Rocks and gems: care/ shows and member collections.

[QueenOfTheShadows]

Yeah this is a spot for those of us here who are rock hounds to share photos and information on the gems minerals and fossils we so love and maby even exchange info on trips that may be of intrest to rockhounds, new and seasoned alike. as wellas point those who may live around us to shows sales and swapmeets.

so with out further ado.
About 2 weeks ago was the big local show in my areia. I don't yet have the pictures of what I picked up, but I was plesantly surprised when i discovered two vendors carrying fosssil starfish. and one whith fragments of amonite shells that had fossilized with pyrite giving them a look almost like brass.(i simpy had to but them)

From fractured gems, i wound up purchasing a specimen of azurite and malichite on barite, it is an almost peacock blue stone with a few green spots the barite loond blabk under the deep blur of the azurite. I alos picke up som small milky emerads in matrix and a few other things I am far to tired to attempt spelling the names of at the moment.

Other than that i purcahsed 4 cabs d of them "durzy " quartz that had been heat treated with titanium oxide producing an amazing array of colors.

I'll try to get some pictures uploaded shortly.


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for those in Whactom county Washington USA there is rock and gem sale and swapmeet/ talgate comming up in ferndale, I believe in June. As wellas annother rock nad gem show, that is out in the county. I'll try to dig up some more info on them.

There is also a large sho in Marysvill in november too, and i believe one that is comming up in Puyallip too.
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say hello! at zahz's keep;P

[carmillaB]

i don't know much about rocks and gems, but this place sounds kind of interesting...

http://www.desertusa.com/magjan98/stories/opal.html

dig your own opals, and keep them! Yay!

[VoxDraconis]

Talking of opals I've got a fist sized one carved into a heart shape somewhere....and I will get round to posting up my rock inventory at some point.
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The Dragon: The Nature of Spirit, the Spirit of Nature
Vox Draconis - Dedicated to Dragon Magick

[carmillaB]

when i was five i found a heart shaped rock and gave it to my grandma. i gave it a bath every day.

we also have a big boulder, and it has quartz on it.

[QueenOfTheShadows]

You don't have to know much to get started as a rockhound.

Opals Ive heard opals in particular can be trickt to carve and polish as well as set. They need to be treated carefully if you want to do such things with them and you have no clue how ask someone with som experience to help you. Opals in particular are rather porous and soft, that anfd they tend to have a large water content; enough so that tempture shock(exposure to sharp/extreem alterations in tempture can cause the stone to beconme flawed or even explode. you should aslo avoid exposing it to other harsh enviroments.
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say hello! at zahz's keep;P

[VoxDraconis]

It depends on the opal itself as to how difficult it is to work with, from what I heard. You were saying about flaws within the opal, when ironic thing there is that the more flaws an opal has the more valuable it becomes. Its the flaws and minute cracks within the stone that gives it it's unique look. The opal I have is flawless, completely transluscent and thus not worth all that much. *laughs*
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The Dragon: The Nature of Spirit, the Spirit of Nature
Vox Draconis - Dedicated to Dragon Magick

[QueenOfTheShadows]

Yeah but heat induced damage can reduce the value or even destroy the stone. All people I know who have worked with them have said to treat the stone gently, avoid overheating/rapid cooling, and wellas sudden sharp changes in thempture. the flaws do make the stone showier, but when you are risking not just adding further flaws, but also the risk of destroying it i would not suggest trying to add flaws.

I have heard that you should treat amolite and tanzinite as you would opals as well. amolite is givin an aitional rule though: do not attempt further polishing of stone as the color layer is often very thin you can polish it right off. (and the colors are very showey too)
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say hello! at zahz's keep;P

[carmillaB]

have you ever had one of those rocks that if you crack open youself?