Sunday, March 31, 2013

Rock, Before and After

I confess to being a poor blogger. Gung ho one month, neglected the next.

But all that's changing! I have a theme in mind~ and this is the first of many regular posts (I hope!)

Here's a rock. I have TONS of rocks. In one crystal salad bowl outside on a shelf of 'Deepholm', I have nuggets, or tumbling rocks. One of the things I love to do, as a change from nice and even slabs, is to grab something from my bowl, and cab it. Here's one that did not look promising! Many holes, dirty brown, but some interesting bits of color and patterns. I'm not even sure where it came from, but I'm thinking my AZ rock buddy, Jamie.



When I put it to my Genie, I got mud. The matrix was soft, and made a soft sludge, so it was hard to see. But in a few seconds, it got really interesting... here is the finished cab!

It has pyrite, it has orbs, fortification bands, quartz pockets, and brilliant specs of red, green and turquoise blue. All in a warm brown matrix that polished like glass. Wowza!

And that's one of the joys of lapidary. Taking a rock that I wouldn't think twice of kicking away on the ground, and finding something like this, hidden inside!