Author Archives: SnobAppeal

CARE AND FEEDING OF YOUR SNOB APPEAL JEWELRY

Some of the gemstones I sell may not be safe to with cleaning in an ultrasonic cleaner. I try to tell my customers when this is the case, but if you are not sure, please call me. Jewelry polishing clothes are generally good to shine up your jewelry between cleanings, but be cautious of commercial chemical cleaners. Here are some tips so you can clean your delicate stones.

Using an old soft-bristled toothbrush and “Blue Dawn“* dish soap brush your jewelry in the following manner:

Brush the sides of the jewelry WITH the wraps. If you brush against the wraps these wraps want to grab the brush bristles.

Generally it doesn’t matter which way you brush the stones, but make sure when you are done you rinse thoroughly.

Caution should be taken when cleaning the top where I ornately style the wrap. Brush lightly with lots of suds.

Finish up by brushing UP at the rear of the bail. If you brush down your bristles can grab and pull out the lock wrap.

Finish by brushing WITH the wires that form the bail at the top of the pendent.

* Use only Blue Dawn and not green or any other color. Blue Dawn is pure soap and the best oil remover available. It is environmentally safe and was used to clean the oil off all the animals affected by the Valdez oil spill. (No, I do not own stock in Procter & Gamble!)

My Unusual Pendant

I do love the strange and unusual. A pendant I wear is a real jaw-dropper: a tooth from the largest shark that ever lived.

Megalodon became extinct approximately 2 million years ago. The earliest Megs dated back approximately 17 million years ago. Some Megaladon’s were 60 feet long and weighed 77 tons. And people thought JAWS was big!

Megalodon had 46 front row teeth, 24 in the upper jaw and 22 in the lower. p6280040 Most sharks have at least six rows of teeth, so a Megalodon had about 276 teeth at any given time. The largest Megalodon tooth found was around 7.25 inches long.

Some scientists estimate that Megalodon ate about 2,500 pounds of food every day, including whales and other large fish. One of the theories is that Megalodon became extinct because they starved out due to elimination of their food supply–they almost ate the whales into extinction, thus causing their own end.

Megalodon lived throughout most of the ancient world’s oceans.

Megalodon had a 6 foot mouth. If Megalodon was still alive you would not want to go swimming in the ocean. You would be considered a small snack food for this shark!

If you ever get to the Mall of America go to their Underwater Adventure. There you would see and could stand inside of a reproduction set of Megalodon jaws.

p6280038 The photo shown is of a bottom front tooth and is a bit over 6 inches. I wear it to some of my art shows. Price on the pendant shown is $650 firm. It is not posted on this website.

Prehnite

Sometimes I find wonderful Prehnite on the mine dumps in the Keweenaw Peninsula.

If prehnite forms in veins, as it does in the Keweenaw Peninsula, it generally associates itself with native copper. I love to find these rare pieces that make lovely jewelry, with the apple green of the prehnite surrounding the shiny copper. prehnite-with-copper1

Most of the Prehnite of the Keweenaw is vein Prehnite. In vein Prehnite one cannot notice the chatoyant needle-like crystal structure normally associated with larger non-vein Prehnite pieces such as the gemmy pieces found in Australia and other locals around the world. Feather-like Prehnite crystals are seen in U. P. Thomsonite which is actually variegated and non-variegated Prehnite. Pink, red, and green, and other color combinations can be found, depending on what minerals flowed into the vesicles and veins along with the Prehnite. Locals refer to pastel Prehnite permeated with copper flecks found on the beaches in the Calumet, and also in the Copper Harbor area as “Patricianite”. These Prehnite pebbles can be jewelry grade, and are wonderful to collect as they roll in with the Lake Superior breakers.

Prehnite is very solid, but brittle, so care must be taken when cutting it. Stay away from new grinding wheels and rough grits. Harmonic vibrations can blow apart this material.

High quality Prehnite is available from various locations throughout the world, but when you add the native copper to the Prehnite from the U.P., you can’t beat ours.

