Category Archives: Uncategorized

Is the Quincy Mine Haunted?

Halloween 2014

I saw something in this picture I'd not previously noticed.

I was looking through some old photos Bonnie took of the historic Quincy Mine #2 Hoist Building in Hancock, Michigan today. I saw something I have never seen in the picture. Something ghostly and very frightening. (Twilight zone music playing).

Close-up WOE! I'm not going to be able to sleep tonight.

The mine was opened in 1846 and continued operation until the early 1967. Deaths were not uncommon in all the copper mines. No one knows exactly how many miners died while mining Native Copper as records were not carefully compiled, but I assume many spirits still lurk about around these old mines. The picture certainly proves that, don’t you think?

Custom Projects of a Recent Sort

Beautiful Turquoise from Battle Mountain, Nevada

I am hesitant sometimes to try new Gemstone material, but I bought a piece of Turquoise from Battle Mountain, Nevada, at one of the Arizona shows. After cutting this stuff, I found it is absolutely wonderful. I have never cut natural Turquoise so hard. It was almost Quartz-hard. You can see why I like it. it sold the first time I put it out.

Custom jewelry pieces have been a backbone of our business for as long as we have existed. I love when someone contacts me in person or via the web, with an idea for a piece of jewelry, or simply brings a rock to one of our art shows to make something for them. Unlike most people that wire wrap, I cut most of my cabochons from rough rock. I know most wire wrappers don’t cut because of the crowds around cabochon dealers at the major trade shows; all wearing wire jewelry that they made from these cabochon. Even I, on occasion, find a cabochon I cannot pass up. Pre-holidays is a busy time around here, whether it be cutting rocks people find, or making custom pieces from rocks/gemstones that patrons provide.

A quality Petoskey Stone was removed from this ugly wire pendant.

Over the years, after seeing what kind of work I do, people will bring in jewelry that some other artist has created. Generally these are what I refer to as “amateur jobs”, and they generally are from the “Lee” family. Most of you know the Lees’; Home-Lee and Ug-Lee. One time a lady had a gorgeous Victoria Stone Ug-Lee wrapped in tarnished Sterling. Sometimes I am brutally honest, and in this case I told the lady that her pretty Victoria Stone deserved better. It wasn’t long before she came back to my booth and told me to fix the Lee wrapping. I did a rush job, and she was delighted when she returned the next day. I even wrote a blog on this, if you care to take a look.

http://www.snobappealjewelry.com/blog/2011/07/victoria-stone… y-to-beautiful/

After removing the Petoskey cabochon, I re-wrapped the stone as it deserved.

yellowsaj Janet brought in a very fine Petoskey Stone in a Lee wrap. If you know anything about Petoskey Stones, they are almost pure Calcite, and Calcite is a softer stone. This particular stone was grooved around the edge with a single piece of 16 or 18 gauge Sterling surrounding the stone in the aforementioned groove. It was twisted wire, making it even more distracting from this lovely, clear, stone. This technique of “grooving” is a simple way to created a fast, cheap, wrap, and in general is used for harder Silica stones.

By grooving a Petoskey Stone, it makes a weak edge, and two things can happen. 1. When you tighten the wire, the edge can (and often does) flake or break. 2. Because of the soft stone, the wire cannot be tightened enough to secure the stone in its’ grip tightly enough. Glue can be used, but then you see glue around the edge. In this case Janet’s pendant was literally falling out of its frame. Some related advise–I recommend no one buy a Petoskey Stone Ring. No matter what you are told by anyone selling you a Petoskey Stone Ring, they do scratch. I am constantly re-polishing them for people, but you can only do so much. Never buy any ring with soft material in it. Petoskey Stone Pendants are generally great, but still if you are wearing them, they can be scratched by zippers, metal buttons, or other harder objects. Pendants, unlike rings, can easily be re-polished. pinkbeadpendant1

Another customer brought in a couple large rectangular beads with holes drilled through them at the top with a mediocre finish. I cut across the beads just below the hole, re-shaped the cabochons so they were thinner, and less harsh. By rounding the edges and re-shaping these, I was able to produce a more pleasing shape to wrap. After reshaping them, I polished them and was pleased at how much better they looked. You can see the finished results.

