*~ WINNER! ~* Sep 2024, Theme: Limited Budget Matl

Alright, here's my entry for this month. I honestly had no clue what to enter until I started roughing out this preform of crazy lace. I saw couple times where Jason mention crazy lace as a qualifying material so I figured I might as well enter something to bump up the number  of entries.

I honestly got the rock for free when picking up a old 18" HP saw. Whenever I buy lapidary equipment I always ask if they have any rocks they want to get rid of, nearly 100% of the time there is good stuff nearby. It helps if you rock back and forth scratching you arms and ask "got any rocks" lol, like the rock addict you know you are lol.

Anyways, the guy I was buying the saw from said a family member had already picked up all the rocks in the collection, but proceeded to look around and point out a pile of rocks outside the garage. It was mostly gravel and garden rocks but underneath it was a large interesting looking rock. It was dark outside and the rock was very dirty and had moss and lichen on the outside like it had been sitting there for a few decades. It looked like some kind of jasper or agate but a small area gave indications of possibly crazy lace. I told him what I thought and he said just take it and do something with it, they were clearing everything out to sell the house. It ended up being a 50lb chunk of this crazy lace, I don't think it's the best stuff but pretty decent for being free. Probably worth a few dollars a lb, much higher grade laguna lace at Q was $5 a lb for reference.






I didn't take a pic of the slab but this is the roughed out preform after the hard wheels. 

Here is the sister slab.

Neat theme and great entries this far!

This month's contest has certainly given me a push to work on a lot of material that I have been procrastinating on for a long time.  Here are two more that aren't going to make it.  The first one is similar to what I submitted last month but from a different stone.  It didn't get a real great polish.    I may have one or two more ones before the end of the month.  

Thanks Jason! That Montana you cut is quite a ripper as well! It's a top notch beauty!

lapidary1234 Thanks! Wow you got a great deal, and didn't have to travel all the way to Quartzsite lol! Going there really opened my eyes to what true wholesale prices are. It's crazy how much variation there can be in pricing of material online between different suppliers.

Haha yeah I guess I never really thought about where I acquired the word. My mining buddy and I would use it all the time. Maybe we picked it up from one of the Aussie gold shows or something lol.

Heheh, don't tell Highland Park Lapidary. I think I saw them trying to sell some Polka Dot Agate for something like $40 a pound in one of their auctions. That's a Nice cab-in-the-making!

  - Rob

Maybe they thought they could mark it up because of the giant bonfire that was called Central Oregon was still going on. Has the weather calmed the fires down? I know we haven't really gotten much more than 2-3 inches since the beginning of September in Kitsap County.

They started allowing people back into the pit, I think it's like $20 admission, all counted towards what you get at $4 or $5 per lb, neighbors, friends and frequent diggers get discounts as well. I remember when I took the club there for the first time years ago, $1/lb if I recall from Dale, and I think it was $2 for the general public.

Here is my official entry.   Since jasoninsd abandoned his own Prairie Agates, I decided to make a cab from a rock he gave me and enter it.   It polished really nicely and the white dots are reflections of lights (I need to get a light box).  The background you see is a large piece of petrified tree bark with what I think is petrified poison ivy (crossed pattern) on it.   Good to know that stuff has been iritating humans and animals for ages.  

First photo is the size comparison with the penny.





Original slab:





Full on and edge shots:





Chris 

My entry is some Lavic Crossing Jasper I picked up on my journey to Quartzite earlier this year.