs and knobs together with PL Premium, let them dry completely, and were ready to install them.

Now it is up to them to agree which pairs to use. Who knows? They may end up putting them all up. Thanks, Nick and Elfi, for giving me something to do while my wife was in Florida!

—Dick Stata Oshawa, ONT

CONTEST RULES Would you like to be named Lapidary of the Month? To enter the contest: • Write a 500-word step-by-step description of how you crafted your lapidary project and save it as a document file.

• Take at least one sharp, close-up, color digital photo of the finished project. Photos must be high-resolution (300 dpi at 4 inches by 5 inches, minimum).

• Attach your document file and digital photo (.tif or .jpg) to an e-mail and send it to editor@rockngem.com with the subject line “Lapidary of the Month”.

• E-mail the editor or call (972) 448-4626 with any questions about these requirements.

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Arizona Selects a Surprising State Mineral Story by Bob Jones

Bob Jones

O The wulfenite from the Glove mine was so plentiful, the men who collected it sold 4-inch by 5-inch specimens like this for $5 each.

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n Feb. 10, 2017 the Arizona House of Representatives voted almost unanimously to make wulfenite the official state mineral.

This vote was followed a few days later in the Arizona State Senate by an almost unanimous vote of confirmation. This sent AZ HB2092 to Governor Doug Ducey for his signature.

He signed it on March 22, 2017, making wulfenite the official Arizona state mineral.

It seems difficult to believe that this state, whose rich copper deposits have yielded such beauties as azurite and malachite, had never chosen a state mineral. It had designated a state gem (petrified wood), a state metal (copper), and even official state neckwear (the bola tie), but no state mineral.

Now, Arizona has a state mineral, thanks to a hardworking and very eager group of rockhounds that developed a campaign to get wulfenite recognized.

Rock & Gem

Arizona’s 79 mine (Pima County) is a source of exquisite wulfenites, such as these windowpane crystals.

Joe Budd/Arkenstone

September 2017

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joe budd/arkenstone

Why Wulfenite?

The wulfenite in the Rowley mine occurs in a series of subparallel openings in white, massive barite seams.

joe budd/arkenstone

You must agree that wulThe accomplishment took a fenite is a marvelously beauconcerted effort, headed by Dr. tiful mineral. It is found in a Alexander Schuass and Minbroad range of colors, from eralogical Society of Arizona nearly colorless to brilliant (MSA) President Chris Whitred, orange and yellow, and ney Smith. They were aided by various shades and tints of a wonderful group of young these eye-catching colors. Its rockhounds who are MSA crystal form can be almost members. These people visited astoundingly beautiful. Not the Arizona State Legislature only is wulfenite beautiful, a couple of times bearing gifts but huge numbers of speciand showing their enthusiastic mens of this lead molybdate support for AZ HB2092. You have been mined, most of can read all about their involveRed mimetite sparkles on matrix with gemmy, orange wulfenite which exhibit textbookment and the tedious, some- crystals. (Rowley mine) perfect tabular, transparent times frustrating process to guide a bill through a legislature. At the same time, you’ll come to blades clustered profusely on matrix. The color of wulfenite realize that our local officials really do respond to their constituents. varies, but the most popular are the red to orange-red blades, They certainly listened to Arizona’s rockhounds and worked to whose rich, eye-catching color is often due to the chromophore chromium. honor their responsibilities as elected officials.

Wulfenite is a secondary lead mineral that forms when supergene Your initial reaction when learning that wulfenite is Arizona’s state mineral may have been a surprise, since Arizona is known as water invades lead deposits, picking up atoms of lead and molybdethe Copper State. Yet, among mineralogists and amateur mineral num, which are common elements in many Arizona metal deposits. collectors, wulfenite ranks as one of Arizona’s most accessible and The lead and molybdenum atoms combine with oxygen to form lead molybdate—wulfenite. beautiful minerals, and is deserving of the honor.

Wulfenite forms best in deeply weathered desert environments. It Why wulfenite? After all, Arizona has been producing huge tonnages of the red metal since the latter half of the 1800s. When we occurs in Mexico, Morocco, Africa and Turkey, as well as Arizona. talked to rockhounds about a state mineral, most assumed that Some countries have produced specimens that rival Arizona’s in it was a copper mineral. Fortunately, wulfenite, another beautiful form, but none can rival Arizona for the sheer quantity, quality and beauty of specimens. The southern desert region of Arizona mineral, was chosen.

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Rock & Gem

Why Wulfenite? is exceptionally rich in wulfenite deposits, with more than 100 known sources.

Descending water carries its load of dissolved minerals deep underground and, over eons of time, eventually deposits it as wulfenite, a byproduct of metal mining and a common secondary mineral. I have had the pleasure of collecting wulfenite in many Arizona deposits, going as deep as 500 feet in notable mines such as the Red Cloud mine, in La Paz County. The Red Cloud is among the most famous of all the dozens of Arizona wulfenite sources.

In the colonial days of America, before the westward expansion, small amounts of wulfenite were found at Loudville, Massachusetts, and the Wheatley mine, in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania. These deposits were important in those days, serving as sources of lead for musket balls.

The type locality for wulfenite is Bleiberg, Austria, where it was recognized as a new species in 1845 and named after noted Jesuit mineralogist Xavier Wulfen. But wulfenite was not an important collector mineral until it was found in quantity in the Western United States.

Many Southwestern deposits of wulfenite were found within 150 miles of Tucson, so it is not a stretch of the imagination to consider Tucson the wulfenite capital of Arizona. This is not because of the more than 40 mineral shows held there from late January through the first half of February, even though wulfenite is often a featured mineral in displays and competitions at these shows. A 150-mile radius around Tucson, including northern Mexico, holds something like 150 different mines that have produced wulfenite, some of which are world famous.

Among the more noteworthy and famous sources of wulfenite in Arizona that have produced huge quantities of spectacular wulfenite are the Red Cloud, Old Yuma, Glove, Hilltop, Defiance, Rowley, 79 and Tombstone mines, although the last is better known for its silver production and the O.K. Corral shootout!

Of these premier Arizona sources, the Red Cloud mine stands out as having produced large quantities of the most colorful and spectacular wulfenite crystals known. In the 1880s, it produced the first suite of superb, large, bright-red, tabular wulfenite crystal specimens, which are now in the Harvard University mineral collection.

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Why Wulfenite?

BoB Jones

This Evan Jones display at the Tucson Show demonstrates the variety and beauty of specimens of Arizona’s official state mineral, wulfenite.

These beauties have stirred specimen collectors into action, and in the mid-1930s, professional specimen miner Ed Over recovered a large suite of amazing 2- to 2½-inch, rich-red wulfenite blades, some of which are now displayed in the Smithsonian Institution and other museums and private collections. In the ensuing years, local collectors experienced sporadic success at the Red Cloud until the 1990s, when a serious open-cast specimen-mining venture was organized. This proved to be amazingly successful. The open pit produced huge quantities of the world’s finest matrix wulfenite specimens. Wulfenites from this operation are now in countless private collections and museums around the world.

For sheer beauty, nothing rivals the delicate orange-red wulfenite clusters from the Rowley mine, near Gila Bend, Arizona. Most specimens are small, but exceptionally attractive. The Rowley had been a favorite amateur rockhound collecting site for decades, so there is no way to estimate how much wulfenite was mined by amateur collectors. The mine is currently privately owned and being worked successfully for specimens. It is only accessible by invitation.

I enjoyed collecting at the Rowley as far back as the 1960s, when it was readily accessible, and recently went underground by invitation to enjoy a dig.

The wulfenite in the Rowley occurs in a series of subparallel openings in white, massive barite seams. The openings are lined with myriad orange-red crystals that measure up to an inch or so on an edge. When collecting there, you

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had to choose which crystal-lined seam among several looked the most fruitful. Sometimes, these beauties were accompanied by small spherules of bright-red mimetite—a marvelous combination of colors.

Specimens collected by amateurs were never large, as it was a challenge to break the hard barite without damaging the crystals.

Serious mining now produces larger specimens. The beautiful color and lovely clusters of transparent, delicate crystals make Rowley mine wulfenite an exceptional example of the state mineral.

Another famous Arizona wulfenite locality, the Glove mine, is located just a few dozen miles south of Tucson. This deposit was made famous for one huge wulfenite find in the 1950s, which produced quantities of extremely attractive clusters of honeycolored wulfenite blades in tight clusters. The individual crystals are square and tabular, with distinctive, slightly rounded corners, and they were found in subparallel clusters. The unusual honey-yellow color and sizes of up to 2 inches on an edge make Glove wulfenites easy to recognize.

The Glove wulfenite pocket was exposed during the sinking of an inclined shaft. The huge, cavelike pocket was mined by local rockhounds Bob Haig and Dick Bideaux, who were invited to collect in the crystal-lined cave. The opening measured some 4 to 5 feet high and at least 15 feet wide and deep. Thousands of specimens were saved, thanks to two rockhounds. Glove specimens were initially sold for

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Why Wulfenite? $5 per unit (a 4- by 5-inch specimen)!

Another Arizona mine that produced amazing wulfenite in quantity also involved Bideaux and the Defiance mine, located not far from Tucson. The specimens from there are easily recognized crystals of light to dark brown, arranged vertically in subparallel clusters. Each crystal is shaped almost like an arrowhead, showing stepped growth on the edges.

The big find at the Defiance was exposed during mining. A blast uncovered a long, open seam that was at least 90 feet long and completely lined with wulfenite crystal clusters. The mine owner contacted Bideaux’s father, George, a well-known owner of local newspapers, and invited Bideaux and his collecting partner, Dick Jones, to dig. It took an entire weekend to clean out the open seam.

They dug so much wulfenite it took two desert vehicles and a small U-Haul trailer to haul off all the boxes filled with their find!

Although Defiance specimens are not as attractive as the Rowley, Glove, or Red Cloud specimens, the sheer volume of them has certainly added much to Arizona’s reputation for fine wulfenite.

You can actually see the tall buildings in downtown Tucson when standing at the Old Yuma mine. The mine is noted for its bright orange-red wulfenite blades. My favorite story about this mine involves Dick Jones. He carried a pistol on his collecting trips in the desert. While resting between digging efforts at the Old Yuma, Dick noticed a bright-orange spot on the open pit wall. He shot at it, and the bullet opened a crystal pocket of fine, orange-red wulfenite crystals! This mine is better known for superb red vanadinite, but it produced excellent wulfenite, as well.

The Mammoth-St. Anthony mine, at Tiger, was a great source of richly colored orange-red wulfenite. This mineral was so abundant it was actually mined as an ore of molybdenum. These wulfenite specimens are very fine, with small, but perfect, crystal form.

Wulfenite from Tombstone, the Hilltop, and most other mines are fine, yellow, tabular crystals that are often transparent and beautifully positioned on matrix. All have added to Arizona’s reputation as the world’s most abundant source of attractive and colorful wulfenite—the world’s best!

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Major Specimen Localities, Part III:

T

Story and Photos by Bob Jones

he localities included in this series of articles were chosen because they all produced huge quantities of different collector species. Most were also accessible to collectors under various circumstances. They are, of course, my personal choices, and by no means everyone’s favorites. Yet, these localities have had a significant impact on the collector specimen market—in some cases, for decades.

Bisbee, Arizona In the case of the copper mines of Bisbee, Arizona, the miners themselves were the active collectors, thanks to the benevolent attitude of Phelps Dodge Corp. management. As long as the miners kept ore production at a high level, they were welcome to collect specimens and bring them to grass.

When the mines closed, some of the miners were still actively collecting in areas they could access and which they knew were fruitful. In fact, the most amazing cuprite crystal specimen ever dug underground in Bisbee was brought out by a couple of collectors long after the mines stopped producing. At times, it has also been possible for local clubs to collect the dumps, as long as permission was arranged.

Such collecting opportunities were possible because of a practice employed by the company when the mines were still operating. While mining the sulfide zones, an occasional area of oxide ores was encountered. Since the smelting system was set up to handle sulfides, not oxides, these specimen-rich oxide ores were saved, to be used when the smelting process needed “sweetening” to bring the copper production figures up a little. On rare occasion, these oxide dumps were made accessible to organized groups to collect—a real treat that was always successful!

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Rock & Gem

This classic Bisbee azurite and malachite specimen from the Copper Queen mine was in the personal collection of Dr. James Douglas, a metallurgical engineer with Phelps Dodge Corp.

Wikipedia

September 2017

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Major Specimen Localities, Part III The deposits at Bisbee were originally discovered in 1876 by James Dunn, an army scout on patrol. Dunn picked up a specimen of cerussite and thought he had found a leadsilver deposit, since silver-rich Tombstone was a nearby, active mining camp. Based on this find, the Henderson mine was opened before 1880 and was operated as a lead-silver mine.

Copper mining actually got started in 1880 on Queen Hill, in the Mule Mountains, where an outcrop of a copper mineral deposit was located. In spite of the time that has passed since then, at least one specimen from that original outcrop still exists. It was in the personal collection of the original mine manager, Ben Williams, and is now in the collection of Evan Jones.

The outcrop was surface collected, but soon a shaft was dug to follow the ore vein to depth. The ore was very rich and, before a smelter was finally built by Williams’ brother Lewis, the ore was hauled by mule to the Gulf of California and transshipped around Cape Horn to Swansea, Wales, where the Williams family originated.

This first mine, the Copper Queen, was being operated by Bisbee, Williams & Co. It produced until 1884, when the vein pinched out. In the meantime, as in most mining districts, various discovery claims had been filed, and Phelps Dodge Corp. was working the nearby Atlanta copper mine.

When the Queen miners hit borrasca (country rock), the order was sent to shut down, but Williams tried one last blast in a different direction that he suspected might be fruitful. It was: He hit a huge, rich ore body. The problem was that miners from the Atlanta mine had hit that same ore body from the opposite side.

Normally, when that happens, lawsuits ensue to determine mining rights. That always proved costly. But the mine owners were smart. Instead of going to court and making the lawyers rich, they consolidated and formed the Copper Queen Consolidated Mining Co. in 1885. Profitable mining followed, which eventually brought to light some of the finest azurite and malachite specimens found in Arizona.

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When you read the literature on the Warren district, you often get confused about mine names. The sources of some specimens are given as mine names (Copper Queen, Henderson, etc.), while others are described as coming from a particular shaft (Czar, Holbrook, etc.). Not surprisingly, specimens were apt to be dug in one shaft area and brought to grass up another. Usually, the mine name is used as the source, and is preferred, since the shaft name could be less accurate. The shaft name is given only if it is actually known.

Fortunately, a handful of people have handled so much Bisbee material they have learned how to accurately identify many specimens by the shaft or mine they emerged from. This is usually done by examining the matrix that holds those beautiful crystals.

A few experienced collectors can even tell approximately when some specimens came to grass!

Successful mining continued into the time of World War I, but union organizers gradually made inroads, and in 1917 miners went on strike for higher wages and better working conditions. However, employment conditions and workers’ rights were a far cry from what we have today. The mine owners were not to put up with such an interruption. They formed a huge, armed posse and, early one morning, invaded the homes of the miners, loaded more than 1,000 strikers onto a train, and hauled them off to New Mexico. Imagine if that happened today!

In the 1950s, the high-grade underground mines played out or became more and more expensive to operate, and mining of the original quartz monzonite porphyry began. This porphyry had been created when metal-rich solutions had invaded about 180 million years ago. It was also the source of the solutions that invaded the surrounding limestone, creating the rich underground deposits first mined.

The open pit, named for manager James Lavender, was started in 1954 and lasted about 20 years. The ore was low-grade, so the halcyon days of specimen recovery were during the underground mining years.

Throughout the years, the mainstay of the Bisbee mines was two carbonate minerals, azurite and malachite, with cuprite as an

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Major Specimen Localities, Part III interesting third species. These very colorful minerals were exhibited as Bisbee’s best at the Chicago Exposition in 1893. They still bring attention to Arizona’s most noteworthy copper deposit.

Mapimi, Mexico While Bisbee may be Arizona’s best-known specimen deposit, most collectors agree that Mapimi (Durango), Mexico, ranks as one of that country’s best-known specimen sources.

Bill Panczner sets forth that opinion in his 1987 text Minerals of Mexico, and the statement is universally agreed to by collectors and dealers.

Of the more than 150 species found there, two species come to mind immediately when you say, “Mapimi”: adamite and legrandite.

Not surprisingly, both species were barely known before the Ojuela mine began producing specimens far superior than any known before in large quantities.

Ojuela gets credit for almost all the minerals that come out of the ground, but there are actually more than 200 mines in the district.

Spanish explorers get credit for discovering these rich silver deposits in 1598, when they spotted an ore outcrop about 200 feet below the rim of a limestone cliff. They actually started mining at that site using hand-hewn steps in the limestone to reach the ore.

Active mining has been more or less continuous, except in times of political crisis, until the mid-1800s, when the mines closed.

Mining resumed about 20 years later, and it was during this period that the famous steelwood Ojuela Bridge was built across the original discovery canyon. During the two world wars, Mapimi was very active, but closure was planned with the end of hostilities. At that time, the miners formed a co-operative to keep the mine open for two reasons: to continue mining and shipping ore and to salvage as many collector specimens as possible, since this had become a lucrative sideline.

It was during the operation of the mines by the cooperative that the greatest quantity and variety of mineral species were brought to grass, including huge quantities of adamite and the first significant finds of legrandite.

The ore is high-grade arsenical silver-lead-

September 2017

Native copper specimens from Bisbee come in all forms, including fine spinel-twinned blades.

zinc that is found in a series of chimneys and mantos in the host limestone. Mining revealed seven different rich chimneys where ore minerals were injected into the limestone, creating a deposit that extended over 2,000 feet into the earth. The mantos are thick, blanketlike, horizontal layers of rich ore interlayered with the limestone, generally within 1,000 feet of the surface.

What makes this a special deposit is the arsenic, in the form of arsenopyrite. When weathered, it contributed that element to the development of a whole series of secondary species, including adamite, legrandite, koettigite, paradamite and conichalcite.

Adamite has been known since it was mined at Lavrion, Greece, before the time of Christ.

Specimens from there are still in the hands of collectors. The first adamite found in Mexico was from the Flora de Pena mine (Lampozas, Nuevo Leon). The type specimen is made up of small sprays of yellowish needles. This original legrandite was a far cry from what was found at Mapimi, like the huge legrandite called Aztec Sun, first named in an article I wrote for Rock & Gem. That article originated when Jack Amsbury, who brought the Aztec Sun out of Mexico to Tucson, called me.

I went to a very small local show in Globe, Arizona, back in the 1970s. There were no more than a dozen or so dealers selling min-

erals. Jack and his lovely wife, Hortensia, were there, so I asked what he had brought out of Mexico. He pointed under his tables to about a dozen large apple boxes stuffed with exceptional adamite specimens—hundreds of them. This gives you an inkling of the amount of adamite produced during the efforts of the Mapimi co-op. The quality of these specimens was stunning. I had trouble choosing specimens, especially at the asking price of $2 per pound!

