How will it look when I cut it? This could be good.
Earlier this month my blog featured a piece of rough Larimar (Pectolite) that I found in someone’s cast offs at Tucson two years ago.
Some things found in a rock show tub.
Looking through spider-infested buckets behind a rock shop out west.
I enjoy the gamble of buying random stones I see around the major shows. You never really know how good one of these rocks will be until you cut it open. Ugly rocks may turn into treasures with careful cutting. I’m a real scavenger, finding these treasures hidden in obscure places, such as in back of a rock shop in old buckets, in old collections grandpa used to have, in a dusty piled-up garage, and scattered treasures at major rock shows. Bonnie is good at this also, and will often point out possible treasures. (I have to keep her away from Sonoran Sunrise though as she thinks every one of those are treasures.)
Let’s get back to the Larimar. Bonnie often comes to the shop area and I asked her to “weed” rocks. That requires bending and twisting. She is more agile than I, and she knows how to weed (retired librarian). She also finds treasures I forgot I had.
During a search for materials she could weed, she located a bucket of rocks I picked at a show (way off the beaten path) in Tucson. In the bucket was a fairly plain chunk of Larimar. If Bonnie finds something she thinks is worthy, she puts it in a “To Cut” pile and I work it into the saw queue. I eventually cut this Larimar and was I surprised and delighted. I got three nice slabs of very high quality gem material.
I cabbed the slab and wrapped up a wonderful pendant for some lucky person to adopt.
I have more stuff in the “To Cut” bucket, so stand by… I’ll get to it eventually and show you.