I am also including a couple other recent projects for your viewing pleasure. Did I mention the 22 9mm Greenstones I made for one discriminating lady?

Nancy always brings me interesting projects. This is an example of a Laker she brought me for cutting and wrapping. It turned out so wonderful.

Greenstone always looks great with pink gold.

As Christmas approaches, I become more and more busy, so get your custom suggestions to me as soon as you can. At my age, I can’t take the stress of rush jobs like I could in my younger days. It’s not too early to start your shopping. Why do the big box stores have to put their Christmas stuff up before Halloween? I guess you could, theoretically, buy a Santa Costume and wear it for two holidays!!

Feathery Thompsonite from the north shore.

Pink Petoskey Stones don't come much better.

Hey! that’s just the way I think!!

Pima Mine Tour

Giant Pima Mine with mill complex in background

Eighteen miles south of Tucson near the town of Sahuarita is the giant Pima copper mine. Currently the mine is 2.5 miles long by 1.5 miles wide and approximately 1200 feet deep. Each bench within the mine is 40 feet high. In 2012 the mine produced 134.3 million pounds of copper, in concentrate.

The Pima Mine is part of the Mission Complex of mines.

Unlike the mines in the Copper Country of Michigan where large solid masses of native copper where the norm, the copper in the Pima mine is microscopic and is extracted from the ore by crushing the rock four times in ball mills which resemble large rock tumblers and the copper ore is crushed by steel balls within the tumblers for copper extraction, until it is a dust-like concentrate. When the metal is extracted the remaining crushed rock is hauled away to huge waste piles and the copper concentrate is sent by truck to a mill in El Paso where copper plates are formed. Also in this concentrate is small amounts of gold, silver and molybdenum. Enough of these minerals are extracted to pay the almost $2 million electric bill each month!

Floating Copper??

Pine Oil made the Ball Mill smell squeaky clean.

Giant Ball Mills crush the copper bearing ore in three stages.

Blast hole drills.

I love this stuff from the Ray Mine.

Giant dump trucks look small in the distance.

Giant dump trucks that are so big they need to be brought in in parts and assembled onsite work up and down the ledges within the pit. After being loaded with copper ore by a gigantic electric crane the copper ore is transported to the onsite Ball Mill building. When the pit is so massive and deep when you look at the trucks from the top, they appear to be very small, but standing next to them, you would see that one tire is around 12 feet tall.

We saw a large area within the mine where drills were working to make holes for explosives. Each day between noon and three explosives are set off in the mine. Their job is to lift the ground up and then settle right back down, loosening the ground so that the giant shovels can do their work. The reserve life of the Mission Mine which includes the Pima Mine is 2033.

No harsh chemicals are used at this mine. This fact is stressed by the tour guide. Some mild acid is used, but the extraction of copper concentrate takes place in giant open vats where the copper floats to the top and is skimmed off and dried to form the copper concentrate. How does copper float in water? The answer is old technology used in washing miner’s clothes! A wash lady discovered that by adding pine oil to the soap the tiny bubbles would float to the top with attached dirt from the miner’s dirty clothes. The mine uses this same technology using pine oil to float copper to the top, skim it, and the oil is recirculated to combine and rise again.

ASARCO (American Smelting and Refining Company) Grupo Mexico obviously the company started out as an American owned company but was bought out by Grupo Mexico. They have been producing copper for over 100 years. Beside the Mission Mine complex the company also owns the Silver Bell and the Ray Open Pit Mines in Arizona.

From a rockhound standpoint other interesting copper related minerals are occasionally found in the Pima and other mines of Arizona. Those include malachite, azurite, cuprite, chalcopyrite, some other arsenides, and rare earth minerals. It seems unusual to me that the Arizona mines have slightly different associated minerals than Michigan mines. Datolite, Chlorastrolite, Mohawkite, and Prehnite are distinctive to Michigan mines.

If you get a chance and are in the Tucson area, this is an interesting and inexpensive tour to take.

Tucson Gem Mineral and Fossil Shows 2014-Giant Wholesale Shows and “Hair” Jewelry

A view from atop "A" Mountain looking down on the GJX tent and The Tucson Convention Center to the right of the tent and across the street.