Go to any mineral show and check every dealer’s stock. I can almost guarantee you will find specimens of a variety of species from Mapimi for sale, even though the specimen supply has slowed to a trickle compared to the heyday of co-op mining. You won’t find lots of adamite or legrandite, but specimens of hemimorphite, smithsonite, wulfenite, mimetite, aurichalcite, hydrozincite, azurite, malachite, calcite, aragonite, fluorite, austenite, and other, lesser-known species that are not show stoppers will be there somewhere. It was this wonderful variety of inexpensive, colorful, and readily available species that really put Mapimi on the map after World War II. There are still specimen-mining activities going on at Mapimi, but the diggers are only picking the bones of what was, for nearly 400 years, the most productive specimen locality in Mexico.

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Bench tips

by BOB RUSH

Working Cabs from the Back

I preformed a teardrop-shaped cab from milky chalcedony and placed three burs on the back to determine the layout of the holes.

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few years back, when my wife and I were invited to show our display case at the Tucson Gem & Mineral Show®, I was wandering around the showroom drooling over the phenomenal minerals and spectacular gems that were displayed and being sold by the many dealers at the show. One thing that really caught my eye was the sculptural gems that multiple-award-winning stone cutter John Dyer (johndyergems.com) had at his booth.

They were faceted and carved, with round features in the backs of the pieces. He was rather busy, but I did have a few minutes to discuss these round features, and I was really impressed by how they enhanced the attractiveness of the already beautiful pieces. I came away from the encounter with the idea that, someday, I would try to do some cabs with this decorative technique.

Recently, I came across an advertisement in a magazine that had a photo of a carved piece of my current favorite material, milky chalcedony, set in a gold pendant. The piece was made by Utopian Stone (utopianstone.com), and it had circles carved in the back. This was the inspiration that motivated me to try to learn how to carve these features into the back of a cab. With this task in mind, I bought a set of round 36 grit diamond burs in sizes from 1⁄8 inch up to 5⁄8 inch in diameter at a recent show. During the fabrication process, it became apparent that

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A piece of wooden dowel becomes a sanding tip if you spin it in the flex shaft handle and shape it with a coarse file to fit the hole.

For sanding and polishing, I make a heavy slurry of the grit or powder and spread it on the wooden wheels and in the holes.

I should have also gotten a 220 grit set of burs.

In all the drilling, grinding, sanding and polishing activities be sure to wear suitable eye protection for the task at hand.

I preformed a teardrop-shaped cab from milky chalcedony and placed three burs on the back to determine the layout of the holes.

I drew a vertical line down the center of the back of the cab so I could ensure that the holes would be centered and in a straight line.

While holding the cab underwater in a small aluminum pan, I located the holes on this line and drilled a 1⁄8-inch starter hole for each one.

I then drilled each one with the appropriatesized bur down to about one-half to two-thirds of the thickness of the cab.

To sand the holes, I used tumbling grit on wooden wheels. I cut ½-inch lengths of 7⁄16-, ½- and 5⁄8-inch soft wooden dowels, and mounted them on screw-tip mandrels. With the mandrel in the flex shaft handle, I spun the dowels and shaped them with a coarse file to fit the holes.

For sanding, I used 220, 400 and 600 tumbling grits, and for polishing I use Propolish or cerium oxide.

I use small plastic condiment cups to hold the sanding and polishing grit or powder and add water to the cups to make a heavy slurry.

I dip the wooden wheel into a cup of water, then use a small, flat, wooden spatula to spread

the slurry on the wooden wheels and into the drilled cavities. After sanding and polishing the cavities, I finished the piece with standard cabbing techniques.

Adding these features to the back of the cab opens a new window to the creative options in making cabs.

Adding these features to the back of the cab opens a new window to the creative options in making cabs.

Bob Rush has worked in lapidary since 1958 and metal work and jewelry since 1972. He teaches at clubs and at Camp Paradise.

Contact him at rocksbob@ sbcglobal.net.

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Rock & Gem

A Canadian Kid Opens a World-Class, User-Friendly Museum Story, Photos by Chris and Judah Tyreman

t’s been a year since 13-year-old Judah Tyreman, of Radisson, Saskatchewan, did something that no one else has ever done: He opened up Canada’s only hands-on mineral, fossil and gem museum.

It’s a concept that is changing the way that people are looking at the idea of a museum, and it all started with a rock polisher.

Judah explains, “It’s really strange how one event leads to another until here we are with a full museum. It started with my parents buying me a Vibra 10 polisher. I began searching everywhere to find cool rocks to polish up into something cool.

Even my friends began collecting stuff that they wanted me to polish for them.

“What I ended up with was a huge pile of shiny rocks and a need to find newer and more interesting stuff, so my sister, Avi, and I would haul Dad to gravel pits and the like to look for specimens. If we went on trips, we had to stop at rock shops.

September 2017

1. The most important thing is not to sell a rock, but to give an experience, so Judah gives everyone a hands-on tourof the displays.

2. Magnets attached to the bottoms of specimens allow kids to handle any item and replace it on its display stand.

3. Touching isn’t limited to small specimens. Here, a large piece of muscovite from Russia is getting the handson treatment.

4. Small samples that are for sale are priced so that kids can start a good collection affordably.

AT RIGHT. Judah Tyreman

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All Hands-On! “Once people know this, of course, you know what happens: An uncle’s or grandpa’s or friend’s collection, which was taking up space at their house, began taking up space in my room, then the closets, then the garage.

“This is when Mrs. Cochran, from our town, saw that there was a grant available to put up a natural history display at the newly renovated Goodrich Center in town for four months over the summer. As it had a granite floor, the idea of my mineral collection came to mind.

“With the grant, my dad and I sat down and decided that if we were going to create a display, then it would be for kids to touch and learn with. So we created display stands with information about each mineral. I knew kids would want to handle them, so I came up with the idea of fixing magnets to the bottoms of the specimens so they could be removed from and replaced on each stand. Thus was born the idea of hands-on displays.

“Between my rocks and Dad’s butterfly collection, we filled 800 square feet of room, and away we went. We put signs on the highway and watched as people filtered through all summer long, from places all over the world.

“As people began leaving donations, I began to look for newer and bigger items that would make kids ‘ooh’ and ‘ahh’, because that’s how you get them interested. So I began looking on the Internet, and in short order I bumped into Stewart Sesula, who lived south of the closest city to us, Saskatoon.

“Mr. Sesula invited us out to the acreage he lived on, to a yard full of barrels, bathtubs and garages full of minerals from around the world. Little did I know at the time, he was selling me a lot of stuff cheaper than cost, just to help out with what we were doing. At the end of the summer, he even visited my display and said he was blown away.

“Then a couple of months later, we received word that he had caught double pneumonia.

As Mr. Sesula was quadriplegic, this was a death sentence for him, and sadly he passed away that month.

“After he died, I received a phone call from his wife telling me that Stewart didn’t want his personal collection broken up, but

he wanted me to have it because he knew I would do something with it for kids. I thought about it and realized that I had to open up a hands-on kids’ museum.”

With that idea in mind, Judah and his little sister, Avi, put together a Kickstarter video and raised C$5,000 to open up Phase I of the museum in 2016. The video sparked appearances on television, such as the Discovery Channel, and media coverage all over North America. People even helped out by sending more display samples to Judah for the museum.

“The Lawson Heights Mall, in Saskatoon, even let me display all of our samples to raise awareness of the museum, and the shops in the mall raised donations to help out also,” says Judah. “It was an amazing day that raised $700.”

So by May 15, 2016, Judah opened The Sesula Mineral & Gem Museum, which was designed not just for kids of all ages, but was completely wheelchair-accessible in honor of Stewart.

“Hands-on was the first part of making the museum different,” says Judah. “I wanted it to be different in other ways, as well. I wanted it to be self-sustaining financially, so that it wouldn’t always need to look for donations and volunteers to survive.

“I intended to do this through specimen and jewelry sales, but with a twist. Most museums have gift shops that you can buy samples from when you’re done looking, but kids like myself find that frustrating. Trying to remember which ones you thought were cool, then trying to remember all of the names and the like was a huge headache. I would come home with a bag of rocks and no memory of what they were, so there was your collection, a bunch of pretty rocks in a bag.

“I wanted to change that, so I created a different way of doing it. We have specimens for sale right next to displays, so that kids can see and read about what they are interested in. Then they or their parents can use their cell phone and take a picture of the info stand. When they get home, not only can they remember what the samples are, but they can print out the pictures and have all

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All Hands-On! of the information about them, also.

“Second, I wanted kids to learn without knowing it, so when they come in, I tell them that one of the displays has the only sample known in the world and that there is a reward for finding it. This way, they have to read all of the displays until they find it.

“What is it? The ultra-rare and -valuable naylepawlishite: a piece of plain, white quartz covered in my sister’s iridescent nail polish. If they find it, they get a really nice mineral sample.

“And finally, we give free samples away to the rock lovers that come through the door. From pieces of larvikite, from Larvik, Norway, to white calcite from Brazil, to that big pile of rocks that I polished way back, we try to make sure that no rock lover leaves empty-handed, because that one special rock can change everything!”

But Judah was not finished. As soon as Phase I was open, he began planning Phase II of the museum.

He reached his first main goal this January with the addition of a Velociraptor dinosaur skeleton from Britain, and from there, he continued to dream. Phase II is now complete and boasts an additional $10,000 worth of new mineral specimens, plus a new 6-foot-diameter model of the Earth as the centerpiece for the astro-geology area.

Phase II opened on May 15, 2017, a year to the day after Phase I. It has increased the museum’s space by over 200%, thanks largely to the generous financial support of Eleanor Krimmel, from the United States, who funded a major portion of it.

To honor her support over the years, Judah has named the new annex after her. “With Mrs. Krimmel’s donations,” Judah continues, “I was able to create on a larger scale than the first area. I wanted people to come in and feel like they were stepping into a city museum and not some small country one with a couple of shelves.

“The displays were designed one by one to maximize every inch of space, while keeping the area wheelchair-accessible. After that, lighting was the second most important thing. Underlighting and spotlights bring light and life to the mineral displays.

September 2017

Judah’s first acquisition for Phase II was this Velociraptor skeleton, which arrived without assembly instructions. It took two weeks of headaches to get it right!

It gives a sense of wonder to the area, like stepping into a wonderland of minerals.

You can really see it on the faces of kids as they rush from display to display yelling, ‘Mom, come see this!’

“We have also received countless numbers of compliments from adults who have said that they never expected anything like this in a small town. Every time I hear it, it makes me feel like we hit the target I was aiming for.”

Now boasting more than 3,000 minerals, fossils, gems, and other items that are globally sourced, the collection grows daily. Whether it’s pieces from the Crystal Cave World Heritage Site in Mexico or massive muscovite from Russia, items ranging from meteors to dinosaurs and geodes to gems make this one of the most complete and dazzling museum collections you will ever experience.

Now that Phase II is operational, Judah is looking to buy the museum building and work on Phase III in the upper level, a 4,000-piece Native American display, and then Phase IV on the lower level, which will let kids step back in time to walk through an old-style mine.

Plans are for the expansions to begin in 2018.

The Sesula Museum’s recently completed astro-geology area includes a 6-foot-diameter cutaway model of Earth.

For a tactile experience rooted in reality, check out the Sesula Mineral & Gem Museum at 333 Main Street, in Radisson.

Visit its Facebook page, The Sesula Mineral & Gem Museum, for updates. You can contact Judah at the.mineral.kid@gmail.com.

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PROJECT:

Solar Eclipse Pendant

Part II: Forming the Bezel and Setting the Stone Story and Photos by Rick Olmstead

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his project is intended to be a lapidary rendition of the August 2017 solar eclipse. It consists of a hollow, “box form” sterling silver setting and a custom-cut, inlaid pendant stone. Black jade represents the obscuring moon, and radiating quartz crystals, taken from the center of a Brazilian agate slab, simulate the blocked-out sun. Black onyx beads and a custom clasp will give a dramatic finishing touch.

Part I of this article (August 2017) walked the reader through the steps to creating the centerpiece stone for this pendant. Part II explains how to create the bezel and bail and set the stone.

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MATERIALS

16 gauge round sterling silver wire (6 in. minimum) 22 or 20 gauge x 2 in. x 4 in. sterling silver sheet 22 gauge fine silver sheet Ɨ2.90 mm (outside diameter) x .41 mm (wall thickness) sterling silver tubing (.082-in. inside diameter), 1½ in. or longer Hard sheet-type silver solder Medium and easy wire-type silver solder Tripoli (coarse) buffing compound Zam™ (or equivalent) finishing compound Sprue wax, beeswax, or poster clay Baking soda (pickle acid neutralizer) Soldering flux (paste type) and application brush #320 and #600 grit silicon carbide waterproof sandpaper Fine Scotch-Brite™ pad TOOLS

Flex shaft machine Soldering pick and torch Flat-nose forming pliers Plated diamond wheel Riveting hammer Center punch 2 third hand bases with tweezers 8-in. half-round file, Cut #2 6-in. triangle needle file “Sterling” or “.925” quality stamp #46 or 5/64-in. drill bit Round .080-in. string trimmer line 13/16-in.-diameter wooden dowel or mandrel Round steel bar stock or pipe, 1¾ in. diameter Moore’s® Adalox fine 7/8-in. sanding disks (separate mandrel required) ƗAdvantEdge Plus floppy disk silicon carbide polishers, medium and very fine Hard, 1-in. x 1∕₈-in. felt mini buffing wheels (separate mandrel required) Stiff 1-in. fiber brush wheel (may require separate mandrel) 1-in. or 1¼-in. fine muslin buffing wheel (requires separate mandrel) ƗBalloon cloth buffing wheel OPTIONAL ƗƗ1½ in. Mini Diamond smoothing disk kit ƗAdvantEdge extra fine silicone pink polishers (22 mm

x 3 mm); requires separate mandrel Dapping block set

ƗAvailable from www.RioGrande.com ƗƗAvailable from Hitechdiamond.com

September 2017

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PROJECT: Solar Eclipse Pendant, Part II 41) A large stone works better as a pendant when set in a heavy bezel. Thinner roll-type bezels become misshapen easily during soldering, and the stone will not fit. Saw a ¼-in. x 5¼-in. bezel strip from a sheet of 22 gauge fine silver. Hang and anneal the bezel. Fine silver does not oxidize with heat as sterling does, so it is harder to see when annealing temperature has been reached in bright lighting. Turn down the lights to see the dim red color that indicates the proper temperature.

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42) Bend the bezel snugly around the stone, mark where the ends should meet, and cut the strip just a little longer. The bezel height will be almost as high as the low-domed stone.

43) File the ends square so that no gap shows when the bezel is laid on a flat surface.

44) Clamp your tweezers at the side of the bezel, holding it with the ends at the very top. Bend the bezel so there is some tension holding the ends together. Carefully align the two ends to match. Apply flux and put a piece of hard (high-temperature) sheet solder, about 1⁄8 in. wide and the same height as the bezel, over the gap. Put some light pressure on the top of the solder with your solder pick when heating, as this will tend to keep the bezel ends at the same level. When the solder just begins to melt, move your pick down 90° to the side of the bezel. Reheat and apply very light pressure as the solder melts.

This will close the gap between the ends of the bezel and give you a narrow solder joint.

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45) Grind off any excess solder only from the inside of the solder joint. I prefer to use a sharp, plated diamond wheel for this.

46) Sand one side of the bezel flat on a hard surface until no unsanded area remains.

47) With the stone set in the bezel, lightly tap all around the bottom of the bezel with a pair of flat-nose pliers or another flat-sided tool.

48) Continue tapping until the bezel can be lifted off without lifting the stone. It should also be able to be dropped back on by its own weight, without hanging up on the stone edges.

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49) Keeping your marker tip at least 1⁄8 in. away from the bezel, trace a line around it onto a sheet of 22 gauge (minimum) sterling silver.

Repeat to make a second disk.

50) Saw out both disks, staying a safe distance outside the lines. Saw into a bar of soap to lubricate the blade.

51) Sand one side of each disk flat to remove oxidation in preparation for soldering.

52) Anneal a 6-in.-long piece of 1 mm x 4 mm sterling silver rectangle wire. This will become the sidewall between the two disks you just cut out. Wrap your silver strip around a 1¾-in.-diameter piece of round steel bar stock or pipe. Mark where the ends should meet, cut on the mark, and file the ends square, as you did with the bezel.

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September 2017

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59

PROJECT: Solar Eclipse Pendant, Part II 53) Solder the ends of the sidewall wire together and remove excess solder from the inside of the joint.

54) Slip the sidewall ring over your piece of 1¾-in. round steel and tap all around it until the ring appears round. A rubber or rawhide mallet is less likely to deform the silver than a steel hammer.

55) Sand one side of the sidewall ring completely flat.

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56) Coat the wire and disk with flux and place a piece of 1⁄16-in. to 3⁄32-in. medium-temperature wire solder about every 3⁄8 in. all around the inside edge of the sidewall. Alternate heating from below and above. As the solder pieces show signs of melting, heat from above and outside the sidewall until it flows freely. If solder is refusing to flow to a certain area, apply heat there and drag your solder pick through the nearest liquid solder to help it into that area. Return to heating from underneath to smooth out the solder flow.

57) Grind the outside edge of the disk so that a small flange of very even width is left outside of the sidewall.

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58) Sand the bottom of the bezel, and the top of the disk to which the bezel will be soldered, completely flat. Position the bezel in the center of the disk, visually aligning it horizontally with the end joint of the sidewall. Tack it down with a few drops of superglue and let it dry. Flux the entire top of the bezel and disk and place small pieces of medium wire solder ½ in. apart along the inside edge of the bezel.

Heat from both below and above.

59) Drill two small holes through the disk that are in a straight line with the bezel solder joint. Position them inside the bezel by about 1⁄8 in. on the near and far sides. These holes are imperative for air pressure relief on following soldering operations.

60) Stamp your “sterling” or “.925” quality marks on the disk that has not yet been soldered. Make it deep enough to withstand aggressive sanding and finishing operations to come. You will not be able to stamp it after this piece is soldered.

61) If the stamping dimples the area around it, making it visually concave, lightly tap the disk flat again from the side opposite side.

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62) Horizontally align the stamped word “sterling” with the end solder joints on the bezel and the sidewall for the next solder joint, with the end joints at the bottom of the piece.

63) Sand the bottom edge of the sidewall completely flat. Flux the inside of the sidewall ring. This side will be facing down when you solder the ring to the back.

64) Sand the unstamped side of the bottom disk flat and then apply flux. The stamped side will be facing down when you solder.

65) Check the alignment of the sterling stamp and apply flux to the outside of the back and sidewall. Place pieces of medium solder about every ½ in. along the junction of the two pieces. Hold the top piece (bezel, disk and sidewall) in position with your solder pick as you dry up the flux by heating it slowly with your torch. Reposition

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PROJECT: Solar Eclipse Pendant, Part II

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or replace any solder pieces that have moved.

66) This operation requires a lot of heat, so turn up your torch. Heat evenly from both the top and the bottom. As you see signs that the solder is beginning to melt, focus the flame on a specific area from above to make the solder flow. Then, immediately heat the same area from below to cause the solder to flow towards the flame and into the joint. Work around the piece in the same way. When you have a nice fillet of solder all the way around, let the piece cool a little, then quench in pickle.

