Treasure Hunting

Several days ago I mentioned how plentiful and inexpensive Montana moss agate is, but these things don’t take away from the fact that this type of agate can be a beautiful stone and that it has a personality all its own.

I decided to try to capture some of the uniqueness of one particular piece of Montana moss agate in a digital drawing.  The particular specimen that the drawing was modeled on is very “earthy” looking with some gold tones in the translucent center.

Today I hope to get some photographs taken of a newer batch of ocean jasper that I recently acquired.  This latest sampling actually has some nice translucent samples as well.  Yes, even though it’s called ocean jasper, a lot of it is quite translucent like agate.  From what I have read, there was some discussion on whether to classify it as an agate or a jasper, but the name ocean jasper won out because of the orbicular patterns that are found on many of the specimens.  If you want to read up some more on this, check out this information.

I love colors. One of my huge weaknesses is that I will sit with a digital editing program and play around with colors for hours. I’m not that great at it, but I do it anyway. I got to thinking today about how pretty the colors were of the blue lace agate that I posted photos of here. So I decided to play around with the photo in Paint Shop Pro a bit.

This is the picture that I ended up with when all was said and done. It’s definitely no work of art, but I kind of like it. It plays up the colors that are present in the banded agate specimen pretty nicely, but it doesn’t really capture any of the texture. I thought about working on it some more to bring the texture qualities in and to mute some of the symmetry from the kaleidoscope look, but I figured I had played enough for one day. So I just saved the image in case I want to go back and fiddle around with it some more later.

The things that can be done with digital editing software are simply amazing. Despite the rest of the world being in love with Adobe Photoshop, I much prefer Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2. One of these days someone might convince me that more can be done with Photoshop and I might switch over, but for now, I can’t think of anything that I really want to do that can’t be handled in Paint Shop Pro.

I’m still working on cataloging agate samples.  The kinds I have in my collection are pretty varied, and they’re not even close to all the different forms in the world, or even in this country.  I suppose that is why they call it collecting though.

The photo to the left is of some plume agate from a region known as Graveyard Point in Idaho that’s just a few miles from the Oregon-Idaho border.  This batch is mostly a grayish color with with gold and white plumes, but there are a few pieces with pink plumes.  The reason it’s called plume agate is because of the feathery-like inclusions contained in the stone that look something like plumes.  These inclusions can be quite beautiful when the stone is polished.

The other picture here shows some moss agate from Montana.  It’s pretty common stuff, but still takes on some interesting shapes and colors.  Both of these batches of specimens rank a little bigger than 7 on the Mohs hardness scale.

If you’re sick of looking at pictures of agate, you might want to go get a snack instead of reading this post.  I’m wanting a bit of a snack myself but since I can eat and type at the same time, I’m good to go.

The agate pictured here is a type of banded agate from Africa known as Blue Lace Agate.  It has some similar colorings of the Blue-Gray Agate from Brazil, but they are much lighter in tone due to all of the white mixed in with the blues.  A few of the pieces, like the one in the photograph below even have some additional pastel-like bands included with the standard blue and white colorings.

Blue Lace Agate typically runs at the higher end of the Mohs hardness scale for agate.  The stones in this batch are a bit higher than a 7, maybe a 7.5.  I haven’t decided what I want to do with this batch yet.  There are a couple of pieces in there that I’d like to polish, but I think that I may end up using most of them in a candle centerpiece with a winter theme.  Even though the stones come from Africa, they make me think of winter when I look at them with the crisp blue and white colors.  Of course, since I have so many projects going on currently, the stones are just sitting in a box in the corner right now.  Those boxes in the corner are really starting to stack up.

It’s been a busy week for me and I haven’t had time to tag very many of my recent acquisitions so I was trying to do a little bit of that today.  I seem to put that task off a lot, but not because I dislike it - just the opposite.  It’s one of my favorite things to do so I try to save it until after I’ve gotten some other work done.

The photograph here is of some rough blue-gray agate from Brazil.  I’m in love with the coloring of this stone, but I am a big fan of darker blues.  A lot of times when I’m taking pictures of rocks, I’ll make sure they’re wet first so that the color comes through better - it also helps give an idea of what they will look like when polished.  But in this photo, the stones are completely dry and that blueness still stands out nicely.  I’m really interested in what type of hue the stones will take on when they’re polished especially since this batch of agate has some pieces with a lot of translucency.  There are a couple of rocks in the batch that I think would make gorgeous pendants.  I need to make sure I get my act together so I can get some of these things polished by Christmas.

I received some new rough agates this week, and I’ve really been enjoying cataloging and sorting through them.  One of my favorites of this lot is some green tree agate from India.  As far as agates go, this batch is a bit on the softer side - probably about a 6.5 on the Mohs hardness scale.   That’s still a decent hardness over all, though, for polishing and jewelry-making.  In fact, it’s right in that area that I consider “perfect” for easy polishing.  This is yet another reason why I am so fond of jasper and agates.  For the most part, they really take a good polishing.

Tree agate is another name for dendritic agate.  It’s name comes from the fern-like patterns formed in the stone.  Green tree agate has beautiful green veins mingled in with the white rock as you can see in the picture of the rough green tree agate shown here.  The stones in my batch are of a good size, too.  Most of them are in the 1″ to 1.5″ range with a couple being a bit smaller.

In general, dendritic agate is known as the Stone of Plenitude as it is believed to provide abundance and fullness in one’s life.  It is also thought to have a calming effect as it slows you down and teaches you to enjoy the individual moments in life.  Healers use dendritic agate to treat disorders of the skeletal and nervous system as well as other systems in the body that are considered branch-like.

I had originally made plans to go out to Crystal Peak in California on Sunday, but when I woke up, I felt miserable.  I think that I might have had a touch of food-poisoning or a 24-hour bug.  I’m still feeling pretty icky, but at least I feel a lot better than I did.  So, instead of going to Crystal Peak, I spent the day laying around in bed and reading stories on the Internet.  Pretty exciting, huh?

Well, it did have its upside.  I was hopping around on several sites looking for some interesting rocks.  I love the beautiful agates and jaspers from Africa and Madagascar, and since I have no plans to be in that area anytime soon (no matter how much I’d love to go), I thought that I would buy some rough specimens online.  The price difference between rough and polished specimens is simply amazing, and I prefer to polish my own anyway.  Not to mention, there are some that I like better in their natural rough state.  

As I was shopping around, I noticed a link at The Gem Shop that I hadn’t seen before that led to a page with their Rock and Mining Locations.  I really enjoy reading mining stories and seeing pictures taken on location of digs.  The pictures and stories here are simply enthralling.  I’m not sure that it made me feel any better, though.  Instead, it just made me miss being out collecting my own specimens even more.  Still, it’s well worth checking out if you want to see some great behind-the-scenes mining tales.  I did order some rough agates and jaspers here, too.  That part did cheer me up.  I’ll make sure to get some good pictures of the items when they arrive in case any of you are thinking about ordering from The Gem Shop, too.  This is my first order from them, but I have heard great reviews from other people.