We recovered a bit this morning and did not go exploring until 11am. We decided to see what the parking situation was around the convention center. The lots were full, even though they raised parking to $10. I was leaving the area and a miracle happened. An empty, metered, on street parking place appeared. I backed right in and paid for 2 hours ($1). Later we gave it another $1. A lot better than $10!

Entry to the Tucson Convention Center

The red carpet welcomes Wholesale buyers.

The American Gem Trade Association (AGTA) in a massive show (Wholesale Credentials required). The show has massive amounts of common faceted gemstones (as you would expect from a gem trade show) with dealers from around the world. I’ve found better bargains at lesser shows, but walking the aisles at the convention center is interesting.

Security is tight, very tight. When millions in gems are sitting out and in cases, you need this police presence. The gem show provide overtime pay for police protection, and the Tucson Police does a great job.

This is not my niche show, but it is indeed the best place in the world to buy gemstones. The really big deals take place in the hotel rooms, but big deals take place on the show floors and in the case of the giant tent across from the Tucson Convention Center that harbors the GJX (Gem & Jewelry Exchange).

AGTA Credentials will also get you in to the GJX. Even though there are loads of gems, there are also several dealers of interest to me and many others. One dealer in particular, my friend Gary Wilson is consistently one of the busiest booths. He specializes in one-of-a-kind cabochons and his excited clientele include wire-wrappers, silver and goldsmiths, and other jewelry designers. Gary also has a business in our home area of Traverse City, Michigan.

Photos are banned on the Convention Center Floor, but I took this a couple from the observation window on the upper level so you can get an idea of the set up.

agtafloor2

My observations at the Tucson shows is that there is a mixed bag about price, where some things at the wholesale show have skyrocketed prices. One Russian dealer had some fantastic Staurolite that used to be priced reasonably, but it seems that over the last couple of years grade “A” Staurolite has had a large price increase. I bought some today because they were a good quality, but he assured us that in a few years this is likely to not be even available. Opals and Jade were other stones we looked at and passed on because the prices seem to have soared.

The funniest moment of the day was when Bonnie was asking a Brazilian vendor about the blue Tourmaline from Paraiba. She assured Bonnie that is was “very hair”. Hmmm. What? “very hair–not very much of it”. Oh, Rare! Bonnie tried to coach her to say “rare” not “hair”, but didn’t have much luck. We saw many vendors with beautiful pieces of the “hair” precious gemstone.

If you read my blog last year, I mentioned purchasing a very nice Thomsonite This year the same vendor had three little trays of cabochons with fair prices, and we had fun rooting through these little trays. Tomorrow in daylight I will take some pictures of the finds of the day.

The GJX also has three smaller side areas of special interest One features special gems and Jewelry, one is Brazilian ,and one features the German jewelry makers. If you know anything about the history of cutting gemstones the Idar-Oberstein gem cutters were considered some of the best in the world. They became famous originally for working and carving agates. We saw a special display of two large carved blue/white agates (maybe 8″) with high detail, and shown with some other fabulous, creative mixed-gem jewelry.

I tried to get my hand blocking a carved Sonoran Sunset octopus. I wasn’t quick enough to keep Bonnie the Sonoran Sunrise (we’ve seen both names here) lover from spotting it. Another favorite carving of the day was a chess set carved out of ruby part of ruby-zoisite. The king and queen were whimsical with golden crowns, and each of the other pieces had golden musical instruments they were holding-harps, violins, etc. The board was black onyx and white onyx. Sorry we couldn’t take a picture, it was very cute.

Another favorite item of the day was a pink tourmaline necklace. It was comprised of several pink hearts maybe 2 -3 inches each separated by smaller pink beads. Several as is 5-7 of them. Each one would have made a great necklace by itself, together it was just jaw-dropping. We have some friends in our rock club who treasure tourmaline and we thought about them when we saw this.

These were the shows of diamonds, pearls, emeralds, tourmaline, ruby, tanzanite, and in general sparkle, sparkle, sparkle. But you may know that a good agate interests me more, so I hope to get back to see my kind of rocks tomorrow.