67) The bail is made from 2.90 mm x .41 mm sterling silver tubing that has an inside diameter of .082 in. Anneal a 2-in. length of the tubing, but do not cut it off before bending. Measure and mark off a 7⁄8-in.-long section of the annealed tubing. This will be the final length of the bail. You will need something like a round wooden dowel that is about 13⁄16 in. in diameter to bend the tubing over. I used a ring mandrel that happened to have a round bottom groove on it.

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68) Thread a piece of round .080 string trimmer line through the hollow tubing. The line should be long enough for you to hold the ends as you bend the tube. As you shape the tubing over your dowel or mandrel, you may tap it with a rubber mallet to bend the last bit at the end, or just cut off the unbent portion. Pull the trimmer line out of the tube and saw the tube at the marks. File the ends square and remove any burrs.

69) Mark and saw or punch out six ¼-in. disks from 22 gauge sterling silver sheet: two for now and four for later (Part III). File and smooth the edges, keeping the sizes consistent.

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70) Pick out a 6 mm dapping punch and a depression in your dapping block that is two times the thickness of metal, plus the diameter of the dap (7.25 mm or .286 in.). You can make a temporary single dapping pair from 5⁄16-in. and ¼-in. metal rods by chucking each into your power drill and filing a ball onto the ends of them. Pound the large one into the end grain of a soft piece of wood for the depression and use the small one as your punch.

71) Place your ¼-in. blanks in the depression and give them a cupped shape by lightly tapping on the end of the punch with a hammer. Tap from many angles to ensure they have even curvatures.

72) Use a third hand tweezer base to position one end of the tube concentric to and centered on the convex surface of a cup. Flux the tube end and cup, place a single piece of hard solder into the corner where the two pieces contact, and heat until the solder flows. Quench in pickle.

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73) Make a dimple in the center of the concave side of the solderedon cup with an automatic center punch to mark a drilling location.

74) Use a roughly 1 mm drill to drill a vent hole through the cup and just into the tube opening.

75) Solder the second cup onto the opposite end of the tube.

76) To make a bail connector, select a piece of 6 mm x 2 mm sterling

September 2017

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PROJECT: Solar Eclipse Pendant, Part II silver rectangle wire. Using a half round file or a sanding drum, shape one end to match the curvature of the tubing.

77) File a curve into each side of the connector. Cut the connector off the main piece at about Âź in.

78) Press the curved bail into a magnesite block and use straight pins to properly position the connector on it. Flux the area to be soldered and place a Âź-in.-long piece of medium wire solder against it. Solder the joint and quench in pickle.

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79) On the opposite side from the sidewall end joint, sand off any flanges extending beyond the surface of the sidewall for a ž-in. span.

Sand them flush with the sidewall and prefinish this area with fine sandpaper.

80) Use a plated diamond wheel in your rotary handpiece or a halfround file to round the corners on the sides of the bail connector.

Remove any excess solder and prefinish the entire bail assembly with a fine Scotch Brite pad.

81) Use a half-round file or drum sander to curve the bottom of the connecter portion of the bail assembly so that it matches the curve of the bezel mount. Remove any burrs left from filing.

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82) To solder, clamp the bottom of the bezel mount in a third hand tweezer base and the bail connector in another. Carefully align the bail connector so that it is centered on the sidewall in all directions.

Flux the joint and nest a piece of easy wire solder in the corner of it. Boil off the flux, then reposition your solder. Preheat the bail assembly for a few moments, then heat the bezel mount from both sides. When you see the solder show signs of melting, move the torch up to the bail assembly. The solder should quickly reach melting temperature and flow into the joint. Let it cool a little, then quench in pickle.

83) There will be some residual acid from quenching your piece in the pickle pot. This needs to be neutralized. Put about 2 tablespoons of baking soda and a couple inches of water into a stainless steel pot, put in your piece, with the holes facing up, and boil for about 10 minutes. This will get rid of the acid.

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84) Dry your piece and use a barret file to remove excess solder or other imperfections from the bezel and sidewall.

85) Use a triangle file to remove excess solder at the base of the bezel and bail.

86) Use a new, medium-grit emery sanding disk to remove firescale and solder from the front face of the bezel disk. Firescale seems to hug the solder joint, so be sure to sand all the way into the corner.

Repeat with a new, fine-grit emery or Adalox disk.

87) Sand all exterior surfaces with successively finer grits of black silicon carbide sandpaper. Start with 320 grit and finish with 600 grit.

88) Use a thin, rubberized AdvantEdge silicon carbide polisher to

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PROJECT: Solar Eclipse Pendant, Part II

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polish into the corner of the solder joint. The medium grit can be quite aggressive, so use a light touch until you are accustomed to it.

Follow up with the similar very fine-grit wheel.

89) Use a stiff fiber brush with Tripoli buffing compound to prepolish the corner. Also prepolish all around the bail.

90) Use Tripoli on a medium to stiff 1-in. felt wheel on all surfaces near the bezel solder joint. Pay special attention to the flat back of the bezel disk, since it is prone to firescale. The bezel will have none, since it is fine silver. Use the side of the wheel wherever possible, since it polishes and removes scratches more quickly. It also is less likely to buff grooves into your silver. Buff the sidewall under the “wings” of the bail; this small wheel is less likely to catch and throw your piece than a large buffer is.

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91) There will be a considerable amount of firescale to remove, and this will take some time. All the darker-gray coloration is firescale.

When you proceed to buffing, some more will probably show up, since it is best detected in dimmer, indirect light on polished surfaces. It all has to come off, since it will tarnish more rapidly than the silver.

92) A quicker alternative to hand sanding is to use a set of diamond flat polishers. They come in sizes of ½ in. to 1½ in., and in grits from 220 to 3000. I prefer the largest diameter, as it tends to cut faster and with less gouging. Use it in your rotary handpiece, holding the polisher head and bezel underwater.

93) Open up the hole through your bail. Start with a small drill and gradually step up to a 46 drill, which is the same size as the hole through the tubing. Take care when the drill is about to break through to the backside of the cup. If the drill grabs, it can twist your bail off and send your piece flying. Use light pressure when drilling these holes. Take care not to cut into the side of the tubing.

94) Test fit your stone in the bezel. If it doesn’t want to go, don’t force it. Run a ¼ in. or so round metal rod all around the inside perimeter of the bezel, pushing outward. This should open up the bail. Test fit your stone again. If it still won’t go, you may need to polish down the bottom edge of the stone a little. If your stone becomes stuck, stick a piece of sprue wax (beeswax) or poster mounting clay onto the face of the stone and use it as a handle to pull the stone out.

95) While the stone is in the bezel, check the height of the bezel in relation to the rounded transition from the side to the top of the stone. The bezel should be high enough to wrap over the rounded edge, but not over the top of the stone. Take note of the height and file and sand the bezel down evenly to that level. Sand the top to 600 grit for buffing, and remove burrs.

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96) The height of this bezel is just right.

97) Polish tight corners around the bail with Tripoli on a cotton swab chucked into a drill.

98) Buff the back of the bezel disk on the side of the wheel, using

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PROJECT: Solar Eclipse Pendant, Part II Tripoli compound. Use a dragging motion to keep the wheel from buffing in one spot, as that can cause a wavy appearance, especially on broad surfaces.

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99) A lot of gray areas of firescale might now be visible. You can go back to sanding or just buff it out. To buff, put a lot of Tripoli on the face of the wheel. Use a jabbing motion straight into the face of the wheel, with a good deal of pressure. Allow the buff to contact the wheel for only a split second, then move the piece to a different spot and repeat: jab-move, jab-move, jab-move. This will keep friction heating from making the firescale worse. When it is mostly gone, switch back to the side of the wheel and buff as before.

100) Buff the top edge of the bezel outward, from the center to the edge. This keeps the bezel from collapsing inward and becoming too tight for the stone. Use a light touch to keep the wheel from grabbing.

Finally, buff the sidewall and make a light pass over the entire piece.

One note of caution: Do not allow the wheel to become trapped between the sidewall and the bail. It will throw the piece.

101) Now test fit the stone. Clean off all buffing compound. Make sure no water is trapped inside the piece; blow it out with compressed air, if possible. Place three small drops of silicone sealant inside the bezel, one on each hole and one in the center. Drop the stone into place in the desired position.

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102) With a riveting hammer, begin lightly tapping the top edge of the bezel—don’t tap on the stone—at about 45°. Tap at 12, 6, 3, and 9 o’clock positions, then repeat between each of those spots. Now tap the bezel down all the way around. Go around multiple times until the metal begins to look smooth, not faceted. Stick a sprue wax or poster clay handle on top of the stone and test the fit by trying to wiggle the stone. If the fit is good, you will not see movement. If the stone does move, tap the bezel from a lower angle on the side for a couple of rounds, then return to 45°. When you are satisfied the stone is safely mounted, proceed to finishing.

103) Smooth the top edge of the bezel with a fine file. Remove any hammer marks on the bezel.

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104) Remove any file marks with AdvantEdge rubberized pumice wheels or something similar. Rubberized silicon carbide wheels will scratch your stone if you slip.

105) With a fine silicone polisher, put a prepolish on the bezel edge.

106) With Zam or your favorite finish buffing compound and a balloon cloth buffing wheel, finish buff the entire piece.

In Part III, we will finish this project by fabricating a custom hookand-eye clasp and hanging the pendant on a hand-strung black onyx bead necklace.

Rick Olmstead has been a jewelry designer and lapidary since 1987 and has worked full-time professionally since 2003. Comments are appreciated and may be sent to rickogems@gmail.com.

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“Fairy Stones” from Washington’s Middle Fork Valley Story and Photos by Stuart “Tate” Wilson and Brittney Musulin There is something special about Taylor River concretions. Maybe it is that they tend to resemble animals, or it could be the amazingly beautiful mountains and rainforest of Washington state, which are the backdrop to this locality. Whatever it may be, everyone who sees them loves them. These abundant oddities are worth checking out if you are in the North Bend, Washington, area.

Concretions are also commonly known as “fairy stones”.

They are a type of geological oddity that typically occurs in sedimentary rocks, such as shale, limestone and sandstone. There are various theories of how they are formed,

but it is typically believed that they formed in layers around a nucleus.

These particular concretions are thought to have formed when ancient silt from high in the mountains was released by glacial activity. The silt was deposited on the bottom of glacial lakes, where the concretions likely formed around some sort of nucleus, perhaps a grain of pollen, too small to see with the naked eye, or a seashell. I have even found concretions that formed around river rocks, which look as if the concretion is crawling along the rock. While some concretions contain fossils, these concretions do not.

An option is to dig directly into the clay bank to find concretions.

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Rock & Gem

This pile of “fairy stone� concretions brings life to the forest along the Taylor River.

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Magical Concretions

This heaping pile of concretions was left behind for others to enjoy.

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At our current time in history, all the ancient glaciers have receded, and the Middle Fork valley is left exposed. All that remains of all this ancient glacial activity is a carved valley with a long river and branching tributaries. Tumbled river rocks and ancient clay banks have been left behind in random spots along the river.

I have been mining quartz crystals up the Middle Fork Snoqualmie River, and have heard many stories of the Taylor River concretions. Many quartz miners make this locality a side trip on their way off the mountain, and this year, I finally took the time to get there. Now, it is a new favorite collecting locality for me.

My first time there was memorable. I went with my good friend Brittney and my Uncle Matthew. We were lucky enough to meet the fairy stone guardian, Udo. This character has been collecting here for over 20 years, and can often be encountered during warm summer months. A very nice fellow indeed, Udo was there to assure us we had found the right spot. While Udo has collected many thousands of concretions, he does not take them from the river. Instead, he makes huge, heaping piles of them, which he incorporates beautifully into the landscape.

Upon looking closer at the piles, we noticed concretions resembling animals that had googly eyes glued to them. I

laughed out loud when I saw this!

Finding the Taylor River concretion locality is fairly easy, and it is very close to Seattle.

Whether you are coming from the east or west, you need to get on Interstate 90 and take Exit 34, a little southeast of North Bend.

Travel north on 468th Avenue, past all the gas stations, for 0.4 mile, then take a right on SE Middle Fork Road. In 2.8 miles, SE Middle Fork Road becomes NFD 5600 Road.

Continue for about 9 miles on NFD 5600 Road and cross a small, bumpy bridge over the Taylor River. Park immediately, close to the bridge.

You should have seen the Middle Fork Campground just before the bridge and the Taylor River. The concretion locality is on Forest Service land, which is typically open to the public. Call the North Bend Ranger District at (425) 888-1421 to get current information on access.

Once you park your vehicle near the bridge or Middle Fork Campground, work your way down to the Taylor River and head upstream. It is a five- to 10-minute walk.

Notice that all you see along the river are big river rocks. The concretions will be eroding out of clay banks, so keep your eyes open and look to your left, because that is the side the clay banks are on.

The main clay bank exposure is not large. It is 5 feet to 10 feet high and 50 feet long. The

Rock & Gem

Magical Concretions concretions, however, are abundant. They are constantly eroding out and can be found all over the riverbank. One can simply walk around the vicinity of the clay bank and pick them up. Another idea is to go to the clay bank and pluck them right out of the wall.

This clay bank exposure is the main one; however, there are a few other clay banks close by that are trickier to find. They can be located by following tributaries upstream and simply looking for clay banks. It is important to understand that these exposures are largely overgrown with brush. If you walk through the brush, you can also find the concretions where the topsoil has eroded away, revealing the clay underneath.

By snooping around, you will soon realize they are everywhere.

The amazing thing about these concretions is that they resemble real creatures.

Common shapes are the snowman and the dolphin. Rarer shapes are the Buddha and dragon. It is comical how close the resemblance is; they will instantly strike a chord with anyone.

Now that you have discovered heaps of amazing concretions, you may want to leave them as they are or you can clean them up a bit. Simply soak them in water for an hour, then use a wire brush or toothbrush to get to get the excess mud off. Since these concretions tend to resemble animals, you may even want to glue some bobbly eyes on them and give them a bit of character.

If you are looking for some other activities to partake in while you are in the North Bend area, my best suggestion is to make reservations for the Goldmyer Hot Springs. These wonderful hot springs are farther down NFD 5600 Road. People book in advance, then park their cars at the gate and make the hike to the springs. When you have been collecting all day, this is certainly a nice way to end the day.

Taylor River concretions are a ton of fun, whether you are a seasonal mineral miner or new to rockhounding. This spot is easy enough to access, and it is set in the beautiful Middle Fork Snoqualmie River valley.

Come during the summer when the weather is hot and the river is low. We hope to see you there!

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Synthetic Rocks: Goldstone Aventurine Glass

When polished, green aventurine quartz glitters as if filled with metallic confetti. The effect is caused by chrome-bearing mica called fuchsite. Little fuchsite platelets scatter light as it enters the quartz, creating the glittering appearance. The effect is spectacular when the stone is cut, domed and polished as a cabochon or made into ornamental objects like spheres or gemstone eggs.

This phenomenon is called “aventurescence”, a term coined not by mineralogists studying varieties of quartz, but by Italian glassmakers who introduced sparkling copper inclusions into the molten substance. One legend claims this happened by chance or by accident when a group of monks or alchemists added copper shavings to molten glass. The Italian phrase a ventura means “by chance” or “an adventure”. More reliable historical documents say such glass was crafted in the early 1600s by Venetian glassmaker Vincenzo Miotti, who knew exactly what he was doing.

Whether the original formula came about by chance or by design, such glass is still made. It’s called aventurine glass, or goldstone, and it’s still something of an adventure to craft. Even when done under carefully controlled conditions, the quality of the end result is never certain.

The original reddish-brown goldstone with copper inclusions is now accompanied by other varieties. For instance, blue goldstone is colored by cobalt inclusions, purple goldstone by manganese, and green goldstone by chromium oxides. You’ll see chunks, slabs, and finished jewelry or carvings at gem shows, where they may or may not be labeled as synthetics.

—Jim Brace-Thompson

Goldstone sphere

Weird Words: Botryoidal

Goethite

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The characteristic shape in which a crystal or crystal cluster forms is called its “habit”, and while we often associate minerals with perfect crystal shapes (like prismatic quartz or tourmaline, tabular barite, or bladed kyanite), minerals may take many other shapes as they crystalize and grow, particularly if they grow in dense clusters.

One such habit is referred to as “botryoidal”. I’ve heard the word pronounced several different ways, but usually as either bot-ree-OID-ul or ba-TROID-ul. Either way, it sure looks like one weird word! It derives from the Greek word botryoeidēs, meaning “a bunch of grapes”.

In mineralogy, botryoidal refers to minerals that grew as rounded, spherical clusters and ended up looking very much like the bumpy outline of a bunch of grapes. As if “botryoidal” isn’t weird enough, such clusters may also be referred to as “spheroidal aggregates”. It all begins with a cluster of crystals growing outward in a radiating pattern, with concentric layers being added as the cluster grows. If you were to cut such a cluster, you would be able to see the round layers that grew one atop another, much like growth rings in a tree trunk.

Many minerals may end up as a botryoidal mass. Some of the more common ones you’ll see in the field or at a gem show are azurite, malachite, hematite, chalcedony, smithsonite, and nephrite jade.

—Jim Brace-Thompson

Rock & Gem

Lapidary Arts: Carving

Some of the most famous artworks, such as Michelangelo’s David or the Stone Canyon brecciated jasElgin Marbles, are carved from stone. per rough (left) and carving Rock carving takes many forms, for instance, relief carving, carving-inthe-round, and composite carving.

Relief carving involves sculpting a design into a flat rock face. With the technique called “carving-in-theround”, the artist crafts a fully threedimensional, free-standing sculpture. A composite carving is crafted from many pieces that are then assembled; for instance, you may have a bird with different stones used for the body, beak, eyes, and wings.

Carving is an art that takes time and patience. Your first efforts will look crude and rudimentary, but don’t give up! There’s a joke about a tourist in New York City who sees a man carrying a cello. The tourist asks, “How do you get to Carnegie Hall?” To which the cellist replies, “Practice, practice, practice.” And that’s just what’s needed to perfect the art of rock carving!

Novices should start with soft rocks such as soapstone, travertine or alabaster. These require just a few commonly available hand tools: a knife, files, sanding boards or sandpaper, and polish-infused pieces of leather or cotton flannel. Start by tracing the outline of what you want to create onto the rock, then using a trim saw to remove as much material as possible before working out ever finer details with your knife, files and sandpaper.

Carving hard rocks such as agate, jasper or jade requires fairly expensive tools and machines, like a flexible-shaft Foredom® or Dremel® tool with various diamond bits and carving points, a gem lathe or fixed-shaft spindle, etc. In addition to the expense, carving these harder rocks requires instruction from an experienced teacher and lots of practice, practice, practice to perfect your skills. Once perfected, however, the results are worth the effort!

—Jim Brace-Thompson

Secret Word Scramble

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ANSWERS: Fossil, Ammonite, Spiral, Folklore, Petrified; Mollusk, Extinct, Evolution, Snakes, Seashells; NAME: Snakestone

JAMES ST. JOHN/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

What did the ancients call this mysterious object? Unscramble the words and put the circled letters to spell out the name.

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rock science

by STEVE VOYNICK

Dinosaur Tracks Down Under

DAMIAN KELLY

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he indigenous Goolarabooloo people have long been intrigued by a trail of 3-foot-long footprints embedded in solid sandstone on Australia’s remote northwest coast. These aboriginal Australians believe that the three-toed prints and related drag marks that seemed to be have been made by a heavy, feathered tail had been left behind by their creator spirit Marala, or “Emu Man”.

