icatz
spending too much on rocks
Member since October 2015
Posts: 453
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Post by icatz on Jan 16, 2016 5:36:15 GMT -5
Absolutely stunning. Your work is amazing and the cab ain't bad, either.
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icatz
spending too much on rocks
Member since October 2015
Posts: 453
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Post by icatz on Jan 15, 2016 18:24:13 GMT -5
Damn that's stunning.
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icatz
spending too much on rocks
Member since October 2015
Posts: 453
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Post by icatz on Jan 15, 2016 18:15:17 GMT -5
Wow, you are patient. That's a ton of work.
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icatz
spending too much on rocks
Member since October 2015
Posts: 453
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Post by icatz on Jan 15, 2016 18:13:40 GMT -5
LOL no Tom, I textured the pendant with a small hammer. The ring I just bashed the bottom plate with the ball peen to texture it. I had some trouble getting it even so was cutting away. The ring base texture is basically a bunch of mistakes. But it's a great stone and I'm not selling it so who cares?
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icatz
spending too much on rocks
Member since October 2015
Posts: 453
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Post by icatz on Jan 14, 2016 9:32:59 GMT -5
I used a little hammer with a sharp end to texture the piece. I did do the final finish before setting. I got as much of the extra solder out as I could. At some point you have to say F it. As for taking it out, there are quite a few fractures and experience has taught me that I'll probably break the stone if I try. I ruined a stunning piece of Kyanite removing it. And yeah, with the naked eye, none of this stuff is visible.
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icatz
spending too much on rocks
Member since October 2015
Posts: 453
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Post by icatz on Jan 14, 2016 9:27:23 GMT -5
Didn't see the egg cartons. Couldn't do the whole show. But I did see it a few years ago and bought one. The guy who sold me the fordite buys the rough himself and cabs them. He showed me a big chunk. I guess you don't get a lot out of just one chunk. But he was an amazing cutter. He got just perfect cabs, each and every one.
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icatz
spending too much on rocks
Member since October 2015
Posts: 453
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Post by icatz on Jan 13, 2016 6:26:04 GMT -5
I put the sulphur in a room with indirect sunlight and whoa! All those crystals really lit up and are very visible as individual crystals tightly packed. It's beautiful and it really glistens. And not only does it have the prior owner's name, I also have the price tag from Poland where the guy got it. I guess this fellow was a world-class collector. Here's a blurb from 2014: The Bonhams sale also will offer a large group of varied mineral specimens from the estate of Carey A. Parshall of Stamford, Conn., obtained mostly on buying trips from the 1950s through the 1980s to Morocco, Mexico, Japan, Brazil, and India. The collection features vanadinite, smithsonite, azurite, stibnite and zeolite. It will also include a 228,000-carat ruby crystal in zoisite--making it the largest ruby crystal to be offered at public auction--expected to fetch between $100,000 and $150,000. Here's a link to something else of his that went for auction: HemimorphiteAnd here's the 228,000 ct ruby: 100 pound ruby
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icatz
spending too much on rocks
Member since October 2015
Posts: 453
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Post by icatz on Jan 13, 2016 6:20:08 GMT -5
Thanks. That was it on the nose!
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icatz
spending too much on rocks
Member since October 2015
Posts: 453
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Post by icatz on Jan 12, 2016 6:32:22 GMT -5
Bought a bunch of these several years ago. I always keep the name of the stone in the bag with the cabs, but I spaced and didn't with these. I thought it was Ruby & Zoisite, but the ruby seems so purple. Any ideas? Thanks.
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icatz
spending too much on rocks
Member since October 2015
Posts: 453
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Post by icatz on Jan 12, 2016 6:20:15 GMT -5
That bottom chad may look like it's about to fall off, but it's more secure than it looks. Unless someone pulls hard at it, it will stay.
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icatz
spending too much on rocks
Member since October 2015
Posts: 453
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Post by icatz on Jan 12, 2016 6:18:07 GMT -5
Didn't feel like soldering, so made some cold pendants from copper. On this one, I decided to decorate it by punching out holes along the copper side. My puncher is about shot and none of them completely fell out. So I flattened them and smoothed out the rough edges and the little chads make it more interesting, I think. Not sure what the stone is. A guy gave me a box of lots of polished stones ready for cabbing and I don't know what most of them are.
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icatz
spending too much on rocks
Member since October 2015
Posts: 453
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Post by icatz on Jan 11, 2016 16:04:27 GMT -5
Wow. An afternoon? That would take me a week. Wonderful.
