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Post by stephan on Apr 15, 2015 1:06:57 GMT -5
About what you'd expect.
And, ooh! They've got Tidy Bowl turquoise (Dyed howelite)!
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jamesp
Cave Dweller 
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,612
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Post by jamesp on Apr 15, 2015 4:38:52 GMT -5
High end decorators started bringing specimens in from overseas years ago. Mounted up the butt like that, in lamps, giant slabs, etc. This guy made a fortune on them back when, now those imported mountings are a dime a dozen www.rondierdesign.com/#!/index |
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Post by snowmom on Apr 15, 2015 5:57:35 GMT -5
Still, I think that petwood is beautiful. Hard to tell scale on these, how tall and wide? $25 doesn't seem so bad for all the labor and packing and labeling, etc involved. But if they are the size of a postage stamp the deal is off! Thanks for the post.
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,612
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Post by jamesp on Apr 15, 2015 6:44:42 GMT -5
Still, I think that petwood is beautiful. Hard to tell scale on these, how tall and wide? $25 doesn't seem so bad for all the labor and packing and labeling, etc involved. But if they are the size of a postage stamp the deal is off! Thanks for the post. Somebody is working very cheap. At those prices some foreign government is subsidizing to break into the US market. The quality is not a major concern. This was a great business 5 years ago. The decorator biz has been mimicked by oversea operations. And the decorators hired them to do it. Here, build this trendy item for me and send it back. Ha, decorators no different than corporate America. They may have turned corporate America on to the idea; they had long been traveling the world buying from other countries. Well educated on the resources of foreign lands. |
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Fossilman
Cave Dweller
Member since January 2009
Posts: 20,723 
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Post by Fossilman on Apr 15, 2015 9:59:23 GMT -5
$25 is a steal-plus you could buy them,run a good polish on them,flip them or keep them for your own collection...
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lilacmoth
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since March 2015
Posts: 160 
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Post by lilacmoth on Apr 15, 2015 10:53:55 GMT -5
They're not small, the wood on the right is about 3"x4", and a really thick slab, about an inch thick. You could easily slice it in half!
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Post by gingerkid on Apr 15, 2015 16:29:43 GMT -5
And, ooh! They've got Tidy Bowl turquoise (Dyed howelite)! ROFL, stephan! I agree with snowmom. I like the pet wood and the agate. Imagine they could be repolished if you don't like the polish on them. Think the rocks in the kits are for kids to enjoy, even though some are not natural. I'm guessing 'turqurenite' is the dyed howlite/Tidy Bowl turquoise that Stephan commented on? |
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Post by stephan on Apr 15, 2015 16:34:34 GMT -5
And, ooh! They've got Tidy Bowl turquoise (Dyed howelite)! ROFL, stephan! I agree with snowmom. I like the pet wood and the agate. Imagine they could be repolished if you don't like the polish on them. Think the rocks in the kits are for kids to enjoy, even though some are not natural. I'm guessing 'turqurenite' is the dyed howlite/Tidy Bowl turquoise that Stephan commented on? Indeed, it is. They should just be honest and call it "fake turquoise." And "lemon jade?" Come on, now. |
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Post by washingtonrocks on Apr 15, 2015 20:01:11 GMT -5
Those are actually pretty nice slabs. And not a bad price at $25.
What the heck is Turqurenite??
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Post by stephan on Apr 15, 2015 23:21:39 GMT -5
Turqurenite is dyed howelite.
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peachfront
fully equipped rock polisher
Stones have begun to speak, because an ear is there to hear them.
Member since August 2010
Posts: 1,745
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Post by peachfront on Apr 16, 2015 9:47:35 GMT -5
Yeah and World Market is everywhere. People then are trained to expect this price and the value of the work to put a good polish on a piece -- which would take hours for me -- is reduced to essentially nothing. Seems like China, excuse me "the world" will not be happy until Americans are working for $1 an hour like they were back in the 1980s. I can understand tit for tat but at the end of the day reducing everyone to poverty is not going to get them where they want to be long term. Same as the $4 cabs in Michael's. You can point out they're badly polished, dyed, or even out and out fakes like the howlite until you're blue in the face...but it still harms the market at the bottom end when people expect $4 cabs. The value of our materials and our labor has crashed since the late 1980s, and it's quite terrifying if you need to make money from your projects. Makes me glad I decided to relegate stone polishing to the hobby category a couple decades past...
I realize people who are long established cutters still do OK. But people just getting into the hobby are screwed...and this may be one of the reasons why the hobby has trouble keeping young people. It just takes the heart out of you when you spend hours on a project and then see a shoddy version of that project selling for $5 at Walgreens. That actually happened to me when I was making stone mosaic herb pots. ANd I wasn't even trying to sell them. I just saw that even though I spent hours and hours of loving work tumbling my stones and making my herb pots...somebody else could buy a cheap as **** mosaic for $5 in the Walgreen's junk bin and feel like they had close to the same visual impact in their garden. It makes you sad and takes the pride out of your work.
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