Monthly Archives: November 2010

OUR FAVORITE CHRISTMAS THINGS

With holiday shopping on the news, and the calendar showing the holiday shopping season is here, I thought I might help readers find our most popular Christmas gift items. The photos posted in this blog are recent creations not as yet on the website. Call if you are interested.

A giant 4.2 gram Greenstone (may be available)

A giant 4.2 gram Greenstone (may be available)

Our most popular pendants are Isle Royal Greenstone. Some people call these Michigan Greenstone. In any case they are Michigan’s State Gem. The correct mineral name is Chlorastrolite, which is a variety of pupellyite. These lovely green stones, with a chatoyant alligator pattern, are extremely rare and are a single source gemstone. We sell lots of individual Greenstones as well as Greenstone Pendants, Greenstone bead or stud earrings, necklaces, and bracelets using Greenstone beads often combining these Greenstones with other Michigan minerals. Most people have never seen a Greenstone, let alone own one, so these become treasured gemstone jewelry gifts.

A lovely Larimar waiting for you. (may be available)

A lovely Larimar waiting for you. (may be available)

Our next best sellers are Lake Superior Agate Pendants. Our “Lakers” are the best flawless gemstones we can find. No expense is spared in obtaining the very best Lake Superior Agates, giving you great pride in your jewelry purchase. Many of our agates are rare varieties and of course we do have the popular red and white Lake Superior Agates known as “candy stripers”. We also have requests for other colors of Lake Superior agates, such as the pinks, grays, or ones with certain patterns. We also have Laker beads which we use in necklaces and bracelets.

Brown Rhodocrosite was one of the most popular gemstones in Tucson this year. (may be available)

Brown Rhodocrosite was one of the most popular gemstones in Tucson this year. (may be available)

We also feature Michigan’s State Stone, the Petoskey Stone as jewelry and as polished specimens. This fossilized coral is found widely across Michigan and is prized by visitors and residents alike. A plain gray rock, it takes on a distinctive look when it is wet or polished, giving a magical quality. Our Petoskey Stone pendants, like all our jewelry incorporate 14/20 gold fill and argentium (tarnish-resistant) silver to make their care easy.

Wild Horse Magnesite. (may be available)

Wild Horse Magnesite. (may be available)

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We are famous for the rare stones we use in our jewelry. Among the most rare are Victoria Stones, which really dazzle customers when they get them. You can choose from a full selection of the most beautiful colors of this curious stone product. Shiny and chatoyant, you will enjoy wearing it and telling the unusual story behind their creation. These stone pendants will really get noticed! Read the amazing story behind these stones in this blog.

If you see a particular stone in a pendant on our website, you are only seeing a small sample of what we have available. Our show inventory is substantially greater then what we have available on the web. We are always willing to send jpeg’s of products not on our website. We also have thousands of cabochons and thousands of pounds of rough rocks, minerals, and fossils that we can cut, polish, and wire wrap for you.

We also have Michigan rock and mineral specimens available that are not on the website.

Give us a chance if you want something unusual. You can never know what we have or can do for you unless you ask.

Copper Replacement Agates

One of the more recent discoveries in the Keweenaw Peninsula are very rare copper included agates from the Kearsarge Lode. These little beauties are banded agates where some of the banding is replaced by native copper.copper-agate-1 This makes them very desirable for distinctive jewelry.

These agates require hard labor to recover. I have seen holes on the mine dumps excavated over 8 foot deep where little or nothing is found, but sometimes these agates are found in abundance in one small area. It takes a lot of luck and work to find a good one. You can find these agates with a metal detector but you may also be overwhelmed with false “hits” as you are searching in a copper tailings pile. I just leave the detector and dig, then check the pile I’ve sorted with the detector to see if I missed anything.

These copper/agates are not considered as Lake Superior Agates, but are agates from copper mines, according to my friend Jeff Anderson.

Jeff and I agree that the copper entered the agates while they were being formed. It is interesting that at a specific depth
the copper coming up as super heated steam met the silica materials coming down and filled the same vesicles.

Seldom are these little agates over a couple inches which seems to indicate they formed in smaller vesicles in the amygdaloidal basalt. In general the smaller the vesicle, the closer to the surface so these agates were not formed at great depths.copper-agate-2 The agates are commonly light pink and often include blue/green, but I have not seen any of red as is common in the Lake Superior Agates.

This geology is very interesting, and I know there is some research being done on these unusual agates. Rumors are that there also may be an article in regards to them in a major magazine in the near future.

The agates have a dark skin and you just do not know what you have until you cut these agates in half. What a great surprise when you find something like the pendant stones I’ve posted in this blog.

I personally know of no other web site that has any copper replacement agate jewelry except this one. The prices of these agates is based on the rarity and difficulties in finding them. They are much more difficult to find than the elusive Isle Royale Greenstone.