Tag Archives: Datolite

My Best Datolite Ever

The faithful husband encouraging Bonnie to "did faster".

The faithful husband encouraging Bonnie to "dig faster".

The pitter patter of light raindrops was my alarm clock. Bonnie & I were up and off before dawn’s light. Only a thermos of coffee and a portable monk’s muffin went with us, as we hurried to our destination. The goal was to get there before “The Badger” got there. .(Why? I don’t know—a point of honor I guess.) We had seen him digging a hole the other day, and knew he was attacking the rock pile with a sense of purpose. We saw evidence of his success and wanted to be successful too.

Don's BIG hole.

Everybody was digging BIG holes

Chrystal's odd find while metal detecting

Krystal's odd find while metal detecting. Would this be a "float hammer" just because she was looking for "float copper"?

At 6:00 am the traffic is pretty light on US 41 in the Keweenaw, but low and behold a car appeared and turned into our very own destination rock pile. I knew who it was! Yes, the Badger, a vigorous and determined datolite digger had arrived moments before us. The bad news was that the rain disappeared, and had not been sufficient to clean off the rock recently moved around there, so there was no datolites washed out. At least the dawn had come on enough that we could see.

We watched the experienced work of the Badger (this is not his real nickname, I just called John this because of his digging skill) and joked around with him. He is a recently Tech grad in geology engineering and is goofing off this summer gathering datolites and other rock treasures. John Dezelski dug and looked. He ended up the day with around a dozen. Bonnie & I dug and between us finally got 3. You have to develop an eye, because otherwise they are camouflaged.

"Don"atolite

I have been hunting minerals in the Keweenaw for years now, but I always focused on greenstone and “cutting material”, a vague term used to cover pretty rock found in this area–Patricianite, Prehnite, and others. I have dug for datolites before, but I don’t recall finding many! Luckily sometimes when you’re digging you find other stuff to please you.

Greenstones seem to be getting harder to find as the years go by, especially real nice big ones. All my old glory holes have been hauled away for road fill. We used to get Greenstones and Datolite at many locations and now those piles are gone. It’s not like the good old days. If you want a greenstone or datolite at a reasonable price, act now. Less supply means higher prices.

Picture Frame Pendant

I have come to the realization that I have not talked about any of my new designs in quite a while. My latest picture frame pendant has become my recent favorite, and I think these will become a popular items this year.

My interest has not always been in jewelry making and the lapidary arts. I started out in visual arts, especially water color. When you paint a picture, it always looks better in a nicely matching frame, so I thought why not stones? This got me thinking of all my wife’s beads and especially beads made from Michigan rocks and minerals. Between the rocky Great Lakes shorelines, stony gifts from the glaciers, and mineral finds in the Upper Peninsula, Michigan has a real variety of stone to choose from. Many of our Michigan stones are miracles, found here and really nowhere else on earth. What if I could frame these beads in a collage featuring a variety of the most popular of these Michigan stones, making a picture of Michigan Miracles, or Lake Superior Miracles?

I started playing around last year with sizes and designs for my window boxes and this winter decided that the most pleasing shape and size may be a rectangular box of around 20X30mm. Stones can be arranged in pleasing and artistic ways within these confines. Thicknesses of the frames can also be manipulated to protect the beads therein. I have made a couple of much larger frames also that some people enjoy. Larger, or more stones can be used in these larger frames.

The featured stone in a Michigan pendant could be expected to be our Michigan greenstone (chlorastrolite) which is found in small areas of the Keweenaw Peninsula or on Isle Royale. We had some very nice Isle Royale Greenstone beads that were drilled incorrectly. These beads were drilled so when they are strung, you can only see the sides of the beads and not the widest and best part of the greenstone. By using a prong-set on these beads I was able to turn the best faces to the front of the pendants, giving folks a very large size greenstone for a reasonable price. The cost of these gemstones alone is worth our low pendant price. p4080180

I think it is important that the best possible beads be used. If I’m going to make a little piece of art, I want to use the best media (stones), that are available. I am selecting from a nice variety of Michigan miracles: greenstone, Petoskey stone, datolite, jasperlite, thomsonite, firebrick, kona dolomite, epidote, favosite, hematite, prehnite, copper/silver half breeds, and Lake Superior agate.

Wire wrappers should be warned that these pendants take me three times the time that I commonly spend on a pendant! I also think that it helps to have some training in balance, layout, and color and an artistic eye to make these little treasures.

We have posted a couple of these little Miracle treasures on out website, and hope you will experience the same enjoyment wearing and showing these pendants as I do making them.

Bonnie’s Great Datolite

My wife Bonnie has been tagging along half-heartedly with me to Keweenaw Week for several years. She likes wearing my jewelry, but just never has found anything that got her really excited and proud. It always seemed like a lot of rock to look through, with most of it turning out to be nothing good. Those copper tailing piles are really big, and looking for the “good stuff” is a lot like looking for a needle in a haystack. And I hate her dragging non-jewelry grade stuff home and mixing it up in my barn with all my real treasures. (That barn is a whole other story. One that may never be told.)