Finding and Working Greenstones

Finding a greenstone:

It is illegal to remove greenstones from Isle Royale National Park, so you will have to look in the Keweenaw Peninsula. Some of the old spoils piles from the copper mine contain greenstones. Watch for nodules dark green, ugly looking nodules within basalt. A good hint is the harder the basalt, the better and gemmier the greenstone may be. When you find a greenstone-included rock you will have to very carefully “pop out” the greenstone, careful not to lose it when you pop it out. I generally take the whole rock to an area where if the suspected greenstone pops out you may still be able to find it. Look also for a glint of chatoyancy in a chipped stone. Don’t expect any large greenstones, but maybe you’ll be lucky. Many of the old dump piles at the mines have already been crushed up and used for road fill in the Keweenaw. When I first started hunting rocks in the Keweenaw 20 years ago there were many large piles of rubble to dig through. p5250030 Now many of those piles are gone, substantially depleted, or privately owned and not accessible anymore. Don’t be discouraged as there are still rock hunting opportunities available. The local rockhounds probably will not tell you their best spots, but will point you to a pile of rock that you can find something. Take your metal detector with you, if you get tired of looking for greenstone you can look for copper. You can rent one at Keweenaw Gem and Gift in Houghton if you do not own one.

Understand that the average Greenstone is half the size of a pea, and any greenstone of a large size is extremely rare. Anything over 5 grams is considered a rarity. The greenstones I feature on my website have been accumulated over a 20 year period by personally hunting them or purchasing old collections.

For every ten possible greenstones I pick up, one may be a real greenstone. The others may be basalt or chlorite balls or some other greenstone “wanabe”. Out of the good stones, one in 100 of those may be a large greenstone and solid enough for jewelry. I guess that is the reason you don’t see Greenstones on one of the home shopping networks that feature the common diamonds, sapphires, rubies, and other “jewelry store” fare. I cannot believe people spend good money on common jewelry store merchandise and are not buying really rare and distinctive gemstones instead. My wife refuses to wear diamonds and such. Of course she understands the economics of artificially inflating values by pretending they are rare (I rant about this enough, she picks up some of what I profess). Dr. Robert Proctor of the History Department of Stanford University commented on how a wonderful Lake Superior agate is much more rare than a common diamond in a keynote oration he gave at the Wonderful World of Agates symposium in 2008. If, as Proctor suggested, many agates are far more rare then diamonds, imagine how rare a one-source gemstone such as Greenstone is.

Working with Greenstone-

So now that I have vented a little and feel better I’ll continue. Cutting greenstones is also challenging. The layer of real chatoyant greenstone is often thin and you must cut the stone so as to not go through this layer and yet remove all the blemishes. Sometimes this is not possible and you have to discard the stone. Other times, I’ll hit a hollow spot; stone ruined. If you find a nice greenstone, never allow someone to cut and polish it for you that is not experienced with working with this material. I know just a handful of cutters in Michigan that really know what they are doing with greenstone. It does not take much to botch this material. Greenstone is not like any other stone when cutting it, and I personally ruined quite a few pieces when I was learning to cut it. Thousands of greenstones later I am confident in my abilities. I custom cut and polish greenstones for people that find them. As an aside, and since you have taken time to read my blog, I will tell you that there are crooks and sham artists that may try to sell you what they claim is an actual greenstone, but in fact may be a piece of basalt, prehnite, or other greenstone look alike. At least one of these sham artists operates a roadside business in the area. So buyers beware. Do some research before you buy, or buy from me. My greenstones are genuine, and I would not sell you any stone I would not be proud to own myself. I offer both fine wire-wrapped slides or pendants and polished individual greenstones that you can work with or have a jeweler craft for you.

I’m proud to say we have the largest selection of Isle Royale Greenstone on the internet, but only a small portion of the greenstones I have available are posted. If you are looking for something in particular contact me and ask. I expect to post up more loose stones in the near future.

Isle Royale Greenstone/Chlorastrolite (AKA Michigan Greenstone, Greenstone, Pumpellylite)

Michigan’s State Gem, the Isle Royale Greenstone, Greenstone Pendant with Datolite is unquestionably one of the rare minerals of earth. It can only be found on Isle Royale National Park and in Michigan’s Keweenaw Peninsula. Greenstone is a close relative of Epidote. Chlorastrolite (translated from Greek as green, star-like stone) is actually a form of Pumpellyite. “Chlorastrolite” was adopted as Michigan’s gem March 30, 1973.

