At long last I've done something with that ammonite pendant!



It makes me feel like I'm figuring out this new camera - I finally got the purple to show up in some of these pics!

Available for sale in my Etsy store.

Labels: ammonite, andalusite, jewelry, lapidary, necklace

After a bit of deliberation, I decided to use sterling silver for the bail instead of copper. I got the front part of the spiral done and summarily pounded, but figuring out the rest of the bail was a little interesting. I think I had it in about five different configurations before settling on a smaller spiral for the back. (We'll call it "work hardening" and leave it at that, right?)

Spending all that time staring closely at the front of the ammonite made me notice something intriguing: there are hints of purple at the edges of the opalescent section. From everything I've read on the coloration of ammolite (the resulting gemstone fashioned from the opalescent bits of ammonite that are thick enough) the colors are based on the thickness of the material. Red coloration represents the thickest layers and is most common, while purple is at the end of the spectrum, represents the thinnest layers and is much more rare. Most pieces of ammolite that I've seen include red up through about green, but very little blue or purple. I don't quite know how that corresponds to the coating on my ammonite, but the purple has me encouraged, no matter how impossible it is for me to capture on a camera.

So I pretty much had to go with andalusite on this one for starters. I mean, how could I choose anything else?





I'm still debating what else I'm going to incorporate into this. I mean, pearls are a given. (They always are with me - I'm a sucker for pearls.) I have some red rutilated quartz that might be fun, but the color may be a bit too close to the andalusite for it to be effective. My fossil coral stash would be too much of a contrast, though. Decisions!

Labels: ammonite, andalusite, jewelry, lapidary

Has it really been that long?

As I'm writing this I'm realizing that it's been over six years since I was in Edinburgh. It's amazing how you can arrive somewhere and stay just a few days, but feel absolutely at home there. Every now and then I think about what would have happened if I'd acted on that impulse and hadn't gotten on the train back to London. I know, I know, my daughter wouldn't be here and all that, but the rock shops were just amazing.

That's enough tangent for one post, I suppose.

But it all gets me thinking because that means it's been over six years since I picked this up. Namely, one ammonite, about an inch in diameter. It was a nifty find, if not a perfect specimen. There are small opalescent sections toward the center on either side, and the rest of the outside has almost a leafy pattern to it. The outermost chamber is absolutely covered with tiny druzy crystals which I've since discovered are calcite.

It all makes for one decidedly intriguing piece despite its imperfections (namely, a small missing chunk), and I've been debating for the entire six years exactly how to use it. Wire wrapping would be no good - the metal would cover too much of the ammonite, and I'd probably wear off a lot of the opalescent coating in the process. I had pretty much decided to just stash it away and look at it now and then as a specimen.

Today I got looking at it again, and saw that there was an indentation at the center of the formation. It actually matched up on both sides. What the heck, let's start drilling.

I actually did it the right way with this one and did the drilling wet. Lots of brown muddy gunk to clear out of the way, but it did make the job a lot easier. The clamp cooperated and everything, I was quite impressed.

I have yet to decide exactly how I'll use it, but here's the finished product:



Ammonite, woo!

I'm thinking of designing some sort of very basic wire bail that I can use to cover the little missing chunk. Now then... silver or copper?

Labels: ammonite, jewelry, lapidary

I've spent possibly too much time over the past several days working on my one sacrificial larimar, and I've come to a few conclusions.

1. It is certainly possible to remove the matrix with lots of grinding and polishing.

2. When starting with an 8mm bead, the stone that's left in the end is substantially smaller.

3. It's hard to hold an irregular 8mm nugget bead in a clamp.

4. Gah, but this isn't worth it!

Yeah. I'd held out high hopes for improving on this larimar, but it's just not going to happen within my lifetime. I suppose it's time to learn what I've already learned about turquoise: embrace the matrix.

I mean, I see perfect looking turquoise with no matrix and think it looks fake, even when I know it's not. I have a turquoise cabochon that I picked up a few years ago when one of the local jewelry stores was closing and liquidating their entire inventory. This turquoise is really an exceptional one, I can tell, but there's just something about that uniform opaque blue that seems a little unnatural.

So give me my turquoise with some variations in color and a touch of black matrix. Now if I could just think that way about the larimar, I'd be set to go.

Labels: beads, jewelry, lapidary, larimar, turquoise

A few weeks back I found something at my local bead store that I never thought I'd be able to track down for a reasonable price: a full strand of larimar nuggets. These aren't the huge ones; they average about 8mm each. The ones that are good quality are just wonderful, powder blue with swirls of robin's egg blue.

The others, though... you can find that coloration on them, but there's a lot of matrix. However, it looks like the matrix is mostly just on the surface of the stones, so if I can take off a comparatively thin layer, I can theoretically expose more of the good color (and eliminate some of the pitting along the way).

Jeff's suggestion was to grab a rock tumbler and go to town, but I want to preserve as much of the good material as I can in this process. So I've grabbed my sacrificial bead and the Dremel.

I've already found that using the standard polishing bits does next to nothing with this material, so I've broken out the diamond bits for this project. I do seem to be taking off some of the matrix, but it's a time consuming process. At this point, I still haven't quite gotten where I'd hoped to get with my one sacrificial bead, although it does look somewhat improved.

Pictures forthcoming if any of this effort is worth it...

Labels: beads, jewelry, lapidary, larimar, polishing