For thousands of years, these footprints and drag marks, along with their assumed origin, have been part of Goolarabooloo oral tradition, which recounts how Marala gave the people rules to live by and guidance in keeping their world in balance.

But in 2008, Marala’s footprints, located on a shoreline 25 miles north of the city of Broome in Western Australia, an area that the Goolarabooloo know as Walmadany, were threatened by the proposed construction of a huge liquid natural gas processing plant. To help oppose the project, the Goolarabooloo community invited scientists to document Walmadany’s natural resources.

Among them were paleontologists from the University of Queensland’s School of Biological Sciences and James Cook University’s School of Earth and Environment. At the place where the Goolarabooloo people pointed out Marala’s footprints, the paleontologists found thousands of dinosaur tracks.

Because of these tracks and other irreplaceable natural features, Australia’s national government awarded the area National Heritage status in 2011, forcing developers to abandon their plans to build the plant.

Investigating these dinosaur tracks, spread along 15 miles of shoreline, took five years.

The work was unusually difficult because many tracks were exposed only at low tide.

Nevertheless, the team photogrammetrically documented hundreds of tracks, photographing each from different angles so that they could be three-dimensionally recreated.

The scientists also used a flexible-silicon medium to make casts of the best-preserved

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Scientists have identified the three-toed tracks of Marala, the “Emu Man” of the Goolarabooloo people, as those of the dinosaur now know as Megalosauropus.

tracks, so they could replicate them precisely for museum displays.

The Walmadany tracks have proved to be a record of the most diverse dinosaur community ever discovered. They represent 21 distinct types of dinosaur ichnofauna (dinosaur types known only from their tracks): seven predatory carnivores; six long-necked, herbivorous sauropods; four quadrupedal, herbivorous ornithopods; and four armored dinosaurs. Other tracks provided the first evidence of the presence of stegosaurs (dinosaurs with prominent dorsal plates and spines) in Australia.

The impressions left by one particularly imposing, long-necked sauropod measure nearly 6 feet across and are by far the world’s

largest known dinosaur tracks. The animal that made these remarkable tracks stood an estimated 18 feet tall at the hip.

When the Walmadany tracks were made 130 million years ago, during the early Cretaceous Period, Australia was not the arid land that it is today. It had just separated from the Gondawana supercontinent and, with a warm, moist climate, was largely covered by conifer forests and profuse growths of ferns and other plants that supported a large and varied dinosaur population.

Walmadany was then a vast river plain of tidal deltas, estuaries and creeks, surrounded by lush conifer forests. Great numbers of dinosaurs of all sizes and types regularly traveled across wet, sandy areas that separated the forests.

“There would have been dinosaurs walking all over this coastline,” says Dr. Steve Salisbury, a paleontologist at the University of Queensland and the leader of the team that documented the tracks. “It must have been quite a sight.”

Walmadany has additional importance because most of Australia’s known dinosaur tracks are on the eastern side of the continent and are considerably younger. The Walmadany tracks are Australia’s oldest dinosaur remains and constitute its only fossil “window” into the early Cretaceous Period.

While paleontologists know the Marala footprints are those of a three-toed, carnivorous dinosaur now named Megalosauropus, the Goolarabooloo people continue to see them in their traditional way as the timeless footprints of their spirit creator “Emu Man”—which are now protected forever from commercial development.

Steve Voynick is a science writer, mineral collector, and former hardrock miner, and the author of guidebooks like Colorado Rockhounding and New Mexico Rockhounding.

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TRENDING IN 2017:

Green Gemstone Palette

Pantone Picks Gaspéite, Emerald, Maw Sit Sit, and Tsavorite Story by Helen Serras-Herman

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reen gemstones have suddenly found themselves in the fashion trend spotlight. A major influence on this trend is Pantone®, the internationally accepted authority on the language of color for designers, manufacturers, retailers and customers. Through its proprietary Matching System®, the company ingeniously creates color trend forecasts for each season—winter, spring, summer and fall—as well as an annual forecast trend. These precisely calculated colors and pairings of colors reflect the company’s point of view, but Pantone’s marketing has a great affect on customers’ choices.

Pantone’s Color of the Year 2017 is called “Greenery”. It is described as “a refreshing and revitalizing shade, symbolic of new beginnings” and “a fresh and zesty yellow-green shade that evokes the first day of spring”. As “nature’s neutral”, it is a versatile shade that easily pairs with 10 other color palettes, ranging from neutral to bright, pastel to deep, and metallic (www.pantone.com/color-of-the-year-2017).

Jewelry fashion colors are influenced by fashion color trends in clothing, textiles, furniture, and home décor. There are a few gemstones that match the shade “Greenery”: green tourmaline, peridot, emeralds, gaspéite, and garnet, variety uvarovite. A renewed love—not only for those gems, but for all green gemstones—is causing a stir in the jewelry market.

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Rock & Gem

Helen SerraS-HerMan M.J. Colella

Gaspeite is a rare green mineral colored by nickel. Mined in Western Australia, it came onto the Tucson market in 1997-98.

Gaspéite

I like the juxtaposition of the bright-green druzy surface against the black chromite background, and have at times line-engraved the druzy, with good visual results.

Green gemstones are part of several mineral groups: quartz, beryl, tourmaline, jade, sapphire and garnet. There are some famous members in each group, such as emerald (beryl), chrysoprase (quartz), green tourmaline, nephrite and imperial green jadeite (jade), and tsavorite (garnet, variety grossular). There are also the rarer or lesser-known “cousin” varieties in each group, such as green aventurine quartz, green agate, green sapphires, “sugarcane” emeralds from Brazil,

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tas, visions of gardens and meadows, organic feelings, and nature associations. The color symbolizes nature, spring and healing. In several ancient cultures, green symbolized rebirth and regeneration, and to the ancient Maya, crops and fertility. Green is considered relaxing and pleasing to the eye, bringing calm and serenity to the viewer.

There is a great variety of green gemstones from which lapidaries and designers can choose. Transparent green gems are most suitable for faceting, while translucent and opaque gem materials may best suited for cabbing carving, and sphere making.

I often make use of the Pantone color schemes to group gem materials for a season or to promote a particular gem material, especially one that customers may not be familiar with. I also get inspired to combine my pendants with bead and pearl strands that complement the season’s colors, giving a new, fresh look to my designs.

The Pantone color choices may also serve as an opening line for conversation with customers at a show: “Did you know that gaspéite is the same shade as Pantone’s 2017 Color of the Year, ‘Greenery’?” That is a great way to engage your customers and share your knowledge about gems and the current fashion market.

This article features four unusual green gemstones: gaspéite from Australia, drusy uvarovite from Russia, maw sit sit from Burma, and “sugarcane emeralds” from Brazil.

demantoid (andradite) garnet from Russia, grossular from Mali, Africa, and drusy garnet, variety uvarovite, from Russia.

There are also the soloists: malachite, amazonite, chrysoberyl, chrome disopside, maw sit sit, druzy liebethenite, peridot and gaspéite, just to name a few. Even serpentine— particularly “noble” serpentine, a bright yellowish-greenish variety from Washington state—has become an “in” gem.

Green gems evoke memories of scenic vis-

Gaspéite, a nickel, magnesium iron carbonate with the chemical formula (Ni, MG, Fe) CO3, is a rare green mineral. Its limegreen to neon apple-green color is due to its nickel content. The name “gaspéite” comes from its type locality, the Gaspé Peninsula in Quebec, Canada.

The other famous source is in Western Australia, at the nickel sulfide mines of Kambalda and the nearby North Ni mine, near the town of Widgiemooltha. A high-grade nickel ore, gaspéite was reportedly collected on the mine dumps in the early 1990s, purportedly for later treatment (www.outback

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Gemologist and curator Elise A. Skalwold acquired rough maw sit sit, then had it cut and custom set.

specimens tested by the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) recorded a refractive index (R.I.) of 1.62 and specific gravity (S.G.) of 3.71.

Gaspéite often contains brown veins of iron matrix. Although the matrix gives the material a distinctive character, it also causes dirty cutting conditions and leaves mud in the saws and cutting pans of the lapidary machines, which requires extra cleaning after slabbing or cutting rough. Gaspéite may also show inclusions of limonite, goethite and hematite.

Gaspéite was an instant hit with lapidaries and designers. Its electric lime-green color

Helen SerraS-Herman

mining.com/gaspeite.htm). Part of that pile was sold in 1997 to an American gemstone dealer, who realized it would make a great lapidary material.

Several barrels of this gaspéite came onto the Tucson market in 1997-98. My husband and I purchased several pounds in 1998, and more during a couple subsequent buying trips to Quartzsite and Tucson, so we still have a sufficient inventory of rough gaspeite today.

Gaspéite was first offered at the Tucson 1994 shows, under the trade name Allura,

by Martin Rosser of Munich, Germany (Gems & Gemology, Summer 1994). The

The most common gaspŽite imitation on the market is white magnesite that has been dyed lime green, and is offered as beads.

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m.J. Colella

Helen SerraS-Herman

Sugarcane emerald can be considered an oddity of nature, one of those rare gem occurrences that will, perhaps, never be seen again. (Sugarcane Emerald Nymph necklace, by Helen Serras-Herman)

attractive and stands out among other gemstones. Within a few years, as the original stockpile started disappearing, the price for the rough had doubled. Today, the gaspéite is rarely obtainable as rough or slabs. It is now mostly available as cut cabochons and beads, often with a lot of brown matrix.

Some softer magnesite may also be present, since gaspéite forms a solid-solution series with that magnesium carbonate (MgCO3) and the iron carbonate siderite (FeCO3) (G&G, Summer 1994).

Somehow, gaspéite has become an integral part of the Native American gemstone palette, often used as inlay material along with turquoise, coral, and spiny oyster. Gaspéite’s Mohs hardness is 4.5-5, so it is a little softer than turquoise, but it can still be cut together with turquoise in inlay and intarsia works.

Gaspéite can be brittle at times. The early material on the market was hard and could be cut and polished without any treatments.

As the good, solid material became harder to obtain, lapidaries turned to the less solid material, with a lot of brown veining. Most of this material has been stabilized. Gaspéite should be treated with care if it has been

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A renewed love—not only for the exact “Greenery” shade, but for all green gemstones—is causing a stir on the jewelry market. (green agate carving by Helen Serras-Herman)

treated with resins and polymers. Some of it may be even color enhanced.

There is no synthetic gaspéite on the market; however, there are a few imitations and simulants. The most common gaspéite imitation is white magnesite that has been dyed lime green, especially offered as beads.

Another product, which is already set in jewelry, is a light mint green, and sold under the name “yellow African gaspéite”. I personally have never seen any rough of this material.

One more material gaspéite simulant is a bright-green-dyed turquoise block, with or without infused bronze, offered by Colbaugh Processing Inc. Also, just recently at the 2017 Lubbock Gem & Mineral Show, I was surprised to find a perfect gaspéite imitation slab, labeled “created gaspéite”, that according to the seller is probably made out of plastic.

A somewhat similar color variety that may be used as a gaspéite imitation is citron- or lime-colored magnesite, also called nickeloan magnesite. It is found in the Eastern Goldfields area of Western Australia, where chrysoprase is also mined (www.outback mining.com/magnesite_-_citron_chryso

prase.htm). It is commonly found in veins and nodules—some of them really huge.

This lime magnesite may also contain veins or a rind of chrysoprase, and it is often referred to, incorrectly, as “lemon chrysoprase” or “citron chrysoprase”.

Druzy Uvarovite

Uvarovite is a one of the rarest members of the garnet group of minerals. It is a calcium chromium-bearing garnet with the chemical formula Ca3Cr2(SiO4)3. It occurs as minute, well-formed crystals, often in fine, druzy crusts on a dark matrix of chromium ore.

Uvarovite has a vivid emerald-green color, due to its chromium content, or a rustygreen color, if the titanium admixture is high (Russian Gemstones Encyclopedia, V.V. Bukanov, Granit, St. Petersburg, 2006).

The mineral was discovered in 1832 by Germain Henri Hess (1802-50), a Swiss-Russian chemist and doctor. Before becoming a professor of chemistry at the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, he joined an expedition to study the geology of the Ural Mountains. Hess named uvarovite after Count Sergei Semenovitch Uvarov (1765-1855),

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Helen SerraS-Herman

Helen SerraS-Herman

Maw sit sit is a metamorphic rock composed of at least six different minerals, including kosmochlor, chromite, and chrome-rich jadeite. It also has black inclusions of chromite and kosmochlor.

who was an influential Russian statesman under Czar Nicholas I. Uvarov was an amateur mineral collector and President of the Russian Academy of Sciences from 1818 to 1855 (Russian Gemstones Encyclopedia).

The classic type locality for uvarovite is the Saranovski mine, in Sarany, in the Urals Region of Russia. The mine has produced material since the mid 1800s (G&G, Spring 1994). Many types of minerals, ore and coal are mined in the Urals, which are considered a treasure trove of mineral resources.

Uvarovite is also found in Spain, Finland, Norway, and Quebec.

After the Russian market opened to the world in the mid 1990s, uvarovite and many other Russian gemstones have appeared annually at the Tucson gem shows.

The quality of uvarovite is evaluated according to how tightly the field of crystals is packed and how uniform the druzy surface is—a lack of barren matrix surface is preferred. Also, the smaller size of crystals makes for a more compact druzy surface.

Although I like larger crystals on the druzy surface, they may not always be as stable as the compact kind, and may break off during fashioning or wearing. I also like the juxtaposition of the bright-green druzy surface against the black chromite background and have at times line-engraved the druzy, with good visual results.

Maw Sit Sit

Maw sit sit (NaCrSi2O6) is a rare material from a village called Maw sit sit in upper

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One type of simulated gaspeite on the market is a bright green dyed turquoise block, with or without infused bronze, offered by Colbaugh Processing Inc.

Myanmar (Burma), in the foothills of the Himalayas. Maw sit sit is typically a darkgreen gem material, with white inclusions of edenite, richterite and albite feldspar, and black inclusions of chromite and kosmochlor (www.nordskip.com/mawsitsit.html).

This gives the material a distinct appearance.

Chromium gives it its green color, and kosmochlor gives it pleochroism.

Maw sit sit is a metamorphic rock composed of at least six different minerals, including kosmochlor, chromite, and chrome-rich jadeite, which gives it the almost fluorescent bright-green color. It often has black spots and mottling from inclusions. Due to its low content of pyroxene and its different chemical structure, maw sit sit was not considered a jade (Jade and Maw Sit Sit of Burma, S.K. Samuels, SKS Enterprises, Inc., 2004), but was often considered a jade simulant. Recent standards in the Hong Hong Council for Testing and Certification, however, are including kosmochlor and omphasite into the jade categories (Gems & Jewellery, March 2013).

The specific gravity of maw sit sit is 3.05, much lower than that of jadeite (S.G. 3.34), a property that may help identify the material.

Maw sit sit may be imitated by dyed green magnesite.

Maw sit sit is opaque, unlike jadeite, which can be highly translucent. Specimens vary in depth of color and in hardness, which runs around Mohs 6-7. The lighter-colored stones are somewhat softer and more difficult to polish. The color patterns may range considerably, and how to orient them becomes a

design choice for the lapidary.

Award-winning gem and jewelry artist Wolfgang Vaatz cuts maw sit sit and incorporates it into his stunning bangles and pendants. He says he “loves the vibrant green with the dark contrast that resembles a moss-covered rock near a stream”.

Much-admired lapidary artist Clint Gardner, from Payson, Arizona, also has a great attraction to this material. His maw sit sit cabs are fan favorites and sell immediately.

Years ago, maw sit sit was rejected by lapidaries and designers, since it was not considered jade, but in recent years they have come to embrace it. Unfortunately for the buyers, quality maw sit sit has become very scarce and very expensive.

“Sugarcane” Emerald

Emerald is the green gemstone variety of the mineral beryl. It is usually colored by chromium, and only rarely by vanadium.

There are several famous emerald mines in the world, such as the Muzo and Chivor mines in Colombia, and the ancient mines of Egypt, India and Austria. Several other countries produce emeralds today, including Zambia, Mozambique, Madagascar, Zimbabwe, Canada and Brazil. “The Brazilian emerald’s consistent availability at affordable prices has made it popular the world over,” states Ronald Ringsrud in his book Emeralds: A Passionate Guide (Green View Press, 2009).

In 2007, John Papajohn and Cesar Menezes, miners and owners of JP International Rough Mining & Colored Gemstones Inc.,

Rock & Gem

in Campo Formoso, Brazil, were mining for emeralds in the northern part of the Bahia state in Brazil when they discovered a unique pocket of green beryl crystals that were unlike any other emeralds they had previously mined. The find occurred at 180 meters below the surface and yielded about 1 ton of material, including 600 kilos of wellformed crystals (“Sugarcane Emerald”, Helen Serras-Herman, G&G, Summer 2009).

The company’s five mines in the mountains of Serra de Jacobina, near Campo Formoso, are known for their production of darkcolored emeralds and mineral specimens with emerald crystals in quartz matrix, crystalline limestone, sparkly black biotite mica schist, and hematite.

In contrast, the material from the new find was translucent, occurring in shades of light-green and bluish-green. It had white, mottled veins and an appearance reminiscent of a bamboo stalk. The beautiful pastel color shows a stunning brightness. Many of the crystals are well developed and hexagonal. They also show pronounced whitish bands of hexagonal zoning parallel to the crystal faces. Upon superficial examination, the material resembles amazonite, but due to beryl’s greater hardness, emeralds have a higher luster.

JP International had most of the material fashioned into polished slices, beads and carvings, and debuted this gem material at the 2008 Tucson gem shows under the trade name Sugarcane emerald. That is when I first came across them, and I have incorporated stones, natural specimens, and beads into my jewelry.

Although JP International continues prospecting for emeralds in Brazil, to this date no more of this beryl has been found. Much of the cut material has already been sold.

So for now, Sugarcane emeralds can be considered an oddity of nature, one of those rare gem occurrences, perhaps never to be seen again.

Helen Serras-Herman is an acclaimed gem sculptor with over 34 years of experience in gem sculpture and jewelry art. See more of her work at www.gemartcenter.com and on Facebook at Gem Art Center/ Helen SerrasHerman.

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what to cut

by RUSS KANIUTH

K2 Granite-Azurite

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2 Granite is granite with azurite orbs scattered throughout the material. It almost looks like someone dripped blue paint all over it, making a beautiful and original-looking lapidary material. It is also known in the lapidary market as K2 jasper, but is really not jasper at all.

Geology.com explains that the azurite formed “along mineral grain boundaries, within tiny fractures, and as a ‘dye’ penetrating the feldspar grains”, and is a secondary mineral (http://geol ogy.com/gemstones/k2/).

K2 Granite comes from the base of K2, also known as Mount Godwin Austen, on the border of Pakistan and China. What amazes me most is—given where it comes from—how much work is involved bringing all this material to the marketplace. K2 is the second largest mountain in the world, next to Mount Everest. This is not a well-traveled area, so the facts that it was discovered at all and that someone was willing to do the hard work of bringing it to the marketplace evoke a great deal of admiration.