Greenstone formed in amygdaloidal pockets of Keweenaw basalts. At one time Isle Royale and the Keweenaw formed one land mass. Isle Royale was spit off from the Keweenaw when the rift that formed Lake Superior split a giant gash in the earth.

Thanks to Benjamin Franklin, the Keweenaw Peninsula and Isle Royale are part of the United States. Franklin was a member of the commission that drew up the boundaries for the Treaty of Paris in 1773, ending the Revolutionary War. Ben Franklin had heard of the rich mineral deposits in the Keweenaw and Isle Royale so he drew the boundary line to the north of Isle Royale, giving this area to the United States instead of Canada.

The mineralization on Isle Royale is exactly the same as the Keweenaw. Native copper, Datolite, Prehnite, Thomsonite, Lake Superior Agates, Epidote, Greenstones, and the same basalts are seen in both locations.

Basalt 101-

As the basalts cooled, gasses tried to escape to the surface, the bubbles becoming smaller and smaller as they rose and tried to escape from the basalt’s clutches. The basalt hardened and trapped these bubbles known as “vesicles”. Also the cooling created shrinking and cracking of the basalt. These cracks in the basalts allowed different minerals in solution to flow into the vesicles, where they eventually solidified.

Copper, silver, arsenates, and other metals also filled the cracks and vesicles, but were disseminated by rising, super heated water instead of flowing down from the surface. The vesicles that the copper and other metals filled were sometimes huge and other times just cracks or small bubbles.

Greenstone with Datolite and Copper

Greenstone with Prehnite

Copper associated itself with other minerals including all the previously mentioned material. The variety of material, mixed in different ways, is what makes this rock hunting area so intriguing. It is wonderful to see copper running through Greenstone, Datolite, Prehnite, and Lake Superior agates. Pieces of Greenstone/copper are highly coveted by collectors and jewelry makers like myself. The few pieces I have are priceless. My wife has a ring made out of one of these copper/greenstone pieces, and I still have a couple specimen pieces. She sometimes wears the ring to art shows, so ask her if you see us. To see an example of copper with datolite, take a look at my Copper Lightning Datolite.

Greenstone with Thomsonite

Greenstone sometimes has Thomsonite inclusions, which make for a spectacular look. (Dark, chatoyant green and dark pink together) I’m waiting to find a Copper-Greenstone-Thomsonite some day. I have seen specimens of these at the Seaman Museum at Michigan Tech.

My next post will discuss finding and working with greenstones.

Victoria Stone (aka Iimori Stone)

Victoria Stone is one of my favorite lapidary materials. Recent research has determined that Victoria Stone is actually leaded glass. VS was created by Dr. S. Iimori in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. I have noticed that Iimori’s name is spelled several ways on assorted websites (ex. Imori), but the spelling I have comes from an article originally published in Lapidary Journal, so I assume it to be the correct spelling. Articles from Lapidary Journal that I located show piles of natural materials (quartz, magnesite, feldspar, calcite, fluorspar, and others) stacked near Iimori’s laboratory in Tokyo. Smoke and glass? Perhaps…

Iimori never patented his process, only he, and his son apparently knew the secrets to the whole process. Very mysterious indeed (Twilight Zone note playing in my head).

“These materials were pulverized to dust and melted into molten masses. The secret beauty of Victoria Stone comes from the “crystallizers and crystal habit regulators” which Iimori added to the molten mix. The molten material resulting from the brewing was poured into molds and cooled under pressures, up to 2000 pounds, for several months.” How much of this is smoke and glass (no pun intended), is debatable. The same old Lapidary Journal the above quote came from, claimed that Victoria Stone actually analyzed the same as Nephrite Jade. Modern methods using SEM’s (scanning Electron Microscopes), and other scientific methods has rebuked this claim. We are certain today that Victoria Stone was not made much different than Leaded Glass is today, but the rub is in the details of how exactly it was made. There is much mis-information on the web about Victoria Stone, and as with all Internet information it seems to have grown into folklore. Most people that sell this material will claim they this material is actually a man made gemstone, made from natural materials. Well glass is made from sand, and that is a natural material. Make your own judgements on that.

