Snakes and Stones

Thanks!

The snake is small.  I put a quarter in the photo for reference. 

Photo #75

Blue - Agate from Utah
White - Agate from Idaho
Green - Nephrite from California
Yellow - Chert from Massachusetts

Note:  Blue Agate is not nearly as light/vivid as Blue Lace agate, but, it is significantly cheaper. 

Photo #77

 
More feldspar from my area.  After I tumble it I separate it by color:  I usually have three groups,  the Greys, the Blue-Greys, and Everything Else.  Due to the proclivity of this material to have uneven fractures:  I keep this material in my vibe for a long time to smooth them out prior to polish.   I consider it excellent practice material as it behaves very similar to Labradorite.

The female in this photo is aprox. the same size as the male in the previous one.

That is a beautiful snake. The rocks are pretty nice too. 😁

Photo #79

My miscellaneous feldspar-get a little bit of orange/red here and there...nothing ever prominent in the material I find.  The rocks aren't huge, the snake is small.  

Photo #81



Topaz--definitely not facet grade.   I had the opportunity to buy this material in bulk at a steep discount.  Being Mohs 8 (and cheap): my original intent was to use it as filler in my tumbling barrels, however, I quickly realized that there is not much difference between Mohs 7 and Mohs 8 hardness.  Topaz does not work well as barrel filler because it cleaves/shatters easily if struck too hard...and it wears down only a little slower than quartz in a vibe.  I still prefer quartz river gravel for cheap filler.

Photo #82

Sodalite and Nephrite.  Very similar color/material composition as photo #64, but, I used chatoyant sodalite in this one.  The flashback from the group of chatoyant stones makes a blurry photo no matter what angle/light I choose.

Thanks!  I was told by the seller that it is from the 'West Coast', they said that most of what I bought is nephrite (with some scrap jadeite pieces thrown in).  A lot of the pieces I have are very different shades of white/yellow/green/greenish-black...I try to match them for my photos.

There are a number of ways.  One being the eyes.  venomous snakes (at least in North America) have slit pupils; non-venomous have round ones.  Luckily where we are in NorCal, there is only one venomous species -- the Northern Pacific rattlesnake, which is pretty easy to tell from the local snake that mostly resembles it , the gopher snake.  Gophers are more slender, with a more pronounced necks.  Gopher snakes being colubrids have a head plate arrangement of 2-2-3-2, staring at the nasal, endeing behind the eyes.  The markings also resemble a chain (the scientific species name of "catenifer" means "chain-bearing")
Examples:
IMG_6855_Another beautiful juvenile gopher snake by Stephan T., on Flickr
The rare and delicious pretzel snake by Stephan T., on Flickr

Ratlesnakes tend to be more stout, with paler, more diffuse and slightly irregular markings (note, you can't always rely on seeing a rattle... they do fall off). Their heads are flatter, more v-shaped and covered with regular scales

Examples:
Third rattlesnake in the middle of the road 2 by Stephan T., on Flickr
Wild Northern Pacific Rattlesnake (Crotalus oreganus oreganus) by Stephan T., on Flickr

Interestingly, gopher snakes will imitate rattlesnakes by vibrating their tails in dry leaves and flattening their heads, capitalizing on the Müllerian (or "dishonest" mimicry of their slightly similar markings).