Tucson Gem, Mineral & Fossil Shows 2014-A Rare Discovery.

A Copper included cube of Quartz inhabits a piece of float Copper

This will be a two part blog on the show today. The first blog (this One) is actually a continuation from yesterday, and later tonight I will post what we did today.

Quartz cluster in Float Copper

Many of you, including one person in particular, have been wondering what the special purchase was that I made yesterday from Keweenaw Gem and Gift. My friend Ken Flood the owner of KG&G had someone cutting a piece of float copper and they discovered an area that had quartz crystals imbedded in the native copper. Anyone who has cut copper knows how difficult it is to work with, especially float copper which is almost pure copper. Several slabs were made and small cabochons cut featuring the quartz crystals. In the photos shown the square one with the single quartz crystal is approximately 20mm square. The picture was taken with a light shining up through the crystal, showing a surprising cube with tiny copper inclusions. The other cabochon is approximately 20 x 24mm and has perfect quartz crystals that also have copper inclusions.

How rare is it to have Copper fill a vug full of Quartz Crystals? I have seen this in the past, but rarely pure Copper with beautiful Quartz. I know Copper in the Keweenaw filled volcanic voids as super heated copper-rich water, so it makes sense that Quartz-lined Vugs would also be filled. I’m happy for this occurance.

There are a few of these left, but some greedy person high graded them..sorry.

I can’t begin to tell you how rare these pieces are! Be in awe!

Tucson Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Shows 2014-You can’t Tell A Book By Its’ Cover

A small number of vendors at "The Rock Show".

It has cooled off a bit here in Tucson, but low 60’s is still good for us. We anticipated big crowds today, so we headed off to The Hotel Tucson City Center early, got a great parking space, had coffee, and got busy looking around.

I learned something new..Some Dino's were Chrome; Cool!

No comment...

feedthedino We love the Orange Trees in the courtyard and found the dinosaurs feeding on the fresh fruit.

$17,500

Meteorites for my buddy Chris.

I marveled at beautiful Ammonites as usual. It seemed there were more of these Ammonites than usual. I was told there indeed were more because it is Chinese New Year and the Chinese seem to favor these fossils. I saw several with “Sold” on them.

The main room at the HTCC is where you will many major fossils, including large impressive Ammonites. I saw a 9′ long fossil Swordfish called a Protosphyraena nitida (Late Cretaceous). The room seemed to be busy, but not overwhelming. We had a great time at this show and will return.

I have a couple very special things I found today.

As usual I had to curb Bonnie’s lust for Sonoran Sunrise, but I did allow her to look at some, so I did solve her addiction for another day.

Vendors occupy rooms as with other hotel shows.

No telling what may be in a room.

The vendors occupy rooms at the hotel, many with amazing displays. One of the oddest contained carved Mammoth Tusks. If you are a specimen collector, or meteorite collector, this is the show. I saw Geoff Notkin (The Meteorite Men), selling assorted meteorites, including Muonionalusta slabs from meteorites actually found on the show. There were loads of space rock to be had here.

I saw my buddy Ken Flood at his Keeweenaw Gem & Gift Booth. He was very busy as usual. He had something very special to show me. This is one of the items I have to show you tomorrow. I have been hunting rocks in Michigan’s Keweenaw Peninsula for many years , and have never encountered anything like I purchased from Ken. NOW you’re curious, I’ll bet.

After lunch we drove about 10 miles north of the city center to a new show called The Rock Show. The Rock Show used to be adjacent to Electric Park (now Kino), but the property was sold, and the show went seeking a new location. We were glad someone at Quartzsite told us about this which was good because is isn’t even listed in the big book of shows. We did find it in a small brochure, so decided to head out to see what was there.

Bracciated Mookaite

Bonnie getting her fix. Her comment "Someone put a lot of time into polishing this, so I should admire it."

The Fossil Fish.

A nice selection from someone's cast off pile.

My gently used new saw.

Aspenite and Mexican Crazy Lace.

Check out the Thomsonite I found.

The most amazing Larimar I've seen. I mentioned it yesterday. I think the soft yellow with the Larimar Island is remarkable and unique.