When buying K2 Granite, most people tend to choose the pieces with the most blue azurite orbs, which is totally understandable. Many pieces are slightly stained with dots of green malachite, as well, but don’t bet on those to remain when cabbing this material. I have yet

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to see the malachite stains in any of my finished work, which leads me to believe that they are only surface stains and not embedded in the material.

The azurite spots vary in size from a few millimeters to a couple centimeters across. Most are the size of a pencil eraser. It’s difficult to tell whether the spots will run through the entire rough stone or not, but they generally do. The azurite has the same Mohs hardness as the granite, so it does not pose any problems during cutting, shaping or polishing.

There’s generally no rhyme or reason as to which direction to cut when you’re slabbing, but I suggest cutting in the longest direction possible. You can cut from long or short ends and still have orbs, but when cutting lengthwise, you have a larger area to choose from when drawing out your stenciled patterns and a greater variety of options when incorporating the orbs into your work.

K2 Granite has a Mohs hardness of about 6, so it will cut rather easily. There’s generally very little by way of fractures, and I haven’t come across any vugs in this material, which makes for an easy set up for making cabs.

When you start the cabbing process, this material can easily be shaped and domed with

an 80 grit wheel, with very few issues such as chipping, fractures or shards breaking off. That makes this material great for both beginners and advanced lapidaries. The rest of the process is rather simple and routine.

Granite it will take on a glassy finish, but maybe not quite the mirror finish you see in most agates. I generally finish on a 14000 or 50000 grit Nova wheel for best results. Any further polishing with compounds like tin oxide or cerium oxide could possibly spot up the stone and finish. Since granite is a feldspar mineral, it can trap small polishing compound particles in microcleavages and give your cab an unpleasant look, so you may want to finish up just with your Nova wheel setup.

This natural granite, with its bright-blue azurite spots, set in silver has a beautiful effect. I think most jewelry designers will have a great deal of fun designing with this material!

Russ Kaniuth is the owner of Sunset Ridge Lapidary Arts and the cofounder of the Cabs and Slabs Facebook group. See more of his work at www.sunsetridge lapidary.com.

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Radiant

Minnesota thoMsonite

Being able to extract large, quality thomsonites from basalt matrix requires intricate techniques, patience, and plenty of practice! (Bob and Nancy Lynch specimen)

The World’s Most Colorful Opaque Gemstone Story and Photos by Mark Leatherman

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ome of my favorite gemmy specimens in my collection are those that contain multiple colors in the same piece, such as Chinese rainbow fluorite, and watermelon tourmaline. Others might say that these minerals contend for the title of the world’s most colorful gemstone. However, it was not long ago that I found out about a much rarer mineral that could give the above two a big run for their money: Minnesota’s version of the zeolite mineral, thomsonite (also known as lintonite). Its rarity is due to the fact that this gem variety is only found on a six-mile stretch of “North Shore” beach.

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Thomsonite was named after Thomas Thomson, a Scottish chemist, in 1840. It is said that he first found, and subsequently analyzed, the mineral in a former county in west-central Scotland called Dumbaronshire (considered to be its true type locality). The Scottish thomsonites typically occur in white to pale pink hues in radiating prisms, and are hosted in a series of basalt lava flows called the Clyde Plateau that are 340 million years old.

Newton Winchell, the first Minnesota state geologist (1872-1900), conducted regular geologic surveys with two of his graduate students, C.W. Hall and S.F. Peckman, in the northern part of the state. It is said that the students were the first to discover

the small, colorful mineral embedded in the basalt flows along the Lake Superior shore.

The first documented report of the zeolite was published in 1888. However, it was not until the 1920s, after the completion of the North Shore highway (state Route 61), that the thomsonite locality became more widely known—not to mention accessible!

In 1962, the landmark Thomsonite Beach Motel and Jewelry Shop, now the Thomsonite Beach Inn & Suites, opened six miles south of the town of Grand Marais, Minnesota, on Route 61, near a gem-mining operation. Tania and Maurice Feigal, the original owners, were passionate rockhounds and lapidary masters. They started the continuing tradition of making and selling gold

Rock & Gem

Minnesota thomsonite can never be mistaken for anything else due to its combination of bull’s-eyes and radiating fibrous patterns. (Bob and Nancy Lynch specimen)

and silver thomsonite jewelry, along with offering rooms. The Feigals sold the property in 1998. Current owners Lee and Scott Bergstrom say that, were it not for the Fiegals, thomsonite may not have been as popular as it is in the area today.

I first heard of thomsonite—the mineral in general, not just this gemmy version—when I was living in the town of Ely, Minnesota. A work friend and I decided to make a stroll down to the beaches of Beaver Bay to hunt for the famous Lake Superior agates. We spotted the Beaver Bay Agate Shop along the main drag (Route 61), and decided to peek inside after we were done hunting.

Of course, the first thing I noticed in the shop were “Laker” agate specimens that made us quite envious, as our hunt did not turn up much. Upon further browsing, my eyes set on thomsonite gems for the first time. Shop owners Keith and Teresa Bartel were happy to regale me with stories of their experiences with the gem. Keith had first read of the unique zeolite around 35 years ago in an old book. Noting that it was quite the rarity, he took a trip up to the Grand Marais-area beach. He has been enthralled with the stone ever since, and decided to make it a central part of the shop, which has been in business since 1946. The Bartels have accumulated thousands of thomsonite specimens in their personal collection, along with a considerable amount of other Lake

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Along with green hues, these unique stones can also occur in a pinkcream base, ensuring that there is a thomsonite for everyone! (Bob and Nancy Lynch specimen)

Superior-area gems. Before leaving the shop, I had to make sure that I found out where to find this fascinating gem. That was when I found out that a small stretch of beach at the Thomsonite Beach Inn was pretty much the sole source.

The colorful Minnesotan version of this zeolite was born out of a massive continental rifting event that started over 2 billion years ago. Back in the Proterozoic Era, the interior of the ancient North American Plate began to split apart due to magma erupting

Thomsonite jewelry is most commonly set in sterling silver, and sells for a wide range of prices, from tens to many hundreds of dollars.

from a long, boomerang-shaped fissure. As the crack widened, massive outpourings of runny basaltic lava flooded the land. The resulting rock became the foundation for the Great Lakes, formed some of the most wonderful geology around, and produced several types of ore deposits and unique gemstones.

Before the split was complete, it suddenly failed. Although the tectonic extension ceased, hydrothermal fluids circulated through the basalt leaching, iron and other elements from it. The dissolved elements precipitated out into the gas voids (vesicles) left behind by the degassed, cooling molten basalt. Along with thomsonite, other notable minerals found in vesicles along the North Shore are prehnite, calcite, and the Lake Superior agate.

Thomsonite crystals grow within the vesicles as vertical, needlelike bunches from a central “seed”, and proceed to grow outward. Faint, fibrous patterns can be observed in many of the stones. The fibrous habit, combined with multiple colors, gives rise to another defining characteristic of thomsonite: its concentric “eyes”. The best thomsonite gems contain multiple eyes, formed around multiple “growth seeds”, that can stand alone or grow into each other, much like cave stalactites.

As in many other gems, different trace impurities give rise to different hues. It is thought that shades of pink are caused by varying quantities of free Fe+2 ions, leached

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This distinguishable outcrop is located just past the Thomsonite Inn and Suites, six miles south of Grand Marais, and offers visitors a chance to find small gems.

from the surrounding basalt, whereas the cause of shades of green is believed to be inclusions of iron silicate minerals. A few gems even contain very small bits of native copper, which is not surprising given that Michigan’s nearby native copper deposits are hosted by (mainly) the same basalts. It would also not come as a surprise if free Cu+2 ions play a role in some coloration.

Chemically, thomsonite (NaCa2Al5Si5O20• 6H2O) belongs to the zeolite family of silicate minerals. Zeolites are used as molecular sieves and water softeners due to their open, tunnellike atomic structure. Like quartz, zeolites are framework silicates; however, the basic silica units are spread farther apart, making them able to accommodate metals like sodium and calcium, which are rather large in atomic size.

Most commercial quantities of zeolites occur in hydrothermally altered beds of tuff and in saline lake deposits, rather than amygdules. There are two subtypes of thomsonite, depending on the dominant alkaline earth metal present. As the formula may suggest, far and away the most dominant type is thomsonite-Ca, with calcium being essential to its crystal structure. The rarest variety of the gem is thomsonite-Sr (strontium), the most noted source of which is in the Aldan Shield in the Eastern Siberian region. While thomsonite is easily attractive enough to be used as a gemstone, it has only a moderate Mohs hardness of 5-5.5.

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The typical colors of thomsonites from other localities, such as from Table Mountain, Colorado (January 2016 Rock & Gem), are white, beige, pale yellow-cream, light grey, and pale orange, although most specimens display one or two hues. What really sets Minnesota thomsonite apart is the wide variety of hues and color combinations. It has been reported that up to 172 color and hue combinations have been observed in this material. I learned from Lee Bergstrom that an even more specific area produces thomsonite with black areas in it!

Another defining characteristic of Minnesota thomsonite is its quite small average size. The vesicles in which the gems form are, on average, only several millimeters across. I have collected only a very few matrix pieces in which mineralized vugs have hit the 1 cm mark in diameter. Two years back, when I was starting to make some simple jewelry of my own on a budget, I received a small bag of tumbled stones in which the largest pieces were only the size of a pea. It turns out that most or the loose stones found on the lakeshore at Thomsonite Beach Inn are not much bigger than that. Talk about needing a sharp set of eyes!

Keith informed me that the largest thomsonite he has ever found weighs in at a whopping 2.5 pounds, and measures just under 4 inches! He did not say where or when he found it, and one can certainly not blame him for keeping such a golden secret.

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Vein specimens, like this one, are extremely rare. This is one of the most breathtaking matrix thomsonite specimens to ever be recovered from the Lake Superior shore. (Bob and Nancy Lynch specimen)

As far as I know, Keith currently owns the ultimate whopper in thomsonite.

As a stone that is rarer than diamonds, rubies, emeralds or sapphires, thomsonite’s value in the Great Lakes area is quite noteworthy. In an average year, the Beaver Bay Agate Shop sells more than a thousand pieces of thomsonite jewelry each year. In addition, it is a prime place for people to have their own finds custom set into jewelry. When it comes to loose gems, however, Keith says that whenever he does get any in stock, they are gone in a flash. He cited that last year, during which he received a total of 7 gallons of loose nuggets, every time an individual shipment came in, the entire contents would be gone in only a couple days! The typical value range of these thomsonites is anywhere from $5 to $20 per gram, according to Keith.

The three main factors that account for the price of this gem are linear fractures, “eyes”, and greenish hues. For instance, a gem that has no fractures, some eyes, and shades of mostly pink and cream will only be worth around half as much as a stone with all these same, as well as a healthy amount of green coloration (typically light and “forest” shades). A bluish-green tint is even rarer. For those who are into matrix pieces with basalt, the average price range is around $5 to $10 per pound.

Given its relatively low hardness, extracting thomsonite intact from its hard basalt host requires quite a bit of skill and practice.

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These self-collected matrix pieces (shown wet) are from the Good Harbor Bay Overlook. The fractured basalt made collecting with simple pry tools quite easy.

Keith says he often uses a three-fold extraction method: First, when working on bulk matrix material, he uses a diamond saw to cut down the amount of matrix area. Second, he uses a rotary tool to remove host basalt near the gems, exposing a little more of their surface area. Third, he uses some very fine chisels, sharpened like a pencil, and carefully pries out the stones. Although the process seems rather straightforward, Terry assures that it is easier said than done for most beginners.

Fortunately, once loose gems are acquired, they take a great polish from cerium oxide grit. The recommended polishing phase utilizes a wide range of grit sizes, starting at 220 grit and finishing with 3000 grit.

At the Thomsonite Beach Inn, only guests have access to the immediate adjoining beach. Although this private stretch of beach is in the middle of the best concentrations of loose stones, the owners discourage picking in order to preserve the beauty of the area.

The Bergstroms will, however, point you in the direction of promising picking spots. In addition, the inn sells both thomsonite jewelry (most in sterling silver) and loose stones in a wide variety of price ranges. Custom work is available on request.

If one does not want to stay overnight, there is a road pullout, called the Good Harbor Bay Overlook, right after the inn as Route 61 bends northward. Right across the road is a distinct section of tilted, older, dark-red sedimentary rocks that contains

ripple mark structures that are overlain by black basalt (47°43’34.1”N, 90°26’35.1”W).

When I visited, there were plenty of basalt boulders on the ground, and most contained an array of intact zeolites. Furthermore, parts of the outcrop were fractured enough that I could extract some in situ matrix pieces without the need for hand tools.

Additionally, only a third-mile farther up the highway, where it bends again eastward, is the Cut Face Creek Wayside Park. Next to the parking lot is a stairway right to public beach land. While visiting there, the only thomsonites I found were firmly in the basalt that made up the beach wall. I believed that I had better luck at the outcrop than at the beach!

Although opaque, thomsonite is a feast for the eyes, with its multiple colors and patterns. It is a billion-year-old gem whose beauty has stood the test of time. Even a small specimen would make quite an addition to any collection, with its color combinations rivaling those of the best “rainbow” mineral specimens.

The Beaver Bay Agate Shop is located at 1003 Main St., in Beaver Bay, Minnesota (www.beaverbayagateshop.com). Contact owners Keith and Teresa Bartel at (218) 2264847 or beaverbayagate@lakenet.com.

Thomsonite Beach Inn & Suites is located at 2920 W. Hwy. 61, Grand Marais, Minnesota (www.thomsonite.com). Contact owners Lee and Scott Bergstrom at (888) 387-1532 or (218) 387-1532.

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DATE CREEK QUARTZ & WICKENBURG NODULES

This Wickenburg nodule has a glassy matrix that resembles obsidian. The white nodules range between pinhead and golf ball size, and some are so close together they look like a solid line. (5 in. x 3 in. x 4 in.)

Rockhounding along Arizona’s Joshua Tree Parkway Story and Photos by Alice Sikorski

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lso known as the Joshua Tree Parkway, the stretch of U.S. Highway 93 from Interstate 40, just east of Kingman, south to Wickenburg is a nice two-lane to four-lane paved highway.

The parkway cuts across Arizona from northwest to southeast. My husband, Dave, and I were traveling from Las Vegas, Nevada, to Chandler, Arizona, and this parkway seemed like the most direct route.

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Rock & Gem

Date Creek quartz crystals are often found that have intergrown into clusters. The quartz can be water clear to milky white. (5 in. x 4 in. x 3 in.)

Mormon settlers crossing the Mojave Desert in the mid-19th century gave Yucca brevifolia the name “Joshua tree” because its shape reminded them of the Biblical character Joshua reaching his hands up to the sky in prayer.

Ranchers used the trunks and branches of this plant as fencing, and miners burned them in ore-processing steam engines (https:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yucca_brevifolia).

Since we had all day to do a four-hour drive, we planned to make some rock stops along the way to break up the drive. Not being familiar with the area, we checked the Arizona rockhounding books available. The 2001 edition of Gem Trails of Arizona, by James R. Mitchell, listed quite a few rockhounding sites along this highway. Most of them were located in the mountains or at

higher elevations. There were quite a few old mine sites and dumps that could be explored, but they were situated up in the mountains. We picked two sites that were close to the highway and didn’t require a high-clearance vehicle to access: Date Creek Quartz Crystals and Wickenburg Nodules.

One drawback was the fact that both these sites are within a two-hour drive from Phoenix. Would these sites be picked over and a waste of time or would they still have some good finds? The quest was on.

The first place we explored was the Date Creek Quartz Crystals site, in Yavapai County.

To get there from Wickenburg, take U.S. 93 north for 23.5 miles to Date Creek Ranch Road. At mile marker 171, there is a large, old, wooden sign that marks the road. The road is

Bands are prominent in the rhyolite on the outside of the Wickenburg nodules. The quartz crystals fill vugs created by trapped gas bubbles.

(2 in. x 1 in. x ½ in.)

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The Wickenburg nodules are not considered true geodes, but the cavities and openings in the rhyolite have fine quartz crystals in them. (2 in. x 1½ in. x 2 in.)

gravel and dirt, but is well maintained. Follow this road north for two miles. If you come to a cattle guard, you’ve gone too far.

On the right will be a flat area that is used for camping and has a few stone fire rings.

Park there and hike east up the hills for approximately 100 yards. After you cross a gully or two, you’ll start to see signs of other rockhounds that have been there before you. Open pits and broken crystal pieces are everywhere. The pits were only about 2 feet deep, and the ground was easy to dig, with small rocks and soil. A quarter-inch screen sifter worked quite well there.

Gem Trails of Arizona says the best crystals are found by digging, but there were plenty of crystals on the ground. The guidebook also states that nice scepter crystals can be

Within the first hour of searching, we found these Date Creek quartz crystals lying on the ground. A few crystals are clear, but most are milky white. The largest crystal is under 2 inches long and 1 inch thick.

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The brown and red staining in this Date Creek quartz crystal is from included iron. Later quartz growth has remained milky white.

Unusual grayish Date Creek quartz crystals have included iron, while the later quartz growth has remained milky white.

found there, but only rarely. The crystals we found ranged from milky to clear to hematite-included. We also found grapefruit-size chunks of crystals. Some crystal points had been broken off the chunks, but they were still interesting specimens. Small, square vugs were in these chunks, implying that hematite or pyrite once occupied the open space and had been eroded out.

The largest single crystal we found was less than 2 inches long. There seemed to be a lot of hematite (iron) in the area. Some quartz crystals were stained with orange, brown or yellow. The streak test showed a brown streak. Other quartz crystals included or grew around the hematite. These inclusions made for some interesting brown quartz crystals.

Small hematite crystals were found in a few specimens. Mindat.org has photos of two beautiful hematite-after-pyrite pseudomorph specimens from this area. Blue-green chrysocolla stained one quartz crystal we found.

We stopped for about an hour and found more than 40 single quartz crystals and chunks. Date Creek Ranch Road is still a good rockhounding site.

Take El Recreo Drive, just east of the U.S. 93/60 interchange, and drive northeast. After one-quarter mile, El Recreo Drive merges into Constellation Road and heads due east.

Keep on this road for 2.1 miles. Drive past Smoke View Ranch Road on the left.

The pavement ends just before the full distance, becoming a well-maintained dirtand-gravel road. Use caution if it has rained recently. The road goes over a rise, drops down, and then proceeds to the right. Just before the road curves to the right, look for the gently rising hills on the left. Continue toward these hills and park as close as you can get to the top. If you come to a streambed and hairpin turn on the main dirt road, you’ve gone too far. The Wickenburg nodules are located in a band of gray-green rhyolite approximately one-third of the way down from the hilltop. With a glassy texture, this rhyolite looks like spun sugar.

According to Geology.com, “Rhyolite is an extrusive igneous rock with very high silica content. It is usually pink or gray in color with grains so small that they are difficult to observe without a hand lens. Rhyolite is made up of quartz, plagioclase, and sanidine, with minor amounts of hornblende and biotite mica” (http://geology.com/rocks/ rhyolite.shtml).