When the Victoria Stone “boule” was released from its mold they had a crust on them. This crust is indicative of a glass mixture. I know of recent (2014) analyzation of Victoria Stone indicates it to be a form of leaded glass. All those working on re-inventing Victoria Stone are working on glass formulas. Perhaps all the stories of this material being artificial Jade are being disproved.

I have always thought Victoria Stone cuts and fractures ALMOST like glass. What puzzles me is it seems to have an oily, slippery texture unlike any glass I’ve cut. The oily feel of the cut could be caused by the lead content in the glass. The questions I have on how Victoria Stone was made are many. Why, if it is glass, did these boules have to be cooled under pressure over a long period of time? I assume it was so the crystals could form properly. Why was Iimore’s son not able to re-produce Victoria Stone without it falling apart? I predict one of the many re-inventors working on making VS will eventually discover the elusive secret. You will see glass that looks like Victoria Stone. Remember you saw it here first.

I own a pair of these rare boules, which are a cylindrical shape with one flattened end and weight perhaps 3-4 pounds. My friends have told me that when working this material you had to remove the crust carefully and let the boule rest for a few weeks. They say that the boules would actually make cracking noises when the crust was removed. Expansion inside the boule caused these noises. The older the boule, the less cracking could be heard. They would cut a couple slabs off each end of the boule; leave is set for a couple weeks, and then cut two more slices off each end, etc.

The boules I own are calling me to cut them; and I may do just that in the near future. One of the boules is white and still has the “crust” on it, while the other one is gray and the crust or bark has been removed.

A white boule with the “crust or bark” still on it.

A “peeled” gray boule.

I decided to update this post , that I first posted on May 8, 2009, to add this information and pictures of my boules. I believe there are very few full boules left after forty years, and I wanted to give you the opportunity to see them before I cut them up. I acquired these boules in an estate sale a couple years back. The gray boule is especially rare. I am hoping that the boules are not cracked inside too badly. I may even Youtube (is that a verb?) the cutting procedure for you later this year. Cutting a full Victoria Stone boule is impossibly rare after all these years. There are just that many around anymore. All the boules Iimori produced were approximately five inches tall, four inch base, tapering to a rounded top of approximately three inches.

A view of the stars on the bottom of the boule.

Another unusual crystallization habit to Victoria Stone Boules is that you see “star crystallization” only at the bottom and near the surface of these boules. So IF you see stars on a piece of Victoria Stone, you know it is that very rare and most coveted bottom slice. I describe this piece as the “Filet Mignon” of the boule, and get a premium for this piece if I ever see one.

Victoria Stone boules were sold at the Tucson Gem Shows in the 70’s. Also cabochons were available to purchase at the shows. I wish I had invested all my money in this stuff back then, as it is unbelievably expensive today, and virtually impossible to find. I have purchased entire rock collections just to get a small quantity of Victoria Stone. We are one of the few sites on the Internet to offer Victoria Stone Jewelry.

Iimori actually manufactured an artificial jade that he called “meta Jade”.I still have some of this material and it is hard to tell the difference between it and natural Imperial Jade. When Victoria Stone cooled, it re-crystallized from its molten state; forming beautiful feather-like chatoyant crystals. I see similar crystallization in Pectolite (Larimar), Thomsonite, Isle Royale Greenstone, and Prehnite.

Victoria Stone was originally produced in fifteen colors: green, sky blue, reddish purple, yellow green, blue green, sky indigo, chocolate, yellow, deep indigo, white, black, grey, quiet blue, quiet yellow, and quiet green. I have posted two photos of blue green Victoria Stone so you can see how the crystallization varies from stone to stone.

The first version of the Victoria Stone story is that Dr. Iimori died in the late 70’s or early 80’s and never told anyone how he produced Victoria Stone. Kenzo Kato, Iimori’s son, ran Iimori Laboratory Ltd., but was never informed of the secret to making Victoria Stone. I could never imagine not writing down somewhere how you did something as wonderful as making Victoria Stone, but this is what is said to have happened.