Datolite is an elusive gemstone. We went to a mine that we’ve been to many times, hoping to find some good datolite. Of course for Bonnie this would be her first datolite, and she really had some low expectations. She’s spent hours digging holes that never gave up anything to take home. We have friends who seem to be able to just smell them and go right to them, and bring home a great story to brag about. Bonnie just wanted to find ONE. We chose to dig under some trees, figuring whatever was there hadn’t been seen in a long time. As the dig progressed Bonnie got dirtier and dirtier. That was the main thing I noticed. She made a pretty big hole, and pulled out a large chunk of rock that had two small (4-5mm) rounded white spots sticking out of one side. Now that’s the magic formula: rounded and white, so Bonnie put it in her bucket. It did register on the metal detector, so that was good too. But really, it didn’t look like much (those two small white spots are way too small for me to make jewelry with, that’s how I judge rocks).

Bonnie found one other datolite, not huge, but big enough to make jewelry from, so she was pleased with that. I got some cutting material, rock with copper running through it that should turn out pretty. We went home not too excited and I took a nap. Bonnie went to a faucet outside and began to scrub away some dirt from her rock with “twin towers” as she referred to them. The more she scrubbed, the more excited she became. A strip of white datolite began to show up on the bottom, other white rounded areas and some small copper points were poking out. p8120186

She continued to scrub off mud, finding more white nodules and got really excited. I wanted to see what the copper would really look like, so I gave it a quick acid bath. See for yourself. Bonnie’s “boring” datolite find, her very first, turned out to be a beauty that any rockhound would be ecstatic to find! This is part of the charm that keeps rockhounds coming back to the Keweenaw year after year. I expect she’ll be more excited about our rockhunts in the future. Copper and datolite nodules combined in one terrific stone clump. What could be better?

p81901093

Native Copper

The largest and greatest deposits of native copper ever discovered occur in Michigan’s Keweenaw Peninsula. These copper deposits have been exploited since prehistoric Native Americans used hand tools made of rocks to chisel out the almost pure copper from exposed surface areas.

Native copper is very rare throughout the world. Copper deposits are not ordinarily comprised of large masses of almost pure copper. The copper from the Keweenaw is most often “polluted” with silver, making it even more conducive to electrical uses. copper

The habits of copper growth are too numerous to list, but one of the most coveted by Keweenaw-area collectors are silver and copper combinations known as “half-breeds”. Beautiful crystal copper formations are also sought, as are copper-included minerals such as Datolite, Prehnite, and Greenstone.

The history of the Copper Country is interesting to study and many wonderful books have been written on the subject.

We sell native copper, both cleaned and raw, as well as special pieces like the aforementioned half-breeds. We also have raw chunks of copper that have been through the hammer mills and most likely carried off by miners in their lunch pails. Another interesting throwback to the copper days is Firebrick, almost impossible to find now. Bricks lined the smelter walls and over time became permeated with molten copper. After the mines closed, some of this material was rescued when the smelters were closed, back in the 1960’s.

Currently no producing mines are left open in the Keweenaw, the tunnels are flooded, and the discard piles are gradually being crushed for road gravel. I have seen collecting opportunities in the Keweenaw declining rapidly over the past 20 years as old mine discard piles disappear, and collecting areas revert to private property. Much of the gemstone material I used to collect is now impossible to obtain in the field. Now is the best time to invest in jewelry and specimens from the Copper Country while the prices are still affordable.

A few mines are still open for tours: the Delaware Mine between Calumet and Copper Harbor, the Adventure Mine near Ontonagon, and the Caledonia Mine, also near Ontonagon. The Caledonia Mine offers collecting opportunities both underground and on the surface by appointment. Specimen collecting is still underway by the owner of the Caledonia, Rich Whiteman and his crew.

We offer the very best jewelry manufactured from rare copper country gemstones. Many of the materials we use are purchased from collectors in the area or found by us in our rockhounding forays to the area each year. Our beaded bracelets combine many U.P. stones including agates, epidote, and kona dolomite as well as the copper-related stones. Our Datolites sometimes have great bits of copper in them–Copper Datolite with Epidote, and Datolite, Copper Lightning. We use only the finest quality rough materials to create our finished products, and truly believe our U.P. jewelry line is the finest anywhere.

Datolite Jewelry

Datolite is a mineral closely associated with the copper mines in Michigan’s Keweenaw Peninsula. The natural coloration of Datolite is white, but I have seen or collected Datolite in gray, green, pink hues, mauve, brown, red, orange, black, and the most rare, yellow. Any combination of these colors is possible. Small specks of copper and other inclusions may be present.

Datolite nodules, rough and cut

One of the things that make Keweenaw Datolite unique is its nodular form. Nodules are difficult to locate on a rock pile, because they blend into the background rock. A small glint of color or a rounded cauliflower shape might be the only clue that this valuable gemstone is hiding right in front of your eyes. Crystals of Datolite also occur, but to a lesser extent than the nodules. Datolite also can form in seams.

Datolite makes wonderful and colorful jewelry, and our Datolites represent many mines in the Keweenaw. I hunt Datolite as well as purchase specimens found by others to produce my jewelry. Datolite from the Keweenaw, as well as other minerals, is becoming scarce due to several factors including the mine dumps being on private property, or being ground up and hauled away for road fill. I have seen a steady price increase in Datolite in the past few years as the sources vanish. Now would be a good time to invest in these beautiful and rare gems!

Greenstone and Datolite have been designated as Michigan’s only true precious gemstones. Quality wire-wrapped Datolite jewelry is my specialty. If you have a special request for Datolite contact me.

For even more on the colors of Datolite found in each mine, click on this link to Jeff Anderson’s web site Dwarves’ Earth Treasures.