As you walk up from the road, the sandy ground changes to rocky terrain. The straightsided hillside area is the rhyolite area. The Wickenburg nodules sometimes have quartz crystals in vugs. The nodules are not considered true geodes, but the cavities and open-

The Wickenburg Nodules site is was the second site we explored. The city of Wickenburg is located in Maricopa County, 54 miles northwest of Phoenix. Gem Trails of Arizona described the site as being along U.S. Highway 60, just south of the center of Wickenburg. Southbound U.S. 93 ends in Wickenburg; on the other side of the Hassayampa River, it becomes U.S. 60.

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ings in the rhyolite have fine quartz crystals in them. Don’t stick to the front side of the hill; check horizontally all around the hills for additional Wickenburg nodules. Following the rhyolite seam yields the best results.

Check for cavities and openings in the rhyolite, as they might contain the quartz crystals that make up the Wickenburg nodules. Work the cavity loose with a chisel and pry bar to further examine the piece. Work these areas carefully so that you do not break the crystals.

If you’re not up to chisel-and-pry bar work, examine the ground below the rhyolite band.

Check around the rabbit brush and gullies for pieces that have broken off from the rhyolite and tumbled down the hillside. When poking around bushes, use a stick or probe to check for any critters that might be lurking there before you reach down with your hand.

We spent about an hour at this site and found four nice pieces. The largest piece consisted of obsidian with many white nodules.

The nodules ranged from pinhead to golf ball size. In some areas, the white nodules are strung so closely together that they appear to be a solid line. A few nodules were broken open, and the quartz crystals were apparent.

Hematite (orange iron stain) and feldspar (pink stain) partially colored the interior.

We also found a small rock piece with a solid quartz seam sandwiched between rhyolite layers. This piece should make a great cabochon after a little lapidary work.

Before you wash your specimens with water, check for wickenburgite with a good jeweler’s loupe. This micromineral has been found east of Wickenburg in Maricopa County, but no specific location is noted in mindat.org. These clear, tabular crystals are six-sided. The Wickenburgite crystals can occur singularly, in stacks, or as rosettes.

This is a lead, calcium, aluminum, silicon, oxygen and water-based mineral with a formula of Pb3CaAl2Si10O27·4H2O. They luminescence a bright red to salmon color in shortwave UV light.

Even though Gem Trails of Arizona was written over 15 years ago and the sites are within a day’s drive of a large city, these two sites still hold treasure to be found. Our next trip down the Joshua Tree Parkway will include more time for some serious rockhounding at these sites.

September 2017

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Easy Steps Video Step-by-Step Method Jewelry Design Jewelry Crafting Gem Cutting

picks & pans NEWS and REVIEWS

Lapidary, Faceting, Carving, Wire Work, Bead Stringing & Knotting, Soldering, Repair, Wax Casting and more.

One of the most extensive DVD libraries by master designers and master craftsman. VHS tapes also available.

For a FREE Catalog call 800.382.3237 www.EasyStepsVideo.com

The Sisk Gemological Reference, Volumes I-III

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66 Untitled-4 66

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by Jerry Sisk This reference comes as a hardbound three-volume set. Each volume is generously illustrated with several hundred full-color, professional photographs. The books measure 9.5 in x 8.5 in., and the professional edition comes as a boxed set.

Vol. I: Prominent Gems (436 pp.), provides a compendium of gemological information that is really the basis of gem study. The text provides information on all aspects of gems starting with their classification and composition, physical and optical properties and useful data on studying these properties. This educational section of Vol. I holds an exceptional amount of information about gems and their properties.

The bulk of the text is devoted to 44 major gem species and gem groups, including quartz, feldspar and garnet.

The section for each species starts with a full-page color photograph of a fine specimen or small group of specimens. This is followed by an excellent description of the species, a chart of necessary gem properties, individual color photographs of varieties where needed, and comments on common names applied to the gem. Aids such as maps, charts and diagrams are included when needed to clarify the information.

The final section of Vol. I offers the reader property charts and absorption spectra information in the form of a color image for each gem.

Vol. II: Noteworthy Gems (302 pp.) treats minerals that are normally considered as collector specimens, but can—under the right conditions—be used as fine gem material. They include variscite, varieties of quartz, meteorites and ivory.

Vol. II does an excellent job of covering virtually every popular mineral—crystalline or massive—that can be cut, polished or shaped into a gem or carving. Excellent photographs and very accurate information is included with each mineral. Volumes I and II are each a most worthy reference, suitable for any mineral or gem collector’s library.

Vol. III: Gallery of Gems (302 pp.), is a visual treat. The work of this country’s leading photographers is portrayed on nearly 300 full-color pages. Some of the most beautiful award-winning jewelry and faceted gems are pictured, along with superb examples of many of the world’s most popular minerals. Leafing through this beautiful book is a delight for every mineral and gem collector.

Reasonably priced and featuring every mineral suitable for gem use, this set is an excellent compendium of available gem materials. It should be part of every mineral and gem collector’s library, as well as a coffee-table treasure. Ñ Bob Jones $199.99 (American Collectible Network, dba Jewelry Television, 9600 Parkside Drive, Knoxville, TN 37922, (865) 258-0795; jtv.com/SGR)

Rock & Gem accepts freelance editorial submissions. For detailed instructions, see our writers’ guidelines at

www.rockngem.com/writers-guidelines/

Rock & Gem

7/26/17 8:04 PM

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Screens $25. Also heat-treated Sapphire Rough for cutting, sold by carat weight in parcels. Call for pricing. Sapphire Studio in Hamilton, Montana. 406-381-1392.

Large selections of Australian thundereggs, agates, and minerals available.

Specimens from Agate Creek, Mt Hay, Mt Tamborine, Wycarbah, Tweed Valley, Chillagoe, Yandina, Boggabri. Good range of sizes and prices available. Experienced at shipping worldwide. Email: limpinwoodgardens@bigpond.com Cam’s Crystal Gallery, We sell exceptional value specimens for most any collector or decorator. Please contact us at CamsCrystals@aol.com with any special requests. Thank you!

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Vibratory Lot-O-Tumblr built since the 1960’s, produces a high quality shine in only 7 days. Superior finish on specimens and gemstones. Great for beginners and used by many professional gem cutters.

507-451-2254 Belt, Inc. 2746 Hoffman Dr. NW Owatonna, MN 55060, 7 day start to finish, dealer inquires, name, phone, web.

We have the most accurate colored stone grading in the industry. Our free monthly newsletters include unenhanced color photos of every gem we well. We provide consisted fine quality calibrated gems with free color matching. In addition we have huge selection of unique cutes, unusual gem types, crystals and bargain closeouts. Call our USA based customer service team today for honest and friendly service. (800)-543-5563 support@optimagem.com

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Online since 1998, offering rough rock, designer cabochons, fine agate and jasper specimens, beads, publications, lapidary equipment, monthly specials.

Mining reports, rock location information and galleries. Order securely online, MC/Visa/PayPal, Toll free (866)-377-4666 email: mail@thegemshop.com

Learn from the World’s Foremost Authority in Gemology online! Find out about the Gemological Institute of America’s courses and programs, browse, and shop for gemology instruments and books. Stay up-to-date on diamond and gemstone news and research.

www.kiadesigns.com Tourmaline Crystals Galore, Extruded Quartz Artistic Lamps, Holley Blue Chalcedony, Necklaces, Pendants, Rough, Natural Crystal Massage Tools. (503)-7846279

www.rocksandminerals.org Published since 1926. The magazine for everyone interested in minerals, rocks and fossils.

www.agatemontana.com For all your MONTANA AGATE wants and needs. Books, rough, slabs, cabs, handcrafted jewelry, freeform carvings and specimens.

www.texasamethystagate.com Home of ‘Carver’ agate find, described by others as “the most diverse, colorful, unique agate find in Far West Texas since the early 1960’s.” Picture galleries, geological discussion, and bracelet shop.

RocknGem.com

for as little as $35 per insertion. Contact ptorres@beckett.com Ph: 972.448.9131; Fax 972.528.5279; Rock & Gem, 4635 McEwen Rd | Dallas, TX 75244

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CLASSIFIED Business OppOrtunities Sale of Large Wholesale Cabochon and Faceted Stone company. Also, included are 1st rate Cab and facet rough, fossils, books, seashells, artifacts, and polished agates, etc. No Junk. Serious interested parties only. Contact Ed Johnson, Thousand Oaks, CA 805-492-9992 barbedj@aol. com

COlleCtiOns Large, rare,private collection of high quality, raw ammolite fossils and cut gems from southern Alberta. Owner retiring. $25,000 firm. stevesafarisnorth@sasktel.net Private mineral collection, over 45 years. Most specimens are museum quality over 700 specimens, a lot of rare crystal specimens, I can email pictures. $30,000. Contact william_branson84@yahoo.com or (806)-881-8146

Field trips ZRS 2017 Guided Field Trips to Morocco, Australia and England. Sixteen days, allinclusive with shipping. Details – ZRS, 3018 Lyndale Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN 55408, 612-824-1068, info@ zrsfossils.com

FOssils PaleoImages ® : museum quality fossil replicas. Fossil sets, ammonites, trilobites, wood, etc. fossil jewelry, Lithocanis ™ americanus: clothing items, selected with the rock hound in mind. Fluorescent minerals and UV lights. www.tlzenterprises. com

FOr sale For Sale Rare Emeralds From the Hiddenite Area North Carolina Unearthed in 1984 and 1969 The LKA 1,683.3 Carats The

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Stephenson 1,438 Carats. See Mineral 1885 Seminole Trail, Crystals in beautiful Upstate full data at www.emeraldsrare. Charlottesville, VA 22901, NY, with camping available.

(434)-964-0875. www.excali- (800)-579-3426. www.crystalcom grove.com Lightly used Rio Grande Casting burmineral.com Equipment. $3500 obo. Call/ Woodies Rock Shop. A large mines text Wes 541-861-9295 COLLECT MINERALS IN MAINE. variety of Keokuk GeodesBrand new Facetron faceting We have access to private and opened and unopened includmachine, comes with complete closed locations like Mount ing enhydro Keokuk geodes. lab set. $2,700. Call for more Mica, Mount Apatite and more! Geodes can include pyrite, information (917)-412-6122 A unique and complete vaca- barite, pink/brown/and clear Rico, Colorado USGS 1905 folio. tion opportunity. Come and see calcite, and goethite inclu18.5” x 22” with 22 pages text. “Oma’s Attic” local and foreign sions. Agates; petrifi ed wood; 5 maps. Inner pages complete. mineral specimens. POLAND minerals; gemstones; custom Cover fragile but complete. MINING CAMPS, Mary Groves, jewelry; geode cracking, sawing, and polishing. Guided $125. R. Gibbons – (435)-634- PO Box 26, Poland ME 04274.

Keokuk geode trips available 8205 or gibbons@infowest. 207-998-2350 www.polandby appointment only. Ebay: com miningcamps.com keokukgeode FB: keokukgeFabulous Keokuk Geodes being mining supplies odes.com Woodies Rock Shop sold at Munda Auctions. All sell Mining Supplies and Rock 309-313-2077 to the highest bidder, both split Shop, Hesperia, CA. Our store Los Laureles Fire Opal’s and whole, some florescent, up and warehouse has rocks, minMexico. We have an extensive to 18” in diameter. Also selling ing supplies, crystals, slabs, fire opals cabochon, free form some solids for lapidary craft- cabochons, fossils, minerals, faceting metrix, specimens, ing. Check out Munda Auctions turquoise, jewelry, and specirainbow oxidian, few minerals, at www.mundaauctions.com or mens. 9565 C Ave, 760-244imperial jaspers, Sonora suncall 815-232-8813 for auction 9642. www.miningsuppliesanset blue opals, fire agates from dates with Geodes! drockshop.com Magdalena, Jalisco, MX. Call HOme rOCk sHOw for upcoming shows. (510)Opal Denver C o l o r a d o L i g h t n i n g R i d g e , C o o b e r 393-6573 laurelesopalsmex@ Thompson Marketing Home Pedy, Andamooka, Mintable, yahoo.com Rock Show July 14-- 16 Mexican. We’re the largest and Loveland, CO. Colorado’s 9:00 Am -- 6:00 Daily 4242 most consistent opal suppliers source for fine gems and minThompson Court 80216 303 in the industry. Free Catalog. erals. On the road to Rocky 296 8268 Rocksisme@comKNIGHTS. Box 411, Waitsfield, M o u n t a i n N a t i o n a l P a r k . cast.net Face Book Thompson VT 05673. (802)-496-3707. Jewelry, Crystals, Fossils.

Marketing-- John Haney Rough Our own cut designer caboEmail knights@madriver.com Rock, Slabs, Designer Cabs, chons. Huge selection! 4855 prOspeCtOrs Fossils, Amber, Turquoise, W. Eisenhower. www.bluestoMinerals, Gemstone Bowls & Great Canadian Prospecting negemshop.com, Facebook – boxes. Metaphysical Crystals Co. 613-378-2698 or email Bluestone jewelry store.

Lapidary Equipment & sup- wjimpauls@hotmail.com Rock Indianapolis Area (Lawrence). plies. hound – Prospector – Grub Findings, supplies, minerHoe welded steel digging tool minerals als, fossils, equipment, rough with non-slip hardwood handle, and finished stones. No list.

Selling private collection of proven tough. Moces packed Jox Rox, 4825 N. Franklin Covelite and much more from dirt or rock fast. $59.95 plus Rd. Indianapolis, IN 46226. the Butte, Montana, Leonard shipping. Also available silver Hours 10am – 6pm. Monday – Mine. Phone: (406)-498-0458. specimens.

Saturday. (317)-542-8855.

Rare Minerals and classic rOCk sHOps Marlbeton, WY – J L Gray Rock specimens from new discoveries and old collections. Over Crystal Grove Diamond Mine Shop. Rough rock, slabs, 200,000 specimens on hand, & Campground – UNDER cabochons, and beads, 614 unique gift items and more. NEW OWNERSHIP! Mine for E. 3rd Street. (307)-260-6442 Open Tues-Sat, Excalibur Herkimer Diamond Quartz or (307)-260-6443. Email:

68 R&G Classified Sept17.idml 68

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graysrocks@wyoming.com path with boulders, decorator 878-0415 janet@gemsoft- ing. Please see our website for full details – pacificgateway& natural-scape pieces to the hewest.co Facebook: JL Gray Rock Shop. jade.com Tel: (778)-792-6007 Rock Depot that offers lapidary Rough foR Cabbing Herb’s Lapidary Shop – materials & equipment, tools, Montana Agate rough, all Route 1, Box 29, South 81 Pietersite, Seraphinite, Hwy. Comanche OK 73529. and cutting, drilling & polishing Eudialyte, large new shimp- grades. Special 25+ lbs. mediservices. Open 7 days. 4103 um grade, no clears. $175 Southwest Oklahoma’s largN Interstate 35 (between 38 ments arriving! Namibian shipped USA. Bob Gwin. Terry est! Tons of rough agate, fos1/2 & Airport). 512-472-5015. Blue Petersite, Seraphinite, Montana. 417 Custer Ave. sils, onyx and finished product.

Eudialyte, Chrome Diospide, NTROCKS.COM 59349. (406)-853-4636.

Wednesday – Saturday, 9am to Siberian Green Nephrite. High Big Bear Lake, CA “Gems of the Rough foR faCeting 6pm. 580-439-4186 or 580grade Chrysocolla/Shattuckite West” sells minerals, gems, 439-5347 cabochons, rough, slabs, cop- f r o m N a m b i a . M t o r o l i t e , The largest and most competiA u s t i n , T e x a s : N a t u r e ’ s per splash, petrified wood, Stichtite, rainbow Fluorite, and tive selection facet or caboTreasures of Texas 14,000 sq. turquoise, fire agate, crystals more! 909-915-9561 email: chon rough in the industry.

The Source. KNIGHT’S HOUSE ft. campus includes a retail and specimens, typical of the jeff@barnhouselapidary.com store with crystals, minerals, Western States. Kids table of BRITISH COLUMBIA NEPHRITE OF FINE GEMS. Box 411, agates, fossils, jewelry, and affordable rocks. Classes from JADE: Beautiful rough nephrite Waitsfield, VT 05673. 802-496unique gifts. The Rock Yard March 2017. Visit us at 40847 Jade mined in Northern BC. All 3707 email: knights@madriver. has mounds of rock lining a Big Bear Blvd. 92315. (909)- sizes available, excellent pric- com

Now you can reach Thousands of Readers Worldwide who want to Buy and Sell.

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69 R&G Classified Sept17.idml 69

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Mark Your Calendar!

how

Dates

Submit show date information at least four months in advance using the electronic form at www.rockngem.com.

September 2017

1- 4 — HENDERSONVILLE, NORTH CAROLINA: Annual show; Henderson County

Institute of Mining and Technology.; contact

1 - 3 — S A N TA BARBARA, CALIFORNIA: Wholesale and retail show;

Gem & Mineral Society, Whitmire Activity Bldg.;

NM

301 Lily Pond Rd; Fri. 10-6, Sat. 10-6, Sun.

jweiner2011@hotmail.com;

Gem Faire Inc, Earl Warren Showgrounds; 3400 Calle Real; Fri. 12-6, Sat. 10-6, Sun. 10-5; Admission $7, Children free (ages 0-11); Fine jewelry, crystals, gems, beads, gold & silver, minerals & much more at manufacturer’s prices.

Exhibitors from all over the world will be on site.

Jewelry repair & ring sizing while you shop. ; contact Allen Van, (503)-252-8300; e-mail: info@gemfaire.com; Web site: http://www.gemfaire.com

10-6, Mon. 10-5; Adults $5, Students 12 &

www.rollingstonesgms.blogspot.com

under free; \\\”Colorful Copper Minerals\\\” is the theme. Exhibits, vendors, demos, door prizes, refreshments; contact Diane Lapp, 400 N Main St, Hendersonville, NC 28792, (828)-698-1977; e-mail: dlapp_2000@yahoo.com; Web site: HCGMS.com

show; Treasures of the Earth, Inc., North Carolina State Fairgrounds; 1025 Blue Ridge Road; Fri. 12-6, Sat. 10-5, Sun. 10-5, Mon. 10-4; Adults $5, Children 16 and under free; Vendors from across the US bring a variety of merchandise, including jewelry of all types, gemstones, beads, crystals, minerals, and fossils. Jewelers and wire wrappers who can design, remount and set stones and make repairs on site will be present. ; contact Jane Westbrook, PO Box 59, Gloucester Point, VA 23062, (804)-642-2011; e-mail: jane@treasuresoftheearth.com; Web site: www.TreasuresOfTheEarth.com

2-3—AUGUSTA, MAINE: Annual show; Guard Armory; Western Avenue; Sat. 10-5, Sun. 10-4; Admission $2, Children under 14 free; contact Ronald LePage, 37 May Street, Waterville, ME 04901, (207)-873-6270; e-mail: ronlep@midmaine.com;

Web

site:

kennebec-rocksandminerals.com

show; Diggin\’s Productions, Hanford Civic Auditorium ; 401 Douty St; Sat. 10-6, Sun. 10-4; Adults $3, Children free; Museum quality Fossil exhibit, free gem and mineral identification by certified gemologist. Vendors from around the United States offering gems, minerals custom

1-4—CANBY, OREGON: Show and sale; Sari

jewelry, fossils, rough and finished material.

