Monthly Archives: October 2011

DATOLITE-On the Workbench

Two unbelievably beautiful Datolite/Copper Pendants

Datolite in Michigan occurs only in the copper deposits in the Keweenaw Peninsula as well as on Isle Royale National Park. Datolite was never a valuable mineral when copper was king, and was left in the spoil piles at the mines. Today alert rockhounds are still actively seeking Datolite in the mine dumps.

Occasionally we find wonderful Datolite/Copper combinations. These unbelievably beautiful specimens make elegant and amazing pieces of jewelry. Copper World, our retail outlet in Calumet sells every one of these pendants they acquire from me. Sometimes these rare beauties reach my website. If you see these appear on this site, you should buy them immediately. These combination cabochons are quite scarce and warrant your attention. Small specks of copper are common within the Keweenaw Datolite and the colorations of Datolite is most often caused by copper, usually too small to see with the naked eye. This is where the wonderful pinks and reds of Datolite come from. The truly spectacular Datolite has large veins of copper in the Datolite and occurs most often in the veins seen in the leftover rock piles. This Datolite/Copper sets off our metal detectors and is a real thrill when found.

Each mine in the Keweenaw has a fairly distinctive color of Datolite associated with it. White is the most common and natural color for Datolite and has been found in all the mine spoil piles in the Keweenaw. The rare yellow datolite has no copper in it and derives its’ coloration from Manganese.

Datolite with a large amount of copper are difficult to cut and polish as we are dealing with different hardnesses as well as metal in combination with the datolite. The copper-included Datolite is also prone to overheating while being cut. When you buy one of these Datolite/Copper pendants you can be sure it was a challenge to cut and polish.

If you want something rare and beautiful from Michigan, you can’t go wrong with a Datolite of any kind, but especially these riveting Datolites with large copper inclusions.

Dinosaur Bone Jewelry

I found some wonderful Dinosaur Bone in my shop the other day. This finding rocks in my shop is not unusual, but finding such spectacular, jewelry grade, d-bone was really exciting.

Closeup of red dinosaur Bone showing agatized cells.

I am not expert enough to tell what dinosaur the bones are from, nor do I really care, but I can testify that this stuff makes wonderful jewelry. I pride myself on offering the most unusual quality stone wire jewelry on the internet.

I recall buying this material in Quartzite in January this year. At the time I thought this was the highest quality d-bone I ever saw. The colors are spectacular. The red pieces I have are deep crimson red with black between the cells. If you look at an individual cell with a magnifying device you see that each cell is an individual agate. Jewelry grade red is considered the hallmark for dinosaur bone, and is the most popular color.

You can tell the exceptional quality by the bone’s solidity and its’ ability to take a glass-like polish. Another piece of dinosaur bone I found is large celled with multi-colored agate cells. Each cell is an individual fortification (banded) agate. This bone is mustard yellow with floating red agates floating within it.

D-bone pendant

It is very hard to find this quality anymore as Dinosaur Bone, being a vertebrate animal, has not been legally collected in years. This bone was from a very old and famous collection, legally collected many years ago. All the bone I have is well documented. Amateur fossil hunters can be arrested for collecting dinosaur bone on BLM and federal lands. Current laws lean toward the scientific value of dinosaur bone versus the aesthetic value. This was not the case many years ago. If you found the bone, you could keep it.

Rare colored dinosaur bone

Closeup showing detailed agate cell structure.

Ordinary dino bone-nice but less colorful

Enjoy these pictures of my dinosaur bone jewelry.

Ironic!

This is 100% real! (Are you kidding?)

I swear this picture is legit. The other day someone handed me this button. Man is it nice; mom, apple pie, and the good ole USA, EXCEPT the button proudly spots a “Made in China” sticker.

This seemed really ironic; then I thought of how much of this imported stuff is sold to unthinking and uncaring AMERICAN consumers. I just wanted to remind you to thnk before you buy. If you want to support workers in a foreign country, go ahead, but when you have a choice I think you should support your AMERICAN craftsman.

Thanks for listening to my rant (the short version).

Don

ps-After I posted this blog I received several responses (comments) from obvious foreigners raving about the content and the good points I made. It is obvious these comments were spam generated and very generic. This was really humorous. These types of comments do not make my site as I have an approval lockout where I have to approve all responses before they go up.