Sister/Brotherhood Traveling Rock Box-- Round 6

I have to drop out of this one too. I'm so sad about it next time though no more surgerys in the future as of now.

Yippee!!! My turn my turn!!!

Way more excited to participate in a box than start it (since I DON"T know what's in this one:)! I've been saving rocks for swapping too... although after looking at the condition of the lucite stands... I don't think I can put any glass in here... LOL!

John, probably not your fault! The postalpeoples I think like to dropkick these boxes in protest to having to handle them. They know it's darn near impossiable to trace it to one pearson in perticular

John, you sent that insured, didn't you? ... And we know where the box is...and have photos of the damage... if we can get an approximate value on the stands... would it be worth replacing them? I think this is a Sheri question.... Is she around?

The stands are not very expensive at all. I would not worry about it. This box travels so far, we always end up with something damaged. Continue on.............!!

John, the answer is... anything. That's the beauty of it.

Box is done, and ready to ship. I have a PM to RockRookie to confirm his mailing address, and I'll get it out after he responds.

My original intent was to try to get the box back down to a Medium flat rate instead of the large it is now... but there was just too much stuff in it. So it's going out again as a stuffed to the brim large.

I did manage to get a single sheet of bubble pack in the top.. but if the PO makes me take it out because the box is bulging (they have done this before... here, it's by the book, and the box top must be FLAT). There is otherwise NO padding in the box. I just could not find another way to get everything in the LARGE box let alone a medium. To get my stuff in, I ended up taking out one of the small flat rate boxes inside.

This is what the box looked like when I opened:


I took 1 of each out of bags with multiples, a few small cabs and tumbles, 1 pendant mount, 1 pkg of 6 pr earring loops, 2 thongs w/ metallic clasps, pkg of stainless wire, a wrapped pendant, 1 of each of the multiple rocks, and as you can see, lots of different slabs, and a neat looking gold viking knit necklace, plus a tony terner doublet. I tried to take out enough so I could fit all the stuff I wanted to get in... but the box is still bulging badly.


Because I'm shipping from Florida, I mostly wanted to put in sea/beach/Florida themed things as much as possible.

Findings:
3 pr of flat backed (can glue cab right on it) pierced earrings, 3 pr of flat backed UNpierced earrings, 6 pcs of broach pins (can glue cab right on it), 6 teeny spiral wraps silver plated.


Jewelry:


This jade carved leaf is poorly carved. I figure that someone can 'fix' it by smoothing out the carving and repolishing. It's mounted on a broach, but it's a really nice vintage high quality dark jade.


These are fabulous. 4 24K gold electroplated sea shell pendants with the prominent shell parts electroplated in relief, 1 very well made silver sea shell (charm?). Seashells from Florida:P.

The one I'm holding is a tumbled carnelian with a really beautiful moonstone cab (I took a small moonstone slabbette), other is a lovely tumbled ruby zoisite w/ a small jade cab. Both are hand wrapped in polymer clay with exquisite craftsmanship. I bought them at a local juried Art Festival.

I forgot to mark it, but it would be nice for Sheri to get the ruby with zoicite or the carnelian:).


All the above are securely packed in a small box in another box, in the main box, so they should not break.

Here are the rocks I put in:
I am going to guess this is laguna, but it's a 5" x 4"x1" giant slice of blue/olive agate. It has a crack in it, but it will still slab. It's 1" thick and weighs a LOT. I have no idea how someone can chop it up, but it's obviously too big to cab:P.

Here's the thickness:


1/2 a geode that's full of druzy... from Christopher1234, so I'm going to guess a California geode - this one might best be used as a specimen... but it will need repolishing, since that face is just epoxied, and I trapped air bubbles in it:


I included one of the nicest of the Florida agatized corals with the unusual colors. Most florida agatized corals are sort of bland, this is really vibrant, and could be cut into slabs for beautiful bubbly cabs:


I included 5 very thick slabs (10 mm) of Kayanite in Mica Shist. For those into metaphysics, Kayanite is a head clearer and mica shist is an amplifier rock. I don't follow metaphysics, but was told these traits are about as good as it gets for stone properties. Sorry for the lousy pix, it was getting dark as I was shooting them, so it's flash, and nothing's wet. Note: the mica shist looks like fine silver threads, really unusual. Because they are different hardnesses, this will undercut a bit, which is not really a disadvantage, since that just makes the feathery kayanite stand out. Kayanite is usually all spiky, this is FEATHERY, it's pretty darn cool. To finish shaping, you MUST polish by hand, it will not finish right in a tumbler, and the softness is around 4-5 on the mica part:


And last but not least, I sent 2 agatized coral pieces my husband found. It's of questionable origin... whether it is just old agatizing (like Ruck's Pit clams... the agate looks similar but not exactly the same, these are sort of melted and no notable crystal shapes)

As far away as Rockrookie is, thought he'd enjoy having one of these:).





Thanks for letting me participate, I had a ton of fun looking through the box:).

I have my fingers crossed that it will all be intact... I got it with almost NO padding, and I'm shipping it with almost NO padding. Gaah... maybe I should pull out more stuff so I can add more padding... it's like shipping one big solid rock in that box the way they are STUFFED in there... let me know Sheri before I ship. I just don't want anyone to think I cleaned out the box, but the way it is all rocks now, things are going to break.

*Edited because I wasn't supposed to talk about the old man. doh. sorry.

lol Helen, I felt the same about the newbie box. little padding, a lot o rocks.

Shipping Label is done, will go to PO tomorrow morning. Tracking #: 9405509699938014902471