Africa rocks!

My shipment from Africa is almost on the way. There was one material I wasn't sure about ordering, and the mine owner, Paul Lee, gracious sent me a generous sample of it. It's sold as African Turquoise, but without actually having my hands on it and having it tested, I couldn't be sure what it was.

When it arrived, I sent one piece to a gemologist I know in South Carolina--John Rasmussen of Rasmussen Gems & Jewelry--and kept the other piece to play with myself.

The guys around the club thought it was true turquoise, mid grade, that should be a good seller. I tried polishing an end of the piece I have, and it does take a nice polish.

John did some chemical testing on it, and found that although it has a strong resemblance to turquoise, it's actually chrysocolla, and a high grade chrysocolla at that.

I changed my order--I'm getting three times what I originally planned to order. I've already had several people say they want to buy some of it. Now I'm worrying about whether I've ordered enough!

I'll be sending the payment this week, and it will ship in just a few more days. The waiting is almost over.........

All sorted out.......

After weeks of having boxes of rocks just sitting around in my office I finally have them all sorted and catalogued and put away. Well, more or less. The ones I'm still cutting are in a flat box until I have time to get a full day to sit on the porch and cut slabs on the small saw.

Now if it would just stop raining I could uncover the slab saw and cut some of this picture jasper I unearthed in one of the boxes! Four rocks, all different, each one a different color, and I have no idea which picture jasper any one of them is.

I'm in a holding pattern waiting for my supplier in Africa to have my order ready. He's sending me a sample of African turquoise to have analyzed so we both know exactly what it is. The gemologist I've talked to is guessing either real, honest-to-goodness turquoise or azurite; it will be a couple weeks before I know. Just in time to finalize the order, I think.

I do know it will have two kinds of picture jasper in it. Fun stuff. The picture in this entry is Kalahari picture jasper. I haven't had time to cut any of it yet, but I'd like to find the time.