A small group of vendors comprised the show, some who previously sold goods at the old Rock Show, and some new vendors. This is a dirt lot, east of I-10, we exited at #251. It looked like about 10-15 tents, a few RVs, sparsely populated. It didn’t look real promising, but since we drove out there, we decided to look around. This was a Sunday afternoon and only a handful of shoppers were around. Vendors were friendly, and there was good conversation and relaxed personal attention. No imported goods, and hardly any beads. It was like a tiny version of Desert Gardens at Quartzsite. One vendor had a tub filled with random slabs and rocks, many agates and jaspers that I like. Digging through the water in this tub produced some real surprises including gem silica, Condor Agates, shadow agates, picture petrified wood, Queensland Agates, and other “good stuff”. So far this was my favorite few minutes of the day–I love to look through other people’s discards. I ended up with about 5 pounds of treasures.

Another vendor had something I have not seen before, called Aspenite. it is a silicated limonite with chrysocolla from Oro De Conception in north central Mexico. Some of this rock had been sent to the GIA for identification, and they identified the minerals, but said it had no name. Not much has been found, and I splurged on a single small cabochons because the orange and green colors were so striking! And I love the unusual. I also bought the Crazy Lace Agate cabochon that you see in the picture because I liked the colors.

One vendor had an assortment of lapidary equipment on his table, some new and some used. I was attracted to a used 6″ Wizard rock saw. These are sturdy little units from Diamond Pacific. This one had been gently used and was in good condition, and included a saw blade. This was my equipment purchase for this year. Even though I have a few saws (maybe 7 or 8), each one has key attributes. I might have to sell off another old 6″ saw.

I guess the moral of this story is “You can’t judge a book by it’s cover.” You never know when treasures might be lurking in out of the way places. I hope this show succeeds, but they will need to do much more publicity in future years.

Greenstone, Datolite, and Michigan Wire Wrapped Jewelry

In preparation for upcoming shows in the Upper Peninsula I have been working on some U.P. Gemstones and Jewelry.

Centennial Blue Datoite (and one from the Isle Royal Mine)

First was the cutting of very rare blue Datolite for the Centennial Mine north of Calumet. The mine hoist is still there, but the piles are gone and Centennial #2 is completely flooded. Any Datolite still found from this mine has been hoarded from the 60’s.

Blue Centennial generally contains microscopic grains of copper shining through the blue Datolite. Over the last few years Centennal Blue has been almost impossible to buy from anyone.

Copper Included Datolite is very popular in the U.P.

I’ve been holding on to assorted Datolite containing Copper Inclusions. I finally cut and polished the majority of the pieces I have. These always make popular jewelry for my Upper Michigan customers. Even those snobbish jewelry buyers love Datolite with Copper.

Copper Datolite with Greenstone...BAM!!!

Could it be a new ring?

I also cut three remarkable little Cabochons for a future ring for myself. The ring will sport a Yellow Keweenaw Point Datolite with copper, A Copper Agate from the Kearsarge Lode, and a copper Included Greenstone. This ring will be over the top when it is finished. I’ve got to cut the wax for the ring and I have a friend that will cast it for me. Notice the “Thumbs Up” from the Yellow Datolite.

We’re headed up north for rock hunting and shows shortly. Check our home page for upcoming events. It’s always fun for us to see all our friends in the Keweenaw. Come see us at Copper World in Calumet and art shows in Eagle harbor and Copper Harbor or on a rockpile nearby.

A Lake Superior Agate of the "Paint" variety was a quick sell off our Facebook Page.

Copper World-A Special Appearance

Everyones favorite gift shop.

I will be making jewelry in Calumet Friday evening, July 5th (First Friday gala in Calumet), and all day July 6th. I’ll be so happy to be back in the U.P. and to visit all my friends and fans old and new.

I will be making jewelry from local rocks, minerals, and gemstones (most found by myself and Bonnie). I can also make something for you from my stones or yours. See you soon.

Happy 4th of July and God Bless America

Tucson Gem, Mineral, & Fossil Shows-Stripping for Skulls

Sunny 55

"A" Mountain, Sentenil Peak dominates Tucson. The "A" is for University of Arizona

Rutilated Quartz

I covered the Freeway Strip today from one end to the other looking for odd stuff. I went out by myself early, and was at the shows when they opened. It was cold enough the car was frosted, but the sun came out and it seemed warmer than the 55 degrees it registered later in the day. It was cool in the shade.