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icatz
spending too much on rocks
Member since October 2015
Posts: 453
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Post by icatz on Jan 11, 2016 16:01:39 GMT -5
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icatz
spending too much on rocks
Member since October 2015
Posts: 453
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Post by icatz on Jan 10, 2016 7:08:20 GMT -5
Had the best time at this show. Spent more than I wanted to. Normally I'm looking for cabs but specimens were the order of the day. Just how it worked out. There are more than I show here, I just couldn't photograph them well. I did get 2 Rhodochrosite and a Labradorite ring-sizedl cabs, that's it. I met a member of our board there! He had a fantastic booth and I just walked up to him and started talking and he remembered a post I'd made. It was so cool. Sorry mate, forgot your screen name. Good to meet you. Here's the bounty. 12 pics. Nice big wulfenite blade. This piece and the next two were only $1 each! More wulfenite. Lots of blades. Actually it's almost completely covered in blades. These are pretty clear ones. Gorgeous blades. Native copper. This piece is probably 5" high. I'm torn between leaving it as is, or polishing it up. Couldn't pass it up for $1.50. Every year I buy a piece of Fordite at this show. Every year it goes up by a lot. Sigh. Will make a stunning pendant. Lots of metallics. Not sure what this is. The white spots are drusy. It's covered in it. What I find fascinating are the fibers joining each blob together. It's a beautiful piece, about 7" long. And it cost... $1. Sulphur. This is a real show piece. The crystals are beautiful and it stinks just a little bit. I didn't pay $65. Bartered it down, but still way more than I've ever paid for a specimen. But it really caught my eye. The next photo is the back of it. San Carlos Peridot. About 8". A few ppl were selling a lot of these for pretty cheap, like $2 and $5. Normally it's difficult to get Arizona Peridot because it's all under the aegis of the Indian Tribe. You have to buy it from them. Next photo is the back. There are some decent sized stones in them. Ammolite from Canada. I got two pieces for $10. I love this stuff and it shines like the sun. I have to get my muse cap on to make some stunning pendants out of this and the next one. This is actually extremely red. Really hard to photograph as they use an epoxy or they're doublets or something. I had such a great time! I hope you all enjoy this.
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icatz
spending too much on rocks
Member since October 2015
Posts: 453
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Post by icatz on Jan 10, 2016 6:26:04 GMT -5
Those are just fantastic. I really like the twin. I think I love rough garnets more than faceted. I rockhound everywhere I go. Found a small bit of gold vein in quartz in my next door neighbor's yard, turquoise in another.... Waiting at the doctor's office.... Walking my dog.... Most businesses here have rock/desert gardens and I rockhound while I wait. Have found some great stuff. Not on your level of course.
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icatz
spending too much on rocks
Member since October 2015
Posts: 453
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Post by icatz on Nov 2, 2015 5:55:14 GMT -5
I love Labs too. These have fierce color in sunshine.
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icatz
spending too much on rocks
Member since October 2015
Posts: 453
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Post by icatz on Nov 1, 2015 20:02:08 GMT -5
Finished these up this week. Labradorite pendant in sterling. I wish the Labs on this page showed their great colors. I tried a different approach to photographing and they looked darker and not so washed out before I uploaded them. Anyway, it's meant to look rough. My friend says my art is Primitive, so that works for me. Labradorite ring in sterling. Where the drops were added is not a depressed area, it's just an optical illusion. I also purposely tilted the stone sideways which I think takes it from ordinary to interesting. Lab... ring... sterling. For this one, I soldered 12ga half round almost all the way around the ring. I think I should have taken it a bit closer to the stone. Kingman Turquoise in sterling. Decided to mix it up a little with decorated bezel center and plain flanking. I cut 1/4" bezel in half to accommodate the small stones. I know it looks like the far right stone's bezel isn't completely done, but it is. Those are scuff marks I oxidized. If anyone can tell me what this big rock I'm using as a stand is, let me know. I think it's part of the agatized (is that a word?) petrified wood group I collected in Northern Arizona years ago (on public land, not in the forest).
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icatz
spending too much on rocks
Member since October 2015
Posts: 453
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Post by icatz on Nov 1, 2015 19:39:50 GMT -5
Unbelievable! Awesome work. Perfect stones.
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icatz
spending too much on rocks
Member since October 2015
Posts: 453
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TOPAZ
Nov 1, 2015 19:35:10 GMT -5
Post by icatz on Nov 1, 2015 19:35:10 GMT -5
Wow! I'd faint if I ever found some topaz. Thanks for posting.
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icatz
spending too much on rocks
Member since October 2015
Posts: 453
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Post by icatz on Nov 1, 2015 19:26:37 GMT -5
Finally got around to cherry-picking some of the more interesting stones from my collection. All were given to me or bought unless stated. I think this is Chrysocolla with a bizarre formation of something or another.... I found this huge faceted rutilated quartz on a tacky old necklace at a yard sale. I think it's amazing. Front of pyrite specimen, covered in drusy. The other side is the photo following. For a small piece, it has quite large cubes. Not sure what this is, but there is some iron staining in those fibers. Lovely. I think these are tourmaline. Not sure what the blue stuff is. Please correct me if I'm wrong. Wulfenite (and other little things) on Barite, which I collected at the Rowley Mine. From the strange category: I was in Flagstaff one winter and went behind the parking lot to look around. There was snow everywhere but I saw something really shiny. I figured it was just ice but decided to brave all the dog poop to look at it. It turned out to be this quartz pie. There's a lid of larger quartz crystals and the rest of it all the way round are very tiny quartz crystals. Completely enclosed. A real find. I won't ever break it open, but a mineral friend told me there were probably bigger quartz crystals inside. Travertine Marble with nice clean quartz crystals. Bought this at a gem & mineral show. Unknown. I have a lot of this stuff I bought in a flat. Most of it is covered in drusy. Extra cool botryoidal formation, but in purple. It looks quite flaky. The entire piece looks like this. Not sure what the white fibers are, either. I make my own crystals and after entering them at the AZ State Fair one year, they've asked me to bring them back several times as I've made a display on how to create them. This one is an oddity I can't reproduce. I threw in a bunch of different chemicals and this is how it came out of the fridge. If you blink, it starts to fall apart. Just thought I'd add it. Making your own crystals is a lot of fun but very hit-and-miss.
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