Trevarthen, Clackamas County Event Center; 694 NE 4th Ave. ; Daily 9-5; Free Admission; Gem, Mineral and Jewelry Show and Sale. Treasures from around the world including; gems, minerals, beads, finished jewelry, crystals, turquoise, meteorites, fossils, petrified wood, rough rock, polished rock, slabs, \\\”Old Stock\\\” collections, silver, gold, opal, metaphysical items, lapidary equipment and much more. Fun for the whole family. ; contact Sari Trevarthen, (503)-705-1520; e-mail: sarisuztreasures@yahoo.com

Geode cracking, mining screening for gems and minerals. Black light display of minerals, Jessica Mills from TVs Prospectors AKA The Dirty Girl will be making an appearance. Indoor and out door activities for the whole family; Hanford,

(575)-654-4424; Web

e-mail: site:

8 -10 —WINSTON - SALEM, NORTH CAROLINA: Show and sale; Forsyth Gem and Mineral Club, Educational Building, ; Fairgrounds, Gate 9 from 27th. Street ; Fri. 10-7, Sat. 10-7, Sun. 12-5; Adults/Seniors $3, Students

Kathy

Corbett,

CA

93230,

341

with adult; Dealers offer great values on top gems, minerals, fine jewelry, precious & semiprecious gemstones beads, fossils, Mineral Specimens lapidary material, equipment, and supplies, Lapidary Tools. Hourly door prizes drawing for $20.00 gift certificate. Demonstrators of wire wrapping, cabochon cutting, stone setting. Visit the Club corner for grab bags, and geodes from Mexico. ; contact William Marion,

2-3—HANFORD , CALIFORNIA: Annual

contact

88062,

thru 12th grade free with adult, Children free

Kennebec Rocks and Minerals Club, National

1-4—RALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA: Retail

Jeannine Weiner, P.O. Box 1555, Silver City,

Cedar

St,

(559)-904-4795;

e-mail: Corbett1@sbcglobal.net; Web

site:

Digginsproductions

2-4—SILVER CITY, NEW MEXICO: Annual 1-4—CANBY, OREGON: Show and sale; Sari

show; Grant County Rolling Stones Gem

Trevarthen, Clackamas County Event Center; 694 NE 4th Ave. ; Daily 9-5; Free Admission; Gem, Mineral and Jewelry Show and Sale.

Treasures from around the world including gems, minerals, beads, finished jewelry, crystals, turquoise, meteorites, fossils, petrified wood, rough rock, polished rock, slabs, “Old Stock” collections, silver, gold, opal, metaphysical items, lapidary equipment and much more. Fun for the whole family. ; contact Sari Trevarthen, (503)-

and Mineral Society, Grant County Veterans’

705-1520; e-mail: sarisuztreasures@yahoo.com

displays - New Mexico State University Zuhl

Memorial Conference Center ; 3031 HWY 180 E; Sat. 9-5, Sun. 10-5, Mon. 10-4; Free Admission; Grant County Rolling Stones Gem and Mineral Society will hold their 34 Annual Gem & Mineral Show Labor Day weekend. A great family event !

Large assortment of vendors, Wheel of Fortune, Silent Auction, and Daily Field trips for Collecting & for Geology - Educational Displays. Special Collection of Petrified Wood and the New Mexico

1163 Bear Creek Church Road, Mocksville, NC 27028; e-mail: mariona1@yadtel.net; Web site: www.forsythgemclub.com

8-10—GREENFIELD,

INDIANA: Annual

show; 500 Earth Sciences Club, Hancock County 4-H Fairgrounds; 620 N. Apple Street; Fri. 10-7, Sat. 10-7, Sun. 10-4; Free Admission; 41st Annual Greater Indianapolis Gem, Mineral and Fossil Show. Dealers and swappers in fossils, minerals, gems, jewelry and lapidary equipment silent auctions, door prizes, kids activities, demonstrations and programs for all special fossil exhibit by: The Children\\\’s Museum of Indianapolis; contact Cheryl Hamilton, 3507 Luewan Dr., Indianapolis, IN 46235, (317)-897-6639; e-mail: clhamilton1951@gmail.com

8-10—TOLEDO, OHIO: Annual show; Toledo Gem and Rockhound Club, Stranahan Great Theater Complex; 4645 Heatherdowns Blvd; Fri. 2-8, Sat. 10-6, Sun. 11-5; Adults $5, Seniors/ Students $4.50, Children under 12 free; The show offers something for the entire family!

Dealers from around the country offer finished jewelry, beads, gem trees, faceted stones, mineral specimens, fossils, cabochons, tools, carvings, and more. The club will be demonstrating various lapidary techniques such as faceting, beading, making a cabochon & metalsmithing.

The kids will enjoy the children\\\’s area featuring

70 www.rockngem.com RG0917 Masterrev.indd 70

7/26/17 8:42 PM

games, activities, and free mineral specimens.

Children free; Rocks, minerals, fossils, demon-

15-17—HOLLAND,

Scouts in Uniform and Active Military (w/ID)

strators, exhibits, silent auction, children activi-

show; Tulip City Gem & Mineral Club, Soccer

free admission! Members proudly exhibit their

ties, retail dealers; contact Keith Bacus, (509)-

Stop Sportsplex; 5 River Hills Drive; Fri. 10-8,

craft and collections along with special exhibits

529-1248; e-mail: keithbacus@yahoo.com

Sat. 10-7, Sun. 11-5; Adults/Seniors $3, Students/

from local universities. A selection of rock and mineral specimens will be for sale along with other items. ; contact Stephen Shimatzki, 4295 County Road 16, Woodville, OH 43469, (567)868-8794; e-mail: sjs132@gmail.com; Web site: www.rockyreader.com

9 -10 — S I LOAM S PR I N G S , ARKANSAS: Annual Fall Swap; Northwest Arkansas Gem and Mineral Society, Siloam Springs; Hwy 43 North and Lawlis Road; Sat. 9-5, Sun. 10-4; Free Admission; contact Dave Leininger, 14029 White Oak Lane,

8-16—DENVER, COLORADO: Annual show; Colorado Mineral and Fossil Show , Crowne Plaza Dia; 15500 E 40th Ave; Fri. 9-6, Sat. 9-6, Sun. 10-5, Mon. 9-6; Free Admission; Colorado Mineral and Fossil Show 2017. Guest Speakers, Retail Wholesale Dealers from all over the world.

First Day Grand Opening - $1,000 cash vouchers giveaways. This show was formerly the Marty Zinn Expo that was at the Ramada Inn - The entire show has been moved to the Crowne Plaza Dia. There will not be any shows at the Ramada anymore!; contact Sandra Gonzales , P.O Box 100187, Denver, CO 80250, (720)425-3908; e-mail: rockygems@comcast.net;

Bentonville, e-mail:

AR

72712,

(479)-721-1579;

hulagrub@aol.com;

Web

site:

www.nwarockhounds.org

MICHIGAN: Annual

Children free; 48th Annual Show: “Geodes – Hidden Treasure”. Crack your own geode! Collect special rocks, fossils, jewelry and beads by visiting dealers, artisan market, silent auction and club sales. View special displays by Seaman Mineral Museum and area colleges.

Enjoy Kids Games, Sluice, Fluorescent Tent and club members’ personal displays. Interact with the Lapidary Arts demonstrators. You will find common, strange and precious treasures to take home! ; contact Sue Goedert, PO

9-17—DENVER,

COLORADO: Annual

Box 2082, Holland, MI 49422, (616)-452-7843;

show; Eons Expos, Denver Coliseum; 4600

e-mail: sonbeams2000@yahoo.com; Web site:

Humboldt Street; Daily 10-6; Free, Free; Public

www.tulipcity.org

welcomed; Retail and wholesale; 9th Annual Denver Coliseum Gem, Mineral & Fossil Show is doubling in size in 2017. Still on both floors of the Denver Coliseum *and now* all three levels of the adjacent National Western Complex (NWC) + tents behind both historic buildings. (There are plenty of elevators in the NWC). Minerals,

Web site: www.rockygems.com

fossils, meteorites, beads, jewelry, cabochons,

9 -10 — N O R T H ADAMS, MASSACHUSETTS: Annual show; Northern

related art, tools, equipment, rough, books, and

Berkshire Mineral Club, Eagles Hall; 515 Curran

contact Heather Grana, 235 1st Street, Keyport,

Highway, Rte 8; Sat. 10-6, Sun. 10-4; Admission

NJ 07735; e-mail: Heather@EonsExpos.com;

$4, Children under 15 free with adult; Mineral

Web site: www.Coliseum.Show

carvings, silver, gold, coins, findings, lapidary, more. Food trucks outside and cafe food inside. ;

specimens, fine jewelry, gemstones, crystals and

15-17—DENVER,

COLORADO: Annual

show; The Original Denver Gem & Mineral Show, Expo Hall of the Denver Mart; 451 E 58th Ave; Fri. 9-6, Sat. 10-6, Sun. 10-5; Adults $7, Seniors/ Students $5, Children under 13 free; Come help us celebrate our 50th Anniversary at the Denver Gem & Mineral Show. It is fun for the whole family. The show theme is Gold and Silver, and we are expecting to have some fabulous educational exhibits. The Denver Gem & Mineral Show is proud to host mineral, gem, fossil, book, and jewelry dealers from across Colorado, the United States, and around the world. Drop in for one of our illustrated talks for a more in-depth look at

fossils. Geode cracking and gem panning activi-

15-17—RICHMOND, VIRGINIA: Retail show;

ties at our club booth. Hourly doorprizes and a

the worlds of minerals, fossils, meteorites, and

Treasures of the Earth, Inc., Richmond Raceway

grand prize crystal raffle.; contact Larry Michon,

gemstones. Our slate of expert speakers share

Complex; 600 E Laburnum Ave; Fri. 12-6, Sat.

PO BOX 297, NORTH ADAMS, MA 01247,

their knowledge on various aspects of the show

10-5, Sun. 10-5; Adults $5, Students 16 and

(413)-663-8430;

theme and collecting in general. ; contact Lesley

under free; Vendors from across the US bring

Sebol; e-mail: info@denvermineralshow.com;

a variety of merchandise, including jewelry of

Web site: www.denvershow.org

e-mail:

lmichon@rcn.com;

Web site: http://nbmclub.webs.com/

9 -10 — P O R T ANGELES, WASHINGTON: Annual show; Clallam County Gem and Mineral Association, Vern Burton Community Center; 308 East 4th Street; Sat. 9-5, Sun. 10-4; Free Admission; There will be a raffle, featured speakers both days, a Rock Alley for kids, great vendors, and on-going cab making and faceting demos. We have display boxes.

We have food available provided by the Boys & Girls Club of the Olympic Peninsula with all food sales proceeds benefiting the Port Angeles Unit of the Boys & Girls Club. additional contact: Kathy Bachman 360 681 3994; contact Kathy Schreiner, PO Box 98, Sequim, WA 98382, (360)-681-3811

9 -10 — WA L L A WASHINGTON: Annual

all types, gemstones, beads, crystals, minerals, can design, remount and set stones and make

15 -17— SA N R AFAE L , CALIFORNIA: Wholesale and retail show;

repairs on site will be present. The Richmond

Gem Faire Inc, Marin Center; 10 Avenue of

Gem and Mineral Society will be present with

the Flags; Fri. 12-6, Sat. 10-6, Sun. 10-5; Free

displays of Virginia rocks and minerals and of

Admission; Fine jewelry, crystals, gems, beads,

dinosaur bones. ; contact Jane Westbrook, PO

gold & silver, minerals & much more at manu-

Box 59, Gloucester Point, VA 23062, (804)-642-

facturer’s prices. Exhibitors from all over the

2011; e-mail: jane@treasuresoftheearth.com;

world will be on site. Jewelry repair & ring siz-

Web site: www.TreasuresOfTheEarth.com

ing while you shop. ; contact Allen Van, (503)-

and fossils. Jewelers and wire wrappers who

252-8300; e-mail: info@gemfaire.com; Web site:

15-17—LINCOLN,

MISSOURI: Annual

show; Mozarkite Society of Lincoln Mo, Inc., Lincoln City Park; 2 blocks east of Casey\\\’s; Fri. 9-5, Sat. 9-5, Sun. 9-5; Free Admission; Silent Auctions conducted daily with proceeds for local

WA LL A ,

scholarships. Public digs for Mozarkite during the

Marcus

show.; contact Pat Monahan, (660)-826-1129;

Whitman Gem and Mineral Society, Walla Walla

e-mail: Mozarkiterocks@gmail.com; Web site:

County Fairgrounds; Community Center, 363

Mozarkite.com

show;

Orchard Street; Sat. 10-5, Sun. 10-5; Adults $3,

http://www.gemfaire.com

15 -17— A R D E N , NORTH CAROLINA: Annual show; MAGMA, Camp Stephens, Arden, NC; 263 Clayton Road, Arden, NC; Fri. 9-5, Sat. 9-5, Sun. 10-4; Free Admission; Numerous indoor outdoor vendors specializ-

Continued on Next Page

71 RG0917 Masterrev.indd 71

7/26/17 8:42 PM

ing in gems, minerals, fossils, meteorites and

Adults/Seniors $3, Students $1, Children

22-24—OCEAN CITY, MARYLAND: Retail

artifacts from North Carolina and around the

under 12 free; contact Ed Oiler, MI; e-mail:

show; Treasures of the Earth, Inc., Ocean City

world. The kitchen will be serving a variety of

edleathercraft@gmail.com

Convention Center; 4001 Coastal Highway; Fri. 12-6, Sat. 10-5, Sun. 10-4; Adults $5, Students

great food, kitchen hours 11-4 each day. ; con-

16 and under free; Vendors from across the

e-mail:

16 -17— CA S T L E ROCK, WASHINGTON: 52nd Annual Rock and Gem

site:

Show; Southern Washington Mineralogical

jewelry of all types, gemstones, beads, crys-

Society, Castle Rock Fairgrounds; 120 Fair Lane;

tals, minerals, and fossils. Jewelers and wire

tact Richard Jacquot, PO Box 542, Leicester, NC

28748,

(828)-779-4501;

rick@wncrocks.com;

Web

www.americanrockhound.com

US bring a variety of merchandise, including

Sat. 10-5, Sun. 10-4; free; Dealers, black light

wrappers who can design, remount and set

16 -17— P O U G H K E E P S I E , NEW YORK: Show and sale; Mid-Hudson Valley Gem

display, member display cases, food, coun-

stones and make repairs on site will be pres-

try store, door prizes, gem dig, demonstra-

ent. ; contact Jane Westbrook, PO Box 59,

& Mineral Society, Inc., Gold\\\’s Gym & Family

tors, spin table, kids scavenger hunt; contact

Gloucester Point, VA 23062, (804)-642-2011;

Sports Center; 258 Titusville Rd.; Sat. 10-5,

Vicki

e-mail: jane@treasuresoftheearth.com; Web

Sun. 10-4; Adults $5, Seniors $4, Students $2,

vickijrocks@msn.com

Johnson,

(360)-751-8031;

e-mail:

site: www.TreasuresOfTheEarth.com

Children free under 12 with adult; 48th Annual Show & Sale - Show Theme- Garnet, the New

16-17—CHICO, CALIFORNIA: Annual show;

22-24—JOPLIN, MISSOURI: Annual show;

York Gemstone; Dealers of Minerals, Fossils,

Feather River Lapidary & Mineral Society Inc.,

Tri-State Gem & Mineral Society, Joplin Historical

Gemstones, Jewelry, Beads, Tools and Books.

Chico ; 2357 Fair St; Sat. 9:30-5, Sun. 9:30-4;

& Mineral Museum; 504 S. Shifferdecker Ave.;

6 free rocks for kids, annual earth science

Adults/Seniors $3, Students/Children under 16

Fri. 10-6, Sat. 10-6, Sun. 10-3; Free Admission;

scavenger hunt for area high school students,

free; Home of the World Wide Rock Tumbling

19th annual Rock-A-Thon Gem and Mineral

fluorescent mineral display booth, lapidary dem-

Competition. Free wire wrapped Amethyst crys-

Show. Free Admission. Door Prizes. Hosted

onstrations. ; contact Carolyn Reynard, 110

tal neckless for first 200 kids, both days. Dealers

at the Joplin Historical & Mineral Museum,

College Ave., Poughkeepsie, NY 12603, (845)-

in Opals, crystals, fossils, beads, rough rock,

in

471-1224; e-mail: sunstone33@verizon.net;

and flint knapping. Boy & Girl Scout badge

Chris

area. Great food, silent auction, door prizes,

jmc-cwiseman@sbcglobal.net

Web site: www.mhvgms.org

16-17—HOWELL, MICHIGAN: Annual show; Livingston Gem and Mineral Society, Hartland Education Support Service Center (Old Hartland High School); 9525 Highland Road; Sat. 10-6;

Joplin’s

Schifferdecker

Wiseman,

Park.;

contact

(417)-623-1180;

e-mail:

raffle, wheel of fortune, treasure hunt, and grab bags. Fun for the whole family! ; contact John

22-24—SANDY, UTAH: Wholesale and retail

Scott, 1288 Glenwood ave, Chico, CA 95926,

show; Gem Faire Inc, South Towne Expo Center;

(530)-321-6331; e-mail: jweazel@sbcglobal.net;

9575 S State St; Fri. 10-6, Sat. 10-6, Sun. 10-5;

Web site: featherriverrocks.org

Continued on Page 79

72 www.rockngem.com RG0917 Masterrev.indd 72

7/26/17 8:42 PM

The

R&G Shopper

Welcome to the ROCK&GEM Shopper, the one-stop shopping place for your rockhounding and lapidary needs.

Every month many thousands of shoppers will browse through this convenient shopping section.

To be part of the Shopper, call Priscilla Torres at: 972.448.9131 or email: ptorres@beckett.com

MONTANA AGATE Rough, slabs, cabs, freeform carvings, Specimens, Jewelry and Books on Montana Agate.

Harmon’s Agate & Silver, Inc. 11295 Hwy. 16 Savage, MT 59262

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WHOLESALE OFFER

Shortwave & Longwave UV Field Light $59.99! www.UVTools.com/RGPromo Phone order: 512-590-4949

M . E .T . E . O . R . I .T . E . S Rare Rocks From Space

I have many excellent specimens at great prices.

Send for a FREE paper list, OR sign-up for FREE periodic e-lists at:. brMeteorites_list under Yahoo-groups.

Blaine Reed - Meteorites P.O. Box 1141, Delta, CO 81416

www.LotOTumbler.com Belt Inc. • 2746 Hoffman Dr. • NW Owatonna, MN 55060 (507) 451-2254 • Molly1385LTS@Yahoo.com

WAX PATTERNS AU-RUS Wax Patterns

5500+ Patterns Online 302 Main Street, Kellogg, Idaho 83837 (208) 786-9301 website: www.auruswaxpatterns.com

www.lapidarytutorials.com

73 0817 Shopper single pg.indd 73

6/27/17 6:34 PM

Carbon Mineral challenge.idml 74

7/25/17 8:52 PM

Denver Gem and Mineral Show.idml 75

6/20/17 6:12 PM

76 www.rockngem.com RG0917 Masterrev.indd 76

7/26/17 6:46 PM

OPAL SPECIAL: WOSM-1OZ AND WOSM-2OZ: EXTREMELY BRIGHT GEMMY WELO OPAL IN 1-3 GRAM (5-15 CARAT) SIZES TO CUT SMALL TO MEDIUM SIZED WELO OPAL CABOCHONS OR CARVINGS. THIS PARCEL IS A MIX OF AA AND AAA GRADE WELO OPAL. WOSM-1OZ IS A 1 OUNCE (31.1 GRAM) LOT OF ROUGH WELO OPAL…$299.00. WOSM-2OZ IS A 2 OUNCE DISCOUNTED LOT…$550.00. PLEASE INCLUDE $13.00 FOR SHIPPING AND INSURANCE. YOU CAN ORDER DIRECTLY FROM OUR WEBSITE, CALL (406-651-4947) WITH CC INFO…OR SEND CHECK OR MONEY ORDER TO THE ADDRESS BELOW.

photographs are of a random 320 gram (10.3 ounce) sample of this opal and a close-up.