The alternate version of the aforementioned story that I have recently received from a trusted expert I know is that Dr. Iimori did in fact pass the formula to his son, Kenzo Kato. KATO did make a batch or a few batches of Victoria Stone which was sold on the market. There was a problem with the Victoria Stones stability from Kato’s batches. The batches were not stable enough for lapidary work. Apparently the problem was in the cooling, pressure, or some other factor which was not passed on to Kato. Shortly thereafter Kato went out of the Victoria Stone business. This second version makes far more sense than the first story which is generally thought to be the definitive truth. I believe that the story that Kato did know the formula is more creditable then the story that is generally thought to be the truth.

Mysteries still abound as to how exactly Victoria Stone was created. There have been lots of years and lots of research and experimentation on how this glass was actually made. How did these “crystals” form in the boules? Were these boles actually cured under pressure? Why was this glass poured into boules in the first place? A big question I have is why the crystallization on the bottom of the boule is different from the rest of the boule? Why, when Iimori’s son tried to reproduce the is material, did it fall apart? Some glass, like Goldstone is quite tricky to make. It takes exacting manufacturing and curing to come out correct, and this may have been the issue with Victoria Stone. Who really knows? There are many people trying to make this old treasured material, and have been, for many years. I have seen material labeled “Victoria Stone” in Tucson, that was not Victoria Stone.

I cut Victoria Stone on my Genie as I would any glass. It does polish very easily using any normal method you regularly use for polishing glass. Victoria Stone is quite resistant to edge chipping. You should never use a 90 grit wheel on it. You also have to watch for natural holes in this material, and work around these small imperfections. You do not have to burnish Victoria Stone like you do jade to get a good polish. Victoria Stone produces a superior polish without heat. I would not recommend heating Victoria Stone up too much while polishing it lest you accidentally crack it. I have not personally cracked a stone, but have been told that this is a possibility.

Recently, someone posted up some pieces of Victoria Stone they found in Tucson or Quartzite. Never buy Victoria stone in broken chunks. You have to remember that this is a glass-like material and if a boule was dropped of broken up, all these pieces will be cracked and virtually unusable. Always purchase VS in slabs or cabs if you find any.

I’ve been wanting to update this post for a while, with new information. I also have an original color chart, soon to be posted. I hope you enjoy this new information.

A Deep Indigo Victoria Stone with facetted Apatite and Carnelian.

Check out all our Victoria Stone Jewelry now.I expect that this beautiful stone jewelry will continue to increase in value as time goes on.

Roadrunner

Snob Blog fans seem to like the unusual rocks I often make into jewelry . Here is a way cool Lake Superior Agate that I call “The Roadrunner”. Do you see the bird? roadrunner1

The agate is a somewhat unusual color for a fortification agate and when I cut it, I was surprised by this great picture in it.

Sorry this was sold to Beth (the same Beth that owns the fantastic Isle Royale Greenstone that I previously Blogged about). Take a look at my rhyolite Owl which is very unique, or The Parrot. I have wire wrapped other Lake Superior agates into slides or pendants. You also might enjoy the Crazy Lace agates pendants/slides.

If you are looking for a particular animal in a rock, you can E-mail me and I’ll keep an eye out for it. You will have to be patient as these pictures do not appear commonly. No guarantee on these requests!

The Beach Hunt

I finally got out to search for Petoskey Stones on the beach. I will confess that this particular hunt site is in the Charlevoix area, but I am sworn to secrecy on the exact location. p4190018

This was the first weekend that the snow had cleared enough in the woods to get to this area. It is very remote and requires a 4WD to get to it. I went with my best rock-hunting buddy Gary. We had great expectations of finding a good quantity of Petoskey stones as well as high quality Favosites, and were not disappointed.

It actually sprinkled continuously while we were hunting, which made the stones on the beach stand out. The water was smooth so we could also see the rocks in the water. Within a month of ice leaving the area rocks become covered in slime and moss, making it almost unhuntable (my spell check says this is not a word, but I like it anyway), so early spring is the only time to have good hunting in this area. This is a prime example of knowing when to hunt certain areas and when not to. I’m sure, for example, out west you would hunt hard in the cooler weather and not hunt the desert in the summer.