Gems looking good in the sun.

Chrysoprase

A Rockhound with a Rockhound

Quartz in the morning.

Rainbow Obsidian

Specular Hematite and Iron Ore was $3 a pound, but the dealer would sell it for $2 if you took a 1000#

I started at the Clarion Inn and worked my way north to the Howard Johnson, then all the way north until I got to the Days Inn, this incorporates 5 shows. Some of the vendors were on their last day. This means sellers were motivated to sell (bargains+). Later I drove further north to the Ramada Limited for the Arizona Mineral and Fossil Show. The Clarion Gem and Mineral Show has a wide variety of merchandise and in the rear is a large open space and tent where El Paso Rock Shop has the largest selection of rough rock in Tucson—by the barrel or by the piece. You can find almost any type and quantity there, making it a great place to dig around. I couldn’t help but choose several several of the Royal Imperial Jasper cabs that I have seen at the shows. This stone makes beautiful quality jewelry. I looked through the piles and barrels of rock and discovered a few fifty-gallon drums of crap! Coprolite you might call it.

The finest Quartz skull in Tucson.

It is always interesting to see the skulls at Skulls4U. Ivo Fuykschot from the Netherlands represents Leandro deSouza, a famous stone carver from Brazil. I saw the largest carved quartz skull in Tucson, around 315 pounds of clear smoky and yellow quartz available from Skuls4U for $150,000. It is the practice of Skulls4U to name their major skulls. This one is named Akator. He had numerous other large and small skulls, but none in the class of Akator. Ivo was a real nice guy, so if you have some spare change, this would be a good place to spend it.

TRILOBITES

the "blimp" of Tantric Shiva Linghams.

I briefly looked over what was left over at the other shows and bought some really nice tourmaline-in-quartz and lapidolite from a Brazilian dealer. At the Arizona Mineral and Fossil Show I found a dealer on his last day who had Teepee Canyon and Dryhead Agate. I bought a nice selection from Tom Wooden of Fairburn Agates from Rapid City, SD, and he had hunted all the Teepee Canyon material himself. He told me that mechanized digging that they employed years ago is no longer allowed in this area. It is much more unusual to find these agates by only using surface collecting. Tom had a beautiful collection of Fairburn Agates at the Celebration of Agates display last summer.

I found some other small surprises that I intend to make jewelry out of, and I will show them to you later. Bonnie showed up later and we looked at the Tantric Shiva Linghams in the back tents. The grand daddy black one was 8’3″ and reminded me of the Goodyear Blimp, grounded! It is my Odd Stuff of the Day winner.

Tucson Gem, Mineral, & Fossil Shows-GLW

Sunny 75

The GLW Tents are giant size. No photo's allowed inside.

We went to the two giant hard-sided tents that encompass the GLW (Gem and Lapidary Wholesale) Show near Electric Park. The show requires business credentials and we had pre-registered already. We had our nametags and walked right in.

The show is basically the same each year with dealers in their same spots as previous years. This is good planning because you can find the dealers you need to visit right away. As with most of the Wholesale shows, photography is not allowed, so I’ll give you a visual.

Imagine a giant temporary building 100 yards long filled with piles of beads, jewels, chains, cabochons, and many assorted foreign buy/sell jewelry sources from China and India. Some vendors were also selling everything from Cashmere scarves to wooden Buddhas.

I can show you the outside of the tent and some things we bought, but not the inside.

We took a lap through without buying, while Bonnie made notes. The second time through she bought from her top choices. We obtained many quality beads including several Kilos of assorted beads at a good price from one dealer. Her favorites turned out to be some pretty Kyanite, Cherry Creek Jasper a newer stone from China, some small faceted Jade beads, Aqua stone, and a variety of focal beads. I found some great druzy Blue Lace Agate, and we replenished our gold and silver chain supply.

All in all it was a great day for shopping.

We are going to the big AGTA (American Gen Trade Association) today. This is the most upscale of shows and absolutely no photos of all the gemstones for security reasons. Tell you about it later.