Don’t hesitate to give me a shout if you have ANY questions 406-651-4947 or 406-208-2577 THE VILLAGE SMITHY OPALS, INC.

Proprietors Steve & Darlene P.O. Box 21704, Billings, MT 59104-1704 • Phone: 406-651-4947 Mobile: 406-208-2577 E-mail: vsopals@gmail.com • Website: www.villagesmithyopals.com

77 RG0917 Masterrev.indd 77

7/26/17 6:47 PM

Index to Advertisers

ROC K & GE M Customer Service

TO ORDER A SUBSCRIPTION: For fastest service,

Amateur Geologist ....................................................... 49

Kingsley North, Inc............................................ 3, 13, 66

Arrowhead Lapidary & Supply ...................................... 40

Knights ........................................................................ 73

Au-Rus Wax Patterns ................................................... 73

Lasco Diamond Products ............................................. 49

monthly issues to Rock & Gem Subscriptions, 4635 McEwen

LotOTumbler ................................................................ 73

Road, Dallas, TX 75244.

Lortone, Inc. ................................................................ 57

IF YOU HAVE PAID FOR YOUR SUBSCRIPTION

Montana Sapphire ....................................................... 44

BUT STILL RECEIVE A BILL: The check and the

Carbon Mineral challenge ............................................ 74

MarZee Lapidary Tuturial DVD’s................................... 73

invoice may have crossed in the mail. It may take up to four

Columbus Mineral........................................................ 29

Mineralab .................................................................... 79

Copper Agates ............................................................. 73

Minnesota Lapidary Supply Corp........................... 40, 60

Covington Engineering ........................................... 49, 76

New Era....................................................................... 65

Craftstones .................................................................. 20

Optima Gems............................................................... 18

along with your bill to Rock & Gem, 4635 McEwen Road,

Pat Mcmahan .............................................................. 57

Dallas, TX 75244 or e-mail subscriptions@beckett.com with

Pioneer Gem Corp........................................................ 52

the copies attached.

Prescott. ...................................................................... 76

TO SOLVE A SU BSCRI PTION PROBLEM:

Diana Hanson. ............................................................. 73

Raytech Industries ....................................................... 55

Remember, it may take up to eight weeks to change an

Diamond Pacific Tool Corp. .......................................... C4

Reno Gem and Mineral Society .................................... 33

Easy Steps Video ......................................................... 66

Rock Warehouse.......................................................... 44

Emeralds Rare ............................................................... 9

Royal Peacock ............................................................. 77

Feather River Lapidary ................................................. 44

Joseph Stachura Co, Inc. ............................................. 26

Barnhouse ................................................................... 49 Barranca Diamond ......................................................... 7 Blaine Reed. ................................................................ 73 Cabstar ........................................................................ 73

Crystal Cave ................................................................ 73 Decal USA ................................................................... 72 Denver Coliseum ....................................................42-43 Denver Gem and Mineral ............................................. 75

Fine Mineral Show ......................................................... 5 Foothills ....................................................................... 64

SilverSmithingClass ..................................................... 65

subscribe online using our secure server at www.beckett. com. Or send a check or money order for $27.95 for 12

weeks to process your check, so if you wrote the check less than four weeks ago, disregard the bill you received. If you paid for your subscription more than four weeks before you received another bill, send a copy of your cancelled check

address and 6-8 weeks to start a new subscription. Please give us time to get your magazine to you, and if it still doesn’t arrive, please e-mail us at subscriptions@beckett. com or call (866) 287-9383. If you are receiving duplicate subscriptions, e-mail subscriptions@beckett.com.

RENEWALS: It can take 6-8 weeks to process your

South Pacific ............................................................... 79

renewal, so don’t wait! Renew early so you don’t miss an

The Gem Shop ............................................................. 23

issue. You can renew online at www.beckett.com using the

Gem Faire, Inc. ............................................................ 41

The Mineral Gallery...................................................... 73

Inet number listed on the address label of your magazine,

Gem Miner Jubilee ...................................................... 72

Tikka Opals ................................................................... 9

or just return the renewal form with your check or money

Gilman’s ...................................................................... 52

Tru-Square Metal Products .......................................... 13

Golden Eagle ............................................................... 77

Tucson Gem&Mineral .................................................. 55

Harv Tulk ..................................................................... 23

Two Rockhounds ......................................................... 52

John E. Garsow Gems & Minerals ................................ 44 Gem & Lapidary Wholesalers, Inc. ............................... 14

Hellberg and Nuss ....................................................... 21

order. Please do not send cash! If you renew your subscription before your expiration date, we’ll extend your existing subscription. Providing your Inet number will ensure that a duplicate subscription will not be entered. You won’t lose

Ultra Tec ...................................................................... C2

any issues by renewing early, and you’ll guarantee that you

UV Tools ...................................................................... 66

won’t miss any!

The Village Smithy Opals, Inc....................................... 77

REPLACEMENT COPIES: Send a photo of your dam-

Jesco........................................................................... 60

Vision Research. .......................................................... 45

aged copy and a request for a replacement to subcrip-

Johnson Brothers ................................................. 15, 45

Whites Electronics ....................................................... 21

tions@beckett.com or Rock & Gem, 4635 McEwen Road,

JS Gems ...................................................................... 15

Whittmore Durgin Glass Co. ......................................... 73

Highland Park .............................................................. C3 Hughes Associates ...................................................... 26 Jarvi Tool Co. .............................................................. 79

Dallas, TX 75244.

BACK ISSUES: Back issues can be ordered at www. beckett.com.

MOVING? Have the Inet number listed on your magazine label ready and call (866) 287-9383 or e-mail subscriptions@beckett.com. It can take 6-8 weeks to get an address change processed, so make sure you contact your local post office and ask them to forward all your mail.

HOW TO PLACE AN AD IN Rock & Gem: Please contact Bill Dumas via e-mail at bdumas@beckett.com or at 972-448-9147.

TO SELL Rock & Gem IN YOUR STORE: Please contact Amit Sharma via e-mail at asharma@beckett.com or at (972) 448-9003.

VISIT US AT www.rockngem.com.

78 R&G ad index Sept17.indd 78

7/26/17 11:14 PM

Admission $7, Children free (ages 0-11); Fine jewelry, crystals, gems, beads, gold & silver, minerals & much more at manufacturer’s prices.

MINERAL AND GEM ID TOOLS

Mineral Search Software

Exhibitors from all over the world will be on site.

Jewelry repair & ring sizing while you shop.

Web

22-24—JACKSONVILE, FLORIDA: Annual show; Jacksonville Gem &a Mineral Society, Morocco Shrine Center; 3800 Saint Johns Bluff Rd S; Fri. 10-6, Sat. 10-6, Sun. 10-5; Hamilton,

(904)-294-4744; Web

Metal points Mohs’ 2 thru 9 with Streak Plate, Magnet, Wood case.

Excellent Gift!

Gem Tester

Colored Stone Estimator. Touch probe to rough, cab, faceted, or mounted stones.

CD-ROM for PC 700 minerals and Gems w/Photos; ID Search/Catalog.

$59

Gem-n-Eye Digital Refractometer

Adults $4, Seniors $3, Children Free; contact jgms-show@hotmail.com;

(800) 749-3766 (928) 442-1155 www.mineralab.com

site:

http://www.gemfaire.com

Jason

Hardness Picks

MC/VISA/Amex/Disc Add $10.00 S&H

; contact Allen Van, (503)-252-8300; e-mail: info@gemfaire.com;

Mineralab

2860 W. Live Oak Dr. G, Prescott, AZ 86305

e-mail:

$219

$209

Detect radio-active rocks and minerals. Meter/ audio clicks to 50 mR/hr.

Specific Gravity Kit

$269

http://www.jaxgemandmineral.org/phone/executive-board.html

23-24—MONTEREY, CALIFORNIA: Annual show; Carmel Valley Gem & Mineral Society, Monterey County Fairgrounds; 2004 Fairgrounds Road; Sat. 10-5, Sun. 10-5; Admission $4,

UV Lamp

Measure RI to 2.70.

Accurate to .01 Easy to read No toxic fluid.

$425

$83

Geiger Counter

$289

site:

$92

UVP Portable Rechargeable Combo SW LW, two 6 watt bulbs, w/110V A/C adapter

$395

Sale $359

For your Electronic Scale. Measure Specific Gravity to ID Gems and Minerals.

Choose version either for Bench Scale or Pocket Carat Scale.Easy to use! $93

Sale at $84

Sale $395

Children free with adult; We have dealers at the show featuring jewelry, cut and uncut gemstones, beads, crystals, rough and polished rocks, mineral specimens, and fossils. This annual event also has over 50 displays featuring the gem, mineral, and fossil collections of

“I really appreciate the care and kindness that you show your customers. It is rare these days.”

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“The Facetron is a tool of perfection. Precision is the key.”

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guest and member exhibitors. In addition, there will also be demonstrations of jewelry making, sphere making, rock grinding and polishing. A silent auction will run continuously for people to bid on. This is a family event with plenty of great activities for the kids. ; contact Janis Rovetti, 1047 Roosevelt Street, Monterey, CA 93940, (831)-372-1311; e-mail: janis12@sbcglobal.net; Web site: www.cvgms.rocks

23-24—FRANKLIN, NEW JERSEY: Annual show;

Franklin

Mineral

Museum,

Littell

Community Center; 10 Munsonhurst Road #12; Sat. 9-6, Sun. 10-5; Adults $7, Children $4 (6-16); 61st Annual Franklin-Sterling Mineral Museum Gem & Mineral Show with Outdoor Swap ; contact Robyn Seger; e-mail: pesolutions.minerals@gmail.com; Web site: https://www.facebook. com/AnnualFranklinSterlingGemMineralShow/

23-24 —SOUTH SIOUX CITY, , NEBRASKA: Annual show; Siouxland Gem and Mineral Society, South Sioux City Senior Citizens Center; 1501 West 29th St.; Sat. 9-4; Free Admission; 52nd annual show. Exhibits, fabulous dealers with gems, agates, rough and polished specimens, beads, geodes, minerals, superb faceted jewelry. fossils,door prizes spin the wheel silent auction, artifacts.; contact Bob Powell, 406 Brandon, Kingsley, IA 51028, (712)378-2775; e-mail: doctorrobert32@gmail.com

Willis The Beadmeister for Planet Earth Since 1977

1 800 338 2162 mail@beading.com

South Pacific Wholesale Co. www.beading.com

195 US Route 302, Berlin, Vermont 05641

Don’t Let a Bead Emergency Ruin Your Day! Beads, Rocks, Jewelry, Findings, Trinkets, Witchballs

79 RG0917 Masterrev.indd 79

7/26/17 8:43 PM

on the rocks

by BOB JONES

Arizona’s Official State Mineral: Wulfenite

JOE BUDD/IROCKS.COM

I

Dr. Schauss and Whitney-Smith t is hard to believe, but the recruited a delightful group of state of Arizona did not have junior rockhounds from the an official mineral until 2017.

MSA to help. The youngsters, Rockhounds realized this two along with some parents and years ago and decided that wuladult club members, visited the fenite ought to be considered Arizona State Legislature to show for the honor. After much effort, their support while the wulfenite involving visits to the State Legbill, HB2092, was being considislature and a strong campaign ered. The entire group was also by adult and junior rockhounds, involved in a write-in campaign we achieved success. Wulfenite for the adoption of HB2092. Their is now the official mineral of the efforts achieved a successful vote state of Arizona. in the Arizona State Legislature.

Wulfenite from Arizona has few You might wonder why wulfensource rivals. Tsumeb has proite was chosen. You only have to duced nice specimens, as have see clusters of bright-red, orangeMexico, Morocco, and one or two red or yellow, tabular wulfenite other places, but they do not rival crystals to recognize one reason.

Arizona’s best specimens, which That it is found in quantity and have long been considered the in dozens of Arizona localities benchmark for beauty, quality are reasons enough for it to be and quantity when it comes to considered. this lead molybdate. A dozen or Wulfenite joins a group of other so deposits in Arizona produced officially designated state symbols. a quantity and quality of wulThere is an official gem, petrified fenite that has been sufficient to wood. After all, Arizona is home satisfy the museum and privateThe Rowley mine is one of Arizona’s finest sources of gorgeous wulfenite. S ome to Petrified Wood National Park, collector markets. specimens currently being mined there rival those from the early days. set aside by President Theodore Some folks would vote for Arizona azurite as the state mineral, but that noted that the Rowley today is under speci- Roosevelt over a century ago. Native copper copper carbonate mineral is seldom found men-collecting contract, and is not open to is an obvious choice for the state metal. No other state has produced, or is still productoday, while exceptionally fine wulfenite collectors.

Recognition of wulfenite as the state’s offi- ing, so much of the red metal. Arizona even is still being mined. True, the supply has diminished, compared to years past, but the cial mineral is due in large part to a group has an official state tie, the bola tie! Artist fact is we are still seeing freshly mined speci- of diligent and persistent rockhounds. This Vic Cedarstaff is credited with designing the mens. In addition, many Arizona localities hard-working group of amateur collectors first bola tie in the 1940s, but bolas have been still have production potential, and Arizona’s was headed by Dr. Alexander Schauss, who around almost as long as cowboys have. My rockhounds are among the most active in is associated with the University of Arizona, son Bill has a bola tie his grandfather bought Tucson, and Chris Whitney-Smith, Presi- in the West in the 1920s! searching these localities.

Every bill introduced in the legislature has As an example, the Rowley mine, one of dent of the Mineralogical Association of to have a sponsor, and Rep. Mark Finchem Arizona’s fine sources of gorgeous wulfenite, Arizona.

The Mineralogical Society of Arizona is stepped up to help by entering House Bill is currently being mined, and some of the freshly dug specimens rival what was found one of this country’s oldest mineral societ- 2092 into the long and difficult process of there in the past. I know this from personal ies. To help the wulfenite idea become a getting action on a workable bill. He was experience, having collected underground reality, MSA members provided exceptional ably assisted by co-sponsoring representaat the Rowley over the past 60 years. The support on this venture and did much of tives Todd Clodfelter, Jill Norgaard, and specimens I am seeing now rival what we the work to get wulfenite recognized. Along Becky Nutt. The rockhound group immemined collected decades ago. It should be with this active group of adult rockhounds, diately got behind a concerted movement to

80

www.rockngem.com

Rock & Gem

JOE BUDD/IROCKS.COM

BOB JONES

The 79 mine has yielded lovely, transparent, and very delicate crystals of wulfenite in quantity. (Evan Jones specimen)

support and encourage passage of the bill.

The introduction of the wulfenite bill was carefully timed for the weeks just before the opening of the Tucson Show, Arizona’s greatest mineral event. The gem, mineral and fossil shows held in Tucson each January and February are recognized the world over. Thousands of collectors and hundreds of dealers in gems, fossils and minerals assemble. Some two dozen museums bring special displays, and several national and international organizations hold their annual meetings during this time. The rockhounds who were promoting the bill alerted show visitors that wulfenite was being considered as the state mineral.

The three-week event in Tucson attracts tens of thousands of visitors from all over the world, and is the most lucrative event for the city each year. Beginning in late January, this event culminates in the worldfamous Tucson Gem & Mineral Show®, also called the Main Show, in mid-February. Our volunteer group of rockhounds assembled a huge display of Arizona wulfenite and related artifacts for all to see and enjoy at this all-important, well-attended show.

Among the visitors who viewed this special wulfenite display were Rep. Finchem and his wife, Janice.

HB2092 began its journey by being introduced to the Environment, Energy and Natural Resources Committee (EENRC).

After some discussion, the EENRC passed the bill with a 9-0 vote. This sent the bill on to the Legislative Rules Committee, which controls what can be considered for a vote by the entire House membership. The bill

September 2017

The wulfenite in the Rowley mine occurs in a series of subparallel openings in white, massive barite seams.

passed out of the Rules Committee on an 8-1 vote.

During the House proceedings, our rockhound group had not been standing idly by. It had developed a plan of action, and executed it perfectly. To back up its e-mail and telephone campaigns, a far more personal effort was underway. Knowing that their state representatives might not have seen examples of Arizona’s wulfenite or know anything about it, they provided each legislator with a 2017 wulfenite calendar to familiarize them with the mineral. The calendar featured full-color renditions of beautiful specimens. These lovely calendars were not simply mailed to the representatives, but hand-delivered to them.

The calendar was produced by Lithiographie, of Arvada, Colorado, something the company does each year. This organization is a major source of outstanding publications for our chosen hobby and deserves to be checked out (www.lithographie.org).

The beauty of this calendar is instantly displayed on its cover, which is graced by an exquisite photograph of a superb example of Arizona wulfenite from the worldfamous Red Cloud mine, in La Paz County.

The photograph was taken by Arizonan Jeff Scovil, a world-renowned mineral and gem photographer, of a specimen owned by Arizonan Evan Jones. It is that same wulfenite that appears on the cover of this issue of Rock & Gem. Our volunteer rockhounds purchased the calendars for the legislators and shipped them to me. I passed them on to WhitneySmith and Dr. Schauss for distribution.

Instead of having adults hand out the calendars, junior members of the MSA stood in the entrance of the House chamber for its opening session. As each legislator entered the chamber, a junior rockhound handed them a copy of this beautifully illustrated wulfenite calendar. That obviously impressed House members.

Once the youngsters passed out the calendars, they adjourned to the gallery to watch the proceedings. During the introduction of HB2092 to House members, Rep. Finchem was kind enough to recognize them. From the floor, he read each of their names into the official register. What a thrill for these junior rockhounds!

In the full House vote on Feb. 9, HB2092 was approved 57-1-2 and sent to the Senate Natural Resources, Energy and Water Committee, which approved it 7-0. Next, the Senate Rules Committee voted it out for a full Senate final vote, where it passed almost unanimously, 28-1-1, on March 16.

The final step was to place the now successfully adopted bill on the desk of Gov. Doug Ducey for his signature. Gov. Ducey signed HB2092 on March 22, 2017, and wulfenite became the official Arizona state mineral.

Bob Jones holds the Carnegie Mineralogical Award, is a member of the Rockhound Hall of Fame, and has been writing for Rock & Gem since its inception.

He lectures about minerals, and has written several books and video scripts.

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Parting shot MINERALS and JEWELRY

Indonesian Botryoidal Druzy Agate “Always Be Waiting” cab, by lapidary artist Erin Dana Balzrette of Tree Climbers Stones ©ERIN DANA BALZRETTE WWW.TCSTONES.COM

82 www.rockngem.com

Rock & Gem

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