Normally we park our truck at the end of the hunting area and hike the beach back the way we came in. We take a couple empty buckets and dump any buckets we fill next to the trail we came in on, then pick up full buckets as we leave.

p4190021

Indeed it was a great hunt as anticipated. Gary and I each filled a five-gallon bucket with high quality stones. This took a couple hours. Next time we’ll take our insulated waders so we can check further out in the water for the “big” ones.

As an aside, it is April 22^nd as I write this and we had snow again last night. When will the winter end?

First Petoskey Stone Hunt of 2009

Living in northern Michigan is sometimes harsh, as it has been this winter. We have officially had snowfall for 7 months in a row. This is April 18^th and there are still some snow piles scattered about.

On April 3^rd Bonnie and I made a trek out for the first Petoskey Stone hunt of the year, to one of the private gravel pits we hunt . We did not expect much as it was dry, but we were honestly stir-crazy and wanted to get out. Normally we hunt Petoskey stones in the rain because they show up better.

I checked one of the streams from the melting snow and discovered a few small stones in the clear cold water. Good thing for the gem scoop as I would not have relished putting my hand in that cold water to retrieve a rock. Bonnie picked up a few right out on the flat ground of the pit. This time of year the stones are clean and stick out well on the washed sand.

It did sprinkle a little, which helped find more stones on some of the gravel piles. I checked the rock falls (These are stones which eroded out over the winter and fell to the bottom of the steep gravel banks), always a good place to look. I found a good quantity of nice stones in these falls including two high-quality pink Petoskey Stones. We also found a nice Puddingstone, which is not native to our area, but was brought here by glaciers from Sudbury, Ontario which is 150 miles away. p4190023

We are awaiting a good rain so we can go out and find greater numbers of stones.

My best find of the day was a softball sized and flawlessly-patterned beauty. I’ll probably polish that one and sell it with a tripod stand. We ended the day with about 35 pounds of really nice stones, an excellent first hunt.

I’m happy the winter is over and a beach hunt is scheduled for next week. I’ll keep you informed.

Lake Superior Agate

“Lakers” are found as beach pebbles on the shores of Lake Superior as well as in glacial till primarily in Minnesota and Wisconsin, but also in Kansas, Nebraska, Illinois, Iowa, and throughout Michigan. They are also commonly found in the amygdaloidal basalt in the Keweenaw Peninsula and on Isle Royale National Park.

agate

The basic material of agate is Chalcedony, a silicon dioxide form of microscopic fibrous crystals. The fibrous makeup of the Lake Superior Agates, makes them hard and able to accept a wonderful, glass-like polish. This brittle structure also makes the Lake Superior Agate prone to cracking from thawing and freezing or being moved vast distances in the glacial till. A crack-free “Laker” is quite rare to find, and are coveted highly by rockhounds and jewelry makers.

The ancient basalts of the Lake Superior region are amygdaloidal (containing gas bubbles called vesicles) in nature. Of volcanic origin, the holes from the bubbles became filled with various minerals. Often these minerals were silica, forming agates. There are several theories on how agates are formed which can be read about in some of the books we recommend on this site.

Lake Superior Agates are most often quite small, but have been found up to 20 pounds. It is rare to find a “Laker” over one-half pound. I love to tell the story of the day I personally found six “Lakers” over one half pound.

“Lakers” can be almost any color, but reds and browns are common colors. Agates are most often banded, but can occur as tubes, eyes, moss, shadow, sagenite, plumes, and almost solid colors, often orange (carnelian).

One of the most popular and sought after Lake Superior Agates is the classic red and white “Candy-striper“. A nice “Candy-Striper” cannot be mistaken for any other type of agate.

I strive to use only fracture-free, classic banded Lake Superior Agates, as well as uncommon varieties in my jewelry. No finer wire-wrapped Lake Superior Agate jewelry can be found on the web. I think the Lake Superior Agate has always been my favorite stone.